Getting the Container Off the Truck

Here are some pictures of unloading the container. You can see the container on the truck and then a couple of pictures of the container partly unloaded; one where it is on the ground, one of the truck and driver and the last one is moving it into place.
We are all fine, David

Twila is in Burundi!

This just came from David Kellum:

"Just a note to let you know that Twila made it OK. Her flight was about 15 minutes late. David Bipfabusa; Pontien and I met her. We had a little shopping to do and then came up to Kibimba and got here about 5:00. The doctor just came in to visit a little while. We have another PTL, the doctor said that they had received word that the exoneration from customs went through.
God bless,
David"

Also, just in case you're wondering -- Fran Sigley and her son Owen are back home after their time in Burundi. Fran has promised a report for this blog when she gets a chance.

Unpacking the Bounty

These pictures show the last crate coming off. Another shows the guys sawing up the boards from the crates for shelving; another picture shows the piles in the storeroom, and there is another one that shows taking the crate out. I will try to send some others of unloading the container later.
David

Off the Truck and On the Ground

Good evening,

I have been trying to send you more pictures, but our computer is going slow tonight so will do that later. They finished unloading yesterday about 3:30. We tried to get a message out last night but we could not get a connection. They took the container off the truck this morning. We hired some guys from Gitega that said they had taken a container off a truck before, so they came out and did it. The truck drove out around noon. We are praising the Lord and tired and dirty. Lots of sorting to do.

More later,
David

Arriving, Opening, Unpacking...

The container has arrived at Kibimba. Below are pictures of the truck arriving, unlocking the container, and starting to unload things. Mae writes:

"Hi to Everyone, The big news this evening is that the container arrived at Kibimba this morning. David and Samson went to Gitega and found that it was ready to go so they accompanied it to Kibimba. So much dust had gotten into the locks it took a lot of WD40 in the lock to make it work.
We went to work -- Doris was in charge of the storeroom and had several helpers try to put things away. The sorting will come later. They have unloaded about half of the container. They did get the xray table out. It took a lot of manpower. I will write more detail later.
I am going to try to send some pictures: One is the container in Gitega showing that the locks are in place, one is arrivning at Kibimba and the others are unpacking."

At Last!

Here is the newest information from David Kellum. Feel free to shout Amen!


Hi to everyone;

The truck with the container arrived in Gitega this morning. It traveled 750 miles from Dar Es Salaam. About 360 were paved and the rest of it was dirt road. We do not know the time it arrived but we were at church in Gitega at Magarama when David Bipfubasa got a phone call from the doctor saying that it was in Gitega. David was not feeling well at his stomach so he went out and went to the guest house and Bipfubasa found him there and told him that the container had arrived. So they went to down to the old market square and found the truck there. They got the papers from the driver to photo copy so Bipfubasa could take them to Bujumbura this afternoon. These papers are from customs with the number on it that needs to go to the Minister of finances for exornation of custom. The doctor and his wife will work on that tomorrow morning. She works in the ministery of finances.

Tomorrow we will go to Kwibuka and pick up some things we need to help with unloading. We think that we have permission to bring the container to Kibimba tomorrow. Before we can open it a customs and a health official have to be there to open it. The health official will come from Buja and the customs will come from Gitega. Pray that both of them will be able to come on Tuesday morning.

Pray that everything will go well with the unloading of it.

David

Keep On Truckin'!

Hooray! Mae Kellum gives this exciting update:

"This morning about 10:00 the doctor received a phone call from SODETRA with the news that the container is on the truck and is on the way to Burundi. We hope it will be here by Monday or Tuesday and maybe before that. Pray for the safe arrival."

Praise God!

Hospitals of Hope

Our friends at Hospitals of Hope have an online newsletter that this month features an article written by our own Twila Flowers about our container. You can see it at: http://hospitalsofhope.org/pdf/august_2008.pdf

Patients/Patience While We Wait

Mae Kellum sent this picture from the hospital today. She says it shows "big brother holding the IV bottle for his little brother." Mae thinks the little guy has malaria. This helps us remember what all this effort is about -- treating physical needs and touching lives with the love of Jesus.

No news today on the container. Keep praying!

All Signs Are Good

David & Mae Kellum send this note from Burundi:

"Good morning Burundi time. Yesterday the doctor came from Bujumbura with news that the container is out of port; I suppose that means it is all cleared, and is ready to be put on a truck. After they put it on the truck it will take at least six days of travel. Could you update everyone on this. We are doing fine. David"

This confirms what we had heard from the shipping company. Praise God! Now keep praying that truck across Tanzania and all the way to the hospital. What a great celebration that will be when it finally arrives! Keep watching this blog for updates as they come -- we will hope for pictures, too!

Pray for Twila!

Twila Flowers, from the Friends of Kibimba Hospital board, will be traveling to Burundi next Tuesday, August 26. She will be traveling alone, so please pray for safety and smooth travel, connections and luggage transfers.
According to the shipping company website, our container was "discharged" from the Dar Es Salaam port on Tuesday, August 12. We were expecting it to take about 2 weeks after it left the ship to be loaded on a truck and driven to Kibimba, so Twila and the container will hopefully both arrive at Kibimba before the end of August!

Finally! Some Good News

David & Mae Kellum have sent us this good news! They also want us to keep praying that the final pieces will fall into place so that the container gets to Kibimba, is approved by customs, and the equipment & supplies can be unloaded. Here is the report written by David:

August 14.

Hi to everyone,
We have some good news. David and Willard went to Bujumbura with the doctor and when they went to SODETRA they found that the container is on the ground and should be loaded on the truck in two or three days. Then they said 6 days to Burundi. We are thinking maybe the container should be here around the 26th, but we hope we are surprised. I think the doctor has permission to bring the container to Kibimba. One problem is that the customs office has to be there when the door of the container is opened. Because this is hospital stuff the medical department may want to be here. Dr. Elisee is working on trying to get all of this together. But nothing can really be done until the truck gets into Burundi. Then he will present the packing list to customs. But yesterday in town, both the customs and medical requested a list of the content so they told them they would have to photo copy it and they did. Dr. Elisee says he is not worried he knows a lot of people.
We ask you to pray for a safe trip for the container, and that the customs and medical inspection will not take a long time.
Yesterday was an interesting day here at Kibimba. The Ambassador from Belgium stayed here last night. He has finished his assignment in Burundi and wanted to walk across part of the country. Yesterday he walked from Mwaro to Kibimba, a distance of 30 kilometers but not very hilly, today he walked on to Mutoya, a Catholic mission about 40 kilometer and he had some big hills to climb. He had 3 security guards with him and they stayed here in this house. David and I moved over to Marc’s house for the night. The doctor took him to see the hospital last night and he was impressed with the work they were doing there. We had dinner with them after the hospital visit.
I heard Doris turn the email on and I want to send this before it goes off.
God Bless you all,
David Kellum

While We Are Waiting

I thought our friends would appreciate this article written for the Northridge newsletter by one of our wonderful volunteers who helped with packing the container, Norman Carr:

DRUG RUNNING CAN BE A GOOD THING
Can I get an Amen? Somebody? Anybody?

The National Drug Intelligence Center considers Interstate 35 between Kansas City and Wichita one of the most active overland routes for drug transportation in the United States, so I wasn’t surprised when a rack of flashing lights pierced the stormy Flint Hills sky. The highway patrol officer’s lights weren’t flashing for me this time.
A few minutes later, another patrolman’s lights burst through the grayness. He, too, chased after someone else. Relieved, I entertained myself by the thought of the patrolman humming, "This Little Light of Mine," every time he turned on those spinning beacons that sent terror into the minds of drivers.
"Good thing it wasn’t us," I said to my passenger as I watched the action play out in my rearview mirror. "Yeah," he said, "We’d have some explaining to do." He referred to our truckload of drugs we had picked up in a seedy, beaten down part of Kansas City.
Surprised that a normal looking, mild mannered guy seated in the pew next to you has such a past? My story is not so unique: Due to a lack of supervision, I fell in with a certain crowd and the next thing I know I’m jamming gears and running drugs.
As a young retiree, I lack supervision because my wife goes to work and leaves me home alone during the day. I got mixed up with the Friends of Kibimba Hospital, a "crowd" that partners with Burundi Yearly Meeting to provide medical and spiritual healing in one of the world’s most desperate national healthcare systems.
By providence and a string of small miracles, Hospitals of Hope (HOH), a Christian medical relief organization, channeled skids of donated medications — $300,000 worth — to Friends of Kibimba Hospital. (Now would be an appropriate time to give your Amen!) Don Losew, also unsupervised during the day, and I volunteered to drive HOH’s truck to Kansas City and collect the generous donation.
A dedicated crew of volunteers spent several hours loading the medications and tons of hospital equipment into a 40-ft. container. It shipped to Burundi on April 29. Fran Sigley, with other volunteers, now waits in Burundi for delivery, but ever-so-common obstacles in that part of the world have delayed the shipment. They need our prayers.
Northridge has a rich heritage of mission involvement, but we are not resting on past efforts. Today, we have a commendable team of young missionaries in various stages of their careers, countless youths and adults with short-term mission experiences, and former parishioners growing a new congregation. With determination, our light brightly shines. Even normal-looking, mild-mannered folks in the home pews have many and varied opportunities, such as stuffing Africa-bound crates, to help light the world.
Our commitment is evident by the inclusion of the flame symbol in our logo that represents sharing Jesus. Our flame has much in common with a Burundi proverb: Where there is love there is no darkness. As Christians, we know who dispels the darkness. In John 8:12, Jesus says, "I am the Light of the world." Knowing this, His followers have another opportunity to give an Amen!

Unloading Ideas

We have received some news from David Kellum. They are still working on how to go about unloading the container when it arrives. There is no update on the container and/or ship's location. Here is David's message:

"Greetings to all of you . We are doing fine and being cared for very well. Dick should be home by now. We hope he had a good trip .

We have not had any new news of the container, but the doctor went to town this week end so he will check on it at SODETRA on Monday.

On Wednesday we heard that the Catholic mission about five miles from here had received a 40 ft container so we went to see how they unloaded it. The Italian father was not there, but he would be back in the afternoon. They did show us where they unloaded the container. They had built a special rig with six legs out of I beams and cross pieces with a roof over it. It was mounted on cement pads. They had hand operated chain winches, one could be moved for unloading either a 20 or 40 ft container. They backed the truck under it and unloaded in ten minutes. Before they had the rig set up they had used four large screw jacks for unloading. We returned in the afternoon and met the Italian father who was in charge of it. He was very kind and showed us around. We asked him about the jacks and he had only one of them. Two of the jacks were at another Catholic mission and he did not know where the other one was. He offered to let us use his rig and unload there, but we did not know how we would get the container to Kibimba.

The Catholic father asked the doctor if he was the doctor at Kibimba and Elisee told him, yes he was, then he said I have two hospital beds that just arrived in this container. When we went back to get the beds they gave them four beds with the possiblity of 20 more. They also, gave them several boxes of medicine. We hauled the beds to the hospital on Friday.

We do not know how we are going to unload the container but we are working on it. The doctor will check with SODERTA to see if they know anyone that can unload a full container .

Tuesday we plan to meet with the governor and see if he will contact the French Road Company who is building the road between Gitega and Muhinga and see if we can borrow their crane.

They are continuing to work on the area at the hospital where the container will set. We hope we will be ready for it when it arrives.

We continue to Praise God for His help with this project. Keep praying for us :

David and the rest of the gang"

Another Picture

Mae Kellum has sent this picture that she says shows the new doors and windows at the hospital. She also reports that the trucking company there in Burundi expects the container to arrive before the end of this week in Dar Es Salaam. They are considering whether to change their travel plans to stay until the container arrives at Kibimba. Please pray with them for wisdom and clarity about this.

At Sea -- At Last!

We have finally received a notice from the shipping company that our container has been loaded on to the MSC Federica, and departed Salalah, Oman on Friday, August 1. It is scheduled to arrive in Dar Es Salaam this Friday, August 8! Please keep praying -- we need the port congestion to clear so that the container can be unloaded from the ship to the truck, and then be on its overland journey to Kibimba. If all goes smoothly, it may arrive at the hospital before the end of August.

Also, Fran & Owen Sigley arrived safely and with all their luggage last Sunday. Steve Sigley, Fran's husband is recovering well from his emergency gall bladder surgery. Thanks for praying!