Sponsor a Child Online - NOW!

Click here to sponsor Mariela

I don’t know about you, but I love the convenience of online shopping. However, there are a few stores I like to frequent who need Trish to come in and overhaul their websites. I say that because she
has done a beautiful job of getting the new Sowers4Pastors site up and running. I was fortunate enough to get a sneak preview of how people will be able to sponsor a child without ever needing to interact with an actual human. I don’t want to publicly shame any company, by naming actual names, but I think Trish could show “Schmold Schnavy” a thing or two about how to have an intuitive online shopping experience. Let me just say, it is easier to sponsor a child than to find a pair of jeans in your size.

Let’s do a little walk through of how it’s done. From the Sowers4Pastors homepage, you will go the the little dropdown doohickey across the top that says, “Child Sponsorship Programs” and click on the arrow that makes the dropdown magic happen. There, you will see five different headings. If you’re brand new to this, you might want to click on “Learn about our Sponsorship Programs” and "What Every Manna 4 Lempira Sponsor Needs to Know." These are the places to learn valuable information: what benefits the children receive, details for getting letters back and forth, etc. There are even some videos to give you an overview of the entire program and how it works. If you feel you’re pretty well informed and just want to find a child to sponsor, click on “Manna 4 Lempira- See the Children and Set Up Sponsorship HERE”. Got it?

Under “Child Sponsorship,” you will see the very descriptive line that says, “Scroll down to see photos of the children!” Do it! When you select a currently unsponsored child, click on the picture to see the full bio. From that page, you will see, “Sponsor Now”. When it says, “Share-$15,” what that means is that the cost is $15 per month. When you click on “Checkout,” you will see the options to set up a recurring donation monthly, quarterly, bi-annually, or yearly. Once you've hit "submit" and your payment has been processed, you've set up your sponsorship!


Other Stuff You May Want To Know:

Click here to sponsor Denis

• If you are looking to sponsor a child from one of the Sister Church programs, this is NOT where you will find those children. Because the children in those programs are only available for sponsorship to people connected with a particular church, those children aren't shown on the public website. You can get a link from your church, or from Trish, to see the children available in those programs. 
• By checking the box that says, “Add 3.0% to help cover Sowers4Pastors, Inc.’s transaction fees,” you are helping to defray the cost of paying by credit card. You are free to uncheck that box if you prefer. 
• If you prefer not to make automatic recurring donations, please know there is no monthly reminder. It is up to you to remember to go in and submit regular payments. Naturally, Sowers4Pastors prefers automatic payments because it is easier for most people, and it also means less work for the Sowers4Pastors office staff. However, for people who get paid at irregular intervals, setting up non-recurring payments is an available option.
• You will receive an email each time a payment is made through the website - and you'll receive an email if a scheduled payment fails to go through. Emails are also sent each time your child’s bio, photo, or other information is updated. That is super cool, by the way!

Please check out the sponsorship program pages on the website . . . one of those sweet faces just might convince YOU to sponsor a child!

 - posted by Christi

Ditch the Glitch

Class, today we’re going to talk about glitches. Pay attention as I write the word and definition on the board.

glitch
  (glĭch)
n.

1. A minor malfunction, mishap, or technical problem; a snag: a computer glitch; a navigational glitch; a glitch in the negotiations.
2. A false or spurious electronic signal caused by a brief, unwanted surge of electric power.
3. Astronomy A sudden change in the period of rotation of a neutron star.

For the purposes of this blogpost, we’re not going to concern ourselves with the second and third definitions. Partly because I don’t know what “spurious” means and I’m a little fuzzy about “neutron star”. So, let’s just focus on definition numero uno. Okay? Okay.

As you probably know, our beloved Trish has been up to her eyeballs in website stuff. She has pretty much been working full-time to get the new website up and running. (She needs to wrap this up ASAP because R.J. and Abby have a new swing set and they need someone to push them.) When everything is finished, this website is going to make her life much easier. It will automatically take care of a lot of the accounting, payments, etc… If a person makes a credit card payment and it doesn’t go through, for whatever reason, they will automatically get an email. In the future, the website will allow you to add new child sponsorships to your account, without talking to Trish or Kim. Glory, glory hallelujah! That day is coming. But it’s not today. Because, today (and until the task is completed), people with existing sponsorships need to go to the website to connect with their account.

You may be thinking, “Sure. No biggie! I’m an intelligent person. I’ll just go on and take the necessary steps to connect to my account.” HERE’S WHERE THE GLITCH COMES IN! Going to the button that says, “Donate,” and setting up a donation there will NOT give you access to your account, payment history, sponsored children, etc...

Regardless of how incredibly tech savvy you may be, this system is not quite that intuitive. People who have tried to do this on their own encountered this problem. In order to connect to your account on the new website, Trish is asking you to schedule an appointment with her. This appointment can take place via messaging on Facebook, or over the phone. In an average time of around 20 minutes, Trish will walk you through the process. If you sponsor many children, it can take a little longer. Out of an approximate 800 sponsors, about 80 are now connected with the new website.

Trish is using an online scheduling program, to get these appointments set up. If you are a current sponsor, through the Manna 4 Lempira program or any of the sister church sponsorship programs, you can use this link to find an available time that works for you, and sign up for a conversation with Trish:

https://www.supersaas.com/schedule/Sowers4Pastors

Trish will be happy to give you a call (the faster method) or chat with you via Facebook Messenger. If you wish to handle this by messenger, please send Trish a message before your scheduled appointment, telling her this preference.

Please schedule your appointment soon, because R.J. needs Nana to push him on the swing!

 - posted by Christi

Taking a Walk on the Mild Side

Everyone always wants to hear exciting missionary stories that keep you glued to the edge of your seat, inspire you, or make you choke with emotion. But much of the work done by missionaries is the behind the scenes stuff that no one will ever want to turn into a major motion picture. No one will ever hear about the work being done to get a new website up and running and say, “You should really write a book about this! Fascinating!” Trish shared some of what she called, “the boring side of things”. I prefer to think of it as taking a walk on the mild side.

February 2017 was when Sowers4Pastors decided to file the necessary paperwork to become an independent organization with 501c3 status. Soon after that, Trish began working on the website. In front of visiting team members that summer, she mentioned what she wanted to accomplish on the website. A college age man on the team said something like, “Dude, that’s what I do for my job” (Oh, okay, he didn’t say the “dude” part, but I’m trying to liven this up.) He volunteered to work with Trish and, since she didn’t just fall off the turnip truck, Trish accepted the offer. Today, that gentleman, who has probably never once called Trish “dude,” is one of two volunteer IT guys working regularly with Sowers4Pastors. (Here is a quick shout-out to Chris Metzger and Steven Buswell: without your help, the new website would not be happening!)

When Trish mentioned that she was thinking about recruiting an intern to come down and help with office work, the aforementioned IT guy knew someone. He connected them with Kelsea. Trish rejoiced. The angels sang. It was a beautiful thing.

Kelsea does not shy away from doing the more exciting tasks, like building bridges and working with feeding centers, but she’s quite the whiz at office work. Trish is keeping her busy entering the sponsored and unsponsored children onto the new website. They are finally almost ready for the big unveiling. Sowers4Pastors certainly never knew it would take more than a year to have everything in order with the IRS, but, when the time came to get down to the serious business of entering each child on the website, Kelsea was there. God’s timing is perfect.

In order to update each child, the Sowers4Pastors crew must go en masse to each sponsorship center location. They have to take a picture of every child. Usually, when getting those pictures, they also do things like have “well visits,” measure feet, distribute letters (if there are any to distribute), and set up supplies so the children can write to their sponsors. They have forms for collecting updates on each child’s general information. They check for children who have left the program because their families have moved, or they’ve dropped out of school.

All of that adds up to a GIGANTIC stack of papers and a pile of photos. That information, along with how to contact Sowers4Pastors, and how to participate in the sponsorship program is all put into profile booklets for each child. Once these booklets have been created, the children and their updated information can be entered into the website. All of this takes quite a bit of time.

In a beta program, to test the new website, they have been entering the information of sister church groups first. Most of the sister church kids, along with their sponsors, have now been entered. They will soon be getting all of the Manna4Lempira kids entered. Basically, Trish is trying to work out any glitches before opening the site up to everyone. It’s almost to the point where sponsors should be able to go to the site and see a list of the children they sponsor, and pay for them online. A bleary eyed Trish said, “We are very excited about that!”

 - posted by Christi