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| SPANISH AMERICAN EVANGELISTIC MINISTRIES DIRECTOR, BETY GARCIA |
Here is a facebook entry that I posted this past week:
Sometimes things in Mexico do not operate as efficiently as we are accustomed to in the U.S. At times just one step becomes a high hurdle. Here is my latest adventure: For many, many months some church leaders in Cuba have been asking Spanish American Evangelistic Ministries in El Paso for gospel tracts. Letters from Cuba were coming in about every month pleading...begging for gospel tracts. The problem is that S.A.E.M. cannot ship to Cuba. But we have been wanting to get the tracts to Cuba so we decided that I can take a box of tracts to the Post Office in Juarez and ship them to Cuba. Piece of cake!!! No Problem!!!...So I thought!!! Last week I had someone show me where the only Post Office in Juarez was located (at one time I didn't even know we had a Post Office in Juarez). I saw the building but NOWHERE did it say that it was a Post Office. And I did not have the box of tracts with me. By Monday I had picked up the box at S.A.E.M. and was ready to mail it in Juarez. First you find a parking space in the busy downtown district and feed the parking meter a few 2 peso coins. However, the Post Office was closed. Monday September 16 was a National Holiday here. Back home!! Tuesday I returned, loaded the parking meter, box in tow, and wait inside the Post Office in line. I get to the front and the man wants to know where the Customs Agent had stamped the box. I told him that I didn't know anything about having it stamped by Customs. "Where is the agent", I ask. He said that the customs agent left at noon. I asked when he will be back from lunch. He said tomorrow at 11am. The agent is only there from 11am til noon. The time on my cell phone: 12:04pm. Back home!!! Today (Wednesday) I returned before 11am to check with the very busy customs agent just after I fed the parking meter. At 11am the agent was across the way visiting with another person. Me and an older lady waited on her for about 15 minutes. She comes over and I have to tear the tape off the box to have it inspected. I used my pen as a knife; Post Office has no box knives. She quickly glanced inside, told the Post Office man next to her that it was ok and...I looked at him. He just looked back at me. I looked at him some more. Finally I told him that the Customs lady said that the box was ok to ship. He said that he knew that...but that the box was opened. I looked at him like a mule looking at a new fence. I was wondering why he hadn't whipped out some tape and taped it. He told me that I had to tape it myself. I told him that it was no problem and I asked him for the tape. He said I had to supply my own tape. Of course, I had no tape in my back pocket. So he grinned and told me that there are stores down the street where I can buy some. I left the package there (I knew that I shouldn't have but my blood pressure was keeping me from thinking straight). Down the street they had tape for 16 pesos (about $1.30 for a single wide roll). I came back, taped the box, and we're finally on our way...or so I thought!!! He put the box on the scale and saw that it was headed to Cuba. So he told me that I had to go to the Cuban consulate in a City about 20 hours from Juarez and have the box approved (groan!), OR...I can repackage the contents into three smaller boxes. Packages to Cuba must be 2 kilos or less. He smiled again. I told him that I had mentioned to him yesterday that it was for Cuba. But he said that he thought it was going to a city in Mexico with a similar name. And he gave me another Liberace smile. So apparently there is another city in Mexico called Manzanilla Cuba (I researched this later and there isn't one). I tried hard to remember that I am a Christian man and didn't want the headlines to read: MISSIONARY GOES POSTAL. PULLS POSTAL WORKER OVER THE COUNTER AND BITES HIM ON THE NOSE. Back home!!! I must remember to get more 2 peso coins for next time. BTW..., did I mention that the Post Office is about 30-40 minutes from my place?
Now here is the rest of the story:
Third try...: I returned to S.A.E.M. and repackaged the tracts into, not three, but four smaller boxes just to make sure that I didn't come no where near 2 kilos per box. The next day I head back to the post office promptly before 11am after feeding the parking meter 6 pesos. Customs agent is off visiting again but after she returns to the desk my boxes (that I had left un-taped) are given the thumbs up. This time I was loaded with tape in hand but the man says I can't tape them up at the counter. I have to tape them at the tables behind me. So now I lose my place in line. All four are taped up and I head back to the line. After a little while I make it to the front of the line and all finally goes well. Each box is 167 pesos (just over $14US per box). I was thrilled that the gospel tracts were finally off my hands and hopefully on their way to communist Cuba. Then I quickly made my way to the car (I had 15 minutes left on the parking meter) and started to call Bety Garcia, S.A.E.M. Director, to tell her that the mission was finally accomplished. Before I had my phone to my ear there was a tap on my car window. I rolled the window down and the lady responsible for the tapping asked me if I was leaving. I nodded. So she asked me to hurry up because she needed my parking space. I promise....none of this was made up!!!
Someone recommended that I try using DHL in Juarez to mail packages to Cuba. I looked up their location and went there just to find out how much they charged to send 2 kilos to Cuba. Another long line. I found out that with DHL you have to take the package to customs at the border, where they review it and seal it so you can then take it to DHL. DHL doesn't have a customs agent sitting there from 11am to noon. But the DHL price was the shocker. Two kilos (4.4 lbs.) to Cuba was 1,163 pesos (about $98US). Fourteen dollars is better than $98 any day!!!
Here are some facts that I found out during my postal experiences: Cuba stopped receiving packages from the U.S. after the World Trade Center events of 9/11 in New York. Packages to Cuba must be 2 kilos or less for "security reasons", and even then they are opened and reviewed in Cuba at their postal site. Not all the contents inside the box are guaranteed to make it all the way to the final destination. Along the way some of it is "lost". Christian books are not allowed to be sent to Cuba. Christian books are supposed to be burned if any make it to their post offices. Bibles, however, can be shipped to Cuba; again...some being "lost" along the way. In Cuba a Bible is taken apart book by book and one church may share one Bible with parts of it scattered around amongst many of its members. Any gospel literature in Cuba is like gold, which is why I was so determined to see that the gospel tracts got off to Cuba. We need to get as much literature into the hands of the church leaders in Cuba as possible. They are desperate for it.
Here are more facts: S.A.E.M., Spanish American Evangelistic Ministries, in El Paso, Texas, prints gospel tracts and ships them to Spanish nations upon request. Bety Garcia, director at S.A.E.M., was recently showing me packages to be mailed off. One small package of tracts to Peru was almost $70 for shipping. Another small package going to Guatemala was close to $30 for shipping. S.A.E.M. sends out these gospel tracts at no cost to the churches. The cost of printing and shipping comes from the S.A.E.M. flex fund, which is a fund that churches and individuals from the United States contribute to throughout the year. S.A.E.M. is a non-profit organization which next year celebrates its year of jubilee (50 years of supplying gospel tracts to the world). S.A.E.M. has a lot of expenses. They have Terry Knippers, who drives down from Oklahoma to El Paso, who does all the printing. He, along with his wife, Amparo, stay at S.A.E.M. for weeks at a time to print enough tracts for a few months...and then he returns and prints more, as the funds allow. Besides Director Bety Garcia all the other work done at S.A.E.M. comes from volunteers. Currently, S.A.E.M. is in need of funds for supplies, shipping, and upkeep of the printing presses. The ministry needs short term and long term volunteers. An intern or a missionary knowledgeable in Spanish and English would be wonderful. Volunteers to help with the upkeep of the buildings and yard work are needed (when I get a small team who is coming to work in Juarez I usually have them devote one day to S.A.E.M. and they really enjoy doing that). S.A.E.M. can accommodate a small team with housing - which is very comfortable. S.A.E.M. and I have worked together for about a year. The bread and most of the other food items and clothing that I carry into Juarez have passed through my hands because it was donated to S.A.E.M. The ministry also allows me to use their address to receive mail because I don't have a physical address in the U.S.
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| El Paso, Texas (foreground) and Juarez, Mexico (background) |
I encourage all my readers to please send S.A.E.M. a small check. Even $5 would help tremendously. Let's help keep this ministry strong for another 50 years. Let's also keep forwarding this post to your friends and family through e-mails, facebook, or other means so that S.A.E.M. can get as much help as possible (please see the address below).
Other brief news from Juarez, Mexico:
~Juarez has suffered another challenge as we have had severe flooding. Many thousands are homeless and without food and clothing. Thank the Lord that I had absolutely no damage in my residence.
~Pastor Dr. Jimmy Hayes, from The River Church at Nashville, TN was in Juarez with me for 3+ days. The Lord spoke to him about helping with the "Greatest Spiritual Awakening that the world has ever witnessed". Right now decisions are being made about which stadium will be used in Juarez for the onset of this great revival. Dr. Jimmy Hayes and his team will be returning soon. Once we get going with this most of my time in Juarez will be devoted to these events. I am very excited about this. Once I have a little more information I will write a blog post about this. Pray for these outreaches.
~I still have not been successful in initiating the border-to-border conferences in Juarez but I expect to know more about this in the next few weeks. This is one of my God-given visions so it's just a matter of time. Pray for this please.
Again, I want to thank all those who have sacrificed to keep me in Juarez. Those who pray regularly for me have more things to pray about as described in this blog post. Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Remember....re-post this blog!!!! Thank you!!!
Daniel Torres S.A.E.M.
650 Linwood Dr. 650 Linwood Dr.
El Paso, Texas 79928-7607 El Paso, Texas 79928
501-827-7679 915-852-2525
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