"PR" time: Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

It’s time for a PR blog post! And no, this isn’t a public relations update — around here, PR stands for Prayer Requests and Praise Reports. There’s plenty of both to go around this week at Sowers4Pastors.

Trish & Allen

Trish and Allen will be heading to the States on Friday for a six-week visit, meeting with churches to introduce the brand-new S4P sponsorship program. Please pray for them to have a healthy, safe, and productive trip, full of meaningful conversations and open hearts.

Kirstin & Mary Faith

This one’s a two-for-one: a praise report and a prayer request.

After a month of collecting backpacks, logging miles in Penske trucks, and hauling countless boxes, Kirstin and Mary Faith are finally back in Honduras! They’re catching their breath this week before jumping back into action: Mary Faith with new Spanish classes and Kirstin back in the office.

Pray for rest, strength, and smooth transitions as they shift gears.

Kirstin's birthday was right after her return from the US trip.
There was a LOT of energy displayed at this birthday gathering! LOL

Containers (a.k.a. “Get Outta Here!")

Here’s a big praise: the food container that recently arrived has already been released from Customs! As Brandy said with a laugh, “This time the inspectors said, ‘Get outta here, container!’” We're so grateful that God answered prayers for an easy process.

Meanwhile, the container for shipping all of the boxes of backpacks has arrived at its loading site in Maryland. This week it will be loaded and shipped! Please pray for another smooth trip through Honduran Customs!

Once the container arrives in Gracias, the SP team will begin processing backpacks: checking, sorting, and prepping each one to make sure it’s ready for its “forever home.”

New Kids on the Block

Here's a sneak peek at some of the 
children in the new program!

On Tuesday, the staff went out to register children for the new sponsorship program, adding 110 new kids! Their profiles are being processed now, so Trish and Allen can introduce them to potential sponsors during their U.S. visit.

That’s both a praise report and a prayer request, and a beautiful reminder of why the work continues.

Coffee Harvest(s)

The harvest is coming! The harvest is coming!

 (Please read that with all the excitement of Paul Revere galloping across the countryside.)

Brandy reports that this should be a big harvest year. The first small harvest triggers the rest of the coffee berries to ripen, so while the first picking requires only a few workers, the next rounds will need many skilled hands. Please pray for enough qualified and willing pickers — and for strength and endurance as the harvest will overlap with the arrival of the Maryland backpack container.

Double the work, double the prayers!

A Little Teaser

Without spoiling next week’s surprise, we’re thrilled to announce that a new staff member is joining the S4P team!

Alexandra, a Honduran native, will soon be moving from Tegucigalpa to Gracias to begin her new role. She’ll get her own blog post soon (trust us, she deserves it!), but for now, please pray for her transition to be smooth and joyful.

As Brandy reminded us, S4P has been praying for God to send people with a heart to serve — and this is one very tangible answer to that prayer.

In Closing

From new faces and full hearts to coffee cherries and customs clearances, God’s fingerprints are everywhere in the details. Thank you for standing alongside Sowers4Pastors!  Your prayers and encouragement keep this ministry moving forward, one praise report at a time.

 - posted by Christi

Sowers4Pastors is All Smiles: A Big Thank You to Our Amazing Supporters!

The team at Sowers4Pastors is beaming with gratitude and flashing their brightest Colgate smiles as they extend a heartfelt thank-you to everyone who played a part in the successful arrival of their most recent shipping container. Whether you packed a backpack, donated items, prayed for safe transport, or helped load the container, your efforts made a tremendous impact.

This year’s container journey came with lessons learned from last year’s, um, toothpaste debacle. You might remember how, in 2023, a customs inspection turned into a chaotic scene when officials discovered 20 expired tubes of toothpaste. The entire container was pulled apart, leaving its contents scattered and disorganized. Let’s just say, that wasn’t the kind of fresh start anyone was hoping for!

This time around, the team worked smarter — and prayed harder — to ensure a smoother process.

Lessons Learned and Prayers Answered

Brandy shared how this year’s preparations involved extra steps, including meticulous paperwork and additional help from U.S.-based coordinators. “We prayed — a lot — and asked people for prayers,” he said. “And we didn’t have any problems with this container!”

The team also asked coordinators to take on a new challenge: removing toothpaste from backpacks and packing it into separate boxes, clearly labeled with expiration dates. It was time-consuming, but the effort paid off. Honduran customs officials inspected just 5 of the 24 toothpaste boxes, confirmed the expiration dates, and left the rest untouched — a far cry from last year’s floor-spread fiasco.

Smooth Sailing and Speedy Unloading

When the container arrived, the S4P team got to work bright and early. By 6:30 AM, they were unloading, and thanks to the meticulous organization, the entire container was emptied and sorted in just an hour and a half.

“Everything looked like no one had touched it!” Brandy marveled. “It was easy to take out the boxes and get them organized onto trucks. The people helping us did a great job.” By 10:00 AM, every item was neatly stored in the bodega, categorized by program.

The team’s speedy work even surprised themselves. They had planned to provide lunch for the workers but finished so quickly that coffee and cookies were the perfect celebratory treat instead.

Grateful Hearts and Organized Backpacks

This year’s success felt like nothing short of divine intervention. Reflecting on the process, Brandy said, “We can tell that God provided and helped us through the whole process. We’ve already thanked God and started thanking people, but, really, there are no words.”

Now, with everything unpacked and backpacks already being sorted by program, the team is ready to dive into the next steps.

And that’s definitely something to smile about.

- posted by Christi

A Slice of Sowers4Pastors: A Sampler of Ministry Updates

 This week’s blog is like a cheesecake sampler – a little bit of everything for everyone! Let’s dig into the sweet (and sometimes bittersweet) highlights from Sowers4Pastors.

Goats and Gratitude

Brandy recently received a thoughtful gift of two goats from a pastor supervisor as a token of thanks for the ministry’s support. One goat, a pregnant female, gave birth to twins, but complications sadly claimed her life and that of one baby. That left a tiny, orphaned baby goat in need of care. Brandy and Rachel, welcomed little Canela (Cinnamon in English) into their family. For a time, Rachel was managing four “kids” in diapers – three human and one goat! Thankfully, Canela is thriving, and bringing joy to everyone.

Tropical Storm Sara

Tropical Storm Sara hit Honduras hard, particularly on the northern coast, where some areas experienced up to 30 inches of rain. The devastation has included road and bridge washouts and damage to homes. Meanwhile, in Gracias, the storm brought several days of steady rain, a blessing for the ministry’s coffee farm and others in the area. Please pray for those dealing with severe damage and for the missionaries assisting these communities.

Citizenship Steps

Rachel, Brandy, and their kids (minus the goat!) spent a chunk of the past week in Tegucigalpa, taking steps toward U.S. citizenship for their children. Due to the time Rachel has lived in Honduras (and thus not in the US), the process is far from straightforward. They’ve started with the application for “automatic citizenship for a child born abroad,” knowing it will be denied as part of the process. The next phase will involve lots of paperwork. The final step is a trip to the US. Just as with Nathan’s citizenship journey, Trish will accompany them when the time comes.

Backpacks in Record Time

In Maryland, the backpack container was loaded at lightning speed by Fredericktowne Baptist Church volunteers. The experienced team finished in just two hours, thanks to great weather and even better teamwork.

Dispensa and Container Updates

To ship the backpacks duty-free, the ministry must file a dispensa, an itemized breakdown of container contents. Timing is critical, as filing too early risks expiration. All the necessary paperwork was approved just in time for the shipping of the container!

Meanwhile, a separate food container is on its way, with goods sent from Minnesota to New Orleans before heading to Honduras. Pray that both containers clear Customs and the Honduran FDA quickly and intact. Trish humorously noted, “Toothpaste gives them fits!” Also, pray that storage fees don’t pile up if there are delays at the port.

Seeing Clearly: Eyeglasses for Kids

Through the ministry, a new batch of over 20 kids have received eye exams and are now set to receive new glasses. A generous ophthalmologist is volunteering to ensure every pair fits perfectly. Clear vision will help these children thrive in their studies and daily lives.

Future Home Sweet Home

Rachel and Brandy’s new home is nearing completion! Allen, despite his back issues, has been overseeing the grading of the yard. After Thanksgiving, an electrician friend from the U.S. will be coming to finish off the electrical work, ensuring that everything meets U.S. standards. The hope is to move in before “team season” kicks off in January. It’s a race against the clock, but everyone is hopeful! Your prayers for on-time completion are appreciated! 

 - posted by Christi

Bodega Prep: Organizing for the Backpack Container

Organizing the bodega for the arrival of the backpack container is a lot like getting your pantry in order after a Costco haul. Imagine you’ve somehow ended up with 72 cans of creamed corn (don’t ask why!). You wouldn’t stack those in front of the 18 cans you already have, right? No, you’d push the older cans forward and tuck the new ones in behind them. It’s just good pantry sense. And while this metaphor doesn’t quite explain your creamed corn obsession, it’s the perfect analogy for what’s happening now at Sowers4Pastors.

The bodega is being prepped for the upcoming shipment of backpacks that will arrive in a couple of months, and it’s a dusty place (because, well, Honduras). Over the course of several days, a team of 8-10 people will be busy moving things around, taking inventory, and making sure everything is ready for those backpack boxes. And yes, the dust will be a challenge, but nothing a few brooms and dust rags can’t handle!

But here’s where things get tricky. In previous years, the ministry would bring down boxes of shoes from the States, and it’s not as simple as hitting up Amazon for exactly the right sizes. It's more like ordering for a whole shoe store. You get a range of sizes in each set, but S4P tends to need a whole lot of size 4 shoes for girls and size 6 for boys. That leaves them with extra-large and extra-small sizes that aren’t in high demand.

So, instead of repeating this cycle and ending up with stacks of shoes in sizes no one needs, S4P has teamed up with a local cobbler to custom make the sizes they’re short on. The cobbler recently visited the bodega to check out the current shoe inventory. His shoes are top quality, and while they cost a little more per pair, it’s more cost-effective than being stuck with a bunch of shoes that don’t fit anyone.

And just like with the shoes, the older stock gets pushed to the front while the new shoes coming in will be organized in the back.

It’s not just shoes, either. The bodega also has some supply of clothing, baby dolls, soccer balls, and other toys that need to be organized. So, there’s plenty of heavy lifting and strategic arranging ahead for the team. They’re working hard to make room for all the new boxes and still keep everything accessible for distribution.

On top of all that, the bodega is also home to the solar energy system that powers Kirstin’s house and the office. Allen is planning to rework the system to connect to Brandy and Rachel’s new home, which is still under construction. When a friend from the States comes next month to help with the electrical work, the team will need to have a clear space for him to get to work.

In the meantime, please pray for the safe and timely arrival of the container and for the paperwork to go through smoothly. Pray that there are no delays caused by dock worker strikes or hurricanes! S4P is hoping to get the container with backpacks shipped before the holidays, with a food container scheduled for the beginning of the year.

 - posted by Christi

Ministry Updates, August 2024

How good are you at those Magic Eye images? You know – the two-dimensional images that can create the optical illusion of a 3D scene. A Magic Eye optical illusion can only be seen when you hold the image close to your face, relax your gaze, and focus on something far away, behind the image. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Or maybe it is if you think it sounds like a sure-fire way to make yourself go cross-eyed. Magic Eye pictures are a lot like the work that Sowers4Pastors does; there’s a lot more going on than first meets the eye and it’s important to keep the focus. The scenes change, but the focus stays the same!

S4P has finished up with the final VBS team of the summer. And just like that, the picture of their daily priorities shift. Brandy and Rachel are working on the dispensas for the upcoming shipping containers. A dispensa is basically a list of every possible item that might be on one of the backpack or food containers. Spoiler alert: They’re a big deal! If an item on a container is found to be not listed on a dispensa, it will result in a container being stuck in port while the ministry pays for the privilege by way of holding fees.

Even though the backpacks haven’t even been collected yet and the future shipping containers are just a plan at this point, S4P prefers to get an earlier start on the dispensas. This year, the task was delayed while they waited for some of the necessary paperwork to begin the long and complicated process. This is a good opportunity to begin praying for the shipping containers to arrive with no dramatic twists and turns. 

The Day of the Child is officially on the 10th of September, but S4P celebrates the week before because they have so many locations to visit. The preparation takes about three weeks because it is a very big deal. One of the pastors of Brandy & Rachel’s and Alejandro & Secia’s former church in Tegucigalpa recently visited Gracias. She prayed with them and offered to send a group of people from the church’s youth group to help with Day of the Child celebrations. Last year, the ministry only had teams of three or four people who were responsible for entertaining up to 150 kids at each location. Each team was covering three locations per day and it was a monumental undertaking! Brandy doesn’t know how many youth to expect, but all help is welcome. Pray for the preparations and the people who will help to prepare celebrations for the children.

Kirstin and Esdras will be traveling to the States in September for the backpack collection trip. Thank you in advance to the people who have volunteered to accompany them on different legs of the trip. Those people include Mary Faith and a volunteer from LCC in Ohio (Hi, J.R.!). Please pray for the travelers and the people who are packing the boxes filled with backpacks to be collected. 

If you look at the ministry’s metaphorical Magic Eye, you will also see the coffee farm. The farm crew is currently spraying the plants with fertilizer & fungicide and cleaning up the plants. Brandy said it has been so hot that they are anticipating the coffee will ripen soon. Last year’s picking started at the end of September. This year, they expect picking to begin weeks earlier. Brandy expects a big harvest, which will continue in cycles every couple of weeks until the final harvest in January. You can pray for the harvest and the harvesters. 

And, of course, pray for everyone at S4P as they keep the focus on God while dealing with the minutiae of different ministry pictures. 

- posted by Christi

Additional SERIOUS Prayer Requests

It seems like Sowers4Pastors has been putting out some very significant requests for prayer this year . . . and today a few more of those are coming your way. The importance of shipping items from the US to Honduras, to the work done by S4P, is well known. You may or may not be aware of how much of the work in some of the sponsorship programs is done through the schools - but the prayer concern about the schools (below) is central to those programs. Please read through these situations and PRAY that God would show his power and glory, by making it possible for Sowers4Pastors - and other ministries in Honduras - to continue to help the people of this country and share the Gospel with them in these ways!

Food and Backpack Containers

Wherever you live in the world, when there are changes within the government, there are changes to various rules and regulations – new ways of doing business, as it were. Currently, the government in Honduras is cracking down on the way they deal with containers under duty-free regulations. That makes sense because there are people scamming the system by bringing in items under the duty-free label and then turning around and selling those items. Even though Sowers4Pastors doesn’t do that, the ministry is still swept up in the changes. They have been working to get duty-free shipping on a food container since November.  As a result of this lengthy process, the ministry is running out of the food it gets from the States. Right now, they aren’t even seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, and they have no idea how soon they'll be able to get that food. This means that all of the S4P programs that involve feeding people are at risk.

As things already stood, the cost of shipping had increased exponentially in the past few years. But if the ministry has to rely on food purchased in Honduras, they will probably be looking at paying 6 times more than that! That would make it incredibly difficult to continue doing what they do in terms of food.

A second concern is that they may encounter similar issues when they ship backpacks. As Trish acknowledged, “It’s not like we have any real control over life but sometimes we see a way to move forward by putting in extra effort. In this situation, the only thing we can do is to apply earlier. We’re looking to apply for shipping backpack containers within the next two weeks. Last year, we got our paperwork filed in July and had to turn away donations of items that were offered after the paperwork had been submitted . . . for a container shipping (hopefully) in November. Although we can put some items (like backpacks and food for the feeding centers) on the paperwork this early, there’s no way we can predict other donations that might be offered to us between now and November. We may have to reject very useful donations, for that reason."

Clearly, this is a very important matter for prayer. 

Schools

The education situation is another matter involving the government. Several years ago, there was a push to improve the quality of education in Honduras by changing regulations. Previously, teachers in public schools were only required to have a high school diploma. Schools in the more remote areas routinely accepted people with the minimum qualifications. The change in regulations meant that everyone teaching within the public school system was required to have a teaching degree from a university. The government extended a multi-year grace period to existing teachers to allow them time to meet the new requirements. The grace period has ended and now there is a massive shortage of teachers. The teachers who completed their teaching degrees can have a higher standard of living in cities. The rural schools are struggling to find people willing to accept lower pay to teach in areas with no roads. The teachers may have student loans to pay off and they are understandably asking themselves, “Why would I go to all of that trouble if I’m not going to earn enough to live?” Therefore, rural schools are struggling to stay open. 

Remember that some of the ministry’s sponsorship programs are run through the public schools. If the schools stop offering classes, some of the sponsorship programs may have to be canceled. If the schools close, S4P can’t help children go to school. The results could be catastrophic. 

*Note from Trish: Since my phone call with Christi yesterday, I have learned that even well-established schools in the major cities are having to shut down classes because of the lack of teachers. The problem is more widespread that I had previously realized! Even beyond the concerns of our ministry work, there is a crisis in education throughout all of Honduras. The public schools only reopened for in-person classes this February, after being closed since the beginning of the school year in 2020 . . . and now many of them are unable to continue providing classes because of the lack of teachers. Many children are losing their chance of getting any education at all!

Here are some links (from the news) about student protests, demanding that the government send teachers so their schools can open:

(1) GRT Honduras - #GRTNOTICIAS//¡CONTINÚA PROTESTA! Alumnos del... | Facebook

(2) GRT Honduras - #GRTNoticias // Tomada amanece la escuela de El... | Facebook

Please pray for God’s intervention. Allen and Trish don’t know how else to pray.

Coffee Farm

While it’s not technically the rainy season yet, it is the time of year when Gracias is starting to get some sporadic rains. Things are starting to blossom and it’s possible to better assess how much of the coffee farm was lost to the blight that hit every coffee farm in the area. Allen has had several experts over to scope out the situation. Frankly, it’s not good. The consensus is that the farm took a hard hit.

In order to reestablish the farm and get things going again, they will be looking at one year of no harvest, followed by a year with an extremely minimal harvest. This will require a lot of trimming back and a lot of extra manpower, in addition to extensive treatments with fertilizers and such.

As it is, there is a manpower shortage. For the past two or three years, it has been necessary to travel an hour away to pick up people for harvesting. The money offered for harvesting coffee is much higher than what is paid for general farm labor the rest of the year.  The fact that there was still a scramble to find coffee harvesters does not bode well for the prospect of hiring people to save the farm.

This raises all kinds of questions from Allen, Trish, and the others working directly with the ministry. “How can we get people to come and do the work to cut 100,000 trees back to 2-feet tall from their existing average heights of 6 to 7 feet? Do we invest in the future of the coffee farm? Do we attempt to reclaim part of it? (Perhaps just 4 or 5 acres to begin with?) Is it even possible - or prudent - for us to take this on?”

In an ideal world, Allen estimates that they would need 10 full-time workers. They currently have three. They have been trying to get more people but have been unsuccessful so far. The farm itself was only showing a small profit before the blight. In 2013, when they started the coffee farm, it blessed the community with jobs and income. Manpower was available and jobs were needed. But that has changed.

Allen and Trish are asking for prayers for direction as they make some difficult decisions. Trish said, “We need leading from God. We have decisions to make, but if we can’t get manpower then we can’t get manpower. If we continue, it will be a leap of faith. We don’t want to be foolish but we also don’t want to be faithless.”

Thank you so much for reading through this very long post, and for praying with Sowers4Pastors as God leads them through this time of difficulties.

- posted by Christi

Coffee by any other name . . .

 Java.  A cup of joe. Varnish remover. There are many ways to talk about coffee, but no one did it better than Dolly Parton when she penned the lyrics to “9 to 5.” “Tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen. Pour myself a cup of ambition and yawn and stretch and try to come to life.” Today, we’re going to talk about Sowers4Pastors’ ambitious adventure into the wonderful world of coffee farming.

The S4P coffee farm started in 2014. For the first five years, they planted ten new acres a year. They still refer to the sections based on the years they were planted. For instance, 2014 is producing a different quantity and quality than the other years. 2015 has surpassed 2014 in quantity. 2015 and 2016 are both producing better quality than 2014. But, as the years have passed, production increases over the entire fifty-acre farm. When it’s all said and done, this year’s harvest will bring in more than 70,000 pounds of coffee. That’s a lot of cups of ambition!

Harvesting coffee is not a once and done proposition, because the beans don't all ripen at the same time. There are multiple pickings, each lasting a week. The first harvest of the season was in October. It was a small one, not requiring as many people to pick. The November picking was larger and required more workers. The December picking just ended on the 12th. 

The picking lasted for seven workdays and there were as many as 150 people a day. Some of those were children who were along for the ride, but there were as many as 120 adults and teenagers harvesting. From that number, 90 people were being picked up in Guacutao and delivered back each evening. That meant the Sowers4Pastors vehicles (driven by S4P staff) were driving an hour there and an hour back, twice a day. The morning drives started at 5am. The evening drive returned at 6 - 7pm. The depulping of the day's harvest ends anywhere between 9pm and 1 in the morning! The rate of pay for harvesters went up last year because the price of coffee was up. Coffee prices are down a bit this year, but pickers are still in high demand. This is the second year it has been impossible to find enough workers who live within walking distance. A lot of that has to do with people moving out of the area. 

S4P threw a small “thank you” celebration for workers in honor of completing the December picking. They provided a lunch of Chinese rice, bread, and Coca-Cola. Trish sends her assurances that, for some reason, slices of white bread always accompany Chinese food in Honduras. Each worker was also given a package of food (like we use in our feeding centers) to take home with them. Happy workers are more likely to return for the January harvest!

The quality of the coffee is doing so well that S4P is considering offering coffee to people who might want to buy it in North America. Allen is hoping to find people who would like to have coffee sent to them on a regular basis. The ministry has had a good response to the flavor of their coffee and people like that it is low in acid. The ministry would offer their highest quality coffee for sale. The farm was originally started as a way to help sustain the ministry. At this stage, they are seeing benefits to the ministry. It also helps provide income to workers throughout the area. 

Please pray that the coffee farm will continue to increase output and that there will be enough manpower to sustain it. The shortage of manpower is impacting S4P’s regular farm crew. They are getting a huge influx of coffee that needs to be depulped, washed, laid out for drying, covered at night, and laid out again in the morning. Allen would love to find more regular workers to hire in order to ease their burden.

BONUS: Update on Shipping Containers

The Florida container arrived without a hitch. There was no hold up in port and it doesn’t appear that much was disrupted during its inspection. Everyone is delighted that it arrived well before Christmas. Lighthouse Church will be the first team arriving to pass out backpacks, and it's great to know that we already have their backpacks here! Oddly, even though Lighthouse Church is located in Maryland, their backpacks were shipped on the Florida container. The boxes containing their backpacks were driven to Florida in an effort to have both containers filled to capacity. After some of the difficulties they have encountered with the process of getting the containers in recent years, Trish said, “This feels miraculous. We are praising God for that. And thank you to everyone who has been praying for the containers.”

The Maryland container is currently at the port in Honduras. S4P has received word from their lawyer that the container may be released sometime this weekend. That means it will be going through inspection soon. Please pray that it goes through without issues, delays, and added expense. S4P is very careful about what goes into each shipment. However, when working with donations, there’s always the possibility that someone included something that wasn’t included on the list of items approved to be in the container - and that can cause major issues at the port! Trish sent the reminder, “Even though one container has gone through, please don’t stop praying now!”

 - posted by Christi

Shipping Containers and Hurricanes

 It’s time to talk about shipping containers. And hurricanes and tropical storms. And how hurricanes and tropical storms affect shipping containers. There’s a lot to talk about right now. 

The biggest news is that Florida is being hit by Hurricane Nicole. This comes about a month after Florida met Nicole’s angry relative, Hurricane Ian. 

The empty shipping container was supposed to arrive in Florida on Thursday. On Saturday, the boxes in the Florida storage container are supposed to be moved onto the shipping container. As of Wednesday morning, the arrival of the shipping container is being delayed by one day. Please pray that it doesn’t get delayed beyond that. Also, please pray that there will be enough manpower to move the heavy boxes from the storage container and onto the shipping container. Edited to add: the shipper had to change us over from having the container all weekend - so we could take our time loading it - to having just a two hour window to load (with $200 in extra charges for every hour after that). Please pray we are able to get this changed back!

Here’s the thing: Sowers4Pastors understands that people who've been hit by a hurricane have bigger things on their minds than the S4P shipping container. The timing stinks! But loading the shipping container is still a job that has to be done if children in Honduras are to receive their backpacks in time to begin a new school year. Similar circumstances were at play when Allen arrived in a rental truck filled with boxes that had to be moved into the storage container. People were dealing with cleanup from Hurricane Ian. Allen was grateful for both the help he received and for the fact that he was able to help with some cleanup efforts.

Oh, and to make matters more interesting, the Maryland shipping container is also expected to have a run-in with Nicole. By the time she gets to Maryland, she should be a tropical storm instead of a hurricane. 

2021 loading in Florida

Sowers4Pastors has been involved with the shipping of containers for many years now. And, as Allen pointed out, “Every container seem a bit more difficult than the one before it. There is an onslaught of red tape that we have been receiving to get a container through customs.” He also explained, “We started this whole process almost an entire month earlier than usual this year.”

Trish jumped in with the reminder that there’s a limit to how early they can start the paperwork. If they file it too early, it could expire before the containers arrive. It’s a bit like an intricate dance. Timing is everything.

Allen mentioned that even some visiting team members have had difficulty clearing customs with donation items they’ve brought in their suitcases. Allen also spoke of the gentleman in Ohio whose organization donates food to Sowers4Pastors. That organization ships food all over the world and he has reported that the cost of shipping to Honduras is 2nd only to shipments going to Haiti, in this hemisphere. Sowers4Pastors and anyone else trying to get a container into Honduras is forced to pay government fees. They are being charged extra by shipping companies because the shippers know there’s a good chance their containers will be tied up in customs. 

“We are asking people to pray that we don’t get hit with any undue delays,” Allen said. “We’re also getting ready to start working on shipping two containers of food in the not-so-distant future.”

As you pray for everyone in the path of Hurricane Nicole, please remember to pray for the backpacks. Those backpacks are really so much more than meets the eye. Each backpack represents the opportunity for one child to attend school. Sowers4Pastors needs to have the backpacks in hand before teams start arriving in the middle of January in order to distribute them. The sorting process takes a while, so it would be phenomenal if S4P had the contents from the shipping containers before Christmas. 

 - posted by Christi

Shipping Containers Can't Fly!

The majority of the time Sowers4Pastors has a blog post about shipping containers, it concerns containers filled with backpacks. Everyone is eager to hear when the backpacks they filled will arrive. Plus, there is usually some added excitement because those containers are filled with goodies that people at customs just might want to get their hands on. Interestingly enough, backpack containers account for less than half of the containers Sowers4Pastors ships each year. Shipping the 3 - 4 containers of food throughout the year is usually a simpler procedure.  The same people who donate the food also take care of packing. They know what they’re doing and things almost always go off without a hitch. With only one item on the container - boxes with food in them - the paperwork is less complicated, and generally there are no major issues with getting through customs.

The latest food container was donated by the same people in Minnesota who donate multiple times a year. They are back to their pre-COVID methods, which means they are packing the individual meals at their own facility. This time, enough food packaged to fill a container, but the shipper was unable to find a good option to get the food to Honduras. They explored unique options like sending the food by train to the West Coast and having it go by ship on the Pacific, through the Panama Canal and then back up to Honduras. Fortunately, the man who heads up the food donation ministry is himself a trucker. He volunteered to haul the shipment to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi at no cost. This was a significant donation since he charged for neither his time nor the cost of gas. The person who regularly handles the Sowers4Pastors shipping arranged for warehouse space to hold the contents until it could get on a ship headed for Honduras. A couple of weeks ago, Allen received word that the food had arrived at the port in Honduras.. 

Then an email arrived from the shippers. The email, which was written in poorly translated English, mentioned that there were customs allegations that the container was carrying plague. Yikes! “Plague” is a poorly translated way of alleging insect or rodent infestations. There has been some speculation that any container that goes through customs now manages to rack up huge storage fees. (While it’s not outside the realm of possibility that there were some bugs in the container, it doesn’t appear there was ever a big issue.) The people on site had to contact the experts from another part of the country to examine the container. Sowers4Pastors paid for extra storage fees and a spray that went on the outside of the food boxes to kill any real or imagined bugs.

This past Saturday, the container was released. With teams coming and going each weekend, Saturdays aren’t the best days to receive a container, but they made it work. Russell was off collecting the new arriving team from the airport in San Pedro. The farm crew was on call to unload the food when the container arrived. Then word came that the truck with the food container had been in an accident. What the what? An accident? What kind of accident? The pictures of the accident soon arrived, leaving almost more questions than answers. 

The answers came when the driver from the accident brought the food to Sowers4Pastors. He explained that he was having to make a U-turn when he was barely out of the port. Another driver saw him too late and had to make a large swerve to keep from hitting the food container. But wait! If the driver swerved then why was there a huge hole in the back passenger side of the food container? Well, the largeness of the swerve coupled with the apparent speed of the second driver sent container #2 airborne! It flew through the air like a giant clumsy bird that shouldn’t attempt flight and tore open the food container. A lot of boxes of food got crashed upon impact.

The police were called to secure the scene because truck accidents are always looted. Trish has witnessed such scenes and described it by saying, “A truck goes off the road and is opened up in the crash . . . and then people come like a stream of ants to pick up the contents.” Thanks to the fast action of the police, they didn’t lose a lot to looting. 

The newly ventilated container was taken to a location where they could move the food to another container. Apparently this process could have been more gentle, as even the "undamaged" boxes arrived looking quite distressed. The container arrived in Gracias at about 8:00 pm. When opened, it revealed loose bags of food. 

The crew filled sacks with individual bags of food. Then they got to the stacks of boxes. FYI, cardboard boxes aren’t really designed to sustain the impact of a flying container filled with whatever the 2nd container was filled with. The boxes were falling apart and falling apart boxes don’t stack particularly well in a warehouse. When the wonky boxes were moved from the container, more loose food was revealed at the back of the container. The process of unloading the container and moving the contents (such as they were) to the warehouse went on until almost 2:00 am. Allen and Kirstin worked with the crew even though Allen had to be up at 5:30 to go out with the team. 

Sowers4Pastors will be submitting a claim for a loss of about $1000, but they don’t know what will happen with that. The team that is currently on the ground has three days of scheduled backpack distribution and then they will move on to other tasks. The plan had been for them to prepare backpacks to make sure everything will be ready for the next teams. Now, it’s looking like they might also be sorting through food in the warehouse. Any food that is spilling out and can’t be used at feeding centers will be fed to the Sowers’ hogs, so it won’t entirely go to waste.

The upside to this week is that Brandy is finally in Gracias. His first day of work with Sowers4Pastors was Tuesday. Everyone is quite excited to have him there, particularly Rachel and their boys.

 - posted by Christi

Shipping Containers and Customs Forms

If you regularly make online purchases, you’ve probably experienced times when everything didn’t go as planned. Maybe your package was delayed. Maybe it was sent to the wrong address. Maybe it arrived in a box that looked as if it had been forced to hitch-hike part of the way. Multiply those experiences by a bazillion and that’s sort of how it feels sometimes when Sowers4Pastors is waiting for a shipping container.

The container's contents have to be unloaded from the semi into smaller box trucks for the dirt road up to S4P's warehouse. This happens out on the main road of Gracias - so here's Russell directing traffic so one of the box trucks can get into position for loading.

Breaking the seal with a grinder

This year the Maryland and Florida containers were loaded on the same Saturday. They were both scheduled to be taken to their respective ports on the following Monday. The Maryland container left without a hitch. The Florida container had to wait for about ten additional days for a truck to take it to port. Wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, the ship had been delayed and the Florida container left on it's originally planned ship. It even made it to Honduras in record time. Everyone thought that boded well for the future of the Florida container. Unfortunately, the best laid plans of missionaries are no match for customs officials!

The Florida container arrived at the port in Honduras on Sunday, November 28th. For four days, a container can sit at the port for no additional charge. Unfortunately, because of the events which will be related below, the Florida container racked up a whopping $1800 in extra storage fees, through no fault of Sowers4Pastors.

There is a reason Sowers4Pastors stresses what items should not be packed as donations. While they remain grateful to all donors and understand that people donate with the best of intentions, the ministry has to follow the rules. When the customs officials first opened the container, they discovered that someone had donated something that was not on the dispensa (which is basically a carefully prepared declaration form that is supposed to list everything on the container). Specifically, someone had donated some medicines that had not been listed in the paperwork. As it turned out, some of the non-declared medicine was also expired. Honduras has very strict guidelines about expiration dates. There is absolutely no wiggle room where this rule is concerned. Expired is expired and it isn’t getting into the country even if it is declared!

Boxes getting passed from one truck to the other,
bucket brigade style.

The customs official was obligated to inform the Honduran equivalent to the FDA and do a much more thorough inspection of the container. Honduras currently has a ban on all meats coming in from Brazil. Trish had purchased cans of corned beef in the U.S., but unbeknownst to her they were packaged in Brazil. It’s sad enough that customs confiscated the corned beef, but they also took many of Allen and Trish’s precious cans of tuna. The tuna didn’t actually break any rules, but it still didn’t make it through. Now, Allen and Trish are looking at a corned beef free existence (with less tuna, to boot) in 2022. 

When the FDA-equivalent came to the port to collect the confiscated items, the items weren’t there. No one knew if the items were stolen, or if they were inadvertently reloaded onto the container. So the container was completely emptied and searched a second time.

Sorting the container by flashlight

The container arrived in Gracias at around 6:00 pm on December 21. After being transferred to smaller trucks, the boxes were moved to the property. Half of the boxes had been opened by customs. At the time of this writing, there’s no way of knowing if everything is there. Allen suspects that some things are missing because the container didn’t look as full as normal. They will know more in the coming weeks as they sort through the contents.

In other container news, the Maryland container is still hanging out in Colombia (South America) after it took a wrong turn on its way to Honduras - strangely enough, this is not the first time a container has gone to South America. Allen has been told to expect it on December 31. This wouldn't be the first time a container arrived on this particular holiday - last year the crew was unloading the container while most people were watching the ball drop. For the sake of enjoying New Years, the crew at S4P hopes it will arrive either a little before or a little after - but of course they'll just be happy to have it in their grubby little paws, and hopefully less disturbed than the FL container.

On a more positive note, don’t forget that there’s a matching funds challenge for a shipment of food! They are still about $12,500 shy of the $15,000 matching funds amount. The man who donated the food (in Minnesota) was unable to locate a container. He happens to be a commercial truck driver. He graciously volunteered to drive the food to Mississippi, where it is being stored in a warehouse near the port. He donated his time, fuel, and the use of his truck. It should be much easier to locate a container closer to port. Please consider donating to help with shipping costs. With the matching funds available, your dollars will go twice as far!

If you would like to donate, click on THIS link, put the donation as for "Feeding Center Program," and put in the note that it is for the matching funds challenge. 

- posted by Christi

Mama Always Said...

When the American Film Institute compiled its list of 100 top movie quotes, this line from Forrest Gump came in at number 40: “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” This post is a tribute to that great philosopher, Mama Gump.

Biting into Some Coffee Farm News

Coffee prices have skyrocketed! Coffee sold this year will bring double what the same amount sold for last year. That’s fabulous news, right? In candy terms, that news is nothing but creamy and delicious. Common sense would tell us that any piece of chocolate containing news from the coffee farm should have a strong mocha flavor.

But wait a minute! Coffee harvests are cyclical. Last year’s harvest was a humdinger, which means that this year’s harvest is smaller. Plus, the cost of laborers has increased by 50%. For some reason, there is a current shortage of harvesters. Each morning, Allen drives a pickup to Guacatao to hire day laborers. Because of the difference in elevations, Guacatao and Gracias are on a different harvesting schedule. Sometimes Russell or one of the men from the crew drives a second truck. Two pickups can hold about 40 people! The trip to Guacatao takes about a half hour. The trip home takes about 45 minutes because, well… 40 people in two pickup trucks! Late in the afternoon, a trip is made to return the workers to Guacatao. Other costs have gone up as well, including the price of fertilizer. 

All of these things could leave an extra bitter aftertaste to our metaphorical coffee flavored candy. But it is wonderful that increased selling prices will offset the increase in operation prices. All in all, it’s still a satisfying piece of candy. Plus, the trees are loaded down with flowers, which means next year’s harvest should be big. 

Life is Like a Shipping Container?

If Forrest Gump’s mama had known anything about shipping containers, she might have said, “Life is like shipping a container of backpacks. You never know what’s going to happen along the way.”

You may recall that the Maryland and Florida containers were loaded on the same day. Everything went exactly according to plan with the Maryland container. Even though the ports have been clogged up a bit along the way, this hasn’t required any further action from Sowers4Pastors. It’s still chugging along.

The Florida container experienced a bit of a snafu when the truck didn’t arrive to move it from Tiffany’s house to the port. A week later, a truck finally arrived to move it to port on the day before Thanksgiving. That was the same day it had originally been scheduled to ship. Oh, well, there was nothing to be done for that. It would have to catch a later ship. But wait… The originally scheduled ship was delayed by a day. 

By Allen and Trish’s best guess, it looks like the Florida container did actually make it onto that ship, which set sail on Thanksgiving Day. You could have knocked them over with a leftover Thanksgiving roll when they got a call from their lawyer on Friday telling them that they needed to get some paperwork in because the container was going to arrive in Honduras on the weekend. 

The container is now in customs. No one is quite sure how it got there so quickly, but it could arrive in Gracias almost any day now. Sowers4Pastors is working to clear out the storage area and stack the supplies currently in there as tightly as possible, to make room for the arrival of these donations.

Of course, it's always possible that the container and its contents will be stuck in customs for weeks and weeks. Continued prayers for the safe arrival of both containers (and the backpacks inside) are very much needed!

Allen and Trish previously asked for prayers concerning the Honduran election. It appears that there was a clear and decisive winner, which is good news for Honduras in general and good news for transporting the containers. A decisive winner means there will likely not be rioting in the streets, which is definitely sweet news. But please continue to pray with us, that things will be peaceful over the coming days and weeks.

As a reminder, we are still trying to arrange for shipping of the donated food in Minnesota. The transport issues are affecting this, quite significantly. Please don't stop praying about that!

As always, the crew at S4P thanks you for partnering with us in prayer! They always need them, and always appreciate them, especially since we don't know what chocolates life is going to throw our way!

- posted by Christi