Packages

Some of you have been so kind to mail us packages from time to time.  You are so generous and I know you go out of your way to send these packages.

Let me explain the procedure the last time I received a package through the mail service here, so you will understand why I am asking everyone to forgo sending packages through the mail unless it is something vital.

I received a notice at my house and went to the post office (there is only one for this town of one million people) in the afternoon to pick up the package.  They only give out packages at 8:30 – 12:30 and 2:00 - 4:00.  When I arrived in the afternoon there was a sign saying they would only service 8 people each afternoon and 15 people every morning.  Of course, the 8 people were already signed up.  So I returned the next day at 8:30 a.m. but 15 people were already signed up for that morning.  I returned the next morning at 7:30 and praise God I was number 13.  I waited in the post office all morning and at 12:15 when it was my turn they told me that I would need 2 copies of my passport.  I ran to get a copy in a nearby store and managed to get back before they closed the office at 12:30.  I gave my paperwork to the clerk and he looked at everything and said I would have to go to another line and talk with someone else because there were errors on the papers.  They were not my errors but theirs.  The notice which came to our house has my name as Lew Davis Cayma.  My passport says Lewis Davis and Cayma is the area where we live.  So they told me that it would all have to be sent back to Lima and redone and I would have to return to the post office when I received a new notice.  That means a whole morning in line again.  Since they wanted to send it back to Lima, I directed them to just return it to the sender because I know that packages returned to Lima usually manage to get “lost”.

Of course, every time I have to go to the post office it is not easy.  I have to take a taxi and as you probably know, that can be dangerous here.  I spent $6.00 in taxi fees and would also have to pay a tariff for the box at the post office.  The only thing that doesn’t cost is a bubble envelope.  Feel free to send bubble envelopes because the pick up process is much easier with shorter lines.

So, I did not get the last package that was sent.  We have had other lost packages here and the mail service is just not dependable at times.

I don’t want to discourage you from helping when God puts it on your heart, but I just want to suggest an alternative.  You can contact us and we’ll let you know when someone is visiting us from the U.S.  Then you can mail the package to them in the U.S.and they can bring it on the plane without any trouble.  That way it will cost you less and we’ll be sure of getting it.

Bless you sooooooooo much for understanding.

Thank you for your heart for missions.

Lew