Hampers for Refugees - Beyond my Expectations

By Jack Chui

Last Sunday which is my last Sunday in Melbourne for the year we went to for our last refugee visits for the year. As part of Friends of Refugees, throughout the year, I have been scheduling visits to the refugees staying outside detention about one Sunday a month. Its not a difficult event to organise as all it requires is volunteers with cars if possible and a list of addresses/families to visit. Previously it was hard to find new families to visit but with our links the Detention Centre and a relationship with Red Cross we had heaps of addresses (some which were too far to reach...) and then it was a case of not having so many volunteers to help with the visits.. Still - God provided 'enough' to see us through.

A month before, Andrea from STAY who had come with us a few times for Moving Day raised a brilliant suggestion to make some hampers to give to the refugee families. I had not thought of what to do leading up to Christmas for the refugee home visits so it came as a welcome suggestion. Last year, Father Peter had bought $1000 worth of Christmas cakes whom a refugee family made to sell and we gave those to many families.

I had no idea how to put hampers together, but if Andrea could lead the charge then who was I to stop her? I think I am a bit tired of doing most of the work in preparing and this idea looked too much for me so it was nice to let Andrea take the lead with this one. My expectations of it was similar to last year - to visit about 20 house with a few cars to wish each family well and Merry Christmas but boy was I in for a shock...

Andrea through STAY managed to bring the rest of STAY along the mission to raise funds, design and purchase the hampers and plan the delivery of the hampers. The big group went ballistic in asking friends and the church for donations so much so that I was a bit worried about what to do with the excess funds (I don't like to hold donated money because it should be used). They raised more than enough for 40 hampers and 20 presents for the children at which I told them that it was probably enough and that it would be too much to do any more!

One worry for limiting them was the number of families we knew we could reach and distribute them. Each time I was notified of how much we received and how many hampers we could create meant that the distribution list and paths would need to increase. I left poor Nicole to deal with most of the changes and I probably caused her more grief with my additional requirements and unresponsiveness to her questions. Nicole went the extra step to contact the families to let them know we were coming on Sunday to visit them - a step I had not put into my process myself as I was used to visiting unannounced.

I'm glad that I let the group rather than myself lead this project because I realise that my ambitions were limited and would have limited the potential of the Secret Santa. With the greater number of people (that I was too proud to ask for help) they could do so much more and their aims were sky high. They went to shopping centres all around Melbourne just to find the right items within budget to fit into the stockings and boxes. There was more than enough donations to give each family a $30 food voucher which would be flexible for the family's needs. They also gathered 9 cars to be able to make the deliveries in one afternoon and enough volunteers for at least 2 in each car - I have never had so many volunteers help out for such one of our events!

What resulted was what I and probably many who were able to help deliver the hampers could describe as a wonderful day. Each car had 'only' 5 addresses to visit all around the same location which meant we could spend some time with each family rather than stay at the door to give them the present and then run off again.  Most of the time I would be managing the timings or the moving of items such that I would not do much if any of the talking to the families, so it was nice this time to be able make myself uncomfortable and engage with the family to just be their friend.

I expected about 25% of the addresses to have no one home and therefore some of the hampers would not be given away, but in the end only few hampers were left because just about every family we had planned to visit welcomed us in. I had plans to give the rest to Father Peter so in his other visits, he could give them to those families but this wasn't needed. The experiences I was privileged to hear about were all very positive and it was a joy to hear from them and how some were touched the experiences. I hope to share some of these in the next post.

Through it all, I kept in mind that the hampers were not the focus of visit. This is not to downplay the good work that was put to getting them together. The main gift I wanted to give was that of Jesus because at Christmas, I'm reminded, more than the presents that I don't need or want to receive, is that I need the gift of Jesus to be renewed in my heart and also to share it with the refugees who need hope more than material needs. I wanted to also give them my time and company which I think is my most scare resource in my busy life. While it might be a precious gift for me to give and some of the refugee families may not appreciate it as so, I think it gives Jesus a chance to reach them through me and the volunteers.

The hampers were of great aid in breaking the ice to visit some of the families and it they were received warmly. I wish to say a big thanks to the production team for bringing it together and preparing the way for such a wonderful and smooth day for all the drivers and volunteers. I know I've named Andrea and Nicole in this but my thanks includes everyone who helped out big or small. Thanks also for putting up with me and my tense moments. I am so glad that there are people much better than me at doing all these things and that they are so generous in helping in this last visit. Thanks also to the fundraisers and the people who donated - I hope you can see through this blog the good and amazing things which come from your generosity.

God has worked his wonders through us once more through STAY and Friends of Refugees. Thanks be to God and thanks also for the prayers which made this day most wonderful and beyond my expectations.

Some photos of the of the team creating the hampers -