Let’s begin today’s post with a tongue twister. No, it has nothing to do with woodchucks chucking wood. This original tongue twister is an ode to shipping containers. Ready? How many shipping containers could Sowers4Pastors ship if the shipping containers were ready for shipping?
Unlike the unanswerable mystery of how much wood that woodchuck could chuck, this tongue twister doesn’t leave you hanging. The answer is five. There are five shipping containers heading to Honduras.
If you’ve been around this blog for a while, you know that shipping massive containers of food and backpacks is something that Sowers4Pastors generally does five or six times a year. They’re not what you could call newbies to the wonderful world of shipping. They’ve been regularly shipping containers into Honduras for the last fifteen years. This year, because of COVID, two hurricanes, and backpack season, there are the aforementioned five containers at different stages of the shipping process.
Getting containers shipped is not an easy or inexpensive endeavor. People operating on smaller scales generally stick with shipping pallets. Since Sowers4Pastors has a large need for food and backpack distribution, it works for them. It has always been a process that involves a lot of emails, phone calls, and paperwork. Each year, new Honduran government regulations bring new challenges to get duty-free shipping.
Because people are always curious, the savings achieved by sending a container from the US, over purchasing food and backpacks on the ground in Honduras, is astronomical. Sowers4Pastors does purchase a lot of items locally. They do what they can to boost the economy, but with food and backpacks, that isn’t a viable option.
But let’s get back to the tongue twister. This may be the only tongue twister to come with prayer requests. Admit it; you’ve never given that woodchuck a second thought. Here’s what’s happening with the five containers:
- Container #1 is in port in Honduras. This one is filled with food packed in Maryland. It has already been on the ground for a week. Please pray that it is released before it starts racking up storage fees. UPDATE: THIS FOOD ARRIVED IN GRACIAS YESTERDAY!
- Container #2 is just leaving Florida. This one is filled with backpacks. Pray that it arrives in a timely manner so that the teams arriving in January will be able to distribute them as planned.
- Container #3 is getting ready to load in Maryland on Saturday, filled with backpacks. This prayer request is a biggie. The trucking company doesn’t normally send out trucks on weekends. The company is currently looking for a driver who can deliver the container, hang around while it’s being packed, and then drive it away. Weekend collection is important because that is when volunteer manpower will be available to load the boxes of backpacks onto the container. UPDATE: SATURDAY SHIPPING HAS BEEN COMPLETED, AND CONTAINER IS ON ITS WAY TO HONDURAS!
- Container #4 is being packed next Wednesday. It is a container of food coming out of Ohio. While Allen doesn’t foresee any problems, pray that it will be a smooth process. UPDATE: THERE ARE CURRENTLY NO CONTAINERS AVAILABLE IN THIS PART OF OHIO! PLEASE PRAY THAT WE WILL BE ABLE TO FIND A CONTAINER IN A TIMELY MANNER!
- Container #5 is still in the early stages. Sowers4Pastors is currently applying for a dispensa (permission for duty-free shipping). Like the container before it, #5 will be filled with food and coming from Ohio. The food has not all been packed yet, but that’s on the calendar for January.
Please pray that everything gets through customs in a timely manner, particularly #2 and 3!
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