Russia (MNN) — You’ve heard many times on Mission Network News that you can put feet to the Gospel, by helping various ministries. There’s no other place where that saying is even truer than with Buckner Orphan Care International’s, Shoes for Orphan Soul’s program.
Buckner’s Amy Norton says, “You can just never under estimate the power of one pair of shoes on an orphan child and the gift to that child, to have something that’s their own and something that’s new and something that warms their feet. Reaching down and putting a new pair of shoes on a child’s feet is one of the most life changing experience that you can have.”
This year Buckner hopes to collect 100,000 pairs of shoes and 150,000 next year. But, there is one problem. “To ship the shoes into Russia and other parts of the country, we need money to be able to pay for the containers to get those shoes to the children. Right now we really needing to ship some shoes into Russia and it’s about $3,000 per container.” The lack of funding is also preventing shoes from being distributed to Kenya.
This funding is going a long way to make an eternal difference in these young people’s lives. In Saint Petersburg, for instance, the shoes go to every child in every orphanage in the city. Norton says, “The opportunity that gives us to go in and share the Gospel because we have opened the door through providing shoes for these children is just tremendous. We can go in and put shoes on children’s feet and ask if we can do a vacation Bible school and the answer is almost always, yes.”
These shoes also empower the local church to get more involved in orphan outreach. They’re sorting and distributing the shoes and they’re also the ones holding the vacation Bible schools.
Your gift of $20 of can help sent nearly 75 pairs of shoes to children who may never have heard the Gospel before. If you’d like to help, go to http://www.Shoesfororphansouls.org.