Finally

We were finally able to get our first container of wheelchairs out of Kazakh customs. They had been in customs for almost 3 weeks while we and our local partner tried to give them documents that would convince them that the wheelchairs were a donation from the Church and would not be resold. Here is the series of ‘problems’ we had with customs …. First, they objected to some wording on the Chinese paperwork that came with the shipment. The Russian was translated as ‘medical therapy device’ when in reality it was referencing the walkers that were part of the shipment. Medical Therapy devices require a special import license! Second, once that was resolved they objected to the fact that the word ‘donation’ was not on the documents that came with the shipment even though it was on all of the documents from the Church and from our local partner. We spent 10 days trying to gather documents, including a letter from the US Embassy, that would satisfy them that it was indeed a donation. Finally, they told us that the real problem was that the name listed in the documents that came with the shipment and had the border crossing stamps on it (rubber stamps are very important to them and nothing is official if it is not stamped) was the Church name and not the name of the local partner, therefore it is a commercial shipment and we must pay the $3,000 tax. Interestingly, they were very willing, after we paid the tax, to change ownership to the local partner as long as it appeared to them that the local partner was paying the tax. So, caught between a rock and a hard place, we paid the tax through our local partner. We celebrated that day by going to lunch with our partner and her husband (they don’t speak English and we don’t speak Russian so it was an interesting meal since they ordered for us – every day we are grateful for Google Translate on the iPhone). The next day we went to see them off load the wheelchairs and put them in storage until the training event on May 17 & 18. We can only hope that the second shipment that is on its way here has correct documentation. Those who know us can only imagine our level of frustration through this whole process. We survived by reminding ourselves who the wheelchairs were for and how much they are needed by these poor, humble folks.

The other big event that happened to us since we last gave much of an update is that our proselyting missionaries have been taken from our city so we are ‘alone’ again. You may remember that when we arrived in Feb 2011 there were no proselyting missionaries here and the city was ‘opened’ to missionary work the next month. So here we are about a year later and we are almost back to how we started except – and it is a big except – we have had 10 baptisms and now have about 25 people come to church services each Sunday. The Kazakh religion law has made it very difficult for the Mission to maintain missionaries here and still live within the law. We are now here on business visas instead of religious visas. We are hopeful and praying that there will be a breakthrough for the work here. Folks are working hard to get the Church registered under the new law so we will be patient and do the best we can.

Meanwhile we are having great experiences seeing God’s hand in His work and in the lives of the people here – both members of the Church and others that we work with on Humanitarian projects. Our project to get more hearing aids for the hearing impaired is making a huge difference in their lives. We will share some of those stories after we have been able to go to Almaty to visit with them.

We are so grateful to be a part of this effort to bless the lives of God’s children and we are being richly blessed at the same time.