Winning Roma: The Container Has Finally Arrived!!!

The day that Dennis and I have been waiting for arrived yesterday, October 17 – the arrival of the container!!! We began sending things to the Buckner warehouse in Dallas in early May, knowing that we would see them again sometime in October, in Romania.

Moving overseas meant that we had to be selective in what was shipped, as these things would become the property of Buckner Romania, and will remain in Romania after we leave. It’s hard enough selling everything you have to move overseas, but knowing that the few things you did keep, would at some point in time, not be yours either (I’m sure that this was a run-on sentence – sorry English teachers). Most of what we did pack to ship were things that we decided could easily be replaced when we return to the states, and would be beneficial to those we serve while here. Even though we were told that our “winter” clothes would be of no use to us here, we decided to send most of what we had – figured it would at least get us through fall and early spring. We’ll see.

Back to the arrival of the container. The container actually arrived in Constanta on Tuesday, Oct. 9. It is here that customs does their inspection, based on the inventory list that is sent. Ok, no big deal……..that is until the customs department requires you to have the inventory list officially translated into Romanian, then certified. So what’s the problem? The inventory list is already in Romanian!!! The question now is, how do you translate something that is already translated in the correct language? Customs can’t answer that…..just that you have to do it in order for the release of the container. Another government office at work! Now that delays the release of the container into “our” custody. So off to the official translation office to get translated into the already translated language….and don’t forget the fee!!! Once that’s done, the “official translation” is overnighted back to Constanta for approval. The contents of the container are loaded onto an 18-wheeler and finally released on Monday, Oct. 15 with an estimated arrival in Tarnaveni on Tuesday.

So all is well……….not so fast! The truck can’t leave on Monday as originally planned (who knows why). Yet another day to wait. I learned many years ago not to ask God for patience, for His way of giving it to you is by putting situations before you that require a LOT of practice…..no instant gift of patience L Guess God knew that I needed another chance to practice.

The truck arrives in Targu-Mures on Tuesday and once again, has to go thru customs……what? How many custom checks must one shipment go through? Apparently 3 (don’t forget it has to clear US customs before it’s ever shipped). Will this shipment ever see Tarnaveni?

Yes!!! The truck finally pulled into Tarnaveni around 11a on Wednesday, Oct. 17. Dennis and I were at the Point of Hope when the call came in. I had just begun playing a color game with my 1^st year students when I was told it was time to go help unload. Well, you know that when you start a game with 3 year olds, everyone needs a chance to play, so I had to stay until all had a turn. When we got to the warehouse, the crew of volunteers had already unloaded a couple of pallets of shoes. We jumped right in and began carrying boxes and boxes and boxes of shoes. Approximately 9000 pairs of shoes were shipped – with an average of 10 pairs of shoes per box, that’s 900 boxes with just shoes!! Then there are the boxes of socks, shoelaces, clothes, blankets, school supplies, medical supplies, and oh, don’t forget, our stuff! There were 19 pallets of boxes on that truck, all unloaded by hand.

As we got down to the last couple of pallets, I was beginning to worry…..I hadn’t seen anything that looked like the containers that I packed our things in. Of course not!! Everything that I carefully packed had been unpacked and repacked according to Buckner Dallas’s required shipping procedure. Are you kidding me??? Why didn’t you tell me before I dropped everything off with you? I could have, would have, repacked it myself…….keeping all our things together. But then, where would the fun have been? As it is now, we get to look through 100 boxes or so, searching for the things that we need now. It’s like having Christmas everyday for a while. Sad part is, I don’t remember half of what I packed. Is that really sad? Probably not.

Thanks to everyone who contributed items to the container!!! I can’t wait until we start giving out the items to the children, and community…..what a joyous day that will be!