Delivery!!!

Actually, there have been 2 deliveries!!!!

After a long wait, the newest Bogdan has finally arrived....two days overdue!

This is Mathias Vision Bogdan!

He was born on Tuesday, June 23 weighing 8 pounds 5 oz. and 22 inches long. Mom and baby are doing well and everyone is happy that baby Mattie is finally here for them to hold and play with!

Second delivery.... (which was actually delivered first!)

The container was finally released from port and delivered at the house on Saturday! Thank you so much everyone for your prayer and support throughout this process. We have learned a lot through this and hope that next time will be much easier :-) Everyone is happy and ready to move on to other things. God Bless!

Miracle

That is all....just the word miracle...this is what I saw on my cell phone this morning when I opened it. It was a text message from Shad, one of our staff in Liberia. My heart jumped and I had to get up and call! Liberia is 7 hours ahead of us here in Phoenix so the day for them is already more than half over when we wake up.

We have been telling them everyday when they update us on the situation with the container, "Ok, we understand. Pay the money that is required, but we are still praying for a miracle!" We have sent the full money to them, which includes the $900 that was in addition to the over $2000 of excessive fees.

Today they were finally able to get some finalization! They were able to get the paperwork signed and get the final numbers on what we will be required to pay. They will be going to the bank to make the payment tomorrow. In Liberia when dealing with a government agency you pay all fees directly to the bank and they issue an official receipt which you then take back to the governing agency to show proof to them that you have paid in full. This is a way they are trying to cut down on corruption and fraudulent receipts.

So, the miracle of the day is that we will not have to pay the additional $900 after all! It will be an additional $200 which is WONDERFUL! We are so thankful that God provided this blessing for us. Of course all of this is still much more than we at first expected to pay, but God is in control and He has been glorified in the midst of this storm!

If things go according to plan ( which is unlikely...TIA!), then we should have the container in our possession by Monday at the latest. Please continue to pray this container through to it's delivery at our office. The container will be opened by customs agents at the port and we will be overseeing the inspection to do everything we can to ensure that nothing is stolen.

Praise the Lord for His faithfulness during this trying process. I have mentioned to you before that this has been interfering with the usual ministry schedule, but all was not lost! We receive our weekly reports from the staff they have been reporting that they have been evangelizing and distributing tracts at all of the government offices as they have been spending their days there.

Thank you all for your support and prayer! We will post pictures when the container arrives at the office. God Bless!

Below is one of the ministry reports :-)

Greetings Boss,
Weekly ministry updated is as follows:

1. Prison ministry

Due to our engagement with the Ministry Finance and the faultiness of our car, prison ministry was not possible.

2. Evangelism

As we were involved with the duty free section of the Finance Ministry, we distributed Spirit Liberia Inc. gospel tracts to both visitors and employees. The Director of the duty free (Mr. Wright) was personally witness to and given copy of our tracts. Have a blessed weekend.

Bro. Bestman Todawiah, Ministry Coordinator

It continues....

The saga continues......

The guys waited at the Ministry of Finance all day today. They were assured they would be first in to see the commissioner since their appointment had been cancelled on Friday. They were finally promised to be able to see her this afternoon and that never happened. They have been told that they will be able to see her tomorrow so they are probably in for another day of waiting. Please keep praying for them and for this process. Everyone is getting very frustrated. Our goal is to get the container released this week, and we are certain it will take paying the additonal $900 for this to happen. But....God is still in the business of working miracles!

On a lighter note, at the start of rainy season as we were having our weekly staff meeting we discussed what impact the heavy rains would have on their ability to continue with the normal ministry schedule. They informed us that they really needed rainsuits to protect them from the rain as they worked. Greg and I talked it over and we decided it would be good to provide the rainsuits for them. Now our car has needed some body work for some time and we have put everything on hold due to the extra charges from the container. There is actually water splashing into the car from the street while they are driving :-) They are extra thankful for the rainsuits! We will be able to get this fixed soon, but in the meantime at least these cute rainsuits are going to good use! Oh....have I ever mentioned that we have the best staff ever????? Enjoy their smiling faces!

Left to Right: Shad Flumo, Bestman Todawiah (always has his hood cinched up!), Pastor Joseph Richards, Mark Koffa, and Paye Hallowanger ( Paye is a big man in comparison to most Liberian men and I was concerned that they would not find a rainsuit in his size. It is a little small, but they said that he had to try every rainsuit in the store to find one that even fit this well!)

Prayer Needed!

Here is the latest on the container. We have a new appointment scheduled for Monday with the commisioner at the Ministry of Finance about the Duty on the container. I hesistate to even call it "Duty Free" because it is not going to be Duty Free. It looks like we will be paying an additional $900 of tax. Please pray with us for a miracle. We would love to see God do an amazing work on our behalf and have this meeting go very well. Thanks so much for your love and support everyone. We will continue to keep you updated on the status of the container!

Another Container Update

We still do not have the container released from port. We expected to have everything taken care of today, but it didn't happen. We have been having a lot of difficulty. The guys have been spending most everyday at the Ministry of Finance working to get the Duty Free approval. This has totally interfered with their regular ministry schedule which is also super frustrating! Please keep praying for the container to be released quickly! We will have to pay large fees, which is very disappointing and if we do not have it released by Friday we will have to begin paying storage charges at the port. Thank you for your support and prayer everyone! We will update as soon as the container is released!

Update

We found out that the container arrived last Thursday! No one had bothered to call and let us know, but after the guys went over and investigated they found that it had indeed arrived. We have a grace period of 10 days from now to get it out of port without incurring more fees. The Ministry of Finance is being very difficult and we are looking at paying much higher duty fees than we should be. Please pray with us that God would show us favor in the midst of this very frustrating situation. The biggest issue is the used clothing that we sent for distribution in prisons, orphanages and to the needy in general. They are saying that people have abused the duty free and sold these items on the street so they are not allowing them to be duty free anymore. In addition they are grossly overestimating the value of such items as used clothing and shoes. We are looking at paying over $2,000 for this duty which is almost half of the total value of the items in the container! We know God is in control and that he will see this process through to the end but it really looks like we have hit a brick wall. Please pray!!!! Thank you and God bless!