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" Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight ."
(Proverbs 3v5)
Left: Rig arrives at Tin Can Island, Lagos; Right: Rig arrives safely at TASTE Nigeria Offices, Jos, Plateau State
Thank you all for your prayers. Our new drilling rig has arrived!
 

The ship transporting our drilling rig docked at Tin Can Island – Lagos on 10 May 2021 and following the unloading of the rig, the customs clearance process began.

The clearing process had gone smoothly through all the various stages until on Friday 28 May 2021 it got to the stage of being signed off by the Chief Customs Officer. The Officer refused to sign off the release of the rig. He said that the Bill of Lading (shipping document) says “Truck mounted Water Drilling Rig” – this was how our Customs Clearing Agent had specifically told us to put on the Billing of Lading. He told us that if we didn’t and just put “drilling rig”, Customs will class it as an oil drilling rig which would incur significantly higher charges. 

The chief Customs Officer was interpreting the Bill of Lading wording to mean that there were in fact 2 pieces of equipment – a truck and a drilling rig and so said we had to pay for them separately. He did inform us that we could appeal his decision.  However we were concerned that because  our appeal was unlikely to be successful we would be charged with heavy additional demurrage(storage charge ) in addition to the £5000 extra charge.

The demurrage usually kicks in a month after a ship’s arrival at Tin Can Island, but this had recently changed – so recently that even some at customs were not aware of it. In fact we were already 3 days into demurrage during the time we were in discussion with the Chief Customs Officer. We ended up paying £350 for the 3 days.  The Trustees agreed that we had no option but to pay the additional charge of £5,000 which included demurrage. 

On release the rig was taken to a garage for minor adaptation for the high temperatures that the rig will be working under in the North Central and Northern Nigeria.

The rig has now arrived at the TASTE Office in Jos.

Praise God for helping us through Nigeria Customs. Please pray that our rig will be put to work straight away.

“Nigeria: Provide us security – Gwagwada Community Sends SOS To Kaduna Govt” This was the headline in an article by Africa Prime News. To read the full article click here  
 The call was issued by Councillor Sunday Barde representing the rural Gwagwada community in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, North West Nigeria. He was speaking at the Commissioning service of the borehole and toilet facilities constructed by TASTE Nigeria.
The Project a joint partnership programme of the North East Regional Initiative (NERI)/USAID Office of Transition Initiatives and TASTE Nigeria aims to build community resilience and community security. This is a particularly crucial intervention in this area as the increased access to water will reduce the spread of diseases as the area continues to witness continued influx of displaced persons from neighbouring communities due to banditry and kidnap attacks. The Community is estimated to be hosting between 8,000 to 10,000 internally displaced persons (IDP).
An integral part of the project was Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) education. As part of this, 48 members of Gwagwada community, underwent a three day training by TASTE. These community members will maintain and ensure sustainability of the project.
The project, aimed to strengthen community resilience through capacity building and increased access to clean water and sanitation facilities.
Speaking at the commissioning, the Village Head was very appreciative of the intervention by TASTE stressing the importance of water to life.
The appeal by Councillor Barde is indicative of the security challenges that our team face as they seek to support vulnerable and needy communities. It is doubtful that much will come from Councillor’s appeal, but we know that our God hears and answers our prayers. Please continue to uphold all TASTE staff and the communities that we support in your prayers.
 
Our TASTY Desserts Friends in the West Midlands are wanting to get back in business.  After the enforced break in their fundraising in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic our friends in the West Midlands are keen to start up the TASTY Desserts fundraiser again. They were hoping to invite you to join them on Tuesday 6 July 2021 for the relaunch, but the recent announcement of the delay in the lifting of all restrictions planned for 21 June means that the event is on hold for now. Watch this space for the rescheduled date!
Praise for:                        
  • God’s faithfulness in keeping us all safe especially our staff who travel to many remote and often flash-point areas to carry out projects.
  • The safe arrival our our new rig to our office in Jos, PLateau State
  • The successful completion, commissioning and the handover to the community of the USAID/NERI funded project in Gwagwada 

Pray that:                            
  • Our staff will continue to honour God in all that they do both in the UK and in Nigeria 
  • We would use every opportunity we get during our projects to share the Gospel with communities 
  • God would protect Gwagwada Community and other vulnerable communities that we support against Islamist Militants attacks, the ongoing kidnappings and the Covid-19 pandemic 
  • The necessary checks/adaptations to the rig would be completed quickly and that the rig would be commissioned and put into service as soon as possible.
  • Our friends in the West Midlands would be given wisdom as they decide on a new date for the TASTY Desserts Fundraiser originally planned for Tuesday 6 July
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