December 10, 2008
Dear Friends:
It’s the end of 2008 already! Doesn’t the year seem to have flown by? It’s been a busy year for us, and the busyness isn’t over yet, as we are currently in the thick of the Gifts for Gracias project. But we thought we’d use this letter to review some of the ministries we are working on here in Lempira, and in the interest of accountability, to give an overview of where the donated money actually goes. Hopefully you will feel that we have been good stewards of the resources we have received, as this is an important goal for us.
Pastor Training School
For nine months each year, we hold sessions of the Pastor Training School, which has now been officially named Instituto Biblico Interdenominacional. In November, thirty five pastors received certificates recognizing their ongoing commitment to increasing their Biblical understanding at the school, during the two years the school has existed (some receiving as much as 320 hours of class room time plus homework). For the next few months, the school will be out for coffee harvesting season, as this is the time when the pastors earn most of their annual income. The school will resume in February. Running the school is expensive; it uses up about 25% of the average monthly donations we receive. During the school sessions, we house and feed the pastors for 3 days. We provide all of the study materials at no cost. The teachers are all volunteers, usually Honduran, but occasionally we have guest lecturers who come from the US. For those teachers, we generally also have to hire and pay translators. The pastors are not charged anything for the school. Most would not be able to attend if there was a fee - some already cannot come, who would wish too, because they cannot afford the cost of transportation and the days away from the work which supports their families (usually agricultural work). In November, there were 80 pastors in attendance, and our guest teachers were Dr Bob Petterson, pastor of Covenant Church, and Pastor Mardo Jimenez of the Buena Esperanza Church, both in Naples, Florida.
Bible Sales
In conjunction with the Bible Training School, we sell Bibles and Bible study materials to pastors at each session of the school, as well as from our home. We sell these Bibles and other books for less than what it costs for us to buy and ship them. Pastors pay approximately 60% of our cost, and your donations pay the other 40%. With the severe poverty in our area, it is very difficult for people to purchase Bibles, even at these reduced prices (often 1/3 of the price charged in the Christian book stores in the big cities). In spite of this, these materials are in great demand. During our three years in Lempira, we have sold or given away over 6000 Bibles, and over 1000 Study Bibles, plus large numbers of concordances, Bible dictionaries, Sunday School materials, etc. It is humbling to us, to have pastors coming to us excited about spending two weeks wages to purchase a study Bible.
Motorcycles and Horses Distributed to Pastors
To help the pastoral supervisors and pastors who travel between multiple small village churches, we distribute motorcycles and horses (and occasionally bicycles). We receive the money to purchase the motorcycles from the very generous donations of the Christian Motorcyclists Association. To help ensure that the motorcycles go to those who have enough income to maintain them and pay for fuel, we charge a small percentage of the purchase price for each motorcycle. It also allows us to stretch the funding further - this year, we received funding for four motorcycles, and distributed six (our monthly support supplemented this a little as well). Additionally, we received some donated motorcycles, which we shipped into the country. Some of these bikes are more for highway use than for the rough dirt roads of the mountains, so we are selling these, and using the funds to purchase the type of motorcycles the pastors can more readily use. In total, we expect to have distributed 35 motorcycles by the end of this year.
In some instances, a horse or mule is a better transportation solution than a motorcycle. We have been able to give away five animals so far. In three instances, we had donors who particularly donated for the purchase of a horse, in two others the funds for the purchases came from our general ministry donations. We are working on the acquisition of two more horses now, for pastors who need them.
Church Construction Projects
In the three years we’ve worked in Lempira, we have helped to fund 36 church construction projects. We never fully fund any one project, but instead, we expect the church congregations to donate labor and materials (many of which can be gathered locally for free, if the congregation donates their labor). The funds we provide usually go to purchase the materials for the roof of the church. Generally, we purchase the materials for the roof, instead of handing out cash, and we don’t give these materials until the project has progressed to the stage of needing the roof. In other words, before they can receive our help, the church has to have already made a serious commitment to their building project. On average our help ends up being somewhere between 25 and 40% of the entire construction cost (assuming that most of the labor is donated by the congregation). Most of the church construction funds come out of the general monthly donations, although we have received a few donations in the past which were earmarked for church construction.
Christian School Construction Projects
Through a private donor, who works regularly with MVI to fund schools, we are now overseeing eight school construction projects. This involves drawing up a proposal, receiving the funds, distributing the funds on a gradual basis (as the construction progresses), and maintaining accountability for the funds. Occasionally, we also have the opportunity to host this generous donor, and show him the progress which has been made on the school projects.
Feeding Centers
Since we have started receiving food from Kids Against Hunger, we have been able to do so much more in fighting malnutrition in our area. We pay to ship this food, from Minnesota, out of our monthly donations, although we have received donations intended specifically for the cost of food shipping several times. Because the food arrives in a large quantity, all at once, and the need is so great in our area, we have spread out our feeding help. We are providing help (in the form of food) to approximately 50 - 60 feeding centers, all around Lempira. This translates to something like 14,000 kids being fed on a regular basis.
Bridge Construction Projects
We are involved with several communities, which are cut off from the rest of civilization during rainy season, because of the lack of bridges over rivers. We are able to get new and used cable, in good condition, from a number of sources in the states, just for the cost of shipping, and so we are hopeful that we will be able to help with several of these projects. This isn’t a main part of our ministry, but is sort of ramping up, although we are currently waiting on government paperwork and approvals. We hope to be able to report soon that we have made some real progress with this.
Gifts for Gracias
The container from Florida brought us a huge collection of children’s gifts! We have delivered gifts to several orphanages, and this coming week we will deliver gifts to the special needs families. We waited to send the container from Maryland, to make sure that enough donations had been collected to completely fill the container. Thanks so very much to everyone who has taken part in this project!
Website Updates
In the past couple of weeks, Trish has spent a lot of time updating our website,
www.sowers4pastors.com. We’d love your feedback on the site, which is intended to give an overview of all we are doing here, so please take a look and let us know what you think. As always, to keep up with our day to day events, check Trish’s blog, www.sowers4pastors.blogspot.com.The Hayes Family has Arrived!
It feels wrong to just stick this in at the end, but we are excited to announce that Alan and Faith Hayes, and their three kids, have arrived safely and are settling into their new home in Gracias. They are learning about the ministries, getting to know the town and the people we work with, and helping with the
Gifts for Gracias project . . . as well as whatever else is going on each day. They also have a blog, which you can check out, to keep up with their doings: www.thehayeszoo.blogspot.com.We apologize for sending such a very long, info packed, and rather impersonal letter this month. We feel blessed to be able to work and live here in Honduras, and we appreciate your partnership with us in this work!
Merry Christmas,
Allen, Trish, Kirstin, Russell, Rachel, Chris, Bethany, and David Sowers
Dear Friends:
Thanks so much for taking the time to read our letters and pray for us! We appreciate it!
Really Great News - New Missionaries!
Big news - as of September, Russell is an official missionary with Missionary Ventures! He traveled to Orlando, went through a two week orientation, and was approved by the board. This is really an honor for Russell, as at 19 he is the youngest missionary candidate to ever be approved by the mission. Of course, he has already been working full time as an assistant missionary for more than a year. But now he has a title!
In other big news - the Hayes family is on the road, and they are traveling south from Mexico toward their new home in Gracias right now! Please pray for their safety as they travel, and for all of the adjustments as they settle into life here. We’re so excited to have them coming, and just in time to help with the Gifts for Gracias project this year! You can check out their travel updates at www.thehayeszoo.blogspot.com.
Speaking of Gifts for Gracias . . .
The collection process of the Gifts for Gracias Christmas project is now closing. We have already shipped the Florida container, and in a few more weeks the Maryland container will be on its way. Approximately November 5th we will receive the first container here in Honduras. About ten days later, once it has cleared customs and been delivered to Gracias, we can start the sorting and distribution process. We absolutely appreciate the efforts of everyone who participated in this project. Please pray for us as Allen travels to the port to bring the containers through customs, pray that we won’t have to pay too much in duties and fees, and just generally pray for our family as we come into our busiest time of the year!
And, on a related topic
We have not yet collected enough ‘stuff’ to fill the container we will be shipping from Maryland. It would be terribly wasteful to ship a partially empty container, so we are putting out the call for donations of good condition used clothing and bedding, to fill the rest of the space. We can use clothing suitable for all seasons, and sizes up through adult large. Blankets, jackets and sweaters are especially appreciated. If you can contribute, either in person or through the mail, the collection address is: The Warner Agency, 19961 Fisher Avenue, Poolesville, Maryland 20837. Don’t delay, as there are only a few weeks left before we will absolutely have to ship the container, for it to arrive here in Honduras before Christmas. Please pray with us, that the container will be filled to the brim before we have to ship!
We’ve moved . . . again!
In our last letter, we mentioned that our landlord had decided that our house would no longer be available for us to rent. Since then, we have found a new house, and moved into it. The actual move was pretty strenuous, as both Allen and Russell were in the US at the time! Fortunately, the new house is only a few blocks from the old one. Unfortunately, we don’t currently have a pickup truck, so we were moving everything in many, many trips in the Land Cruisers. Some of you followed along with our daily updates throughout the move, at www.sowers4pastors.blogspot.com. We certainly do appreciate all of your prayers during that crazy time! What may have been the biggest blessing of all was that we were able to move the satellite dish to the new house, point it in the general compass direction, and reconnect to the internet, all in one day’s time! If this hadn’t worked, we were potentially looking at weeks without internet at the house, so we were blown away at how beautifully and easily this worked out!
We expect to live in this house for 6 - 8 months or so, and then move out to the buildings which are currently under construction on our property. Please pray that the construction will move along quickly, and that construction funds will be available when needed, as we are sort of crammed into this smaller house which has no yard at all.
Additional Prayer Requests
We couldn’t be here without your help! Thanks so much for praying and for supporting this work!
Blessings,
Allen, Trish, Kirstin, Russell, Rachel, Chris, Bethany, and David Sowers
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March 15, 2008 Dear Friends: Orphanage in crisis We were recently made aware of an orphanage which is in dire need of help. This orphanage currently has four women taking care of forty-nine children, thirty of whom are under the age of eighteen months old. They only have a handful of older children who can assist them in any way. Since they have to cover all twenty-four hours in a day, only two, or at most three, of them are really caring for the children at any one time. This means that they barely have enough time to change their diapers and feed them, let alone handle, interact, and play with the children. We are gravely concerned that these children will develop attachment disorder if someone doesn’t intervene on their behalf immediately. It has been suggested that we could help alleviate this problem by hiring three or four pastors’ wives to assist with the care of these children. This would cost approximately four hundred dollars a month in all. We were able to gather some toys especially for newborns and younger children and some clothes to help them right now, and are hoping to raise the funds to purchase more. Please pray for this orphanage as well as the others we are working with, that God’s love would be passed on to these children. Thirty new churches If, at the time we were planning to come to Gracias, we had told people our goal was to plant a self-sustaining church over the next ten years, most of the evangelicals we know would have considered that a lofty goal. In 2007, the pastors we are working/partnering with planted over thirty new churches. In addition they saw in excess of four thousand people not only make a profession of faith, but become disciples in their churches. This reinforces the belief that indigenous pastors and missionaries, whenever possible, make the most efficient bearers of the gospel. We feel so blessed of God to have these partners of the gospel. Please continue to pray for these ministers. Many of them work thirty to forty hours a week in their secular jobs to keep food on their table while pastoring three, four, or even five congregations. Please pray for ongoing funding for our pastors’ training program. Whoopie! Whoopie to Kids Against Hunger again! This week we received a visit from members of the Stewart chapter of K.A.H. They brought with them a container of blankets, jackets and other used clothing, plus a couple hundred thousand meals. In an area where sixty percent of the children suffer from varying degrees of chronic malnutrition, these vitamin-enriched meals are a real blessing. In an area where a hundred thousand children could use nutrition help, it is often hard to decide who should receive this help. Please pray for wisdom on our parts. Overwhelmed As many of you know, Allen has been working in the States since October. He went there to work - as he says, "To support our missionary habit." Since his return last week, he has been swamped with requests from poor pastors and their congregations for help with church construction. Please pray that the Lord would give us guidance as we endeavor to choose which churches to assist, and in what order. More Spanish Bibles needed In the last few weeks, we have sold a large number of Bibles and Christian study materials from our small in-house bookstore. This is both a blessing and a problem. It is a real blessing to see the word of God going out to those hungry for it. Many of these churches only have two or three Bibles for the entire congregation. The problem is that we are selling the Bibles at a loss of approximately twenty-five percent, and are supplementing every purchase. Please pray for more of the much needed funds for this project. The word of God is something that everyone needs. Horse business We currently help sponsor an evangelism team, which uses motorcycles and audio/video equipment to spread the gospel through the Jesus film, Bible distribution, and revival style meetings. However, there are approximately 200,000 in south western Honduras who are not accessible even by dirt bike - just by horse. We currently have a second team of pastors and equipment ready to go, but we need to purchase horses for them. Please pray for God’s provision in this matter. As always, we can’t thank you enough for your support through prayers and helps of many kinds! We currently are looking for someone to come down and work with us, and help with all of our correspondence and other office work. We’re flexible, and would consider someone who wanted to come for just a month or two, or someone who wanted to stay for a longer time. Interested? Blessings, Allen, Trish, Kirstin, Russell, Rachel, Chris, Bethany, and David Sowers |