"My Shoes To Walk In A Foreign Land"

I recently visited my former ward in Lindon, UT. There was an announcement about an Eagle Project regarding donations for sports-type shoes for people in Haiti, Central and South America. They said some of the people never had a pair of shoes. The young man doing the project requested donors give new or in good condition kinds of tennis shoes for the needy. It was a very good idea anyway.

The Scout's family was going to take the shoes donated to California and then the shoes would be sorted out to go to the designated country. I heard the call for shoes and promptly forgot about it. Aaron and Candice and the kids went through their shoes and culled the ones they could give away.

I had brought only one pair of outdoor shoes to work around the house and even wore them on the plane when I came from Washington. The shoes pictured above are the ones I am telling about here. They were New Balance shoes and used to walk in them which still had a newer look of not too badly worn. They were actually the best pair of tennis shoes I own and would wear them to go walking, in my opinion, of course.

I decided to work and weed in the garden at Aaron and Candice's before I left. The shoes attracted some dirt on the bottoms of them, so I took them off outside on the deck. I then had used some old Crocks I had left there before on the same deck after setting the tennis shoes aside.

The chore of packing to return to Washington made me realize i needed to decide if I was taking the shoes back, (all dirty) or clean them up and leave them in Utah in the guest room closet to wear when I returned. I then began scraping off the dried dirt left on the soles of my shoes. I got most of it and decided I needed to wet them down and finish the cleaning. Then, all of a sudden I heard "the still small voice" tell me to donate them to the poor and needy in Haiti for the Eagle Project.

I didn't even have to think about it twice. I thought "Okay,Lord, you got it." Then I had another thought come back and tell me that "my shoes would walk in a foreign, even if I wasn't wearing them." Well, that was kind of different, but I could not agree more and followed the prompting.

So, on the way to the airport this morning we ran the pair of 'Grandma tennies' to give to the young man, Nathan H., the shoes to take for his Eagle Project.

What a novel idea and felt the sweet assurance that someone would get them and appreciate the gesture to give them to "a stranger.." It felt right and it made my day. Really.