Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Update on Visas and New Prayer Request


We have yet to receive our visas, but there has been progress. I received an email on July 26th that the visas were finished. I then contacted the Papua New Guinea Embassy to get the visas actually issued. The Embassy informed me they have not received the needed paperwork to issue the visa. (This paperwork is sent via fax from immigration in Papua New Guinea.) I then contacted my agent in PNG handling this, and immigration told him they did fax the paperwork! That was last Monday the 28th of July, and we still are waiting for them to fax/refax the paperwork. Please continue to pray this issue will be resolved quickly. We are confident the issue will be resolved shortly. Once we have the visa issue resolved, I will be purchasing the plane tickets. We should be able to be back in PNG four weeks after receiving our visas.

Another Prayer Request
We are shipping a 20ft Container back to PNG. As most of you know from previous prayer letters, many of our household items have been destroyed by rats and termites. Our couch chairs, one bed, decorative items, kitchen table, and many other items have been either been destroyed or rendered useless. We have been able to replace many of these items while on furlough so we are shipping a container back to PNG. The cost of shipping the container is $13,109.00!
Please pray about this need. The cost to get our household goods from Fort Myers, Florida to Port Moresby, (Port Moresby is the capitol of Papua New Guinea.), is $7080. The cost to go from Port Moresby to Kavieng, New Ireland province is $6039. Even if I was to purchase these items over there I would still incur the $6039 expense and then have to purchase all the items over there. Household goods would be much more expensive over there, so I would still be spending around $10,000 altogether, yet I would not have the quality of goods I have from the United States. I did contact several different shipping companies, and I am going with Missionary Expeditors. They had the best overall price to PNG. I have no choice in the shipping company when it comes to Port Moresby to New Ireland though; only one shipping company. Please do pray much about our container situation.