(Photo courtesy Buckner International)

International (BOC/MNN) — Shoes for Orphan Souls helps the Gospel get a foot in the door.

Pun aside, for Buckner International, shoes lead to more discussions. Buckner looks at it this way: Jesus gave us the example of His own ministry by supplying the physical needs of the people He was trying to reach. In this case, shoes are a display of God’s love. Before they ever get to the child, the shoes are prayed for many times. Whoever delivers them to Buckner-sponsored kids does it because of the hope of Christ.

Why do shoes matter? In many countries where Buckner serves, children are forced to walk barefoot for miles to gather clean water, to visit a doctor, or to go to school. Diseases such as hookworm, jiggers, tetanus, and other parasites enter the body through the feet. These diseases can stunt a child’s growth and development, as well as cause life-long cognitive impairment. Walking barefoot in rocky or muddy terrain can also cause injury to a child’s feet, further opening the possibility for infection or disease.

Many schools around the world require children to wear shoes to attend, but for many poverty-stricken families, shoes are a luxury they cannot afford. Studies also show that children who are healthy are more likely to be successful in school and have higher attendance, therefore increasing their chances of obtaining critical education to succeed in life.

(Photo courtesy Buckner International)

For the orphans, new shoes are a constant and urgent need. Typically in orphanages, everyone shares everything. They do not own a single possession to their name. So when you give an orphan a new pair of shoes, it communicates love and helps them know they are special–worth remembering. Something as simple as a pair of new shoes provides hope for these children that someone out there cares about them and loves them unconditionally.

(Graphic courtesy Buckner International)

Buckner is always looking for creative ways to get more people involved. This one involves running shoes and you. When you #RUNforSHOES, you’re raising awareness and support for orphans and vulnerable children who need your help. Their goal is to raise enough funds to provide 200 children in the United States and around the world with a new pair of shoes.

Pick any day between October 3 and October 10, grab your friends, and dedicate your daily run or walk to children in need. Whether you take a walk around the block or go for a five mile run, get outside and move in support of the children we serve.

Register online today and you’ll receive a #RUNforSHOES t-shirt and a link to download your runner’s bib and a photo of a child you can choose to run for. Easy, peasy.

Hookworm infection is transmitted primarily by walking barefoot on contaminated soil.
(Photo, caption credit: CDC)

Zambia (MNN) — Hundreds of millions of Africans get diseases through their feet. Worms, parasitic fleas, and even a rare type of cancer are the cause of severe infections and, in extreme cases, death.

Yet, all of these diseases are preventable. How? It’s quite simple: shoes.

Many adults and children in Zambia have never owned a single pair of shoes. As a result, they’ve picked up diseases. On top of that, most kids aren’t allowed to attend school if they don’t have shoes to wear.

“They’re primarily village people that don’t have access to shoes, let alone the funds [to buy shoes] if they were available,” explains Helen Williams of World Missionary Press. “Life is basically just trying to feed and take care of their families.”

For decades, WMP has supplied their distribution partners in Africa with Scripture booklets, devotions, and other Christian literature. One of their newest partners, Soles for Jesus, has been raising funds for, collecting, and distributing thousands of pairs of shoes since 2009.

When the recent partnership between WMP and Soles for Jesus began, they saw great opportunities ahead and took action immediately.

“We decided [to] send a 40-foot container: half of it with shoes (8,000 pairs) and half of it with booklets–1,280,000 Scripture booklets,” says Williams.

The two ministries have been promoting, collecting, and organizing shoes and funds which will go to Zambian villages. “We’ve had great response. Churches around here have been bringing in things, and families are gathering shoes. So, it’s an exciting project for all of us.”

(Photo courtesy World Missionary Press via Facebook)

Souls for Jesus staff recently met with and washed the feet of village leaders and pastors who will receive the supplies. “It’s such a message of grace and oneness in the Body [of Christ],” Williams says. “It is reaching those who under no other circumstance would be able to have this. Physically, it just makes things easier for them…[and] this is a gift that they just in many cases wouldn’t envision having.”

With a new supply of shoes, disease rates are expected to plummet, and children will be able to attend schools. With the shoe ministry and new supply of Christian literature, villagers will see the tangible love of Christ on display and hopefully come to know their Heavenly Father.

WMP sees this partnership project with Soles for Jesus as the first of many. Be praying for the success of the distribution and for hearts to receive the Gospel message.

A week before they were scheduled to leave, Sherry heard a story about an acquaintance of a friend who had been kidnapped there. Her “mama bear” instincts revved up as their September 2013 trip with Buckner International Shoes for Orphan Souls® drew closer.

Abby, on the other hand, was too excited to be nervous. The entire family loves missions and serving others, and she had already gotten permission to miss the first week of school. They boarded their plane from New York to Tegucigalpa, but Sherry continued to question her decision to let her daughter go on the Buckner shoe trip.

The mission team’s first day of ministry took them to an impoverished area near Tegucigalpa where they made their way to an orphanage called October 21. The team was warned: this would be the toughest orphanage they’d see throughout their whole trip.

October 21 is an all-boys orphanage with older kids up to age 18. Many of them aren’t orphans in the most literal sense: their parents are alive but can’t afford to take care of them. A lot of children there have special needs, and some of the boys came to the orphanage from life on the streets. Though the orphanage staff cares deeply about the children, they have limited resources. It shows in their tattered clothes and worn shoes.

“It was just dirty and depressing,” Abby said. “There are no windows, because the kids are always trying to escape. There’s probably a 6-inch crack near the ceiling to let some light in, and there are bars up there to make sure kids can’t get out. Maybe if that orphanage had been at the end of the trip, it wouldn’t have been so bad, but it was the very first one, so it was kind of intimidating to me.

“Plus, most of the boys were my age,” she added.

The team divided into teams to form stations: shoes, memory verses, crafts, and sports.

Abby and her mom went outside to help with sports, where Abby played goalie until she got the wind knocked out of her with a soccer ball to the stomach. She watched from the safety of the sidelines until she felt a tap on her arm. She turned to see a boy about her age wearing his new shoes and holding out a photo.

“At first I thought he was just showing me that he got a photo with his shoes, because not all shoes have photos inside them,” Abby said. “And then I look and I see that it’s me. I point at myself, and he just nods.”

On average, Shoes for Orphan Souls distributes more than 150,000 pairs of new shoes each year.

“To our knowledge, this has never happened before,” said Ashley Williamson, manager of Shoes for Orphan Souls. “We sent shoes to 32 countries last year–that pair could have easily gone to Peru, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, or Haiti. But it didn’t. It went to Honduras, at exactly the same time the Schrages did.”

Abby was shocked; her family had purchased and shipped the shoes he was wearing almost a year earlier. She learned his name–Aaron–and asked him to come with her to show her mother.

“We kept thinking, ‘What are the odds that we’d be there at that moment?'” Sherry said. “One of the amazing things was that it was an older picture, from two or three years ago, so Abby didn’t even look the same; but he still recognized her.

“I wasn’t in the picture. Just five of our kids. So after that, we knew it was meant to be that Abby was there on the trip. If she hadn’t been there, he would have had no way to connect me to that picture, and we never would have known.”

Sherry said she and Abby continue to be amazed by the miraculous meeting every time they think about it.

“We told Aaron we were going to pray for him. And we do,” she said. “We pray for his safety, and we pray that he’ll come to know Jesus. We pray that he’ll realize that God did this for some reason…that he’ll see this as God being in his life and know that God cares about him so much.”

(Our thanks to Buckner International and Lauren Hollon Sturdy for allowing us to use this story.)

But 300 million children around the world will go to school this year without shoes.

That’s why Deb and Nigel Hardy from Somerset, England ditched their shoes to do a four-mile barefoot walk last week.

They wanted to raise awareness and funds for kids who don’t have any shoes. The couple set out on Monday, June 3, at 6 a.m.

“Paying far more attention to the road surface than they usually do, Deb and Nigel completed their 'feet feat' in two hours, finishing in good spirits and ready for the bowl of warm water, soap, and dry towel,” writes Hope for Kids International, a partner of Kids Alive International.

Deb and Nigel sponsor a child from Haiti through Hope for Kids International. They were accompanied on their walk by Roger Allen, director of Hope for Kids International, who wore shoes but took pictures along the way. A friend of Deb’s also joined the walk.

The couple so far has raised over 840 British pounds (around $1,300 USD) for Hope for Kids International through their walk. Click here to donate.

Kids Alive started in China in 1916 as missionaries started taking in homeless kids. Today Kids Alive has offices in Taiwan, Canada, Hong Kong, and the United States. They work to give orphaned and abandoned kids clothing, education, food, medical attention, and share God’s love.

Pray for kids around the world in need of good shoes. Pray that they may know the perfect love and healing of Jesus Christ.

Last month, VBB sent out a plea for help to raise about $15,000 for shoes. And they have announced that all has come in except about $6,000. It was just three weeks ago that they were asking for people to help with the last chunk of money.

VBB says they are very grateful for the generosity of the donors and volunteers. They are hoping that the shoes will demonstrate the love of Christ to those who do not have shoes.

Pray that God will use these shoes to demonstrate His love and protection for those in need.

Vision Beyond Borders (VBB) is hoping to raise enough money to purchase 9,000 pairs of shoes by the beginning of February. Already they are half way to their goal, but VBB's Dyann Romeijn says they are still looking for donors. "With shipping, I think we need to raise another $15,000."

VBB had an opportunity to buy "a shoe that regularly retails for $65-$70. It’s a leather shoe with a nice, solid, rubber leather sole. We were able to buy them at a discounted price for $3.50," explained Romeijn.

Last year, one of VBB's contacts went into a mountainous area in the Himalayas to share the Gospel with some unreached tribal group. During the visit, the team noticed the children did not have any clothes, and the clothes that the adults had were dirty and tattered. Romeijn noted that the ministry team "had a compassion for the people, even though the people weren't welcoming."

The following year, the team decided to bring large bags of clothing to the people–not an easy task to carry them through a very mountainous region. "The people could see how they had to labor to get all these clothes and things up to them," bringing them as gifts, Romeijn explained.

As a result, "They were not only able to share the items with the people, but the people were then open to the Gospel. They saw the love of Christ demonstrated for them and the compassion that the [ministry team] had for them, and they were open to hear the Gospel.

"We truly believe God will do the same thing with these shoes," said Romeijn. Shoes will not only "protect their feet but will be a seed–an opportunity–to show Christ's love and then to share the Gospel."

VBB's goal is to reach as many people as possible with the love of Jesus. "Some [who receive the shoes] are already believers," Romeijn says. "But we also believe that it will show them God's provision for them."

VBB teams hope to begin the shoe distributions in February.
"A lot will just be carried by teams…in areas like Romania, Egypt, and Turkey, and into the refugee camps in Nepal and Burma, and all over Southeast Asia, even into Africa” Romeijn explained.

If you would like to become involved in this project, click here. Write "shoes" in the memo line.
VBB asks for prayer that "the people will see the love and compassion of Jesus Christ in these gifts; that He will open up their eyes to see the truth."

Buckner International Project coordinator Ashley Williamson says they have a number of trips planned this year "to go and distribute through our Shoes For Orphan Souls program which takes place year-round, [but] a lot of those trips are in the summer."

Williamson says these trips can be coupled with collection projects. One is their Shoes for Orphan Souls program. The idea is to collect shoes through your church, school or civic organization; Buckner then uses the shoes to supply their teams as they head around the world. "We'll go to an orphanage or a community center in the morning, and another one in the afternoon during the week, and just spend time loving on the kids, during a Bible story or a craft."

One of the other collection programs is for hygiene kits. "That includes tooth brushes, tooth paste, shampoo, and toiletry items like that — wash cloths and a little toy for the kids."

You can find out about either taking a trip with Buckner, or hosting a collection drive by going to http://www.Buckner.org.

Not everyone can get that actively involved, however. Williamson says there is a way for you to help, too. "We covet your prayers. You can follow us online. You can also sign up for our [free] newsletter. You can also donate online to any of our programs."

Businesses, churches, organizations, and schools throughout Texas and Tennessee came together to collect shoes. Over 50,000 shoes and socks were donated for Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls. The shoes collected would go to children in the United States and around the world. One of those places was in Mexico. Buckner International sent a team of people to deliver the much-needed shoes to the children.

The first day of delivering shoes went well, but on the second day the team realized they had a problem. They would not have enough smaller-sized shoes due to the large group of children that showed up.

Upon discussing the situation with the team, Buckner Mexico Director Juan Carlos Millan made a decision. He would take down all the names of the children that did not receive shoes and deliver shoes for them the next week.

Seeing the kids go home without a pair of shoes made the team members sad. One team member recalled, "We were running out of shoes quickly, and at the end of the first group there were five pairs of size 18's…. There were four pairs of boy shoes and one pair of girl shoes."

With 27 kids, all with their old shoes already off, the members saw that they were going to have to start writing down their names. "I just started praying, 'Lord, PLEASE let each of these kids somehow get a pair of shoes.'"

The team started fitting the children with shoes, knowing the inevitable was going to happen. Some kids would leave there without shoes. "Before I knew it, we were on the last couple pairs of shoes for the kids, and I looked around and there are 20+ kids sitting around with shoes!" The busyness took hold of them, and they did not even realize that the shoes were fitting every single one of the children.

It did not make sense that every single one of the kids received a pair of shoes in the correct size. Looking at the bag with size 18 shoes, the team could not believe it. Inside the bag were five pairs of boy shoes and 5 pairs of girl shoes. They ended up with more shoes then they started with!

"It was the most amazing thing I have ever seen in my life. It's truly a miracle. A Miracle of God. It was not like they said, 'Oh here is another bag.' There were no small sizes. I can't explain it except for God just provided."

In Guatemala, Emilio
is just 4 years old, but already, he's wise and kind beyond his years.

Global Aid
Network (GAiN) has been working with a partner in Guatemala, where being poor
is a way of life. Among the 10 poorest countries in Latin America, nearly a third of
the population lives below the poverty line. Many people in this developing nation are
struggling to provide for their families, and many children go without adequate
food, shelter, and education.

Emilio and his
family are no exception. Shoes are a
luxury compared to food.

Recently, GAiN's
in-country partner distributed boots in the schools of communities where
poverty was rampant.

Emilio received a
pair of boots to protect his feet, providing protection he had not had in a
long time. The boots serve to
prevent future disease and infection in children. Since many diseases enter the body through
the feet, when a child walks through mud and filth of the slums without shoes,
they suffer anything from injuries, to severe athlete's foot to contracting life-threatening
diseases. In addition, new shoes can also
help a child go to school because wearing shoes is often a requirement.

But what Emilio
did with his new shoes was unexpected. He went home and immediately gave his boots to his cousin.

When he returned
to school with no shoes, the teachers noticed. When asked, he told them he gave
his shoes away because his cousin does not go to school, adding that he might
never have the chance to have a pair of shoes of his own. Shoes = opportunity. Opportunity means the
potential of breaking the cycle of poverty. With GAiN, that also includes the opportunity
to hear about the love of Christ for them. Who doesn't want to share that?

The teachers were
able to provide another pair of boots for this young man with a big heart. These
children witnessed God's big heart and His provision through the gift of a new
pair of boots.   

The price tag for
this kind of transformation: $3 per pair of shoes, $1,490 (plus airfare) for a
chance to deliver hope and love to these kids on a mission trip. Being
surprised by the joy of Christ = priceless.

Upon first glance, shoes might seem pretty irrelevant to world hunger. But Andrew Crawford with Food for the Hungry says shoes have a domino effect to starvation.

When a child walks around barefoot, says Crawford, he runs the risk of picking up a number of parasites from the soil. "These worms highjack a child's nutrition [as they are] delivered into kids' frail bodies through what little food they do eat. Worms become a leading contributor to global hunger and malnutrition."

Crawford adds, "Around the world, over 2 billion people are suffering from the scourge of intestinal parasites."

That issue is only enhanced by the large number of kids without shoes: "As we have traveled through Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, it really is very rare to see children wearing anything on their feet. They've grown up for so long just walking around in their bare feet and thinking that becoming sick is normal."

FH would like that to change! The ministry has just announced that to combat this serious and easily preventable issue, they will be partnering with the shoe company, God Feet.

FH already works with the Burundian government to host de-worming clinics for impoverished kids around the nation. As their clinics are conducted this December, kids will get something extra.

"When the children are being treated for intestinal parasites, they're also going to be receiving a pair of shoes," says Crawford. "That will hopefully prevent them from being infected by parasites such as ascaris, whipworm, and hookworm, which enter the body through the kids' skin or their mouth."

So what does all this have to do with spreading the name of Christ? Crawford says one of the main ways FH gets the word out about the clinics is through the local church. It's vital that the church be seen as involved with this sort of practical need, says Crawford. The church is associated with loving the community's children, opening great doors for eternal transformation.

The God Feet shoe distribution and FH de-worming will take place this December. If you want to help give toward the project, click here.