The red and white pickup truck has fulfilled its job well, hauling thousands of cassettes and books for six years throughout Europe. In 2001 the truck was sold to a car dealer, with nearly 150,000 miles on the clock. For some years we have spotted it around the area. You couldn't miss it; there were no other vehicles like it in Holland. Gone are the days of trucking Message books and tapes across the borders into Eastern Europe. The border control stations slowly disappeared as countries like Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania joined the European Union and goods could move around the EU countries as freely as within a single country. With border formalities gone, VGR has been sending the Message books, tapes, and CDs into these former communist countries as freight hauled on commercial trucking routes. And now with microSD cards and tablets, the need for trucking large bulky items has further reduced.
On one of our first trips, when we got to the Romanian border the customs guard was so impressed seeing such an outstanding vehicle. Back in those days you never saw a pickup truck in the former Communist countries!
He looked inside and said, "This looks like a space vehicle!" I asked him if he would like to have a ride in the truck. He agreed and was all excited! My wife and kids got out and walked across the border, and I gave him the front seat and drove across the border.
He forgot all about checking our load and thanked me for taking him for a ride. We thanked the Lord for getting 7,000 cassettes across the border.
On a trip to Poland, I had 7,000 Polish cassettes with me and a few German cassettes to drop off on the way back in East Germany. On the way coming in, customs found a box in the back which had seven cassettes inside. He asked me what else I had in the truck besides that. I said the rest was all food. He looked at me and let me go. If he only knew I had about 7,000 cassettes with me! Of course, it was all Spiritual Food!
Coming back from Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, I was stopped by the German custom guards. I had just distributed all the Polish and Slovak cassettes and Czech books, but forgot all about one box of German cassettes I had in the truck bed. Customs asked me if I had anything to declare. I said, "Nothing, sir!" He said, "Can I have a look in the back?" I said, "Sure!" and opened the tailgate for him. He found the little box with some German tapes. It was the Message "A Guide." In German it's called "Ein Führer" so you can imagine what he thought! He said, "Everybody, get out of the truck!" He held his gun pointing at me. I was totally surprised because he held the gun pointing at me. He said with a mad tone, "You said you had nothing to declare, but what about this!" He pointed at the cassettes inside the box. I told him that I had forgotten all about that. He told me to get back in the truck. He was mad and told me to put it in the truck's cassette player. I was praying in my heart, Lord, let Brother Branham say the right thing." The minute the Voice of God started to speak, the customs police listened and told me to turn it off immediately and get your stuff and get out of here. I remember the spot on the tape it was paragraph 149 and 150 (A Guide 62-1014e) Of course he heard the translator in German. I think he did not expect what he heard that day. Brother Branham was just speaking on who His Guide was. Anyway, we were holding up the line at the border, so he told us to quickly get all our stuff and get out!
They also had taken all our suitcases and had opened everything up on the street. We quickly gathered our belongings and left the border.
I thought it was quite something, how powerful one little tape can be to get us across the border!
I never had any problems getting anything across the border. It was just the right vehicle that Brother Joseph had shipped to us at that time. The Lord just knew what we needed to get the Message distributed.
God bless,
VGR Europe