The Warehouse

Well this is my blog for Aug 5th, more than two weeks ago. Its funny how even though this day was so long ago I can still remember every moment of it. My mind can play it back almost like a movie. I guess that’s what happens when you meet incredible people with huge hearts and spirits. You make life memories that you will remember for the rest of your life. Those three weeks were filled with lessons, sights, and stories that I know we will look back on forever. The memories will make us laugh, cry, smile, and lift us up during hard times and good times.

After briefly working with The Warehouse staff previously we were fortunate to come back for a second day. Once again we started the morning off with prayer and worship. It’s so interesting how different our forms of worship are. At The Warehouse they stand in a circle and pray out loud all at the same time in whatever language they feel like. Another thing that is different is they do not plan out the songs they are singing that day. One person can just start singing a song they love or one that is in their heart and everyone will join. People also share inspirational bible verses. Although we may see it as unstructured compared to our weekly Sunday routines, it is a great way to express your love for God and just be open. The atmosphere is really stunning in how it lets you really feel connected and almost alone with God. It was great to experience a different form of worship. We also broke out into small groups with the staff and discussed our struggles and hopes for the future. Some people at The Warehouse have grown up in townships and informal settlements. It’s astonishing how selfless many of these people are because some of them have had such tough lives and live in rough conditions but they still focus and dedicate everything they have to the community. The staff has high goals for all of the communities and will never give up on them no matter how difficult it is. The dedication and hearts of everyone in Africa never fails to amaze us daily!

The Warehouse partners with many different churches. The churches reach out and notify The Warehouse what supplies people in their community are in need of. The Warehouse helps enable churches to aid the poor which ultimately leads to showing more people Christ’s love and getting them involved with the church. They are so humble and try to give all the praise and attention to the churches and God. We were happy to assist in any way possible. We were given three different tasks. Some people packed and sealed protein bags for families. Others made toiletry care packages with soap, deodorant, toothpaste, toilet paper, and laundry detergent. And everyone else sorted through donated clothes. We had a blast as always while incorporating some work and play where we invented Packing and Sealing Inc., played dress up, or played mind ball after the hard work was over. Gersh also provided a delicious lunch of Gatsbys, bunny chows (half a loaf of bread with the inside replaced by beef curry), Samoosas (meat and vegetables in a folded, triangular pastry), and CHICKEN FEET! Besides the chicken feet everything was wonderful. Some of us were brave-or crazy-enough to try the gross chicken feet which no one was a fan of.

After our work at The Warehouse we went and visited Zach’s work at Scripture Union. We finally got to see what Zach has been up to these last three months and see his office area and coworkers. We probably mildly embarrassed him since we are always fanatical whenever we get to see him. Its been great to see him after three months. Following our visit we went to Sinnful to have the daily, well deserved 2-3 scoops of ice-cream =] and then spent the rest of our evening with our host families.

Each and every day was such a gift! As we look back I pray we will learn life lessons and discover deeper meanings of the relationships that we built and events that occurred. Being present was half the task. Now relating it to life in America and bringing back our new knowledge will be the real challenge.

Lots of love,
Nikki Valiga