forward and backward

Wednesday, August 25
Clark and three other men worked in the ware-house packing furniture etc. Got a lot done, but realized that it will take one person a full working week to get the most necessary prepared for the next transport.
We praise the LORD, that a group of about four people intend to come and help in the ware-house on Saturday, Sept. 3rd!

Thursday - Saturday - August 26-28
Helped our new pastor move from Karlsruhe to our town. Had my truck and trailor along. Needed it, as not everything would have fit into the movers truck.
As the truck driver did not show up on Saturday, a clerk drove the rig down to the new address, and I ended up manouvering the trailor into the narrow drive way! The last time I moved a truck trailor in such a squalid road conditions was way back in 1984! But the old horse did not forget all the old tricks ;-)

Sunday, August 29
Preached in Weil am Rhein. I was on the founding team in 1979 - and left after we moved to Kandern. It was good to see the "old faces" - and I rejoiced seeing a lot of new people I had never met before!

Got Word that Romania is intending to close down most of the non-government orphanages. Have to find out why.
Christian Jach, who is responsible for the four orphanages of TOAR had already an emergency plan in place to outsource the kids under 16 into foster homes.
We rejoice that so many Romanian christian families were willing to accept a child into their midst!

All the same we are perturbed by another government regulation destroying many investments, man hours and sacrifice to offer homeless children a wholesome place to stay!!

You might know that Romania has sufferd 4 floods since spring of this year! Here, too, the government is prooving it's great ineptness!
The greates dissapointment is their unwillingness to loosen up their stingent import rules for humanitarian aid! For instance I am not allowed to bring used shoes, underwear, baby clothing or toys. House-hold items and tools have to be itimized including their indiviudal weight and actual worth!

At the borders, the border guards are insisting on "motivational help" = bribes, that keep increasing in value!

So, corruption and ineptness are prooving to be worse problems than inclement weather conditions as floods and hail storms!

I can appreciate what David says in 1. Chronicles 21, 13b: "but let me not fall into the hands of men" ...

the over all view

Wednesday saw me in the truck with Clark, a young fellow from Evansville, Ind - willing to sweat it out at Uncle Mark's Fitness Club (ware-house).
We also spent most of Thursday togehter in packing and wrapping up what we had gathered on out pick-up run on Wednesday.

I am still waiting for the trucking company to give me a positive reply if they want the September 9th load.

A bunch of furniture was delivered to the ware-house today during my absence. Now I have to find enough help to wrap it up, weigh & register and then store in a container.

The upcoming trip will be "R 103".
R 104 to a church in Targoviste I hope to get on the road in the first half of October.
R 105 is a trip to Romania myself for study purposes plus one Bible conference.

Latvia 08 should happen in December. This trip is important to us the deliver all the toys, used shoes, underwear and baby clothing that we have gathered since the last transport to Latvia, which was 19th February of this year.

If I can find enough help for all the work necessary, we might be able to squeeze in another truck for Romanina in December.

So do pray with us - and should you live in the nearer vacinity of Kandern - welcome!

moving forward

Finally things are starting to move!
1. I was informed to work the papers for the customs in Cluj.
2. I know now, that I can load a truck on September 9th.

Cluj vama (customs) are a more difficult folk - but at least I have other friends that understand how to work the Cluj customs.
All the same, I can now work on finding a truck.

You all can pray now that I will be able to keep on the time in packing everything that needs to go on the truck!

Also - the next truck load for Targoviste is "on the books".
I have to figure out a good time for the truck to come for that load.
I already sent in the papers to our state government to apply for a subsidy to help offset the transportation costs.

So much for today.

Mark

lots of help and good news!

We had a collection drive that the community of Kandern responded to very well. One elderly lady was very interested in many details of how our aid is distributed. I was able to share to Gospel with her for over 30 minutes. It turned out, that she had trusted in Christ as her Saviour years ago - but wanted to make shure that she and I were "talking the same language"!. Was good to "practise" all the same ...
We had enough help to pack everything that came in today - which does not happen very often. Usually some very late comers bring in large quantities - which did not happen today. One man drove down from Freiburg twice, as he wanted his stuff to go to flood victims. We managed to pack 110 banana boxes. If I would have been able to provide TV crates, there would have been enought to fill 5 of them, too!

I received word today, that we can plan for loading a truck on September 9th!

Our Romanian friends feel they can have their home work done in order to tackle the difficult Romanian customs office.

Right now I am waiting for a decision which customs office they will opt for. The customs office in Cluj is over 100 miles from where the aid is going to. But the customs office closer to where we will be unloading would make all the prepatory work more involved for Nellu, as he expects having to go there a couple of times before this thing is completely terminated.

So, do pray for Nellu for wisdom, as only the LORD knows the hearts of the people we will be working with - and their willingnes to cooperate with us!!!

Mark

hard pressed for drivers

Sometimes you revert to unusual measures if your need is great enough.

Found a really cute girl to help us with our truck needs:

more help at the ware-house

A friend in Switzerland checked out his retired friends and neighbours to generate more help at the ware-house.
This week we had four groups come in to help pack and get the next transport ready.

In Romania our friends on the receiving end are inundated with challenging feats.
Pretty much every building that surved the flood is now occumpied by folks who lost their housing.
This poses the question: Where do we unload?

The ware-house in discussion at present is over 100 miles away from where the goods are meant to be distrubted!
Also, our friends drew our attention to the fact, that the Evangelical community ist not receiving equal compensation or attention as other townspeople!
All the same, they have the goal of using this delivery as an outreach agent to share not only tangible material help but simultaniously sharing Christ, who alone can meet our core needs!

I am aiming at September 9th as the date to load the truck - but communication is very sluggish.
I am glad that I can also work through Katharina Schmutz, a Swiss missionary who got all this goining in the first place.
I can ask her to keep on a case till we have workable results!

So do pray for Nellu, who is mainly responsible for developing the logistics on the receiving end. For Katharina, that she can be encouraging and helpfull even though her "job" is to keep people on the move!

For me, that I can put together a team for preparing and loading this next delivery!

Mark

goal for this week

Last week I was pretty involved with post hail clean- up and repair work.

Also, I was glad to welcome new help at the ware-house as well as help our partners ministering to the Ukraine!

Also, our missions vehicle, an off-road Mitsubishi had to be taken to the shop.
Next to regular check-up and maintenance work, the car was having problems with starting.
It turned out that a faulty fuel line had to be replaced!
Wonder what that bill will look like !!!

This week the goal will be to make contact with the fine folks willing to partner with us for a truck load of aid to flood victims in Romania.

friendly visit

You might want to remember us regularly in prayer for more volunteer help in the ware-house.
Today two women representing a womens group came by to see what the work was all about.
They stayed for 3 hours and packed.
When they left, they promised to come on a regular basis!
A real answer to prayer!

Problems with blog

Dear friends & family,

I purposely did not add anything new the last 2 days, as I received feed-back, that trying to access www.gupfnews.blogpot.com took you to somebody's homepage - with no reference how to get to this blog!

So - if you should experience the same problem - please let me know, for I do not want to be used as a ploy to force people to information they were not looking for!

Yesterday we helped a mission about 20 miles from where I live with 4,5 tons of clothing, shoes etc. for their upcoming transport to the Ukraine.

Today I had to carry 550 banan boxes from the adjacent ware-house we use from the 2nd floor about 200 feet acrossed a parking space and then into our truck. It took me about 5 hours. I drove those to another mission group that just sent an 18-wheeler to the Ukraine and an overseas container to Ruanda.

We are glad to help our friends - especially when we have such large quantities of surplus!

Again - should you encounter any difficulties with this blog - especially if you should be rerouted to a web page you were not intending to visit - please let me know!

Greetings

Mark