Paul and Sheri Moreland have been serving in South America as full time
missionaries for the past 23 years. Paul is one of the moderators here on
the forum. He posts as "AmBraCol". They were first stationed in rural
Brazil and now are living and working in urban Colombia. They have been
working as direct support missionaries and do their best to live as
close to the same level as the people with whom they are working as
possible. In Brazil this lead them to living on an income of $75 a
month for some time.
One issue that has come up is the issue of being able to adequately
defend themselves and those to whom they are ministering should social
order break down for any of a number of reasons. Colombia suffers from
a marxist rebel instigated civil war, a conflict reaching back over 40
years. Their "neighbor to the east" is the always volatile Hugo Chavez
and they live on the central range of the Andes mountains, an area prone
to earthquakes. Any of these could cause a situation in which they
would need to provide security for themselves and those under their
care. Daily there is also the possibility of needing to defend
themselves in their home from folks who might wish them harm.
BJ Snow donated one of his knives to help in raising funds for this
need. He describes the knife as follows:
The knife has a blade of Brad Vice damascus, 512 layers of 6 different
steels plus some pure nickel. The handle is cocobolo, a king size South
American cousin of poison ivy. The guard is carved from a large bronze
bushing I salvaged from an old machine in a cotton gin factory years ago.
BJ Snow built this most excellent knife, Rick Gittlein tooled the
sheath, Rob Leahy did the leather finish. Together we have all donated
our efforts to assist Paul in raising enough money to purchase a self
defense shotgun (or second pistol) in Colombia. We cannot import a
shotgun into Colombia, or this would have been done long ago, by several
of us. Colombia notorious for the drug gangs and kidnappings. Paul was
accosted by a couple of guys on the street recently.
This knife & sheath/combo was created specifically as a fund raiser for
Paul. All the money will go right to Paul. The knife: it handles so
well, quick and well balanced in the hand. The contoured walnut handle
feel perfect. BJ Snow sells these knives for $1,500. The one he donated
to Jim Taylor raised over $2,000 for Jim's mission to Africa.
This big beautiful blade is in my gun safe but it should really be on
someone's wall or display case.
I am going to do at least 3 draws; first for the BJ Snow knife.
BJ Snow Damascus blade Bowie, Rick Gittlein Sheath
A sharkskin Sourdough for a revolver
Second for a sharkskin holster and ammo pouch,
third for a Cold Steel blade a folding Skinner (120) value).
All of the proceeds will go to Paul's mission fund so that he can pick up a self defense shotgun.
There is no legal way to send Paul a gun from the US or I (And several others) would have done this already.
Send a 50.00 check made payable to Paul Moreland
to enter no limit as to how many times you enter:-)
My address PO Box 10700 Prescott, AZ 86304
contact me at
rob at simplyrugged dot com with any questions.
I feel honored.