Response Updates

New Shoes Bring New Hope

USA Reported by Convoy of Hope
A volunteer hands children pairs of shoes

Just days before a shipment of new shoes would arrive in Sarcoxie, Missouri, a young boy ran up to Megan, the Children’s Pastor of a local church. The boy had been playing outside with his friends, but the soles of his only pair of shoes were worn down to nothing and holes were allowing rocks to get in as he played. Having been sized for shoes weeks earlier, he excitedly asked the woman when the new shoes would arrive.

This kind of story is reality for many kids living in rural communities today. Many can’t afford new shoes and are stuck with old hand-me-downs, shoes that are too small or riddled with holes. The young Sarcoxie boy was lucky to have a caring community to help him. After assuring the boy that new shoes would soon arrive, Megan ran home and grabbed a pair of her son’s old shoes that the boy could wear in the interim.

As pastors of First Baptist Church Sarcoxie, Megan and her husband, Scott, saw this kind of need in their community and reached out to their partners in Convoy of Hope’s Rural Initiatives to provide a new pair of shoes to every child in their local elementary school. This meant that not only did the kids in need of a new pair of shoes receive them, but they did not have to worry about being singled out as different from their friends.

“A lot of my students were excited that they had the same exact shoe their friends had,” said fourth grade teacher Kim Hill after the distribution. “For a lot of my students, they don’t have that name-brand shoe. This gives those kids an opportunity to have those shoes that their friends have.”

Whether it’s raising self-esteem or making sure they have a solid pair of shoes to run around in, a new pair of shoes makes a powerful impact on the life of a child in need. Learn more about how Rural Initiatives is making an impact in rural communities, click here.

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