Missionary Expediters (MX) is a vital link in our supply chain. MX specializes in helping humanitarian aid organizations and missionaries get their shipments to difficult to reach areas of the world. Read a behind-the scenes account of what happens to the ALP books while in the care of MX!
Missionary Expediters – If you’ve ever done a book drive with us, you’ll be familiar with the name. ALP is based in northern California, but our book drive organizers mail their books through the US Postal Service to MX, a warehouse and freight forwarding service in New Orleans.
On a recent visit, I found Henry, a 60-year veteran of MX’s warehouse, unloading crates of ALP boxes from the post office. Now 77, Henry has inventoried and palletized the boxes for more than 1100 of the libraries we have done or roughly 22,000 boxes!
MX specializes in helping humanitarian aid organizations and missionaries get their shipments to difficult to reach areas of the world.
Owner Jack Fong bought the business 27 years ago, drawn to the mission of improving the world by helping those who are helping others. He is extremely knowledgeable and has aided people all over the world who need it most with his unique business model.
We’re not exactly sure what we would do without MX’s expert and customized help…and we don’t want to find out! Cargo Expediter Joe Fontenat is our newest shipping manager at MX and we look forward to working with him for years to come. Here’s Joe in front of the pallets ready to load them onto a container bound for Swaziland.
We are lucky to have fine partners like Missionary Expediters to help us in the difficult task of moving our books from the USA to Africa. They receive our boxes, palletize and shrink wrap them, then load them into containers bound for Africa. They also book all the complicated transportation arrangements (by truck, rail, ship, rail and truck again) from New Orleans to the final port of entry in the country where the books will find their new homes.
A visit to the warehouse is always educational. Sometimes the education is painful. Here’s what the boxes look like when the post office delivers them. Then Henry neatly stacks them onto pallets.
But when all goes well, the full boxes stack neatly on top of each other, sturdily taped and ready for the journey. Missionary Expediters is another crucial link in the chain from your American book drives to libraries in Africa. And when they’re so carefully and neatly packed, they’ll even tolerate an ALP founder having fun posing on top.
