Day 33 - Packing Boxes

We are now officially packing boxes. I am working on my bookshelf which has hundreds of books. Most of which I am getting rid of. Keeping some that mean a lot or that I use a lot for research, but most of them I am giving to the used book store. This way they find a good second home.

Funny thing is that a lot of my books came from the used book store. So I guess I just borrowed them for the long term.

When packing for a move to Costa Rica, you have to have a manifest so that the duty people in country know what you have and they can determine what they will need to charge tax wise.

If you are using a shipper that goes door to door, meaning that they bring the container to you in the US to pack up and then bring it to Costa Rica to unpack. The shipping service we are using "Ship Costa Rica" handles everything for us, including the duty and taxes as well as dealing with port issues and customs. The average price for this door to door service is about $10K. This also depends on the type of container you get.

To learn more about the shipping company we are using check http://www.shipcostarica.com/

It isn't a fancy website, but they respond to your email in a pretty timely manner, and that is a good thing when it comes to doing business with your shipper.

As I stated, you need to create a manifest of all your goods that you are shipping. It will help your shipper with all the customs issues.

We have created a simple Excel file which has the following information set up in columns ...

- Item #  / Box #

- Condition

- Contents

- Model ( if applicable) Most electronic items need to have their make and model recorded

- Serial Number ( if applicable) Most electronic items need to have their serial number noted

- Value

You start with box #1 give the condition being New or Used, what the items are in the box. IE books, since books have no make, model, serial number you can skip that, but then you put a real world garage sale value.

NOTE - this is the value that customs will use to tax your items so you need to have a realistic value that you could get at an average garage sale. Do not jack up the price of your items, it will hurt you in the long run.

Once you pack your box, tape it up really good. Put an the ID # on it as in Box #1 and have it correspond in the manifest.

Day 38 - So Much Stuff

In 1986, George Carlin first performed his “stuff” routine for Comic Relief, humorously telling us the hard truth about the things in our homes.

Here is how George Carlin sums it all up...

"A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff."

And over the last 11 years, we have accumulated a lot "o" stuff.

We have a 20 foot container because we did not want to take a lot of the stuff that we have here.

So we have been selling a lot of our stuff, giving stuff away, and throwing stuff away.

We sold all our survival food. We had enough to feed 4 people for about a year. That helped make a dent, but not much. 

Got rid of  our can shelf, our 55 gallon water drums, and some of our other survival gear.

Our daughter and grand kids live with us. Because of that, we have a lot of baby stuff.

The nice thing is that we are taking some of our baby stuff to a friend so that they can build up their pile of baby stuff as we reduce our pile of stuff.

Even with all this stuff being sold and given away, we still have a lot of stuff.

Oh, here is a tip. You know all those books, DVDs, CDs and stuff like that? There is a great place called "Half Price Books" and they will gladly buy all this stuff from you. Now it is pennies on the dollar, but it is better than throwing the stuff away and not getting anything.

Stuff sold is always a good thing.

We are trying to sell our couch, which if we can get rid of it, it will give us room to stage stuff that we want take with us in the container.

Are you looking for a couch? It is pretty nice stuff. 

Day 41 - Getting Dog Shots & Packing

After reading all the forum posts, official websites and some not so official we are finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to our dogs.

Here are some things that we learned so far.

1 - Fly Pets As Luggage - Try to get your dogs put in as luggage. Delta and other airlines will do this flying to Costa Rica. United will not, they may you check them as Cargo. Avoid Cargo at all costs because it will cost you. You will be forced to hire a pet broker on the Costa Rican side and some of the bids I got were outrageous to the point of being taken advantage of.

I say all this because we had to two large dogs 33lbs and 66 lbs that we wanted to take with us. Getting a pet broker to even return your email is an act of God and those who did were outrageously priced. 

So try to fly your pets as luggage anyway possible.

2 - Getting Your Pets Their Shots and Paperwork Together - From what we have read, we need to make sure we had the dog shots 30 days prior to us leaving. BUT you need to get a health certificate and your APHIS Form 7001 ten days before you arrive.

Do some shopping around on this. We had one vet that wanted to charge us $125 just for the APHIS Form 7001 form. That did not include the health check and they insisted on giving any shots and such.

Needless today this vet was price gouging or really did not want to do the work.

We found another vet that would do if for $54.00 per dog, which was a lot more reasonable. 

3 - 11 Years of Stuff  - Where to Sell - After living in our home for 11 years, we have a lot of junk. In fact we are really trying not to take much with us. We have been selling a lot of things and it has helped with the cost of the move.

If you are a  Facebook user, look for "online garage sale" page for your area. This is a great place to place things for sale.

There is also the standard Craig's List that has been productive as well.

But a good place to post as well is Meetup.com. You need to register for this site, but it is a great place to find like minded people.

SO if you have a lot of things that are specific to a certain hobby or lifestyle, this is a great place to put your stuff for sale.

EXAMPLE - We are "Preppers." We have a lot of survival food, camping stuff, and other survival gear. We were able to let a prepper group we found on Meet Up know that we had stuff for sale and we were able to sell a lot of our specialized things and get a good price too.  

So in working all these different places, we have been pretty successful in selling a lot of things that we did not want take with us, nor just give away either.

What our plan is to sell as much as we can and then if all else fails, we can have Goodwill or Salvation Army come pick stuff up and they will come load it up and haul it away.

Day 45 - How to Travel With Pets to Costa Rica

This is our little Bella - she is 2 lbs
Cost to fly in cabin - $200.00
This is a great deal when compared
to the Pet Broker we emailed.
They wanted a crazy amount for our 30 lb
Jack Russell Terrier.
He is flying for $200 also.

We have four dogs that we are taking with us and we love our dogs.

I have to say that getting your pet down to Costa Rica is and "interesting" endeavor.

"Interesting"... there is a Chinese curse that says, "May you live in interesting times."

No comment... I spent 3 + hours on the phone today with Delta Airlines.

Back to taking your pet with you. Some things have changed and if you ask 20 people, you will get 20 different answers.

One place that I have learned to put some faith in is "International Living" Magazine. It is a great source of information, that is when they are not "up selling" you for something.

I highly recomend that you become a subscriber to this publication, it has a lot of informtion written by expats for expats.

I am saying all this because the following article had a lot great instruction about traveling with your pet to Costa Rica.

Ray
Unpacking Costa Rica

---

How to Travel With Pets to Costa Rica

By Jason Holland

I’d never traveled with a celebrity before.

When we arrived at the airport in Costa Rica, it was a madhouse. People kept coming up to take pictures with my companion. Customs officials rushed us through the line after a cursory check of our documents. Baggage handlers competed to grab our luggage.

It got to be a bit much when a police officer stalked over determinedly as we waited outside for our rental car to be delivered. “All our documents are in order, right?” I thought to myself nervously as he reached us and then stooped down to give the “celebrity” a scratch under the chin… and then asked me to take a picture with his cell phone.

Jester - The author's poodle

The celebrity in question, if you haven’t guessed, is not human. It’s my silver-haired standard poodle. And thanks to a trip to the groomer just before we boarded the plane in Miami, Jester was quite a sight when we arrived at our new home in Costa Rica.

It helped that poodles aren’t all that common in the country – so everyone was curious.

Now, if you’re considering a move to Costa Rica and have dogs (or even cats), I can’t promise they’ll get the “star treatment.” But I can say that the process of bringing them over will be easy and hassle-free.

First off, there is no quarantine here. Your pets come off the plane and are immediately in your hands.

But you do have to take care of a few things before you leave. Go to your vet for a clean bill of health within two weeks of your departure date. And make sure they are up to date on their vaccinations for rabies and some other common diseases. You probably already have most if not all these shots. (The full list is here.)

Your vet should give you a health certificate indicating your pet is healthy and has all their shots. Then you get it endorsed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a nominal fee. Just send (or bring in person) a copy of the vet’s health certificate to the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service office in your region.

Once you have their sign off, you’re set. No need to contact the Costa Rican consulate. Just make sure you have four copies of each document just in case any official wants a copy during your trip.

Small dogs can go in the cabin with you if they can fit in a carrier under the seat – be sure to let the airline know before-hand.

But larger breeds will have to go with the checked bags in a non-collapsible kennel with food and water.

In both cases, the airline will usually charge an extra fee. American Airlines, for example, requires $175 per animal.

For the health of your pet, most airlines will not let them travel when the temperature is forecast to be above 85 degrees anywhere on your itinerary. That’s usually not a problem at Juan Santamaria International Airport in Costa Rica’s Central Valley, where the temperatures usually stay in the 70s during the day.

But keep an eye on the temperatures in your departure city or at any connections. If it’s summertime in Miami, for example, you might have to fly out early morning or at night to stay under 85 degrees.

Of course, check with your airline for their specific policies and restrictions before buying your tickets. For their safety, some breeds aren’t allowed to fly during summer as checked baggage, including short-nosed varieties like pugs or boxers. And most of the “budget” carriers do not allow pets at all.

Another option is to ship your pet as “cargo.” You don’t even need to be traveling with them. It’s great if you have a pet in the States but can’t fly back. You can handle this through individual airlines or through specialized services that charge a premium but handle everything.

Source - http://internationalliving.com/2012/06/how-to-travel-with-pets-to-costa-rica/

46 Days and counting - OUR SHIPPER

If you are coming to Costa Rica, then by all means you want to hire a reputable shipper.

We did a lot of research and talked to a lot of people on the forums.

One name kept coming up.

That company was "Ship Costa Rica"

The owner of the company is named Barry, but our contact was Arden Brink.

What is wonderful about Arden is that she is also the author of a very well known expat book

"Unraveling the Mysteries of Moving to Costa Rica: Real stories from real people, what we've learned and how it can help you!"

You can ORDER HERE from Amazon

Arden has been a HUGE help and I want to recommend her book. It is full of great information and detail for anyone who is moving to Costa Rica.

In fact, I recommend it if you are moving anywhere in Central America. It will give you a lot to think about and information that you can us no matter where you are moving.

I wanted to share with you what "Ship Costa Rica" is going to do for us....

-- bring the container on the chassis to your door in New Braunfels
-- wait three hours while you load it,
-- take it to the port,
-- ship it to San Jose,
-- provide US customs export papers,
-- provide all shipping and import papers,
-- obtain MAG and Minae permits as needed,
-- arrange dock transfers,
-- manage the Costa Rican duty calculations,
-- pay the duty on the household goods,
-- handle customs inspection and release,
-- pay the bonded warehouse fees, and
-- deliver to you with men to unload the truck into your house in Atenas
-- All inclusive, no extras, no surprises.

Folks, when you think about it, they are doing a lot.

We know of other expats who have used "Ship Costa Rica" and they were very pleased as well.

There are a lot of ways you can get your personal items down to Costa Rica and yes you can save a buck or two too. But you really want to find someone who will take care of the details for you.

I am one who believes in hiring a professional to do a professional job. You do not want your personal items to be held up in customs or waiting on duty or such. Barry, Arden and the great staff at "Ship Costa Rica" have that covered.

They are truly "All Inclusive, No Extra and NO  SURPRISES."

At least we hope so. We have been really pleased with the personal service we have gotten from them so far.

What Arden and the folks at "Ship Costa Rica" have done is allowed us to place our faith in them and their word that they will see that out items we are taking to Costa Rica will safely get there.

Continue to follow Tracye and I as we will blog more about our personal effects, as well as everything else involved in our relocation to Costa Rica.

Pura Vida!

Praise Report - God is Moving in a BIG Way

I wanted to let you know that we had a real blessing this weekend. Someone came and bought a lot of what we could not take to Costa Rica and all together we have met our goal for our shipping container.
 
This is a huge praise and something that was way out of our grasp.

Both Tracye and I have been praying that throughout this whole process, that God be glorified and allow people to see His hand working in our lives and directing us.

Everything that has come together for Tracye and me was not of our own doing.

It has been God and God alone who has opened doors and made things possible.

Our next goal is to purchase our tickets not only for us, but to also get our dogs down there with us. We are going to be taking our Yorkies with us along with our Jack Russell and our Black Lab. We will be taking some extra baggage with us, which in the olden days folks used to be able to take two pieces of luggage with them for free. Now they charge $40 for the second bag and $150.00+ for any bag after that.

So we are looking at about $2700.00 for everything.

God has been good and has been opening the doors in all of this and we know that He will continue to do so.

We have been doing our part also and trying to sell off some of the things we are not allowed to take with us as well as the DVDs that Prophecy in The News was so gracious in letting us have on consignment.

Freaking Out

What is interesting is that there are times that I kind of "freak out" when I allow myself to really think what we are doing. You know, when the enemy gets your ear and causes you to doubt.

I can see the same thing happening to Peter when he was walking on the water with Christ.

I imaging Peter looking down and "freaking out" thinking "OH NO…I am walking on water!!"

At that time doubt enters and he starts to sink until he puts his eyes back on the Lord and Christ lifts him out again.

Yesterday while we were in church I had one of those moments saying " OH NO… we are moving to Costa Rica" moments.

The butterflies started up in my tummy and I was wondering if what we were doing was the right thing.

Then right there a peace came over me that only the Lord can provide. I reflected on all the things that God has done, all the open doors, all the obstacles that He has helped us overcome in just a few months.

It has been God and God alone and all praise goes to Him.

Running Away?

On the flip side I am still getting emails from people that are not too nice.

A lot of this has to do with assumptions on their part because they think what we are doing is based out of fear and "running away."

Let me say this, that is the farthest thing from the truth.

I don't want to go into much detail right now, but I hope that I will be able to address this here soon.
What I can say is that God is doing some amazing things not only in our lives but in many people's lives.

One of the ways I describe it is that He is putting people in place not only here in the US, but all over the world.

We Are Not The Only Ones

I know of other ministries that are being called to Ecuador, Panama, Belize, Uruguay, even New Zealand where our friend Chuck Missler has been called.

But I also know of ministries that have picked up from say Washington State and been called to Arkansas.

Others are expanding their work like a ministry I know in Tennessee and another in Florida. I have gotten emails from several people who have some acreage saying that God is telling them to prepare to take in Christians who need a place of refuge. I have also gotten emails from several seniors that have told me that they are going to be "safe places along the way."

This is why I say that God is moving in a big way.

Oskar Schindler's Great Niece

Recently I met a person that I had no idea that I was going to meet, Rosemary Schindler. She is the great niece of Oskar Schindler and she is also the founder of a ministry called "Schindler's Ark."

When we met I told her about some of the things we have been doing here at Prophezine and all of a sudden her eyes lit up. I spoke about the emails I have been getting, feeling God calling us out, etc etc.

Well, come to find out that the same thing has been happening to her as well. She is seeing things like this take place with her ministry too. 
We compared notes and it was like we were plugged into the same source.

Well, we are plugged into the same source, it is called the Holy Spirit.
During our conversation Rosemary said something that really rang true.

She said, "Ray, I have no idea why I am doing what I am doing. I try to figure it out and nothing makes sense to me. I am in touch with someone here, someone talks to me there, people I have never met contacting me about The Remnant and how God is going to bring it all together." 

WOW… someone else who knows about The Remnant and here I thought that I was alone on this.

She asked if I could figure out what was going on my side and I told her the same thing.

I have a piece here, I know of people there, Watchman ministries getting out of the US. But nothing that is forming a solid picture.

It was one of those moments of confirmation. We both agreed that we see God's hand moving, but we can't really say how it is to fit together. We have our ideas, but cant say for sure right now.

We both equated it to a giant puzzle. I have some pieces, she has some pieces, other people have pieces. But we are not at the point where all the pieces are coming together yet to form a giant picture that we can make sense out of.

God is moving in a big way, I feel it in my bones. I can't put my finger on it except that "I know that I know" if that makes any sense to you.

I hope to expand on this more in the coming days. I was actually going to do that in today's PZ Insider Report, but then God had me up pretty early and that is when I found out about the Pope and was inspired to write about that instead.

Tracye and I have a lot of "WHYs," but none are fear driven.

They are God driven, because only HE could have taken us this far in just a few short months.

See, if you would have asked us this back a few months ago about all this, we would have said no way, specially with all that is going on here in the US. I honestly thought that God had other plans for us here.

Well looking back, it makes sense now.

Called To Blaze The Trail

The one thing that both Tracye and I feel deep within our bones is that we are being called to "blaze the trail" per say.

We have helped some of our PZ Insiders make a way to Belize along with several ministries down there.

But we also know that we are being called to help people who are possibly being called to Costa Rica.

God opened the doors for us to come on a recon trip and we don't have that much. We want to be able to bless others the same way we were blessed.

But to do that, God had to open some doors. So both of us started to pray for a home big enough that we would be able to allow people to come stay with us.

We want to be able to pick folks up at the airport, help show them around, be a friendly face and introduce them around.

This way people can really fund a recon trip to see if God is calling them to Costa Rica or not.
And you know the good news?

Not only has God provided a good home that meets our needs, we already have people coming down that we can help show around in mid April. We have other PZ Insiders who have contacted us as well.

If you believe God is calling you, come on down and stay with us. If anything it will be a time of great fellowship, swapping notes and sharing insights into His Word.

Folks, God is building something big here. He is laying the groundwork here in the US as well as in many countries abroad.

I honestly believe that what we are witnessing is what took place in pre-WWII Germany as well as with our own Civil War.

I believe that God is building a network of people that will be part of and support The Remnant.

The one verse that keeps coming back to me is Isaiah 6:8

" Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me."

You want to see God work in your life? Make yourself available to Him and say "Here am I; send me."

I promise you, exciting things will happen because God is moving in a big way.

It is a great time to be in the service of our Lord.

Don't ignore the still small voice.

What is God calling you to do?

A MAJOR Answer To Our Prayer Requests

Tracye and I wanted to report that major prayer has been answered.

As many of you know, Tracye and I have been praying for direction for a long time.

It seems that for the last couple of years we have been in what I describe as a holding pattern.

The one thing that we knew is that where we are now was going to change; in fact around April 2012 we felt a "releasing" of sorts. We are not ones to just move on a whim so we have waited on God to give us clear direction.

We have been checking out many areas here in the US from N Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina. 
We even took a trip to Belize.

Because Belize has been on our radar for so long, we had to rule it in or rule it out. Well God let us know that Belize was not for us personally. But that does not mean it is not right for others.

I have been working with a ministry down there that is helping Christians relocate, and I even know of a few PZ Insider families who have been called to Belize and are now setting up down there.  


A Phone Call

We have been asking all of you to please pray for us and that God give us direction. Things are taking place in this nation that are absolutely mind boggling.

I believe that things are going to get much worse before they get better.

It was about the beginning of August and I got a phone call from my good friend Gary Kah.

Gary Kah - Ray Gano - John Price

For those of you who do not know, Gary is the author of several books including the best seller "En Route To Global Occupation." We have known each other now for about 25 years and always looked forward to the fellowship at conferences and such.

Gary and his wife have been working pretty hard with speaking engagements all over the US and even in Europe. But something came up and Gary had to have an operation on his shoulder. That meant a lot of down time.

So they took advantage of this and saw it as the Lord telling them to take a much needed sabbatical. So they packed up their bags and headed south.

That is when I got the phone call.

"Hey Ray -- This is Gary, can you guess where we are… Costa Rica!! You have got to come down here, it is incredible, God is doing some incredible things."

So Tracye and I prayed about it and asked God to help us go visit.

As many of you may know who are linked into our Facebook, this past September we went down to Costa Rica and we were very pleased.

But what is interesting is that not only was Gary Kah there, we found out that John Price, author of "The End of America" just recently relocated down there.

The Big News? Prophezine is Moving To Costa Rica

We believe that God is calling us to Costa Rica and He has opened the doors for us.

With this relocation, Me and Tracye see our work here at Prophezine actually expanding.

Just so you know, nothing is going to change, PZ Insider Report, PZ News Watch, PZ Survival News will still go out like clockwork.

In fact because we are there, I believe that we will have a little more of a "free voice" to report on things that we observe.

One thing I would like to put back on the front burner is getting PZ Radio back up and running with a focus again on Preaching, Teaching and looking at what is going on Globally.

It is my desire to see Prophezine become a voice of encouragement to "The Remnant" not only in the US but an encouragement globally. Christians will need it in the coming days.

God Has Opened Up a Home and a Vehicle To Us

God has paved the way so that we can rent a 2 bedroom house, but that is not all. He has provided a car that we can purchase at a very good price.

We say that "He paved the way" because our new landlord loves the Lord and is a Christian also. She has been praying for a good family to move into her home, and she has been trying to rent it for over a year. She told us if we were not the ones, she would finally take it off the market and accept it is not in His will to rent.

So it is neat to see when we ourselves are an answer to someone else's prayers.

Again that is just half of it, He also provided a car so we can get around.

Our new landlord had a car and we just happen to ask her if it was for sale.

She told us that she brought it back from the US and really did not drive it much. She gave me the key and I started poking around.

The more I looked, the more I noticed that this car was hardly driven. I finally checked the mileage and I could not believe what I saw. Only 36,000.

So we asked her the price and she came back with $6500.00.

Tracye and I could not believe what we were hearing. See, in Costa Rica you cannot pick up a reliable, low mileage, never been in an accident , well taken care of car for under $10K.

This was a HUGE answer to prayer for us and the second big thing that we asked God to do if He wanted us down there.

More Details To Come

In the coming days and weeks we are going to be putting out more details like…

- The many reasons WHY we are relocating
- How we are getting down to Costa Rica
- Prophezine's role in supporting "The Remnant" both in the US and abroad
- Getting Residency in Costa Rica
- Cost of living in Costa Rica vs here in Texas
- What other ministries are doing and how we are getting involved
- What is going on in other countries
- Prophezine's role in reaching even more people for Christ globally.
- How PZ Insiders can benefit with us in Costa Rica

In His Service,

Ray & Tracye Gano
Prophezine



This is a picture of the hills outside of Grecia or Sarchi Costa Rica
photo by Tracye Gano