OUR CAR

If you followed my blog or our newsletters over our last term, you would have come upon a recurring theme – our unreliable vehicle. For 4 years the “Green Monster” was a thorn in our flesh and a drain to our bank account. We had to be towed 8 times, we ordered multiple parts from the States, and spent endless hours dealing with Paraguayan mechanics who never knew how to say, “I’m not sure what is wrong”. The first year it spent more time in the shop than at our house. The second year it broke down every time we tried to make vision trips to rural Paraguay. The 3^rd and 4^th year we lived 5 hours from the capital and needless to say, breaking down out there was never convenient.

The road stretching from our rural town of San Francisco to Asuncion is a memorial for us of times spent waiting. Often we hear on our travels, “Remember when we heard that part fall off our car and had to pull into that gas station?” and then a few miles later, “Remember waiting for hours under that tree?” and then a few more miles, “Remember when we broke down there?” Unfortunately there aren’t air-conditioned, 24 hour service places open where you can wait in relative comfort while sipping Starbucks. When we break down in Paraguay, we are doomed to wait in rain or blazing sunshine for hours. If we broke down leaving the big city, we at least have food (6 weeks worth of food) to occupy our time and we often found ourselves just eating out of sheer boredom.

We learned to always request the big platform truck to carry our heavy Suburban. Twice they decided to ignore our request and sent a small tow truck instead. On just seeing our beast, they had to turn around, leaving us to wait again for hours. We also learned to inform the tow truck driver not to bring a friend along because there were 7 of us that would be accompanying him in the tow truck’s cab (it was a very tight squeeze). They always offered for us to ride in our vehicle which was fastened on top on the truck, but in the interest of safety, we always declined and crammed in with the driver.

So, in an effort to avoid all those above mentioned things, we decided to sell that vehicle while on home assignment (we actually sold it to the mechanic for parts), buy a car in the US and ship it to Paraguay (this is the first time someone in our mission has tried importing a vehicle). We bought a great car...a 10 year old Ford Excursion and shipped it July 2^nd. It was supposed to get here August 15^th but with dock strikes in Argentina and a low river due to drought, the car arrived in the Paraguayan port mid-September. And there it sits.

And here we sit 6 weeks later still waiting to see it. We have a Paraguayan working as a go between (for the port and mission), but we’re not really sure still what the process is. Whenever we check up on things, we get the same answer – our paperwork is being processed. We’re praying that they aren’t waiting for a bribe in order to proceed, because we won’t pay. The kicker is that we aren’t allowed to import a vehicle over 10 years old and come January 1^st.....you guessed it....our car will be over that. So, we really, really, really need prayers that it comes out of customs soon.

We are anxious to drive our car, but more than that, we are anxious to get all our stuff out of the car. You see, since the cost to ship the car went by size and not weight, we packed the car full of camping equipment, kids toys, games, books and bicycles, Christmas and birthday gifts and other goodies. All of our homeschooling books are in the car and I am chomping at the bit to start school. I feel that we are already a semester behind and each week I feel a bit more stressed not simply for the academics but also that we need to get on a schedule.

So, will you please pray that our car is released from customs?