A Few Miles Without Shoes

Some of the shoes collected today.

Often times, you can understand a person's perspective a lot better after you've walked a mile or two in their shoes (so to speak). However, today was a special opportunity for many of us to find out what it feels like to walk in someone else's shoes while walking without any at all.

Lindsey Fiscus had a brilliant idea for how to reach out to the global community. The Lord put it on her heart to collect shoe donations for those in Africa who suffer greatly from preventable injuries and diseases due to the lack of shoes. The African people have to walk everywhere; like to and from water sources to get what they need (which is another problem, clean water). The need is just SO GREAT and this is just one way to reach out and help meet that need!

Lindsey's goal was to collect at least 50 pairs of shoes. Today, 142 pairs were donated!! Praise God! The best part is, it's not over yet! For the next several weeks, she'll continue to gather more donations as she prepares to find a way to send them to those in need in Africa! If you would like to help, just drop off some shoes (or send in a special donation) to First Church of Christ.

Thirty-one people (including myself and my two children) participated in the walk today. For about three miles on the River Greenway, we walked barefoot and got to experience the pain and fatigue of what the African people go through every day. In all actuality, I think my kids fared better than I did lol. My feet were so blistered and I was struggling to keep walking during the last half. The kids were tired, but they seem to have recovered just fine (their feet don't even look beat up!). Mine are going to take a while to heal lol. However, I feel that it was more than worth it! I hope my kids will look back on this with me and better empathize with those that don't have even the most basic of needs. We don't realize how much we truly have and that there is precious little that we should ever be complaining about when we are so richly blessed in this country!

Grace and peace to you, my friends! May we all be grateful for what we have and aware of the needs around us so that we can share the excess of our own blessings! Be infused! God bless you!