We are still trying to get it in. There has been a strike on the docks and so they are behind in unloading the ships. We got word that our container is now sitting on the dock. They try to keep it there so that we have to pay more fees. We paid $1500 to the lawyer for the fees, etc and she now has disappeared. We got the bill ourselves and will have to pay again to bring it in.
Gary and Nicolas just left to do what they call the “inspection” of the container on the dock. If they find any discrepancies between the inventory and what is on the container, they will charge us more fees.
Gary and I and our pastors are scheduled to fly out tomorrow, so it is down to the wire. Normally we fly stand-by and could change our departure date, but this time of the year we had to purchase a ticket.
Today, is graduation day for the sewing class, where Gary is the one to hand out the diplomas and also today is our employee (our family here ) Christmas banquet and service. We pray that somehow he could be back from the port to be part of this.
Our desire, of course, was to get these Christmas gifts to the children for their Christmas, which for many is their only Christmas. We had hoped that our new pastors could be part of the distribution, which takes several days to get into those villages…without roads to these impoverished areas.
We know God has a plan, we know we are to thank Him in this, but we would appreciate that you would pray for this situation. Pray that this lawyer would be convicted and return our money; pray that we could get this container in and get some of the gifts to the children; and pray that there will be no more unnecessary fees due to corruption or dishonesty.