Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Local missionary William “Dub” Hays of Clovis is planning to make his sixth trip to Liberia in March, armed with toys, scriptures, clothing and some medical and food items. This time, he's prepared to deal with difficulties from the Liberian government.
In the winter of 2011, four shipping containers from Hays' ministry, The Holy Cross Movie Ministry, were held at the Liberian port for 10 days pending additional fees. It took $400 plus a bribe of Hays estimated at between $15,000 to $20,000 to get the containers moving.
“But, it's life,” Hays said. “You just have to pay somebody money under the table in a dishonest way to go on forward.”
Jerry Fisher, a volunteer with Hays's ministry, said Liberians have nothing, and it's easy for them to “take advantage” of Americans.
“You never know what it's going to cost you; you just kind of have to deal with them and get a better price,” Fisher said. “They don't have anything so you do what you can.”
“It gets worse every time,” Hays said of his dealings with Liberian taxes and fees. “They raise taxes and what else, I don't know.”
According to Hays, the containers are supposed to be duty-free. However, government officials in Liberia wanted to know all the details of the contents. For every pound, Hays said, they're taxed about five cents each.
“They had to know every piece of clothing, every toy — everything that was in there,” Hays said.
When asked how he's going to avoid a similar situation this time, he said only one word.
“Pray.”
Hays goes to Liberia every two years as opposed to every year due to the increasing fees and expense. Each time, he said, it costs about $165,000 total. When he goes, it's not just for a week or two. Hays said he stays for eight months in a compound, which costs $30,000 every five years.
To finance his mission trips, Hays uses donations from area churches, organizations and money out of his own pocket.The money is used for various expenses, including shipping costs — almost $12,000 per container — and purchasing Bibles, salvation tracts, toys, vehicles and vehicle parts, and gas.
“It's just costly,” Hays said.
This year, Hays plans to ship two containers.
Another snafu affecting the trip is the recent Ebola crisis in West Africa. Fisher said they're currently waiting to get the “all-clear” from a contact in Liberia to make sure it's safe for Hays to travel. Hays, however, didn't seem too concerned about the possibility of contracting the disease.
“The only thing I take is the malaria (vaccination),” Hays said. “A minister we work with in Liberia showed (The Passion of the Christ) three weeks ago, and very few people came. Depending on the area we go to, it makes a difference.”
According to Hays, the Sierra Leone area poses more of a risk than the southern part of the country.
“On the Sierra Leone side you won't have as many people come because they don't want to contract anything,” Hays said. “They're walking across the border … probably coming to Liberia to get treatment. But you get over there on the southern end, and they don't have as much a problem towards the Ivory Coast.”
Fisher said that the Ebola outbreak isn't as big of a problem in Liberia as the lack of food.
“People are really starving,” she said. “They're not eating and they can't work. That's a bigger problem than Ebola that you don't hear a lot about in the media.”
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