In February we loaded and shipped a 40 ft. sea container to Kenya. We sent over 15,000 books, Bibles, study materials, etc. for the pastors. In the container was over 110 computers, 80 laptops, printers, projectors, building equipment (paint machines, ladders, table saw, radial saw), household items for our new home, and so much more. Now that it has cleared customs in Nairobi and been offloaded in our leased storage facility, we believe that after all the issues in the journey from one warehouse to the other, it has been blessed by God and destined to be a blessing to many.
First, it was one of the containers caught in the Suez Canal debacle and delayed its journey for nearly 2 weeks. Then the day it arrived at the port of Mombasa, so did a rare cyclone. All the ships had to move away from the port or drop more anchors and lines.
Once it arrived at the port in Nairobi for clearing, after paying $5,000.00 in duty, custom and VAT (fairly normal for this large of shipment), the final step is for the container to be unloaded at the port and customs officials go through it and determine if there should be additional “uplift” charges. Usually, this amounts to a few hundred dollars or so. However, the evaluation official wanted to charge us for something that has never happened to our last 18 containers. He charged us $1.39 per kilo weight of all the books! We had over 8,000 kgs which calculated to over $11,000.00.
Our clearing agent, Beverly Maina, has cleared all our containers and loves what we do for the pastors. She began to plead with the officer that these books are donated, for pastors and he just couldn’t charge that amount. He argued his case and Beverly told me she just started to cry as she was so upset. She said she had no more tears. At that moment the official waived the WHOLE amount and then gave her permission to exit the yard with the container.
The next day, while our team was offloading all the resources, several KRA (Kenya Revenue Authority) showed up to check it out. Someone must have alerted them that a 40 ft. container was being unloaded. We believe they are cracking down and looking for organizations that bring in goods that are “donated” and then they sell them.
Pauline Chola saw them and took them to the office to talk with Pastor Chola. Pastor Chola explained to them what we do, what the resources are for, took them inside the church and once they saw the big cross, they knew this was legitimate and kindly left and all was clear (this has never happened to us before either).
Can’t wait until we give out these books and resources as they are certainly favored by God to build the Kingdom of God. To all those that donated items, helped us load, unload, gave funds to ship, prayed for favor: May God enlarge the borders of your tent!
Ronnie and Debbie