The One Where a Container Arrived on New Year's Eve

What do you need to have an exciting New Year’s Eve? Maybe you like to attend a big party and smooch with your honey at midnight. Maybe you like to watch a ball drop in Times Square. Or perhaps your thing is singing Auld Lang Syne and pretending you understand all of the lyrics. There’s even a chance you do all of the above. But Sowers4Pastors doesn't need all of the trappings to have a wild time on New Year’s Eve. All they need is the arrival of a shipping container filled with backpacks to get things hoppin’! 

Yes, on December 31, Russell received word that the shipping container would be arriving that evening. He was told that the earliest it could get there was 6:00 PM. But Russell understands Honduran time and he knew that meant not to look for it before 8:00 PM. Still, there were preparations to make. This was a New Year’s celebration after all.

Russell called the guys he rents big box trucks from and arranged for the use of two trucks to transport the contents of the shipping container from town up the small winding roads that lead to the property where the backpacks are stored. He also gathered the crew of guys because those boxes of backpacks don’t magically get from point A to point B - as in off the container, into the box trucks, and then off the box trucks into the warehouse.

The men dropped whatever festive plans they had faster than a ball can drop in Times Square. Then they arrived at the entrance to the town of Gracias to wait for the container in what must have felt like the longest countdown in the history of New Year’s Eve. They waited for hours. They could have listened to the acapella group, Home Free’s, version of Auld Lang Syne something like sixty times while they were waiting. Or James Taylor’s version about fifty-five times. (Yes, I did the math.)

The container finally arrived at 11:00 PM and was a more welcome sight than Baby New Year showing up in a diaper. The contents were placed into the two box trucks and any available pickup truck and driven to the property. But the party was far from over. Anything in the back of a pickup had to be unloaded that night and stored in the bodega. Anything in a box truck waited for a couple of days since no one worked on New Year’s Day.

Ben helping to set up lighting for the New Year's Eve event

As they work to sort through the contents and prepare everything to be delivered to the kids, please know that “auld” and new acquaintances are not “forgot” and that you are most assuredly brought to mind. Thank you and God bless!

- posted by Christi