Do you ever feel overwhelmed with all the poverty and suffering in the world?  The images out of Haiti, the devastation of New Orleans, earthquakes, floods, war…too much pain!  It is easy for me to feel so insignificant in the magnitude of suffering.  I am just one person, what real difference can I make?  I send my check, I say a prayer, and I feel embarrassed and grateful with my overwhelming advantages in such a lopsided world.   And then an opportunity arises where I see that I can make a specific difference.  This week our children in Discovery Zone and E-Zone will be collecting new shoes and money for children in Romania.  After I read this blog from a friend of mine I thought, “Hmm, that wouldn’t be too hard.”  He had seen pictures from a mission trip to Romania and observed that the children were wearing flip-flops in the snow, and those were the lucky ones; many children had no shoes at all.   He threw out the challenge to raise 10,000 shoes before next winter, by sending in a few pair of shoes, and by encouraging your friends (and their friends) to send shoes to Romania.  The next time I was shopping, I swung by the clearance section of a few stores and found 5 pairs of shoes for less than $20.00.  Five pairs of shoes; that’s 50 little toes that can play in the snow without freezing.

Can you help?  Radiance, the Women’s Ministry at Dogwood Church, will be collecting shoes through March.  New shoes for children in all sizes are accepted.    Don’t forget the bigger kids!  You can drop them off in the Discovery Zone (the baby and preschool building on the Dogwood campus).  Are you a budget shopper, a bargain-hunter queen?  Turn your talent over to God and get busy!  We are also taking financial donations for shipping and the purchase of shoes in Romania.  The goal is to send over 10,000 pairs of shoes to Romania by October.

If you are not local, no worries!  You can…

• Send a cash donation or shoes to Remember The Children Ministries.
• Conduct a shoe drive at your church or with your friends and send them in a bulk package.
• Spread the word among your friends!

Then the ones who pleased the Lord will ask, “When did we give you something to eat or drink? When did we welcome you as a stranger or give you clothes to wear or visit you while you were sick or in jail?”

The king will answer, “Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.”

Matthew 25:37-40 (CEV)