Monday, September 30, 2013
It’s amazing how a simple misspelling can lead to a lot of confusion! Have you ever looked, I mean really looked closely at Blake’s name? Blake Berry…what is it similar too? Wait for it…there it is, you just figured it out. BLACK Berry, like the telephone. What is even more difficult, is that in French his name is pronounced Blacke (Black – a -), add the Berry on the end, and you got it…everyone in Gemena thinks Blake has his name on a telephone.
When we spent some time in Kinshasa for French school, we had utilized MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship’s) help for many things. They purchased our solar panel and inverter system for us, we utilized their flight to return to Gemena, among other services. Somewhere along the lines our name got misspelled, and somewhere in the process our invoice didn’t get paid.
We recently received an e-mail string that had been forwarded to a number of people, asking about some telephones charges that were purchased for a missionary living in Gemena. The question was…how do we get in contact with the missionary? We don’t even have a name for the person!
Long story short, someone was later added onto the e-mail string, that was familiar with us, and our use of MAF for their services. We were then forwarded the e-mail, reminding us that we have a balance due. WOW! 4 months later, we finally paid our invoice for our “TELEPHONE” charges :). All of this confusion over a not so simple name.