Some Good News

Great news! Our container has been cleared from South African Customs in Cape Town and we will now be travelling to Beaufort West on Monday to get the donated goods for Beautiful Gate and our own personal belongings that we shipped in the container. Originally, the container was supposed to arrive in Cape Town in the middle of April and get to Beautiful Gate by late April. Here we are in July and we are finally getting to the last steps. The container was delayed out of New York in February and so our container made stops in Israel, Djibouti, Durban and finally Cape Town. Once it arrived in Cape Town, we had to wait for it to clear customs. This was made longer by the fact that 1 in 5000 containers are searched, and guess what?.... Our container was the "lucky" 1!!! So, after seeing that we are not smugglers, we are now cleared. I will be driving (with Ntate KB from Beautiful Gate) to Beaufort West on Monday. On Tuesday, we will then meet up with Todd Clevenger (who has made all this possible....Thank you Todd) and help with unloading the container. Once that is completed, Ntate KB and I will return to Beautiful Gate (probably on Wednesday morning) and start to unload the donations for Beautiful Gate. This has been an amazing process from the beginning. Satan has tried to stop this container so many times. But, the Lord's plans will never be stopped and we (Beautiful Gate) are eagerly awaiting it's arrival. Once again, I cannot thank all of you who have donated to this container! The kids here at Beautiful Gate will be truly blessed by all of you!

Also, on another positive note, Anita and I may have taken care of our "car issue" as well. Not exactly what we had planned on, but here is the story. On January 29, Anita and I went to Durban and "purchased" a car from a dealer in a shipping yard. This was done because you can buy a "better" car for less money. Over 22 weeks later, we are still in Lesotho with no car from the dealer. After many efforts to contact the dealer, we have finally heard from the dealer that the car will not be sent. So, we have "donated" a lot of money to this dealer with nothing to show for it. But, at least this has given us closure on the issue of waiting for the vehicle. (We will also be looking into legal action to try and get our money back, but that seems unlikely at this point). But, on the bright side, God has shown us another (much safer) option for our vehicle. There was a previous Beautiful Gate volunteer that was here that is going home to Australia (not Alan and Donna) and is looking to sell his vehicle. That vehicle is already registered in Lesotho and will be in Maseru on Monday (hopefully). So, when I get back from Beaufort West, I hope to inspect the vehicle and potentially purchase it. The best part is that I will know exactly where the vehicle is (no waiting for a crook in Durban to ship it). It is a completely different vehicle from what I ever dreamed of, but Anita and I feel that this is what God has planned for us now. It is a 1998 Land Rover Defender 90. Check it out on google. It is not much for looks, but it will allow us to go ANYWHERE in Lesotho that we want to go. Some of the roads in Lesotho are for 4x4 vehicles only and we will be able to take any of those that we want. It will be a lot of fun to explore more of Lesotho than we ever thought possible. The vehicle is short on storage space and not great on cruising mileage, but will be awesome in the mountains of Lesotho.

So, next week may be very busy for me but also complete 2 of the 3 most stressful things in my life right now. The third is culture shock and I don't know that there will be an easy answer to that. But, Anita and I continue to thank God for His provision. We still have "ups" and "downs". but God is faithful.

To Him be the glory!

Bryan