David and LuzEliana Gutmann met Brother Regis Fust, SDS and toured the Salvatorian Mission Warehouse in July 2007.  They also asked Brother Regis if he could deliver several pallets loaded with goods intended for the missions in San Nicolas, Chile.

     Since then, David and LuzEliana and their daughters, Andrea and Amy, have moved to San Nicolas and are sharing the lives of the people there.  As a child growing up in Chile, LuzEliana recalls receiving shipments of food, medicine, and clothing from the Mission Warehouse.

     How difficult is it to give away some of your favorite possessions to people you don't know who live thousands of miles from you? Aside from the logistics of transportation, it's not as difficult as it may seem.

     After deciding that it would be good for our family to live in my wife's country of Chile for a couple of years, to experience the culture and get to know her family better, our daughters Andrea and Amy were faced with some tough decisions. Which of their favorite toys, stuffed animals, clothes, and books would they want to give to the needy people of Chile? We realized that, like many families from the United States, we had a lot more things than we needed. Rather than having an "everything-must-go" yard sale before leaving, we decided to look into how we could give many of our household items, toys, and clothes to the people of Chile.

     We had heard about Casa Ursulina (http://www.casaursulina.org/about_us/) in Chillán, Chile, founded and directed by Sister Mimi Ballard, OSU, and learned that many of the items she receives from the United States in support of her ministry to women and children are shipped through the Salvatorian Mission Warehouse. We talked with Brother Regis by phone, and he told us how we could transport boxes of goods to Chile. We drove from our home in Cincinnati up to New Holstein, Wisconsin, combining a family vacation with the delivery. Before long our items were on their way to South America.

     While looking around the Mission Warehouse, we were all very impressed with the dedication of the workers, who quickly divided up boxes of donations into smaller units for distribution to mission sites throughout the world. We felt grateful to have our items included in the same shipment as the toiletries, clothing, and food that had been donated to the Mission Warehouse from around the country.

     We arrived in Chile quite a while before the donated goods arrived, and we were surprised at how little we needed during our first months here. In fact, we had far beyond what we needed to make us comfortable. How many clothes can one wear during a week, or how many toys did our daughters really play with in one day? It was a good lesson in learning to live with less.

     Meanwhile, as we looked around the homes in Chile, we noticed how uncluttered they were. Most children have a handful of toys and use the same set of clothes several times per week. We felt pleased when our boxes arrived and we were able to distribute them to many families in need of things that we had taken for granted. We left several boxes at Casa Ursulina, where Sister Mimi assured us that the families they serve would benefit from what they contained.

     We distributed other boxes to families in Chillán and in my wife LuzEliana's hometown of San Nicolás. Toys and stuffed animals, kitchen supplies, clothes, towels, and bed sheets were considered treasures as we passed them around. As our daughter Amy said, "I gave away some clothes that still fit on me and some toys and stuffed animals that I still played with, but I decided to give them to other people because I realized they'd appreciate them even more than I would. Or at least I hope they will."

     Andrea added, "When my parents told me I had to pick out items to send to Chile, I picked out some old stuff I didn't like and didn't use much. But later on, once my parents told me how much these kids would like our clothes, toys, and books, I realized how selfish I was being, and I decided to pack some more items that I really liked and still used."

     It's clear to us that we still have a lot more things than we need around our house, and we have more luxuries than most Chileans do. But we don't feel overwhelmed by what we have, and hopefully we've provided some useful items to families that really need them. We are grateful for the Salvatorian Mission Warehouse and the good service they provide in shipping donated items to needy people around the world.