The shipping container saga continues. How could one thing be so difficult? We press on.
As we speak, the team should be at the Port Authorities breaking the seal and looking in at Mombasa. However, you can never be sure. Kenya does not work like the USA. There is so much inefficiency and it is well tolerated by locals. I am not sure how Titus manages emotionally, but he knows his government, he knows his culture, and he manages to be at peace through Jesus. He comes here and sees a completely different way but then goes back home to deal with all the beauracracy and frustration.
For example, the bank made out a check for the container. You know, something like a cashier's check. When Frank tried to use it to pay shipping fees or container fees--it had a typo. It was rejected. He could not get another one made without getting that check back to Kakamega---ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE COUNTRY OF KENYA! So he had a courier bring it to Henry. When Henry took it to the bank, it was going to be another DAY before he could write a new check. EVEN THOUGH FUNDS WERE NEVER DRAWN AGAINST THAT CHECK. How crazy is that? But it is typical AND I should add--it is a small problem compared to some things you run into while trying to do business there.
Praise God I was led to send over extra money to cushion the fees. We needed every tiny BIT of that money to switch funds around while waiting on that check.
Therefore, we are more days behind and the team is accruing hotel and food fees. The container is accruing holding fees. There was already a 21,000 kenyan shillings fee that we were not aware of ($280.) Titus needed to fly over to Mombasa to save time. I'm praying they can get it done today and go home--but we'll see. It is all in God's hands.
We go back to the original problem of getting the container over before the NGO. Titus was requesting the shipping list but we could not get the shipping list until we finalized the sale with medical bridges. we started the NGO process in January but the crooked lawyer took advantage of us and did nothing more than create a constitution, which I could have done myself. In fact, once we started the process ourselves, we WERE required to update that constitution to look like a sample one offered by the government. We totally redid the one the lawyer did ==and his was just a re-write of the one we did for the federal government. So he did nothing for us, but lie.
we are not discouraged, however. We recognize that our brothers and sisters in Kenya must live in this sort of corrupt environment and must endure indignities from all around. Could we do less? Would we run from the lawlessness to the safety of our own world? Safety is an illusion. The only safety is in Christ and we rest there. We give our money to God and we guarantee the donations of our partners. We take the loss. We stay focused on Jesus. We stay committed to the people. I am sure we have not seen the last of the conflicts, violence, corruption, or pain. We have our eyes wide open. We have compassion on the people there who we love and support.
The NGO has not come through because although we were at the VERY LAST STAGE, Frank has to be at Mombasa and cannot be in Nairobi for the final interview. God knows this. We are willing to bear the burden of getting this precious equipment to our community. It is costly, it hurts! We have suffered--but it doesn't compare to the suffering they endure. Babies dying within 8 hours of getting malarial fever? Blind-folded, hands tied, abducted then (mercifully) thrown out 50 miles later into a thicket? Cockroaches? Hospitals without guaze during births? without sterile technique? or guaze left within the abdomen after surgery? We want to be part of the solution. It is not easy. We press on for Jesus. We just want to give and love and serve. I praise God that by His grace we even WANT to do such a thing. Let Jesus be glorified for He loves His people more than I can imagine and He loves me like that as well. That is what powers me.
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