Many of you have been following our struggle to get our van out of customs and paperwork this past year. We have appreciated your prayers and words of encouragement throughout this time of waiting on the Lord.
If you don’t know the history of our vehicle situation, here are some blog posts in chronological order to get you caught up on the saga:
The Plot Thickens
We recently found out some bad news concerning our never ending vehicle saga. The vehicle has been in port storage for around 45 days now (since our most recent attempt to have our paperwork go through). Since the port has been on strike these past 3-4 weeks, we are just now finding out that the daily storage fee is $80 US. Obviously, we can’t continue to store the vehicle for that price while we wait for our paperwork to be pushed through the nebulous process (it could be another 2 days, 2 weeks, 2 months, or 6 months…we have no guarantees). So…we have decided to ship the vehicle back to FL in order to sell it.
There are several reasons for this lamentable decision:
1 – We can’t sell the vehicle here in Chile, because technically it’s not IN Chile…it’s still awaiting official & legal entry.
2 – We have no guarantee of release of our vehicle, so the storage fees would continue to pile up.
3 – If we ship the vehicle back NOW, we pay a set shipping fee (which isn’t small) but will most likely be less than the storage fees if we continue to wait.
We need to be wise stewards of the Lord’s money, and we obviously have taken an enormous hit with this whole situation. We will resell the vehicle in FL, and buy a vehicle here in Chile to use in the ministry. Our family has been using another co-worker’s mini-van since July and we have been very grateful for their sacrifice. That family (Dan & Liz Thompson) needs their vehicle back SOON, because they are expecting their fourth child next year. We need to buy a vehicle here in Chile soon, so that we can give their vehicle back.
Please pray for the following items:
*That our vehicle will be able to be shipped back to the States ASAP
*That our vehicle will be sold in the States ASAP
*Wisdom for searching for a vehicle to buy here in Chile. One that will meet the needs of our family and ministry.
*That our faith will grow through this difficult time of logistics and finances.
*That our attitudes and responses will be God honoring.
We will keep you updated on these items as each phase happens.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. The above explanation is the Cliff notes version, so if you needed more information, we would be happy to explain.
2 comments:
I'm still praying for a miracle!!! Thankful that the Lord knows what He is doing in all of this! We love you and "feel" for you during this difficult time. Something I read this morning "Life is not always fair, but God is always faithful"
I'll continue praying. I'm sure this had added some stress to your lives, but I'm so thankful that God is leading you to a solution.
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