On Friday, we spent a good portion of the morning fitting the children for shoes.  We brought about 100 pairs of Crocs and sandals with us from the States in various sizes.  Since we have 34 sponsored children at the Carepoint, we figured that we would cover all of the bases if we brought plenty of different sizes and a large number of shoes.  Of course, the need for shoes was overwhelming as at least half of the kids were barefoot.  You could hardly say that the kids that did have something on their feet were wearing shoes.  These are kids that walk many miles a day across very rough terrain.  We used our bus as our “fitting room” for the shoes.  Two of the guys were acting as stock boys in the bus sorting the shoes by size and style.  The kids quietly came through in groups of two and were fitted for their new sandals.  But before the kids were fitted for their new sandals, the ladies cleaned their feet and even treated their feet for cuts and scratches.  Even though we brought what we thought would be more than enough shoes in a huge array of sizes, we were reminded of our insufficiencies when we began to have to improvise as more teenage kids came and we ran out of larger sizes.  The kids seemed unfazed as we had to improvise by cutting the lining out of some of the shoes or cutting the toes out of the front of the sandals.  They were just so thankful.  As I watched the ladies hold these children and fit them for shoes, I was reminded what it means to be a servant leader.  While these shoes will not last forever, our prayer is that these children will experience the love of Christ which will last for eternity.

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