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SOWERS (Servants On Wheels Ever Ready) is a ministry by couples of RV owners providing physical needs to various ministries in the United States and Canada.
We worked our first SOWER Project at ALERT Academy in Big Sandy, Texas in March 2006 after working in Mexico at an orphanage in Oaxaca in the winter of 2005/2006. Then we headed back to Canada for the summer, returning in the fall and working our second SOWER project at Victory Camp in Alvin, Texas in November. Between the November and December projects we had our trailer worked on near Katy, Texas. The repair lasted about two hours on the road and we arranged to come back between Christmas and New Year and carried on to our third SOWER project at Way of the Cross Ministries in Harlingen, Texas.
We worked further up the Rio Grande Valley in Alton, Texas in January and came back to Way of the Cross for February. We have been back many times since and have also worked with Way of the Cross in Mexico and Nicaragua a number of times.
There is always something to do here, and not usually enough money to do it in a traditional manner which provides lots of opportunity for creativity and a few opportunities to do something again when the temporary fix of a few years back has proved its temporary nature.
This winter we are booked into SOWER projects at WOTC (Way of the Cross) for November, January and December.
November has been busy. After the window and air conditioning mentioned in last month’s update I carried on with drywall repairs on a few ceiling. Juanita started with helping Martha, the ministry nurse, sorting things and helping get things ready for the Big Feed.
The Big Feed is an event WOTC holds every year between Christmas and New Year. They have been doing this since the early 1990’s. The original inspiration was to share some of the blessings we tend to take for granted with those much more in need. It is held in an open field in Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Usually it is held in a location for three years. The first year about five thousand people show up and by the third year in the same field about ten thousand attend. There are games and prizes for the kids. Gift bags are handed out and chicken dinners are served to all who attend. This is all free to the attendees. There is a stage with music and free raffles of bicycles, sewing machines and a grand prize of some sort. There has been a car, a camper and a small house as the main prize. The biggest prize of all is that every half hour all activities pause and the gospel is preached at each booth and from the main stage. People have ample opportunity to hear a life changing message.
The first years we were at WOTC there were close to two hundred Americans that would show up to help with the event. With some of the problems in Mexico numbers dropped off dramatically. This gave the local churches in Matamoros an opportunity to step up to the plate and man booths with their congregants. As the situation has improved in Mexico the number of American volunteers has been growing again. WOTC expects 80 to show up this year.
The condition of the training center has fallen behind since there were fewer volunteers and WOTC has been focussed on events in Nicaragua and their new Gateway base camp over the border. With so many people coming to the Big Feed the focus has moved to getting the training center back into an acceptable level of accommodation.
Juanita and I are the only SOWER couple scheduled for November and December. Another SOWER couple showed up early in the November project, but they are what is known as SOA’s (SOWERS on assignment). SOA’s have different work hours and work directly with the ministry. When we are the only couple assigned to a monthly project we tend to operate the same as SOA’s, but if there is a large group of SOWERS the daily schedule becomes quite structured and runs on a different set of tracks than a SOA. We worked one project where there were ten SOWER couples doing typical things that SOWERS do and one SOA that washed dishes in the cafeteria when there were meals scheduled there. No meals. No dishes. Lots of meals. Lots of dishes. When the dishes were done for the day so was he. Worked just fine.
The first thing the SOA did was fix some washers and dryers. That was nice. No trip to the laundromat on our days off.
A lot of time I worked together with the husband of the SOA couple. We worked running power and water to the new ice machine. We shared some plumbing repairs. He repaired a bunch of bicycles for the Big Feed give-aways. I was repairing the kitchen floors while he did the bicycles. He ripped out some windows and I replaced them. The dry wall repairs went a bit too slowly with the slow rate that mud dries in this humid climate. More people than me got thrown at the problem along with rapid setting drywall compound. I got to translate instructions to the plasterer who didn’t speak English.
Juanita helped me a lot with the floor repairs. When she wasn't helping me she was helping Martha get things ready for the Big Feed.
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