Guyana International Bible Institute

1 May 2001

Container Shipped To Guyana

The Margaret Street church of Christ in Milton, Florida, and Guyana International Bible Institute (GIBI) have been working together to ship a sea container to Guyana, and after several months of traveling around the USA gathering computers, church pews, school furniture and various other items, the container is finally on its way. At 9:30AM on Saturday, April 28, the last crate was loaded into the container and it left for New Orleans, LA. We have been told it will sit on the docks in New Orleans for about two weeks before being put on the ship bound for Guyana. They also tell us it will be another two to three weeks before it will actually arrive in the country.

A lot of people deserve thanks for all the work they did to fill this container. Kyle, our son, and I drove to Lexington, Kentucky, and picked up about 50 computers from brother Phil Owen. He had worked several months reconditioning and packing these computers for their journey to Guyana. We appreciate all the work he did. He emailed me to say he already has another 25 when we are ready for them. Kyle and I also drove a truck to Sarasota, Florida, to pick up 20 church pews that will be used in the church building being constructed for the Campbellville church in Georgetown. We transported these pews to Milton, Florida, where all the container items were being gathered and stored.

The Margaret Street leadership and many of the members deserve a special pat-on-the-back for putting up with all this stuff for a long period of time. Their fellowship room was covered in computers, pews, books and other items for several months. Their minister, David Myers, deserves commendation for coordinating the shipment. It took a lot of time from his already busy schedule.

A lot of the items in the container will be donated to the Ministry of Education. There are hundreds of school textbooks, library books, several computers, school desk and numerous others items they will be able to use in their school system. We donated these things as a goodwill jester hoping they will help us in the future. Duty on incoming items to Guyana is very high. When we can escape this cost it saves us a great deal of money. Because of the items we are donating the Ministry of Education, we approached the Ministry of Finance requesting a Duty Free concession on the container, and it was granted! As a result we shipped a lot of items for churches and for GIBI.

We are glad to have been of service to the government of Guyana, and we are glad to get the materials to the churches and GIBI, but I don't think anyone is eager to do it again for a while. It was a lot of work. But I am sure we will.

Thank you to everyone who was involved in this venture. We could not have done without everyone's help.

God bless,
Jerry