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Liberating Gift Bags
Last week we picked up our friend Cam (missionary to Columbia) from the airport. Unfortunately none of his luggage made it to Costa Rica. Among his five pieces of luggage were two boxes containing 100 gift bags from Valley Springs Presbyterian Church. These gift bags contain soap, toothbrushes, kids Spanish Bibles, toys, etc. Valley Springs was having Cam bring the bags to us, so we could get the bags to underprivileged Costa Rican kids.
In the past week we received word that all of Cam’s luggage had arrived in Costa Rica, but, that the boxes were being held in Customs and would require a good explanation or a hefty fee to be released.
Today, Cam and Mike went to the airport armed with pictures, letters and sob stories to try and liberate the gift bags without being bilked financially. We have heard many stories of such large quantities of unopened, resalable items requiring large sums of money. We asked many friends to pray and figured we had good intentions and God on our side. I mean come on…the gift bags were, after all, intended to benefit poor Costa Rican kids.
After a couple hours of maneuvering through bureaucracy, confusion and language barriers we are happy to report that we are in possession of 100 gift bags. And, we didn’t have to give Customs a cent (er…colone). The employees finally bowed to reason, compassion and likely a desire to not hear us beg them anymore.Within the next couple of weeks we will distribute these bags to children here in Costa Rica. We will keep you informed.
Posted on February 23, 2008