A Campfire Story about Shipping Containers

It’s family campout time for the Sowers! For Allen and Trish, that means it’s a time when the world goes away and they can enjoy spending some time with most of their adult children. At least that’s what it means theoretically! In reality, Trish described it as a time when they are running back and forth to their kids’ apartments to deal with things like shipping containers and laptop repairs, and then back to the campground for some family time.

Here’s what has been happening in the saga of the shipping containers:

For the past couple of years, Sowers4Pastors has used the same shipper to get their containers of precious cargo from the U.S. to Honduras. This year, the shipper asked for a document that has never before been requested at this stage of the game--a copy of the dispensa. A dispensa is paperwork that lists every single item on each shipping container, submitted to the Honduran government, which allows for duty-free shipping. And the Sowers did file a dispensa way back in the summer. That, in itself, was no small feat since they weren’t 100% sure of all of the contents that would fill each container. Since it’s not a problem if things are listed that don’t make it onto the final container, much effort was spent in declaring every possible item they thought might end up on one.

The dispensa has to be ready when a container comes into port. If it isn’t, you are at the mercy of the customs agents. They can request exorbitant fees and, prevent the container from being emptied. That is bad news for the recipient and the shipper, who wants their containers to get moving again. Because shippers have been having problems with relief goods being shipped by people who don't have permission to bring the goods through customs, and then dealing with those containers full of goods being abandoned at the ports, the shipper began to require proof of a dispensa before they would even quote a price, let alone schedule, a shipment.

The Sowers contacted the attorney in Honduras who filed the paperwork and requested a copy for the shipper, but there was a big snafu! The attorney couldn't get a copy of the dispensa! It is now an internal government document. To add an extra level of difficulty, the attorney’s office is five hours from the capital city of Honduras, where the much needed Sowers4Pastors dispensa is filed.

Allen and Trish have spent a lot of time trying to locate another shipper to get the containers to Honduran soil. Unfortunately, two shipping containers are considered small potatoes in the shipping world and they have not been successful in finding an alternative company interested in working with them.

On October 31, this tale got a little less frightening when the attorney in Honduras sent word he had been able to take pictures of the dispensa with his cell phone. The photos aren’t very official looking, but most people in Honduras do not have access to scanners and copiers. The Sowers are now waiting to hear if the shipper will accept the cell phone photos, or if they are holding out for actual scans.

The ultimate goal is to have the backpacks in Honduras and sorted for when teams start arriving at the end of December. Not only must the containers arrive, they must also be emptied and the backpacks divided by the villages where they will be distributed.

The teams, which are planning to pass out the backpacks to the children, are understandably excited about it. Trish wants the teams to be aware that there should still be time to receive and sort the supplies, but that "sometimes things go sideways." And, if there's any lesson we can take from the Sowers' Family Campout, it's that flexibility is a wonderful trait!

 - posted by Christi