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Clothes, mattresses, blankets, and barrettes are now as much a part of the program as sinks, windows, and paint. "We even received flatware from United Airlines after 9/11, because they had to get rid of the sharp utensils," Mantel says.

Just six years after its founding, Storehouse moved into the black financially. It now has more than 300 corporations contributing $6 million worth of building and other materials annually, and 2,500 volunteers, in addition to the help supplied by churches and ministries.

Victory Outreach in San Dimas, California, is one Storehouse customer. Like many other Storehouse partners, Victory Outreach uses the materials both for its own needs and to assist those the ministry serves. An international church and relocation ministry, it works with former convicts and "the down-and-outer, the lost, the unlovable," says Pastor Ramon Castro. Victory Outreach also builds local churches in hurting communities, one of which Castro leads, along with a rehabilitation center, on Chicago's South Side. He has seen results of the ministry first-hand: His own home is a rehabilitation home. A typical Storehouse shopper, Castro and the ministry he leads depend on supplies they regularly pick up at the store. Castro has worked in ministry for 22 years and has been with Storehouse since its inception. "A lot of our guys who go to our rehab homes, they never worked," Castro says, "so we use Christian places like this to learn how to work."

Storehouse provides more than home-building materials to Victory Outreach. "The products they give us for the residents are worth a lot of money: toothbrushes, blankets, clothes," Castro says. "That alone has been a tremendous blessing." Storehouse materials are also used for ministry buildings, providing new windows, floors, and paint.

While Victory Outreach has been with Storehouse since the beginning, the newest Storehouse in Picayune, Mississippi, is just beginning its work with survivors of Hurricane Katrina. The Dallas Storehouse was the original distribution center for World Vision relief to Hurricane Katrina refugees. "Immediately, when the levees broke … our partners, who are churches and nonprofits, started serving families," says Phyllis Freeman, World Vision's interim director of disaster response. "We opened the Storehouse in Picayune because we needed a location that was strategically close to the Mississippi coastline as well as New Orleans."

The Picayune Storehouse launched on May 25, 2005, with a 43,000-square-foot building. Partner organizations, including the National Hockey League and Garth Brooks's Teammates for Kids Foundation, contributed to Hurricane Katrina relief and were part of the ceremonies. "The response has been a wonderful blessing," says Freeman. "But people are still struggling to rebuild; families are still struggling to get home."

In August 2006, Storehouse distributed 8,200 backpacks stuffed with school supplies to Gulf Coast–area children.

The Storehouse's expansion over the years is due, in large part, to the business partners who helped launch the ministry in the first place—a group called the "Wise Guys."

Nicknamed for their business acumen and desire to serve the poor, the Wise Guys helped develop Storehouse's self-sustaining model. For Dave Jackson, the group has become a means of using his gifts for Christ. "There's a certain dignity that comes from buying new things," he says.

As Pastor Ramon Castro says, "We want people to know that they're impacting people's lives. … I know for my church, for my ministry, it's been a real blessing."

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August 2007, Vol. 51, No. 8