Unloading...

Blogging is supposed be a way to unload, to clear your mind, to get things off of your chest, right? Well, here goes...

We do not own a vehicle. We had to sell our last vehicle before we went back to the US this summer in order to pay for the plane tickets. That worked out okay because we had experienced some mechanical difficulties with it anyway, but when it came right down to it, we needed to money to pay for plane tickets so we could go back and raise additional support. God gave us a great minivan to use while we were in the US and that was awesome. While we were back we also shared our need with a few folks and we have mentioned it in a couple of e-mails as well. God is good, and people have given and now we have about $8500 in our vehicle fund.

You would think that you could find a decent vehicle for that amount, wouldn't you? Well, because of the large number of stolen vehicles or unreliable vehicles on the roads here in Albania, many people advise buying from outside of Albania. Germany is a popular place because of the high standards of maintenance there and because you can generally be assured that what you are buying has been correctly represented to you. The big hassle is that you either need to go to Germany yourself - which can be a daunting thought if you speak no German, know nothing about German cities/geography, know nothing about buying a vehicle there and what documents are necessary to transport it back across numerous international borders to finally arrive in Albania. This is the situation in which we find ourselves. Imagine then, my delight when a friend calls me and says he knows a believer here who is German and is going to go up to Germany to buy a vehicle for someone else and is willing to look for one for us too!

Communication is a wonderful thing - when it happens. Apparently it did not happen well enough in our case. After a couple of lengthy meetings in which we looked online for vehicles that, a)meet our needs (must be a 7 seater), and b) is within our budget, we thought it would be a relatively easy thing to find us a vehicle. The last part was the sticky point. You see, knowing the vehicle market over here (somewhat) we decided back during the summer that we needed to raise at least 10,000 Euros in order to buy a vehicle that would be reliable. That translates to about $13,000 US. We do not have that kind of money at this time, but in our meetings it appeared that there were numerous possibilities and we would not have to wait until we had the full amount we had targeted.

I ought to insert here that one complicating factor of buying a vehicle from Germany (or anywhere outside of Albania for that matter) and bringing it into Albania is that you have to pay a customs tax on top of the purchase price. This can be anywhere from as low as 1000 euros for a newer car, or over 4000 euros for an older model. The government is trying to discourage the import of older vehicle in an effort to cut down on air pollution from vehicle emissions, so the older the vehicle, the higher the taxes.

Our $8500 converts to about 6200 euros, so we were looking for vehicles in the 5000 euro range to allow for the customs tax. While looking online it appeared that we would be able to find something - our hopes were for a Volkswagen Sharan minivan. Since the guys were headed up to Germany anyway, I also asked them to look for a suitable vehicle for a foundation I am working with - something newer, more expensive and also a 7 or 8 seat vehicle.

Well, the first full day up in Germany our friends looked at several possibilities for the foundation - all of which were going to be more expensive than buying a brand new vehicle from a dealership here in Tirana. I never would have imagined that I could buy new for less than a similar model used vehicle, but that is the way it has turned out. So the Foundation decided to buy a new VW Caddy here in country. I contacted my guys in Germany and told them to only look for a personal vehicle for me. They were a bit perturbed with the decision not to buy for the foundation from Germany and began to look for a personal vehicle instead. It appears that they were only able to find one vehicle that was in our price range (5000 euros or less - this one was 4900 euros), and it was old enough that once we brought it back into Albania we would have to pay an additional 3000 Euros or more for the import duties. Another option they presented was a vehicle like we wanted (a VW Sharan) but the price was 7000 euros. They said they could go ahead and buy it and let me pay them the difference (plus the import duties of at least 1500-2000 Euros) within a couple of months.

Obviously, neither option works for us. I cannot in good conscience spend more money than we have on hand in the hopes that it will come in. So we are stuck. I need to pay these guys something for their troubles - as it turns out they were NOT going up to buy for someone else, they made the trip just for me. I have managed to put another missionary in touch with them who IS going to buy a vehicle through them (either he had more money to begin with or his needs were easier to satisfy with less money). So now I feel obligated to pay them the equivalent of a few hundred dollars with absolutely nothing to show for it. Instead of progress, we have regressed because now we not only need to raise more money for a vehicle, we also need to replace the money we just spent in vain.

I was so hoping to have a vehicle before Christmas. I want to be able to load the family up and go for a drive out of the city - maybe to one of the malls on the outskirts of Tirana - or even take a weekend and get away to refresh a bit without having to borrow a vehicle from one of our colleagues. I am bummed. Yes, even missionaries get bummed. I guess we will just have to keep waiting, praying, trusting until we see God's provision in this area.

It just seemed like we were so close, and I am so tired of constantly feeling like every prayer update I write has to do with personal financial needs. I know so many people here - national missionaries, local ministries - that need funding and I want to be able to help raise funds for those things instead of constantly trying to raise more personal support. Yes we have serious needs, but so do most of the ministries and people I work with. If I don't let people know about the needs how will they know about them in order to meet them, yet if all I do is talk about finances, won't people get tired of it and just turn it off? I just want to see God provide. I hate feeling like I am begging.