Shoes, Shoes, and more Shoes

About a week ago our church (PaulAnn Baptist Church) received a call about shoes that were in a warehouse here in San Angleo. The warehouse was damaged by a tornado in early April. Now the the construction company was removing the wreckage and was told to take all the shoes to the local landfill and bury them. Well the construction company foreman did not want to see such waste and began calling around to see where the shoes could be donated.
Because of our affiliation with an organization called Shoes for Orphan Souls, we responded by getting the shoe company, the construction company, and Shoes for Orpan Souls all connected. It was quite an ordeal and looked like it things were not going to work out at several points in the journey. It was exilerating to be involved and very frustrating at the same time. How could a company simply destroy perfectly good shoes? (some of the boxes were damaged and many of them got wet due to the sprinkler system going off in the warehouse when the tornado hit). But finally through a long series of phone calls and the Lord's intervention the deal was finally made. The shoes would be donated to Shoes for Orphans Souls. Promises had to be made, such as all shoes would leave the country, would not be sold, would not end up on the black market, and would go to countries where Shoes for Orphan Souls actually had their people on the ground to ensure the proper distribution of the shoes to orphans. Once all the legal, licensing, and insurance concerns were met the agreement was reached and Shoes for Orphan Souls could begin colleting the shoes.
How do you begin moving nearly 200,000 pairs of shoes? With lots of big trucks, that is how. We began organizing our church. Shoes for Orphan Souls had 3 people come down from Dallas. Wal Mart was contacted and agreed to provide the trucks needed to haul the shoes from San Angelo to Dallas. The plan swung into motion and on Thursday, May 1 over 40 volunteers showed up in the afternoon and loaded 2 semi-truck tailers full. On Friday several other volunteers came back and sorted through wet boxes to salvage good shoes. We are now planning on major loading days for May 8 & 9 as well as May 12-15. It is quite the process to move so many shoes, but it is such an exhilerating project because over 100,000 orphans across the globe will receive shoes from all of this. God does work, even in the midst of the storm!!!