JUST ONE MORE SHOE STORY

One of the blessings of Christmas is the fact that people serve others by giving of themselves, presents or service. This year some very special family and friends donated some money to a project, "SHOES FOR THE VILLAGE CHILDREN." We have on occasion been able to get out of the city and visit the villages. I know that we are serving a mission in Europe but it isn't like the Europe that you see in pictures or visit. This is a part of Europe that is literately fighting for its existence. The government is so corrupt Taitana's (the Mayor of Selemet) son was given the opportunity to purchase a new tractor with money given him from the government. He would have to pay little interest but with in 5 years he would have it paid off. The month after he signed they sent him a payment notice that he had to pay his bill, but he hadn't received the tractor yet. Then month 2 the same thing but this time was told that if he didn't pay that the government would take his land. To make a long and sad story short, he ended up paying the whole amount himself, because through the taxes and interest payments, the government hadn't paid a penny and he had paid full price. Thus he spent all the money on a tractor he couldn't afford and was worse off than before.

The government also gets money from other countries to help the villages, but the villages never receive any of the money. I could go on and on, but thank goodness the church Humanitarian services have been helping here. One of the villages the Kneib's took us to was Borceag. They have a thousand people in the village with no running water, no paved roads, no doctor and only one tiny store. If you didn't know Borceag was there you would never see it because it is totally hidden from view. They have lots of children wearing the same thing to school everyday and shoes with holes or sizes much larger than they wear. Our Christmas plea was for the participants to give a child some boots to keep their feet warm and dry. We ended up with fifteen pairs of warm fur lined boots and a warm pair of socks for each child.

These are a few of the children who received the shoes.They all live with Grandparents while their parents work in other countries. The one family(above) with three children are expecting a baby sister to arrive to live with them. Poor Grandma, another mouth to feed with no money coming from the mother. She only comes home once a year for a few days, this trip is to bring another child, she will be abandoned also.

One of the children, Dana, was so sad because none of the girls shoes fit her.  Ruslan told her that we would go and get some more shoes and bring them back. Oh, and she wanted them to be pink just like the boots that didn't fit. It took us a couple of weeks before we finally had the shoes to take to her.

Dana was thrilled with the pink boots and they even fit her. Not 2 sizes too big like the other ones she had on. They talk to the children and explain to them that they need to take care of the boots so next year someone else in the village can wear them.

This was a wonderful experience for us to see these humble little children get something they never expected and were so very grateful that someone they never knew would be so nice to them.  Blessed are those who receive without forgetting and give without remembering.