Shipping Updates - Better News - Woody Woodson

First, much thanks for your prayers concerning Vine's shipping issues. To say they've been resolved is not totally correct, but as the Lord often does - He provides another way - & in this case - it's paying import taxes on the aid. Sounds weird - right? Having to pay taxes to donate aid? Actually, it gets stranger. It can be cheaper to pay taxes than to import tax-free. Would a short explanation help? Technically, the container shipping companies give shippers (like Vine) free use of the 40-foot box for about a week & then start charging daily penalties - & earlier in 2006, they began enforcing those penalties. Importing tax-free through the First Lady's Office of Guatemala takes a month & we've been paying $1,000 to $1,500 in penalties per tax-free container. By-passing the First Lady's Office & just paying the import tax on charitable aid is a quick process - with no penalties. We've just shipped in 2 tax-paid containers - one costing $450 & one with a lot of medicines & vitamins costing $1,550 in taxes. Overall - we're figuring the typical container will be under $1,000 in taxes - without all the delays. Between now & the end of the year, we'll be playing catch-up on our aid-levels shipped for 2007 & when the new Guatemalan administration is installed in January after elections, we'll re-visit all the tax-free issues with the new First Lady's Office. Clear as mud? There is nothing easy or simple about this process - but what we do know is that well over 100 projects in Guatemala look to Vine to assist their efforts in serving the poor in Jesus' name. So, please know - your prayers & support are effective & they keep the pipeline flowing. Again, muchas gracias.

Frustrations - Woody Woodson

It has been some frustrating months. The Lord continues to build Vine’s pipeline of aid to Guatemala, yet the government keeps getting harder & harder to work with. I’ve said it countless times - we have two choices - work through it - or pack up & go home. However, if God has called us to do it - then we really have only one choice. As a member of TECH (Technical Exchange for Christian Healthcare), I hear similar stories from brothers & sisters serving in medical missions all over the world. No question about it - these frustrations simply go with the territory. Will it ever improve? Probably not to any real degree. And maybe that’s the point - that difficulties are not the point. Personally I’ve found the hard things are the very things that drive me to the Lord to discover things of Life I could find no other way. Self-sufficiency & a smooth life even seem to hinder that progress. Sometimes when I read Paul’s words it’s as if he’s speaking to me personally - like 2 Cor.4:7-12 - “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness may be of God & not ourselves; afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may be manifested. So death works in us, but life in you.” God loves to work in paradoxes & life out of death is one of them - not in physical death, but in losing our lives to find them. It is the “grain of wheat” Jesus speaks about in John 12 that must go into the ground & die in order to bear much fruit. So, do we go looking for problems? No, we just look at them in a different way. And then a strange thing happens. We find we are no longer a slave to the fear of problems because we learn intimately that God is master of causing “all things to work together for good.” So… in spite of my sarcasm-laced 2nd Quarter Newsletter on Vine's website, I really do feel better now.

Introduction

Hello Vine Family,

Some of you have been receiving news and updates from me via email recently and I'm sure you're wondering, who is this guy? So this is my attempt to introduce myself to those of you who visit this blog. I was informally adopted into the Woodson family back in 1992 when I started dating, as Woody puts it, his #2 daughter Cassie. Needless to say my first introduction to Woody was a little bit different from most. For a 17 year old boy, missionary and mercenary sound a lot alike. Imagine Woody as the Terminator. Now that's funny. Cassie, truly my better half, and I have been married for 10 years now, and have two additions to the family, Ethan 6 and Emma 4. Being introduced as a mercenary sounds more appealing now that I have a daughter. Anyway, I'll let Woody do most of the introduction, you can find a description of a son-in-law in his next newsletter or by clicking here. Also if you have not done so and would like to join Vine's mailing list for those updates and news click here and just put in the subject "add."

I'm sure like many of you, before visiting Guatemala, it was just another name on a map. You know the one under Mexico. But after meeting the Woodson clan, Guatemala became more like a fairy tale. Countless family stories of tracking through the rain forest, floating down a river to get to a remote village, smoking volcanoes, and ancient Mayan ruins. A couple of years back and pre-kids, Cassie and I had a chance to go on a discovery trip with Woody where he would visit existing and possibly new projects. This would be my first trip and her second time back after living there. I had to catch up on my Indiana Jones flicks before we went, you know just in case. My fairy tale ended. An absolutely stunning Country, but I was left speechless by the poverty. Like many of you, my story is your story. I brought back a suit case full of emotion and willingness to do something. That was 7 years ago.

I was recently reminded (from a certain Wood pecker) that when a tree grows, it grows slowly, except in the spring. You can almost watch it expand and reach toward the sky, but then it stops. Summer, Fall, and Winter, nothing. And then the process starts all over again. I didn't realize it, but during those "nothing" seasons the tree constantly strengthens itself. If it didn't, we would have a lot of limp trees. Everything is spiritual, sometimes it just takes a while to see it. God placed a slow growing passion in me sometime back for Guatemala and its people. He continues to build, cultivate and strengthen this passion.

Vine's approached to spreading the good news is unique, but not new. Reaching out to the humanistic needs of a person often opens the door for more important issues. Remember the majority of Jesus' teachings were done after he healed. My role with Vine is to help out with communicating to you, the Vine Family, important issues, news, and updates. It's on a volunteer basis so it may take a while for me to respond, but I'll do my best.


Jason