Tuesday, September 29, 2009

The blessing of shoes

On Sunday morning as we were leaving for church, both of my older boys were complaining and reminding me that they needed new sneakers (tennis shoes, trainers, takkis). I knew it was true, their shoes are starting to fall apart. We were discussing the fact that we would probably wait until our next trip to South Africa in a couple weeks, to shop for shoes. And in my mind I'm thinking : 2 teenage boys with big feet = big shoes = lots of money!

That night we went to the weekly English fellowship we attend at a local hotel. After the service a man who recently started attending wheeled in 2 large suitcases and began unloading boxes of brand new N*ke shoes - all mostly large sizes. Something had happened with a large shipment shoes intended for one purpose here in our country and the shoes had to be used for something else. This man had already taken tons to a neighboring country, visited prisons, shared the gospel, washed the prisoner's feet and gave them new shoes. But after that trip they still had tons left over, so he thought it would be neat to bring some to the Sunday night service and see who could be blessed with new shoes.

My two oldest sons walked away with 2 brand new pairs of sneakers each! Actually, every teenage boy there that night and some of the dads and other men in the group also walked out with one or two pairs of new shoes. I love how God knows what we need and sometimes meets those needs in really unusual ways.

After we got home that night I reminded the boys of our conversation in the car that morning. I'm so thankful for this life lesson for them - a day they will remember for a long time - when they needed shoes and God provided.

8 comments:

Cara Beth said...

Wow! That was a cool story. I got chill bumps though and I hate chill bumps because my leg hair grows when I get them. Dang it! haha

Kecia said...

That is so awesome! I needed that tonight. It reminds me of things I read in a book about Hudson Taylor. Very cool.

Mich said...

Love it! Gotta love those big hugs from God.

Carpool Queen said...

Those are moments when I am overwhelmed at how God is interested in the details of my life, and how nothing too big or too small escapes His attention.

Gretchen said...

Wow! What an object lesson in provision and plenty. THank you so much for sharing this, Angie. And, while my dtr isn't a teenage boy, she has the feet of one, and you're so right--expensive!

Large shoes said...

It is really cool to read it. And also I enjoyed reading the comments you got gor this post. It was fun reading it.

Anonymous said...

I love it when God shows us how important every detail of our life is to Him.

fitflops said...

You shared so touchy experience with us. What a lovely story it is! God is always around us and it feels so nice when God made us aware that he is with us and we are the special child of God.