By Lauren Hollon Sturdy
Buckner International

TYLER, Texas—Despite his age, Zack Lawson sounds as professional and polished as if he’s been in the “real world” for years. He’s been dealing with school administrations, tax forms and presentations a lot lately, which could have something to do with the 17-year-old’s mature demeanor.

Lawson recently wrapped up a 10-school shoe drive, a project that took eight months from inception to completion.  The drive fulfilled one of his requirements for the International Baccalaureate Programme, a college preparatory program for high school students that stresses global understanding and community service. Shoes for Orphan Souls appealed to Lawson as the focus for his service project because it benefits children and has a global reach.

When he looked into ways others had conducted shoe drives, he realized a citywide drive or one involving local radio stations was probably out of reach. But his dad worked in a local elementary school and Lawson knew they were working on rallying around service through Rachel’s Challenge, focusing on teaching the kids kindness and compassion through service.

He thought Shoes for Orphan Souls would go over well in schools because the focus is children, and it meshed perfectly with the themes of kindness, compassion and generosity that schools were already emphasizing.

“It would give the schools a tangible rallying point for this idea of Rachel’s Challenge,” he said.

He presented the project to the elementary school counselors at one of their monthly meetings. They all loved it.

Cutting through the red tape and paperwork to get the project approved by the district wasn’t so easy, but Lawson persevered, getting the required signatures, making phone calls and recruiting the help of his International Baccalaureate supervisor.

In the end, the shoe drive was approved and 10 elementary schools out of 17 in the district participated. They collected 500 pairs of shoes, 1,026 pairs of socks and 218 pairs of shoelaces. He got some monetary donations, too.

“I had no idea how to file the monetary donations, buy shoes and do tax returns,” he said. “My mom helped me do all that, and she helped me maximize the money to purchase more shoes.”

On January 14, they loaded down a pickup truck with 31 boxes filled with shoes, socks and laces, and Lawson and his parents drove it from Tyler to the Shoes for Orphan Souls warehouse in Dallas.

“It was nice to bring closure to something I initially doubted would ever get off the ground,” he said. “January 14th was a date I’d been looking forward to ever since I packed the last shoe and counted the last sock. I’ll miss all the wonderful teachers and students I’d met in the course of promoting the drive and collecting the donations. Without them, these past 8 months wouldn’t have been the success that it was.”

After he graduates this spring, Lawson hopes to attend college at the University of Texas at Austin, where he plans to study biomedical engineering.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story was taken from an Oct. 23 post on the DiRuggiero family’s travel blog.

We have just completed our last full day of shoe ministry in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Our “Shoes For Orphan Souls” mission team (30 of us from Georgia, Tenn., and Illinois) have cleaned and adorned nearly 800 pairs of little feet with new socks and shoes. 

Working with abandoned children collected from the city streets, poor kids in mountain-side villages and orphans in private and government facilities, we have touched, hugged and tickled children that God has not forgotten and sent us to show his love.

As a father, it has been difficult to lie in my hotel bed each night and remember all the faces of kids who are falling asleep with no parent to tuck them into bed.  I praise God that I have experienced these days with my wife and kids.  I wouldn’t trade this past week for any amount of gold or silver. 

Pray that every shoe placed on a foot will never wear thin or fall apart. Pray that the seeds of the gospel will take root in the lives of these precious children. Pray that our family will respond to these experiences with humbleness before God and a desire to know Him more deeply.

Douglas and Karen DiRuggiero and their children, Ben, Kate and Margaret, are spending this school year traveling the world for a month at a time engaging in mission work as a family. They went to Oaxaca, Mexico, on a mission trip with Shoes for Orphan Souls Oct. 15-22.  Read about their travels on their blog at http://onecrazyyear.tumblr.com/.

By Lauren Hollon Sturdy
Buckner International

DALLAS – Outside the Dallas Convention Center, thousands of people huddled together, wrapped in blankets, waiting for 8:30 a.m. when the doors would open for the 8th Annual Christmas Gift 2011.

“We were told that some people even came the night before and camped out to make sure they had a good spot in line,” said Brittany Sumrall, volunteer coordinator for Shoes for Orphan Souls®, the largest humanitarian aid project of Buckner International. “This event fills such an important need in our community.”

Christmas Gift, an event run by Operation Care International, served more than 8,000 homeless people, veterans and low-income families last weekend with gifts, new clothes, warm meals, haircuts and new shoes. Buckner has participated in the event since it began in 2004 and donated more than 4,500 pairs of new shoes this year.

“The shoes provided are an incredible help to this ministry,” said Susie Jennings, founder of Operation Care. “They are the lifeline in the foot washing area.”

Jennings founded Operation Care in 1993 to provide for the physical needs of impoverished children and the homeless. Every December the organization partners with charities, churches, corporate and small business sponsors, individual sponsors and donors to hold the “nation’s largest Christmas party for the homeless.”

“Partnership is vital to this ministry,” Jennings said. “Each of our partners functions as the hands and feet of Jesus.”

Volunteer help is also essential. It took more than 3,000 volunteers to pull off Christmas Gift this year. At the foot washing station, kneeling before rows of chairs with paper towels, wet wipes and sanitizer, volunteers washed guests’ feet and fitted them with new socks and shoes.

“I was nervous about signing up for foot washing, but I felt it was where I should spend my time,” one volunteer said. “I’m so glad I went through with it. It’s been emotional and life changing.”

Buckner collects shoes year-round through its worldwide Shoes for Orphan Souls project. Since 1999, Shoes for Orphan Souls has collected and distributed more than 2.2 million pairs of new shoes to 74 countries around the world. About 20 percent of shoes collected by Buckner help vulnerable children and families in the U.S.

“Susie told me that every guest that needed a pair of shoes received a pair of shoes,” said Mike Julian, logistics manager for the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid. “That is a blessing!”

To learn more about the events and ministries of Operation Care International, visit their website at http://www.opcare.org/. For information about Shoes for Orphan Souls, visit http://shoesfororphansouls.org/.

By Sarah Whitman
Times Staff Writer
In Print: Sunday, October 2, 2011

Listeners know her as Carmen, the cheerful female voice of the Morning Cruise on the Joy FM, 91.5 in Tampa. For nearly a decade, she has chatted with and about top Christian music artists on air from 6 to 10 a.m. weekdays. In some church circles, she is a celebrity.

To orphans 1,000 miles away, she is a stranger with a gift.

Carmen Brown, of New Tampa, recently returned from Honduras, where she spent a week delivering more than 8,000 pairs of shoes, donated by listeners, to children in need. It is her fourth year traveling with Buckner International’s Shoes for Orphan Souls ministry.

Trip one, she went alone to Guatemala. Trips two and three, she brought a few fans and friends to Peru and Guatemala. This year, about 100 people applied to go along, and 32 made the journey to Honduras.

Times staff writer Sarah Whitman spoke with Brown, 40, about transforming listeners of WLPJ-FM 91.5 into missionaries and seeing the world with new eyes.

Is there a readjustment period returning home from a trip like this?

There is definitely a re-entry period. I came back exhausted, slept 14 hours and cried, literally, for the next two days. I cried for the children there, and I cried for our kids, too. There is so much wealth in this country. They don’t even know they need Jesus.

Why do this? What made you decide to take that first trip?

I was having a casual (off-air) conversation with one of our artists and he told me about this organization he was working with, Buckner International. He said, “You’re going on this trip.” And I went. And I saw. And no amount of pictures can paint that picture.

I grew up in government housing on food stamps, and I thought I knew poverty. Then, I saw true poverty. These kids don’t even have shoes.

One of the first little girls, I put socks on her feet and handed her another pair. She said, “Dos?” She was so grateful. And I’m thinking, my kids lose socks in the dryer.

What is it like leaving the day-to-day behind?

It’s time to unplug. Sometimes your cell phone works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Going to the orphanages, being with the kids, it brings you back to the basics of humanity.

How do you bring what you do to the orphans?

They know what radio is, but they don’t have radios. The last three years the band, Mike’s Chair, has come with us. They play songs, and you can really see the healing power of the music.

People have this romanticized idea about orphans, and a lot of times with the younger kids it’s that way. They hug on you and are so happy you’re there. But when you go into a girls’ home where the girls are 12 to 18 years old and they have been sexually hurt by their dads, or brothers, or uncles, a new pair of shoes isn’t going to heal those girls. A new pair of shoes is almost an insult. But you can see how the music affects them. They hear the message.

Do you keep in touch with the children?

I’ve kept in touch with probably half a dozen.

There was a girl in Peru who really loved my Joy FM hat, but it had my name on it. When I got back, I was able to get her a hat and send it to her.

Has serving as a missionary changed your world view?

The world feels a lot smaller to me. The Gospel is more than the American version of how we see it. I used to think it was going to church on Sunday. Now I understand that pure religion in the eyes of the Lord is taking care of the widows and the orphans. There’s a difference between hearers of the word and doers of the word. The Gospel has a whole new meaning.

Coming off such an emotionally charged experience, how do you go back to being cheerful Carmen on the radio?

A lot of prayer. I cry a lot. I journal a lot. It’s a process. There’s a verse in John where God says I will not leave you as orphans. I have to rest in the knowledge that God loves them. As much as I am hurting, God loves them and hurts for them more than I do.

I came back, and my husband’s here. My daughter still needs me to drive her to basketball practice. I’m stepping back into life, maybe even a little faster than I’d like to.

To read more about Carmen Brown’s trip and Shoes for Orphan Souls, visit thejoyfm.com/carmen.

“The turnout was wonderful,” said Julia Stark, program manager of Shoes for Orphan Souls. “It was much, much higher than we expected, and it was such a fun community atmosphere. It was great to see families come together and run together to raise awareness about the needs of orphans and vulnerable children who go without shoes.”

The event raised money to benefit children in Africa, and participants said they had a great time doing it.

“We received many, many compliments from people telling us how much they enjoyed the event,” said Rachel Garton, director of Shoes for Orphan Souls. “We also heard a lot of great things from the runners about how beautiful the running trails were at Andy Brown Park.”

The male overall winner was Clint Bell, with a time of 15:58.00. The female overall winner was Susan Whiting, who finished with a time of 19:53.00.

Several dozen participants ran barefoot, Stark said. Jason Hoofnagle was the male overall barefoot winner, coming in at 23:14.00. The female overall barefoot winner was Toni Marshall, with a time of 29:12.00.

“We look forward to hosting a race again next year and to building on the great support we received from the community,” Stark said.

To see photos from this year’s race, check out the race photo album on the Shoes for Orphans Souls Facebook page at www.facebook.com/shoesfororphansouls.

Editor’s Note: This testimony is from an excerpt of the “Weekly Word From Your Pastor” e-mail sent to members of First Baptist Church of Sunnyvale, Texas. Their church held a shoe drive on Oct. 16.

What a blessed day we had last Sunday. Everyone looked comfortable in your “Game Day” jerseys, and there was such excitement about not only being at church, but making the world a better place by bringing shoes to be given away. I was so moved when I saw our church family bring over 800 pair of shoes and lay them on the altar. I want to share part of a letter I received Sunday.

Bro. Charlie,

I just want to let you know how proud I am of our church. As I watched the people line up to take, not just one pair, but three or four and even stacks full of boxes of shoes to the front of the church, I couldn’t fight back the tears from rolling down my face.

I was raised at Buckner Orphans Home from the age of 6 months up to my early teens. I remember when I was in the home, we got only one pair of shoes in the fall. They were for school and church, or if you were “lucky” enough to have parents come visit you on the first Sunday of the month, you could wear your shoes. Any other time you were to go barefoot.

Now that I am an adult, every time I hear of a child from a broken home or a family down on their luck, the first thing I notice if I have a chance to meet them is the shape of the children’s shoes. I am this person that still remembers how it feels to get a new pair of shoes and remembers how it feels to get to put them on and try and see if they are your size!

God bless you and our church family and may God bless our church and those who brought shoes. May God bless all of those tender hearts.

I think that says it better than anyone could. Praise God for our church family. Thank you for giving to the Lord!

Joyfully,
Bro. Charlie

Dr. Charles L. Wilson has been the senior pastor of Sunnyvale First Baptist Church in Sunnyvale, Texas,  since 1990.

COPPELL, Texas—One teacher at the Coppell Dance Centre doesn’t miss a beat when it comes to protecting kids’ feet.

Keith Green, director of hip-hop at the studio, found a way to put his passion and talents to a creative use to collect shoes and money for Shoes for Orphan Souls and Buckner ministries last month. He organized a hip-hop workshop fundraiser called “Good 4 the Sole,” and challenged dancers to give new shoes to attend the event at a discounted rate.

A choreographer and dancer with 14 years of experience, Green got into the industry after a torn hamstring ended his semi-pro football career. He was working as a personal trainer when one of his clients invited him to a hip-hop class. Not seeing himself as the dancing type, he sat and watched the class for two weeks. His third week there, he got up and did the routine perfectly, never having tried it before.

“It was weird to me,” Green said. “And very weird to the teacher. Dance moved me in a different way, and I felt it was where I needed to be. I sold my half of the personal training business and started working at the dance studio.”

Despite his successful career in choreography, Green felt unfulfilled. He had dreamed of doing big tours and movies, but things hadn’t panned out that way.

“As a sat and reflected on my life and career and why I didn’t make it as far as others have, I started thinking it wasn’t God’s plan for me,” he said. “I realized he was calling me to use my resources and contacts to give back and help other people.”

Choosing Buckner as the charity for his fundraiser was a “no-brainer,” Green said. He used to volunteer at the Buckner Children’s Home in Dallas in the late 90s with friends, giving free haircuts to the boys that lived there.

“It was such a great experience,” he said. “For my journey and my heart, it just stuck with me. Ever since we stopped, I’ve wanted to do something like it again.”

He asked local choreographers to donate their time to help put on the workshop. Green taught at the event, along with Robert Anthony, Jenny Durbin-Smith, Sean Jackson and Roger Lee. Peter Vattakavanich, a Glacèau employee and Dallas break-dancer, donated cases of VitaminWater and SmartWater to help dancers stay hydrated during the intense five-hour workshop.

Green gave the 48 pairs of shoes and all monetary proceeds from the event to Buckner. He said he plans to continue to hold dance workshops benefiting Buckner.

“Shoes for Orphan Souls ties in perfectly with what we do as hip-hop dancers, because our shoes are so important to what we do,” he said.

To find out more about the next workshop fundraiser, visit the Coppell Dance Centre website. Or, sign up to host your own shoe drive here.

“Everything looks like it’s under construction, but I’m pretty sure that none of it is.”

That was my first thought as our bus made its way up to the Pamplona district of Lima, Peru. Walls were half built. Roofs were unfinished. There were holes for windows with no glass in sight. The “homes” in Pamplona have been built into the side of the hills, and if one started to fall I’m quite sure that they all – like dominoes – would crumble in succession. It is hands down the most poverty-stricken place I have ever been to.

We regularly see parts of our world that have been ravaged by natural disasters on the news. We hear the stories of families that are trying to pick up the pieces of their lives that wind and rain have stolen. But these precious people in Lima aren’t in the process of recovering from anything.

No hurricane or tornado ripped through Pamplona last month. No fire broke out or storm blew in. No earthquake cracked their foundations and toppled their walls. These conditions are a day-to-day reality, not the result of a one-time tragedy.

Maybe it’s because this is my first day in Peru (or maybe it has something to do with me getting seven total hours of sleep in the last 66 hours), but I don’t see this city-within-a-city changing because of our visit. With our help or without it, I don’t see a revitalization of Pamplona in the near future. But you know what? That’s okay.

Americans especially like to involve themselves in mission projects such as this one because (in two weeks or two years or two decades) we assume that our efforts will be “worth it.” We enjoy seeing a “return.” We like knowing that we had a hand in moving a situation from bad to good. Or at least bad to better.

But Hugo, the young boy who got new shoes from me today, will need another pair next year. Mariabella, the cutest five year-old girl ever, will not be able to afford her own crayons or paper anytime soon. The man I saw sitting in a pile of old newspapers, looking out over his community, will probably see a very similar sight next year and the year after and the year after.

How am I okay with that? Well, sometimes, just sometimes, life isn’t about change or progress or transition. Sometimes it is about doing the right thing, regardless of whether or not there’s a return in it. Sometimes it’s about caring for someone’s today regardless of their someday.

Whether or not their futures are any brighter, today was better for Hugo and Mariabella. And that’s good enough for me.

Tim Sinclair is an author, blogger and radio personality with a passion for real and relevant discussions about faith. He went on a mission trip with Shoes for Orphan Souls in August 2011. You can see this post and others about Peru on his personal blog.

By Lauren Hollon Sturdy

MIDLAND — More than 2,600 pairs of shoes were collected for Shoes for Orphan Souls at Rock the Desert this year, bringing the total for the last three years to around 16,000 pairs. The concert with a cause also brought in 349 pairs of new socks and $728.

The First Baptist Church Ralls youth group brought in  half of that total with 1,305 pairs of shoes they collected in the months leading up to the concert. They raised awareness of their drive by doing a “No Shoes Sunday” at their church, holding a fundraiser and promoting it on Facebook, and working with local businesses to arrange discounts for shoes purchased for the drive.

“We start early collecting shoes,” said Bruce Harris, FBC Ralls youth pastor. “That’s been our push for our youth group. It’s what we do to give back to the community.”

“It allows the kids firsthand to contribute back to a cause,” he said. “You know the scripture James 2:14-18 basically says that faith without works is dead. It goes on to say that when you see somebody hungry or lacking clothing and you do nothing, what good is that? We’re trying to teach our kids that it’s important to do something.”

Thousands of young people attended the concert, which featured such big-name Christian artists as Switchfoot, David Crowder Band and Skillet. People managed to stay cool and enjoy three days of in the triple-digit heat and dust.

“It was very enjoyable, even if it was hot and dirty,” said Eric Kline, inventory specialist for the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid. “The youth had a great time.”

The Wal-Mart Corporation played a big part in the success of the Rock the Desert shoe drive by donating the use of one of its trucks, as well as the cost of transportation and fuel, to deliver the new shoes collected at Rock the Desert to the Buckner Center for Humanitarian Aid in Dallas. These shoes were enough to finalize a shipment of aid to Romania last month. Wal-Mart is also providing transportation for more than 8,000 pairs of shoes collected from the shoe drive radio station JOY FM hosted in Sarasota, Fla.

Taking a Risk

Amy Duncan-Stier, 25, spent her summer as a volunteer with Buckner in Guatemala after she graduated from Baylor University in 2008.

“We did a shoe trip while I was there,” she said. “And when I saw the need and saw what shoes meant to the kids, it just touched my heart. It’s just amazing how those children would line up for shoes. They have nothing.

“Since I got back from Guatemala, I’ve always wanted to do a shoe drive,” Duncan-Stier added.

After she and her now-husband, Scott Stier, got engaged, they talked about trading in a traditional gift registry for a request for shoes.

Photo courtesy of Allison Notgrass, Focal Point Photographics

She worried about what people would think of having a shoe drive instead of traditional wedding gifts. She also realized her wedding was a one-time event and that they would use the gifts they received for the rest of their married lives.

“In the end, my husband Scott and I wanted to start our lives out service-oriented, because that’s what marriage is,” she said. “It’s about coming together and serving others and Christ for the rest of your life.”

Duncan-Stier said she and her husband were blessed beyond what they could have imagined, receiving all the things they needed to set up their home in several bridal showers held in her honor.

Photo courtesy of Allison Notgrass, Focal Point Photographics

The shoe drive wedding reception was also a bigger blessing and a bigger hit with the guests than Duncan and her husband expected. Everyone loved having the opportunity to participate in ministry with their wedding gift.

“Little old ladies would come up to me in the weeks before the wedding and say, ‘I’ve got my shoes for the wedding!’ but it was shoes to give to the orphans, not to wear with their dress,” she said, laughing.

They collected more than 150 pairs of shoes at their reception, and several guests made donations to Shoes for Orphan Souls in the couple’s honor.

‘Tis Better to Give

Rebecca Morton Pyle started planning her first wedding at 56.

“I had a great first half of my life,” she said. “It was never a life-or-death, ‘I have to get married’ situation. But I wanted a different second half of my life, so I intentionally sought out God’s choice.”

She found her husband, Ron Pyle, through the eHarmony website. She committed to spend six months using the website, and when she first set up her profile, Ron had just decided to take a break from using the site. They nearly missed finding each other completely; he didn’t log on again until her six months were almost up. The Lubbock couple dated for more than a year before they married in June.

“I went to Oaxaca last November on my first Shoes for Orphan Souls mission trip, and it just captured my heart,” she said.  “When we were planning the wedding, we decided we didn’t need more stuff. We wanted to encourage generosity to a charity and we chose Buckner, so we decided to ask our guests to participate in a Shoes for Orphan Souls wedding shoe drive.”

They kept their wedding small and married in Lewisville, Texas, near Ron’s family. About 60 guests attended and 123 pairs of shoes were collected.

Scott Collins, vice president of communications for Buckner and a longtime friend of the bride, attended the wedding and spoke about the mission of Shoes for Orphan Souls at the reception.

“It was a traditional wedding in every way, except the reception,” Collins said. “It was a thrill to walk into the reception area at the wedding and see tables piled high with shoes. That Rebecca and Ron would give up wedding gifts in favor of gifts for orphan children says so much about them and their love for children.”

He picked up a zebra-striped pair of shoes from the collection table and told Pyle he would deliver them to a child in Kenya in July.

“When he sent me a picture of the girl who got that pair of shoes, I got goose bumps,” Pyle said. “It was an immediate gratification to see that photo and to be reminded that these are real people the shoes go to.”

“Because of this, other people have heard about Shoes for Orphan Souls from our guests telling the story to other people,” she said. “I think that’s so cool, because it’s not about me and Ron – it’s about the kids who need shoes and how we can help.”

To learn more about hosting a shoe drive, visit our website.