Shoes, Shoes, Shoes!

One thing I love about my family is how spontaneous we are. Homeschooling gives us a lot more freedom to just up and do things that we want to do! Take Monday for example. Our “Uncle” Paul has been collecting shoes from people at our church to send to the missionaries in Haiti. The “Haiti Closet” in our church basement has been filling up quickly with donations and donated cardboard boxes. But since Uncle Paul is now at another church preparing to become the Children’s Director, he hasn’t been able to handle the donations coming from our church. He’s also just about the busiest person on the planet that I know! J

 

Because our family is preparing for Thanksgiving and having a revolving-door sort of weekend with lots of guests coming in and out, we took the week off of school. Monday morning Mom emailed Uncle Paul and asked if we could go to the church and pack up some of the shoes for him. A few hours later we got the go-ahead from him. We left five minutes later, bound for church!

 



This was the state of the closet when we got there. It was definitely full!

 

We pulled out all the donated boxes and all the bags of shoes from the room into a Sunday school room across the hall so that we’d have more room to work.

Photo Credit: Roma.

Our operation spread clear down the hallway.

Photo Credit: Roma.

We ripped open dozens of bags of shoes and organized them. Shoes that just weren’t nice enough to send, shoes without matches, and good shoes with matches.

Photo Credit: Roma.

While some people unpacked, sorted, and matched shoes, others started packing the boxes. I think the record for the number of pairs of shoes in one box was 50 pairs.

Photo Credit: Roma.

Part way through, Ben and I had to run out to Wal-Mart to buy more packing tape. We had been expecting to run out of boxes or shoes, but not tape! Once we were finished (when we used up all the boxes we had), we had packed 17 large cardboard boxes as full as we could. We still had two suitcases full of leftover good shoes to send to Haiti. We also had about 200 pairs of dress-type shoes that will be donated to a local shelter (we chose not to send them because they’re just not as practical for the mountain terrain.) And we’re still expecting another truck-load of shoes from another church!

 

We hadn’t been expecting to have quite that many boxes, so we made a quick phone call to Uncle Paul to ask what he wanted us to do with them. In the end, he came to church and helped us move all the boxes into a utility room temporarily until he can start to ship them.

 

17 boxes and 3 ½ hours of work later, we were able to pack 530 pairs of shoes!! God’s provision is incredible!

We chatted with Uncle Paul for awhile before saying goodbye. Since it was so late, our family continued its spontaneous streak by going to Taco Bell for dinner. It ended up being a rather cold experience for me. I don’t recommend dumping ice water in your lap at the beginning of the meal. Just something to keep in mind for your future comfort.J