Following is a letter written by a pastor from New York and friend of ours, Penn Clark, who visited Dave in Ukraine a few weeks ago. One of the things he writes about is a concern for lots of us when we travel into
Ukraine. I remember one time carrying $12,000, and it is a scary
thing! Another time as I carried money for ourselves and for other
missionaries I had a rough time in New York. I had 13 bags to carry and the
airport spot I had to go to was pretty empty when I got there. The
ladies at the customs checkout counter made me take off my belted purse and
then saw I had two on which the second one had lots of money in. The
young man who was helping me with my bags had told me he does anything to get
money for drugs as we were going up the elevator, and then the lady took the
money belt and handed it to this young man to put on the belt to go through
the Xray machine! Times of traveling can be pretty scary, but we thank
the Lord for His blessing for the many times that He has kept His hands of
mercy on us.
This is a true story and we encourage you to pray for ones
who carry the GOSPEL to a FAR AWAY LAND.
Carole
Trip Report from
January 15-25, 2002
by: Penn Clark
One of my
concerns in preparing for this trip to the Ukraine was having to carry in
$9,300 in hundred dollar bills. Usually this amount would be spread out among
many team members who would pass through customs with little notice. One
person coming in with this kind of cash could draw attention.
After September 11,
we had cancelled a Camel Team that was scheduled to go to the Ukraine. Since
that time, this was the first opportunity we had to take in money to
support our national partners, pay for a heating system in a new church, buy
several horses, and cover the cost of a number of other relief projects that
we are involved with there. I also had financial gifts from some family and
friends back in America. By Ukrainian law, a person is allowed to take in
$10,000 without special permission, but with customs officials looking for a
quick buck, there are risks involved. Every level of law enforcement in the
Ukraine seems to be corrupt. We have been stopped by police officers that
said, “Leave your fine with me.” We call this feeding the Bear. Once we were
stopped and, without even giving a reason for pulling us over, the police
asked our driver how much money he had, then set the fine accordingly.
As it turned out, my passing
through immigration was uneventful and my bags passed through the x-ray
equipment without being stopped, then a customs agent waved me into his booth.
This was right in front of the automatic doors that open to the main waiting
area of the airport. Just as I pushed my baggage in front of the inspector the
doors opened, exposing a large crowd patiently waiting for the passengers to
emerge. Among them was my contact Peter, his face beaming as he waved at me.
He only had time to mouth the words, “Praise the Lord”, before the doors
closed again. Kurt, who was my travel partner for this trip, was standing near
him. When Kurt saw that Peter recognized me, the two of them connected.
When the doors opened
again and they could no longer see me at the customs desk, they knew something
was wrong. The officer who waived me in noticed how much money I had declared.
He was astonished. He asked if this was my personally money. Before I could
say anything to explain, he told me to follow him. I hesitated, but he
insisted that I follow him and shut down his booth. We went into a back room
where he asked to see the money. Again I hesitated, wishing there was at least
another guard in there with us as a witness. All I could think of was how one
of our Camel Teams had been pulled into the customs office recently and the
garden seeds they were taking in were confiscated. This was a big
disappointment to the team as it is one thing the people really like to
receive when we do outreach into remote villages. A short while later, while
the team was loading the van in the parking lot, the same customs official
came out and offered to sell the seeds back to them for $45.00.
I got all the money
out, which was neatly arranged in envelopes, each one labeled with the name of
the person it was designated for. The officer opened an envelope and began to
count each dollar. There was quite a stack of envelopes, and I did not want
him to handle all that money, so I showed him how each envelope had the amount
marked on the corner. He began to itemize the amount on the back of my
declaration sheet. As he did this he looked at the names on each envelope and
noticed that many were written to Voloyda, who does most of our relief work in
the Ukraine. He smiled, cocked his eyebrow and said, “Voloyda is a lucky guy”.
I laughed and said, “Actually, Voloyda helps a lot of people”.
As he
continued to itemize the amounts, he asked if I had a calculator. I looked at
the long list of amounts that he had to add up and said no. He sighed as he
finished. Then he set the pen down and put his hands behind his head. He
looked at me and stated that the amount I declared did not match the amount I
was taking in. I said that was impossible. He said I had declared almost two
hundred dollars less than what was in the envelopes. He then said that he
wanted to go through my bags.
On the bottom of the
declaration forms it says that they can confiscate your goods if you make a
false declaration. I had known one other person who had not declared the right
amount. Not only was the money confiscated, they had to remain in the country
in order to appear in court. They had to hire a lawyer and I believe they paid
a fine.
I began to pray as I
opened up my briefcase. He went through every little compartment. When he did
not find anything he asked me to open my travel bag. Inside he found a spare
wallet. He held it up in my face and smiled as he arched that old eyebrow
again. He thought he had found more money. I said it was empty. I was surprise
at how disappointed he was.
Then he came to my
Bible. He asked what it was, and I told him. He began to leaf through the
pages. I was thinking about how I was there on a visitor’s visa, not as a
missionary. I was concerned that he might nail me with this. He went through
all my teaching notes. I just told him it was my personal Bible. He went
through every paper carefully and then went back to the money spread out on
the desk.
I began to zip
everything back away while he put his pen in the corner of each greeting card
I had been given, peeking in to find more money. I said that they were
Christmas cards and showed him the paper that listed the amount they
contained. I began packing up the money, like I was finished with him.
Finally, he said again that there was a discrepancy in the amount I had
declared. I knew it was the moment to negotiate, but I was not going to give
him a penny.
Finally, with some
improvised impatience I said, “Let’s count again, because there is no
mistake.” He stared at me and weakly insisted that his count was right, but I
could see that he doubted his own math. I leaned forward and, with an open
face, said that I was not good at math and he had not used a calculator, but
my wife, who made up the envelopes, never makes a mistake. He could see how
carefully each envelope had been marked. He finally laughed and said, “Ok, you
may go”.
He walked me back to
the point where it all began. The doors opened and there stood Peter and Kurt
again. They had been praying during the half hour I had disappeared. Bless the
Lord!
INSERT:
On one trip Carole was making to the States, Customs tried to make her turn in
her passport. She refused to give it to them. They told her next
that her ticket was not good. She worked her way through that one and still
refused to give the passport to them. In the end they admitted she had the right
ticket, the passport stayed with her, and she was allowed to continue to
travel. The reason she was so determined to hold onto her passport is
because a young man from Ethiopia had a similiar experience just a few days
before and they took his passport and left it at one of the customs desks, but
when he went back for it the desk was closed and no one knew about his
passport, and he never got it back and could not leave the county.
PLEASE PRAY FOR
PEOPLE WHO TRAVEL OR LIVE IN FOREIGN LANDS FOR SITUATIONS LIKE THESE MENTIONED
IN THIS LETTER!
RETURNING TO
PENN CLARK'S LETTER:
Recently, it had snowed
heavily in this part of the Ukraine, leaving the roads in rough shape. There
are not many snowplows there, nor sanders or use of road salt. The roads were
deeply rutted, with frozen snow and slush leaving innumerable potholes in the
packed snow surface. A little rain makes getting around very interesting. With
no traction, big trucks are helpless even on the slightest grades.
Once our car slid
sideways towards a bus that was waiting for us to pass. The driver was able to
correct this just before we kissed its big broad face. Another time, we
suddenly spun off the road into the ditch. Everyone just laughed, piled out,
and pushed the car back up on the road. Within a few minutes we were on our
way again.
A fog had come into our
area the day we arrived, leaving everything covered with frost. It was
beautiful, but made it feel colder than it really was. I never feel warm here
in the winter months as the houses have little heat. The school has even less
and our car had none.
INSERT: WEATHER IN THE
WINTER IS A SITUATION TO PRAY ABOUT ALSO. IF YOU TAKE A TRAIN THEY ARE
VERY COLD IN THE WINTER AND VERY HOT IN THE SUMMER.
RETURNING TO PASTOR CLARK'S
LETTER: