Hello from the US office! Part 1 of 2

Hi all, this is Kate…..I know, you all thought that I fell off the face of the earth!

This is Part 1 of 2……I have to much to say for one post!

Let me tell you what all has been going on the last few weeks. 

On May 14, 2010 we sent a container of donations from Clinton, Illinois.  It was very successful!  We had 4 days to get ready for the container once I arrived in Illinois.  A container normally takes us WEEKS of packing, sorting, and shopping to get ready for, and we had 4 days!  I’ll take you through the week….I did find humor after it was over!

First, I want to thank Rick Wallace, husband to Melinda Wallace who works in our office here, for going to Illinois with me to help with the container.  The poor man was at my beck and call all week.  Every time Dad would call and ask me to pick up building supplies, wiring, welding rods, outlets, ect., I would just hand the phone to Rick.  The people who did volunteer with us will understand, every time he turned around I was yelling “Rick”!

On Monday, we opened the storage unit for the first time…..Rick and I were scared!  Everything that had been collected had been placed into the storage unit as it came.  My girls had started to sort the donations but there was too much for them.  When we send a container, everything has to be sorted by category, the boxes sealed and labeled.  Then after that is done, we have to number them and put them on the manifest.  It is a huge job.

As we were standing there, a team of 4 men from the Cross of Glory Church arrived.  They had driven 9 hours the night before to help us!  The church had collected donations, sorted, and labeled them….they were ready to ship!  Two of the men had to leave to return home after the trailer was unloaded, the other two, Dave and Orville, stayed to help us.  You should have seen these guys!  They helped us empty the storage unit, sort, pack, label and number the tubs of donations!  It all got done in ONE day!  That afternoon, just as we were about 2/3 done, it started to rain.  We all moved fast, got everything back inside, and finished sorting inside.  Dave and Orville left the next morning, we were sad to see them go!  Thanks again guys, don’t know what we would have done without you!

On Tuesday, first Rick and I met my Grandma, who had brought some donations up to the storage unit with my Aunt Linda.  It was so nice to see them.  I hadn’t gotten to drive to Monticello where Grandma lives, so this was the first time that I was able to see her.  I had planned this container to coincide with her 90th birthday party and was looking forward to spending time with her and the family.  After that, Rick and I headed to one of the larger towns near us.  We were on a hunt for items for the new orphanage.  I walked into Lowes and said “I will be your easiest sale of the day IF you have what I need”.  Well, they didn’t.  I learned a lesson that day, in Central Illinois, people don’t buy gas dryers!  They use electric, the stores only keep one or two gas dryers in stock at a time.  The rest are special order!  We had to go to 4 different stores, in two different towns before I found the dryers that I needed.  Then, I needed 24 twin mattresses for bunk beds that had been donated.  I went into a Lebada Mattress store, the manager was a Pastor. He only had 7 twin mattresses in his store.  He got on the phone and by the time he was done, we had the mattresses and they were being delivered the next day!  Back to the dryers, did I mention that I also had to buy a conversion kit for each one, and that they didn’t have those in stock at 3 of the stores???????  I do have to say, Rick stayed much calmer than me through the day.  I had little patience by this time.  We went to the last store, Menards in Bloomington, IL, and they had EVERYTHING else that I had on my list!!  Dad and Rick were on the phone most of the time, getting wiring items for Ft. Jacques.  I was setting up delivery times, and I found something that wasn’t on the list, but I knew my father would be so proud of me for finding it.  I found the high effency light bulbs that put out 60 watts, but only use 13 watts.  They were in 3 packs for $.99!!!  I bought all that they had because, if you have ever been down there you know how we go through light bulbs!  I felt like the hero of the day!  We didn’t get back to the house until 9:30pm, we had left the house at 7:30am.  Lights out!

On Wednesday morning, I sat at my computer, in my pajamas, and worked on the manifest for the container. I felt good not to run first thing in the morning.  At 10:00am, Rick and I had to meet the Lebada Mattress delivery men at the storage unit.  Our storage unit manager at Unlimited Storage had allowed us to use another storage unit for all of our deliveries, thank you Jeremy!  The guys got the mattresses unloaded quickly!  I couldn’t believe how fast the three of them unloaded that truck.  As we were finishing, the first Lowe’s truck showed up!  Out came the appliances that we had gotten from there, it was a whole truck full.  That 30 foot storage unit was filling up fast!  Rick and I were starting to worry at this point.  We had 2-30 foot storage units over half full!  The truck was only 40 ft. long.  Was everything going to fit?  We still had 3 more deliveries for the next day!  Next we went to Wal-Mart to pick up a site-to-store order that my Mother and another missionary, Nikki, had ordered.  When we went to the service desk, they were very happy to see us!  The Wal-Mart in Clinton, IL is NOT a super Wal-Mart, it is very small.  Our orders were taking up a very large part of their back room!  They asked how many trucks that I had brought with me.  At this point I was VERY worried!  I only had one truck, and just Rick and I to unload it at the storage unit!  The whole crew there went into the back to load everything onto carts to bring up for us.  It took them 4 big carts and one guy carrying a huge futon mattress to get it all to the front.  Now, at this point I am giggling and Rick was shaking his head…..what else could we do?  We pulled the truck up to the doors, the guys laughed when they saw my short-bed truck, they said “no way will that fit”!  We had 10 bunk beds, a queen bed frame, 2 twin bed frames, and other furniture.  They started stacking things in the truck, Rick was supervising, I was standing back still giggling.  Can’t say I was too much help at this point!  We filled up the back seat of the truck, stacked the back to about 3 feet above the cab, and then tied everything down.  It all fit!!!!!  Thank goodness we didn’t have to drive far, we could only drive about 20 mph, but we finally made it to the storage unit.  Once we got there, we were stumped.  There was no way that Rick and I could unload it by ourselves.  So I got on the phone, called my daughter Mikayla who was just getting out of school.  I had her bring some boys from the High School with her and everything got unloaded!  Now, looking at the storage unit, I was really getting worried.

I will finish this on Tuesday….

Keep praying………..

Kate