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The
Acquisition Story
During the dry season it can take as long as 20
hours to make the 206 mile trip to the Willie N. Wylie Children’s
Village (one of the Liberian Ministries that we assist). During the rainy season it can be
impossible to make the trip at all except with a 4 wheel drive vehicle
(and even then it can be perilous).
One of the business development ideas that we
have budgeted for this year is to purchase an all wheel drive truck
capable of making the trip to the outlying areas of Liberia
regardless of the road conditions.
This would give us the ability to provide a much needed service
to the people in these remote areas and to earn profits that could
support the various Christian ministries throughout the country.
Approximately 4 months ago we began watching a
military truck on the Nashville Craig’s List website. It sounded very good and the price
looked more than reasonable for the condition of the vehicle.
As is often the case, we were unsure of the
wisdom of acquiring the truck given the cost to transport it to Liberia
and the difficulty in getting parts once there. So we waited. Finally, about a month ago we checked
and the truck was still available.
So we made a visit to look at it and it was in even better shape
than we had imagined. The owner
needed to have the title transferred from his late father’s estate to
himself so that it could be sold to us.
This was completed last week and today (July 4th)
Chuck Clark, Dave DeLozier and Rodney Edwards picked up the truck and
trailer from Nashville, Tennessee and brought it back to Chuck’s farm
about 40 miles away. What a
blessing to have Dave DeLozier to assist us as he is a retired National
Guard diesel mechanic and has worked on more of these kind of trucks
than most of us will ever see.
He was impressed with the shape the truck was in and said that
the engine alone could be pulled out and sold for more than we paid for
the entire truck and trailer.
Dave DeLozier and I drove the truck home and
Chuck followed us with his emergency flashers on to warn all the other
travelers that there was real danger ahead (me driving a large
truck). The truck drove great
and it seemed to get much better fuel mileage than we expected (of
course we were expecting 6 mpg).
Speaking of fuel, this is a multi-fuel engine and you can run it
on diesel, jet fuel, gasoline or heating oil (and even mix them
together). So it is designed to
handle tough situations. It’s
also designed to carry 5,000 lbs. across the roughest conditions and
10,000 lbs. over roads (most Liberian roads qualify as “the roughest
conditions”).
We will begin the process of pricing the shipment
to Liberia. Given that it takes about $3,000+ to
send a car, I’m bracing for a $10,000 shipping fee for the truck. We want to be the best stewards
possible with the funds that God provides so we will be very careful to
check all available opportunities.
Also, in a country where civil war has just
ended, it will probably be better if we can paint the truck some color
other than “military green”. So
we’ll look into this as well.
If you would like to help with the costs of this
project please let us know by phone (615.907.0702) or by email at shipping@servicetoservants.com.
Help
us by praying that we will be able to ship the vehicle to Monrovia without
a lot of trouble and that we will make the best possible use of the
vehicle once it arrives.
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