By Shirley Shim
When Refugee Outreach first started at St Augustine's, I must say I had my reservations about participating. I used to wonder about the genuineness of some of the refugees - were they really asylum seekers escaping persecution in their countries or were they just migrants coming into Australia under false pretence? In my own faith journey the past few months, I have learnt that it is not my place to judge anyone and not to question their reasons and intentions but instead to just offer whatever help I can.
So here I was on my second moving day. I enjoyed my first moving day and was really looking forward to the second. Having visited the refugees the week before to find out what they needed, the thought of finally delivering the goods were quite exciting. Right after the home visits, I decided to send an email to my colleagues to check if anyone had additional items lying around in their houses which they wanted to donate. One of my overzealous colleague decided to forward my email on to the whole building and I ended up with an overwhelming response of donations, which at that time I was afraid that we could not collect everything and we might end up disappointing some people. Through the collective responses from everyone in church who helped spread the word, we ended up with so much that the organisers had to arrange for 3 trucks! And that has got to be the biggest Man with a Van truck I have ever seen.
It was just fantastic seeing the amount of donations and the numerous volunteers giving up their Sunday for a good cause. It was especially gratifying that my Muslim friend Syed wanted to volunteer with us as well and when I told him it was organised by the church, his response was that it doesn't matter who organises it, what's important is the work for the refugees - something that probably would never have happened back in Malaysia as it was taboo for Muslims there to step into church.
My day started early on moving day. Since I had already gone for mass the night before I decided to help with sorting as well. Karla was so organised, first getting us to split up all items into 6 different corners of the room - Kitchenware, bedding & linen, clothes, toys, shoes, 'for the bin'. Next splitting the clothes into men's, women's and children, and respective piles for tops, bottoms, winter wear. Once we had them all in their piles and corners, we consulted the board for the dynamics of the refugees on the 3 routes and rearranged them into Truck #1, #2 and #3 corners. By the time mass ended at 11.45am, everything that was left at St Joseph's was sorted, divided into the 3 routes and was ready to be piled into the cars. By that time we were all starving and the sandwiches and samosas that were made and donated by Alex were simply delicious.
When the trucks started rolling in, we were psyched and raring to go. Route#3 headed far west to Werribee and Hoppers Crossing. Unfortunately at the first home we visited, Ravi and his wife were out, and we were a little disappointed we could not leave much for them. Our next home was Wahidi who was from Afghanistan, he is such a soft spoken and humble man, I was very pleasantly surprised when he declined our offer of lentils as he said he has enough. I was impressed that this man who had probably been living in need while he was at the detention centre was so considerate to only take what he needed and nothing more, leaving the rest for the homes that came after. Kebede from Eritrea was the same, he didn't want to take any more than what he needed. Maybe a hard life teaches us to only accept what we need, not what we want, and leave the excess for others - both of them certainly taught me something.
By the time the sun had set we had emptied at least two thirds of our Hertz truck, and taken on the rest from the Man with a Van trailer. We had given out so much and yet still ended up with half a truck for Salvos, it just goes to show the enormous generosity of our donors. At the end of the day we were extremely exhausted, but felt satisfied and blessed that moving day went really well. It was certainly fulfilling and I'm sure the other volunteers felt as much joy, love and gratitude being able to serve God and others.
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