Shoes For Orphan Souls

The night before our Shoes For Orphan Souls collection was to begin

I sat on the couch searching through video after video

My prayer was that I would pick just the right one that would awaken people

to this great need. That perhaps this video would ignite a passion in someone's

heart that would be life changing. I know...a lot of pressure on a VIDEO :)

As the video played during the service on Sunday I quickly realized that I

had forgotten my paper with a nice bullet point message

As quickly as that reality hit , the Lord  reminded me it was NOT about human efforts 

OR A VIDEO :)

After I said..whatever it was that I said

the shoe collection officially began :)

I had no idea what was in store for me this year.

I know that every year the Father uses this ministry to speak to my heart

This year has been amazing and extremely personal.

The lessons have been deeper than ever and the love for this amazing

ministry and their mission has grown exponentially

Shortly after the kick off to our shoe drive all of the families with little ones in

Chloe and Eli's orphanage were informed that their orphanage was dealing with an

infestation of jiggers. There were three families that were with their children

in DRC picking them up. Two of the families had to take their little ones

to the doctor to have these removed. The doctors were unable to remove them in their office ( from what I gather ) and the children

were sent to the hospital to have surgery.

The families were each charged $1000 and waited for an entire day

to have the surgery. After the surgery their children's feet and hands were bandaged and they

were sent back to the guest home with their new family.

Here is a picture of one little boy's foot

Please don't take the easy way out and simply scroll through this picture

I would ask you to LOOK at it

This little boy simply ran around an orphanage playing

What could have prevented this from happening

SHOES

This reality hit me like a ton of bricks

I had just gone out and bought my kids shoes for school and didn't really think twice about it

we walked in the store, picked the ones they wanted and bought them.

It was that easy

SHOES would have prevented this little boy from getting jiggers so badly in his feet that a doctor couldn't get to them without surgery. Shoes that I had just strolled in and selected based on color and comfort. 

NOT NECESSITY

As soon as I heard the news that their orphanage had been affected by these bugs,

I immediately went to each photo that we had been given. I sat there just crying over

every picture that did not reveal anything. I wanted to know if they had them

Our director said most likely yes. She said that most all children would be affected.

However, I wanted to KNOW. I went to each photo and zoomed in on their feet.

 Then I saw this photo of Chloe

I had come across it earlier and we thought she must have hurt her foot

She is crying and holding her foot in a few of the photos

Now with this news we assumed that she too had the same issues going on with her little feet

Talk about irrational! The mommy in me was checking into savings accounts and seeing what it would cost to GET TO HER!

I was sitting here crying and feeling as though I could do nothing!

I just began asking friends and family to pray

That is ALL that I knew to do

 I was able to call my sister and share with her. She was  sad but had enough

sanity in her to remind me that the first 2 years of these children's lives, I wasn't there.

She spoke TRUTH IN LOVE! Who was I to think that my presence was greater than HIS?

She gently brought me back from the edge of heading to Congo with not a sane bone in my body 

The next wave of news was equally sad 

One of the families shared that the other children may not be treated because they are 

"just orphans"

While Chloe and Eli have a mommy that is sitting and praying for their safety, health and care each night...they are currently 2 out of 147 million orphans. Children that are not seen, Children that are not heard, children that are not even able to have infected feet cared for. That is the realistic life of an orphaned child.... MY CHILD.

I have no doubt that this all happened when it did for a purpose. 

Two of the children had their parents there to take them to the hospital and care for them

For me it has grown my faith and once again tested my ability to trust in God's mighty power. 

One of the larger understandings is that there are children EVERYWHERE that are dealing with 

these issues. There is such an easy solution to this problem.

SHOES

It seems so simple. 

All you have to do is purchase a pair of shoes, shoe laces or socks. They are then distributed all over the globe to children that have NO other way of receiving such a gift. 

We are the body of Christ here on earth. If WE are not showing Christ to these children...

WHO IS

Give a pair of shoes so that ONE child would hear the name of Jesus