Papá Gordo's Page: Spring 2011 Container Loading

The loading of the 2011 spring container was this past Saturday. As is usual, the task was difficult but with God’s help it was completed without incident. The containers that we use are empty back-hauls owned by the Dole Fruit Company. Through Dole’s generosity AHMEN is able to ship thousands of pounds of supplies that are used by its various teams when conducting mission efforts in-country.

Several of the teams have ongoing construction projects that require sheet metal for roofing and siding. We have been fortunate this year to have received several thousand pounds of heavy duty steel building panels from a manufacturer in Florence, South Carolina. This donation was negotiated by our good friend Derinda Conner with the Carolina Honduras Health Foundation. Once the steel was delivered to the UMVIM Disaster Relief warehouse in Decatur, it had to be loaded onto the container. This is no easy trick.

First several stacks of the steel had to be combined and then lifted into place by one forklift. Then the stack was gently, ever so gently, slid into the container with a second forklift. This process was done twice to cover the bed of the container as evenly as possible. The goal here is to build up the floor of the container where we could stack other stuff that had to be shipped.

A year or two ago, we did this but didn’t get the steel all the way into the container and the doors wouldn’t close. This wasn’t discovered until the container was fully loaded. As you might imagine, this was a colossal mess. So this year special care was taken to carefully shove the stacks of steel well into the container. Using multiple boards and empty pallets, Bro Ray was able to push the stacks three or four feet well inside the container. This proved to be very wise later.

With the steel in place the task of loading all the other supplies began. Care had to be taken not to twist an ankle or bump a head, but the work went quickly. Note that in addition to boxed supplies, we shipped numerous walkers, crutches, and potty chairs in response to a special request for orthopedic equipment. In addition several new hospital beds were loaded.

Close to the end of the exercise the crew took a minute to inspect what had been done and plan for using that last three feet of floor space. Our loading crew was composed of members of the Livingston Chapel UMC that sponsors the “It’s a God Thing” team. This year the team is going to the Clinica de Los Angeles in Belaire.

As it turned out the space at the rear of the container was just enough to load three stacks of concrete wall board. This stuff is heavy and somewhat brittle. But with God’s help it went into place without mishap. Look close and you’ll see that despite the tight fit, members of the loading crew stayed in the container to direct each stack of wall board.

The loading is complete with space to spare. Normally we would fill every nook and cranny, but the Honduran Customs Officials have begun to crack down on anything entering the country without prior approval. So we are careful not to ship anything not previously manifested. In the fall we packed out the container and then slid a pallet of much needed food items into the empty space. Because the food hadn’t been on the prior approved manifest, Honduran Customs held up the container for weeks and charged us thousands of dollars in extra storage fees. Governmental bureaucracy is making it more and more difficult to help people all over the third world.

Thanks to fourteen year old Kayla Cooper, we added a little message of hope to the trailer. This will be the first thing the people at Cruzadas will see when they open the doors (if Honduran Customs doesn’t confiscate the sign).