He sat in the van with his feet stretched out in front of him. “Can you believe it?” he marveled. “Two pairs of shoes!” And then he began to share an incident from earlier in his life. His mother died soon after he completed 7th grade and he went to live with his grandfather. He recalled at one point being sent home from school because he had no shoes. After missing several weeks, his grandfather finally came up with enough money to purchase him a pair of plastic shoes. And since they were plastic, he repeatedly tried to repair them by putting a knife in the fire to melt the plastic. He told how he wore those shoes long after they were too small for him. “And now look at these shoes,” he chuckled.
Fifteen children and their choir director had come from Zambia to help World Hope International raise awareness of the AIDS orphan crisis in their country. The children ranged in age from 7 to 17.
We had taken the children shopping the day before for shoes for their concerts and tennis shoes for everyday wear. We had purchased a pair of flip flops for each of them, too. As we helped the children get fitted for shoes, the Zambian country director who had accompanied them to the States insisted that we make sure the shoes were roomy enough for the children when they returned home. A prerequisite for attending school in Zambia is shoes. And it is one of many barriers that may keep a child from getting an education. A cheap pair of flip flops may be the only “shoes” a Zambian child has ever had.
The children had arrived in the States with shoes, but in various stages of wear and disrepair, and often not the size that actually fit their feet. When one of the boys in the choir arrived at the airport in Lusaka barefoot, one of the men in the crowd who was there to see the choir leave, took off his own shoes and gave them to the child. They were nearly worn out, but they were shoes!
The father of a child in World Hope’s child sponsorship program expressed his gratitude for the help his child received. “My child was able to put on a pair of shoes I myself couldn’t wear,” he said realizing that he would never be able to afford such a pair on his income as a pastor. “My child is now doing very well in school,” the father said proudly.
During my first visit to Zambia I began to realize what a big issue shoes were there. At one church the children mimed the teacher chasing a child out of the classroom with a stick because she was barefoot!
Perhaps F.’s response struck me in particular because I’ve always had difficulty finding shoes that fit my long, narrow feet. But I never had to go barefoot! As we continued on down the road, I chuckled as I listened to the other children chime in about their shoes.
