To all of you who have supported this part of our ministry through donating goods to send and praying for us as the containers are packed and shipped. This report will, hopefully, give you a little more insight into what has happened during the last year.
During the year we shipped the following containers:
Zambia - 2
Angola – 2
Malawi – 1
We do not ship directly to Moldova, but the items are collected at our warehouse then sent to CMIAid in the UK who arrange for the items to be sent to partners in Moldova. A total of five pallets were collected to be sent to our partners at CMIAid over the past year.
In total, we were able to ship goods to 35 partners during the course of the year and help them make Jesus known through their ministries to those in need, both physically and spiritually. This includes medical supplies for hospitals and clinics, Christian literature for discipleship, building and electrical supplies for facilities, as well as general supplies to support those with very little materially.
The number of containers that we shipped to Zambia is the lowest number that we have sent for a very long time - just 2 containers and these were both shipped in the summer. The amount of goods that has been donated has fallen significantly which is the main reason for this. A number of groups that have regularly donated for many years are no longer able to do so as it is becoming too difficult as they get older, and this combines with the fact that it is less cost-effective sending items which are much more readily available locally now that shipping costs are at the level they now are.
We, also, shipped our last container to Malawi as it is increasingly difficult to arrange this end.
We continue to send a whole range of goods from medical supplies to books, to layettes to vehicle spares, and everything in-between that is needed to keep the mission work going. Some of the goods are ordered by our partners as they are not available in country (mainly spare parts for plant and vehicles, building and electrical supplies), others are donated by supporters (clothing, household goods, layettes, bedding and children’s items) and others are shipped on behalf of other Christian organisations (predominantly Christian literature).
The graphs below give more detail of the type of goods that are shipped by weight and compares this with what we shipped in 2023. This is not perfect as weight does not equate to the importance or value of the items.
Items to be donated overseas have steadily decreased and the warehouse is filling up at a slower rate as so many items can now be sourced overseas. Therefore, larger shipments are being sent out over a longer period of time to make sure we are able to pack as much into one container as possible.
Almost half of the clothing donated was sent to Moldova and Malawi to help the poor and needy, along with 50% of the bedding that was primarily donations of blankets.
Of the cleaning products donated, 60% were toiletries which were sent to help communities in Malawi.
Educational items sent include Brailers for use in the blind school in Malawi to allow blind students to have access to more information.
The majority of building supplies sent overseas was for the internal fabrication of the new church building in Camundambala.
Tools and machinery include items for the Nyangombe Christian Training Centre and Amano Christian School Woodwork, Building and Carpentry departments.
The cost of shipments remains our greatest challenge. The cost has stabilised this year after significant increases in previous years, but it still costs just under £14,000 to send a container to Zambia. Some of these costs are covered by our partners when they order the items and others are covered by donations given by supporters to cover the transport costs of the items that they have donated. However, there is still a shortfall on each container that is shipped to Zambia which we are currently covering from our reserves which is in addition to the time that we give freely to enable this to happen.
Another challenge has been the ever-growing complication of getting the container through customs when they arrive in country. In all three countries the containers have been held at customs for searching with no reasonable explanation as to why they need to be searched. This incurs extra charges for the additional days added to the journey, complicates matters for our partners overseas trying to arrange to receive the items, and the items are often badly re-packed or damaged in the process.
We would appreciate your prayers that we might have wisdom in knowing the best way of moving forward with the ever-growing financial implications of shipping containers. We want to continue supporting our partners in Zambia as best we can but are mindful that we need to be good stewards of the resources that God has blessed us with.
