Shoe game strong or gone??!

Hi friends! Our blog site has been down for months, but we recently moved to a new platform where I will be posting some things I’ve written up over the last few months!

Quick update! I am now in Albania, with a new team and ministry, but I have so much I want to share from our previous country, Romania. This is the first thing I wrote in November!

11/21/22
For the last few weeks, I felt God nudging on my heart to drop my favorite pair of white Nikes. These shoes had been so good to me. My first pair fit my narrow feet like a glove and got me through 3 years of pacing up and down the hallways of the hospital during nursing school. My second pair was found on eBay, no longer sold in stores, and bought with excitement, knowing these shoes would continue to bring me to people all around the world. Within the first few weeks in Guatemala we got caught in the flooding of a hurricane and my shoes got soaked, I scrubbed them clean, and although they looked good as new, they never fit the same. I had already felt God tugging in my heart to drop them, but I kept trying to make them work, continuing to get blisters simply for style. On my last day in Guatemala I knew I needed to leave my shoes behind. I went to the park 3 times that day, looking all over for someone to fit my mental description of a person in need, someone worthy of my shoes. No matter how hard I looked, and how many people I asked, no one wanted my shoes. I felt God telling me to leave them in His hands, but I kept searching, wanting to see the person who would be taking one of my favorite (and very limited) possessions. On the way back from the park the third time, God asked me if I was willing to trust Him with my shoes, without seeing the fruit of the blessing nice shoes would be. I ended up leaving my favorite shoes on the drop table at the hostel- the last place I wanted them to go, and headed to Romania simply with my chacos and breaking hiking boots. I had heard the Romanian shoe game was strong, but I did not realize that shoes were actually make or break on your status. The first day I walked the cold wet streets in my chacos, and did not know what I laughing stalk I would be. People stopped, stared, laughed, pointed, took pictures, and brought over their friends to look at my purple sandals. I was horrified, asking God why He had me drop my one pair of shoes that would have been socially appropriate, but I believe He did this for a reason. I was able to have a glimpse of the embarrassment and shame people must feel when they are not able to buy the things that make them feel fit in. Jesus came for the outsiders, the ones who couldn’t afford the new Nikes, but He also came for the ones in the 450 Lei sneakers, using them to mask their feeling of being left out. They may not even realize what they are feeling left out from, but I think that’s where God wants to step in and say “I can fill that void” new, clean shoes or not. I’m thankful to have experience what it feels like to know that “man look on the outside, but God looks in the heart.” Rather than continuing to buy new clothes (although I really did need some warmer options) I can appreciate what God has already provided me and show the people around me that I am worth getting to know, even if I’m still wearing my chacos or any other shoe I pick up along the way.

Thank you for reading!! If you go over to the Donate tab you can search my name and find that I am 80% funded with under $4,000 to go! Praise God!