Shoes, shoes and more shoes!

From the time I was a little girl, shoes have always played an important role in my life. (I think I owe it all to Cinderella.)  Oh how I loved getting my brand new, white, little, Easter shoes!   I'd slip them over my pudgy feet, and click around the kitchen floor, just staring at my perfect "Mary Jane" shoes, and occasionally bumping into a wall or two.  When I sat down, I was very careful not to cross my ankles, because that always made a black scuff mark. (Cinderella didn't have scuff marks on her glass slippers.) If my worst nightmare did come true, and a black scuff mark should appear,  I'd rush to the linen closet, grab a face cloth, and rub that meanie out until I practically wore a hole in the side of my shoe.  I wanted my shoes to stay perfectly white.  I think every little girl's favorite part on Cinderella is when her tiny, flawless foot slips into that perfect glass slipper. Everyone cheers, and we're all convinced that the perfect shoe really can make a "happily ever after."  There is something so magical when the right foot meets the right shoe. 

Sadly, not everyone knows that feeling.  As a matter of fact, not everyone gets to experience the feeling of the perfect shoes, or any shoes.  In America, the perfect shoe makes the outfit.  In Uganda, the perfect shoe keeps the "jiggers" out.  Jiggers are tiny sand fleas that live in the ground.  As children run along the dirt roads, these jiggers attach themselves to their unsuspecting victims and then the awful nightmare begins. The jiggers burrow deep into these precious feet and lay their eggs. These egg sacks need to be removed. If they aren't, the infection and pain multiplies. The saddest part...all this could have been prevented if these children just had a pair of shoes... not perfect, white, Easter shoes, just any pair of shoes!

Sole Hope was born out of the hearts of Dru and Asher Collie. They simply could not see this as "someone else's problem."  Instead, they made it personal.  They took seriously Jesus' call to "treat others the way you would want to be treated."  Sole Hope's mission is to,
"offer hope, healthier lives and freedom from foot-related diseases through education, jobs and medical relief."

 David Livingston, missionary to Africa, once said,  "Sympathy is no substitute for action."
Sole Hope agrees.


To see how you can make a difference in the lives of these little ones, please click here.

"How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" -Romans 10:5