Can you help us with this problem, RIGHT AWAY????? It's (almost) URGENT!

I hate to use the word "urgent" in anything I post, because, after our kidnapping situation, people might see that word and think that danger is involved. I'll reserve the word "urgent" for when I need you to drop everything and pray immediately, okay? Meanwhile, I'll go with VERY IMPORTANT AND TIME SENSITIVE, for this post. How's that?

This is a VERY IMPORTANT AND TIME SENSITIVE POST!!!! Please read it right away, before we're OUT of time!!!

In addition to filling the annual shipping container with donations, we also have to receive permission from the government to import the container and contents duty-free. This year it was MUCH harder and took MUCH longer to get the duty-free situation in hand. That's why (in case you haven't already heard) the container hasn't shipped yet. 

We received the preliminary permission this week, and we'll be shipping before the end of January . . .  but there's a hitch . . . . we will not be allowed to ship the huge spools of cable, which have been collected for us to use in building bridges here, in this particular container. We expect to be able to ship them in the future, just not this time.

So, we have permission to ship the container, but with the spools removed we are back to having EMPTY SPACE TO FILL! And those spools are huge, so it is a large amount of space!

Oh my! We DO NOT like to pay to ship EMPTY SPACE! Noooooooooooo!

So, my request is as follows: Can you help us fill the empty space in this container, in the next TEN DAYS???????? That's how long we have for this!

Ways you can help are listed below:

- if you live in the MD, northern VA, DC, and southern PA areas, you could possibly collect items and deliver them to Thurmont or Walkersville Maryland. I will list the delivery locations below, but you MUST call to make sure that someone will be there at the time you deliver. Allen wanted me to mention that he has asked, in the past, at Salvation Army locations, and they have been willing to donate items if you tell them that they are going to be put into a missionary container. Just an idea, if you have a place near you!

7047 Blue Mountain Road
Thurmont, MD
(301)-271-4896

and

Fredericktowne Baptist Church
8645 Biggs Ford Road 
Walkersville, MD 
(301) 898-8600 

- if you do not live locally to the connection sites, or you don't have items to donate or time to deliver things, you can still help. There is still (barely) enough time to purchase items on Amazon and have them delivered by the time the container ships. We never have enough school supplies, backpacks, small gifts for men (wallets, pocket knives, ties, socks, etc). All of the other items listed in the linked post can also still be sent . . . they will NOT go to waste!

If you are shipping donations, use this address:

Gifts for Gracias c/o Jim Cofer
7047 Blue Mountain Road
Thurmont, MD 21788

Can you help with this? We would be SO GRATEFUL! I think you all know how much we abhor wasting donated funds, and we are just finding ourselves backed into a situation which may force us to be inefficient with money - and none of us want that!!!!

On the chance that anyone here is completely unfamiliar with the Gifts for Gracias project . . . here is a link that will give you all of the details: Gifts for Gracias: See What We See

From the Sowers family, I say:

And from the actual gift recipients, I pass this along: