Q: For our family is it better to ship our furniture overseas or to buy replacements on the field?

Containers may be shipped overseas for around $2500 to $4500 for 20 to 40 foot containers. I have heard stories of missionaries getting good deals at military bases overseas as soldiers leave and have to sell a lot of furniture when they leave. If you go to the field overseas you may ask questions regarding new or used furniture or visit furniture stores ( if available). You may see my Overseas Shipping Resources info at http://www.missionresources.com/overseas.html for some other helpful info and resources.

Disclaimer: The following answer has not been reviewed or edited.

We shipped a washer and dryer and a minimum of furniture to Colombia. Later we shipped the same plus more furniture from there to Guatemala. In the end we decided we would never ship furniture again. It really depends on where you are going, the ministry you will be involved in, and your mission’s policies.

If you will be in a city or country with access to a good assortment of furniture, it works to buy most of your household furnishings there. The process of buying furniture overseas is a great cross-cultural experience and gets you acquainted with the realities of business in another country. View it as part of your enculturation process.

With appliances, the voltage in your destination country is crucial, but the quality is also important. Note the cycles of the electricity in country. Electrical timers like those in washing machines usually work off of the cycles and are affected (60 cycles in the US versus 50 cycles in some of Latin America). Electronic timing devices like those in microwaves and stoves usually aren’t affected. Missionaries on that field can give good advice.

An advantage to buying furniture where you are going is that the nationals who visit you will feel more at home in your house if your place looks like and is furnished like theirs. These small things decrease the distance between you and them. Your glad acceptance of the nationals and the way you share your home with them will of course still be the most critical component.

An added note: When you ship things, you pay to pack them, pay to move and store them, pay to ship them, pay customs upon receiving them, and then patiently try to recoup what was broken or lost in shipping. In our move from Colombia to Guatemala, we had an excellent company and most things arrived well, but we paid almost as much as the items were worth for shipping, and then the same amount again in import expenses (to our surprise). But there was a catch, our organization allowed us to raise funds to ship anything and everything but did not allow us to raise funds to buy things at the new location. If you sold off your stuff at garage sale prices that was all you had to replace them with in the new location. We literally shipped the waste baskets because we couldn’t afford to replace things. Odd, but true.