It was during a conversation with one of my sisters, that she suggested I might be able to come up with a fundraiser idea for my church at the time. Say what? I had never done any type of fundraiser in my life, unless selling Girl Scout cookies way back in the day counts. I should say, the cookies that my mom sold for me. After all, what did a knobby kneed kid know about fundraising? Just about as much as this now past middle-aged woman knows about it, and that would be NOTHING.
Anyway, years later, minus the Girl Scout cookies and still clueless about fundraising, I thought I’d give it a shot. What’s that old saying, God doesn’t always call the equipped, but He always equips the called. Well that theory was about to be tested.
Not one who shies away from a challenge, I found myself eager to get started. I soon found an organization who distributed shoes to underprivileged countries. An organization that was willing to help our church raise money by simply asking us to collect used shoes. That seemed doable, after all, it wouldn’t cost us a penny and who didn’t have used shoes laying around? Pretty good deal. At least I thought so until I was given a set goal of 2,500 pairs of shoes to collect and a deadline in which to do it.
“Do your best,” I was told by the fundraiser and then given the suggestion of using social media to help us.
Did I mention that I am not on social media? What had I gotten myself into? My church had a very small attendance, maybe 40-50 on a good Sunday, so how in the world were we going to collect 2,500 pairs of shoes! Especially since no one seemed to share my enthusiasm. The pastor himself was skeptical, saying to me, “I don’t know, 2,500 pairs of shoes is a lot.” He hadn’t been the only person who’d made such a comment to me.
Of course, what others were saying didn’t matter because God was telling me that not only could it happen, it would happen. I admit though, the doubt of others had sent a momentary panic into my heart. I call it the Eeyore effect. Negative energy is highly contagious and I felt myself coming down with it until God reminded me of all the other times when people had doubted Him. I certainly wasn’t going to be one of those doubting Thomases, and so those naysayers could keep their skepticism at bay because I was 100% convinced that God would come through for us.
I also knew that He expected me to put some effort into it, and simply not sit around waiting for shoes to appear. So with a plan in place, I asked one of my nieces to help with my need for shoes, by posting something on her Facebook page. I’d also asked everyone in the congregation to try and collect at least 50 pairs each.
Although those in my church were a little laxed in helping, I wasn’t about to give up, especially since my niece seemed to share my enthusiasm, assuring me that her post on Facebook would yield results, and it did. I had no idea what she posted, but it was working, and so I was kept relatively busy driving to various locations to pick up shoes from her Facebook friends. Although the number of shoes were adding up, I realized that I needed to find an additional way to get more shoes. It was then when God nudged me to reach out to some of my friends from other churches.
Talk about trying to stop an avalanche. Friends from various local churches, began collecting shoes for me. I lost count of how many shoes they all donated, but it was hundreds of pairs. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing various churches coming together to help another church in need.
Those inpouring of shoes, ignited a flame of hope for those in my own church, and so they too began bringing shoes in. Although the number of shoes were adding up, we were still far from our goal, and the amount of shoes being donated were starting to trickle downward. With a deadline looming closer, I still felt certain that God was going to come through for us. I just didn’t realize in what a mighty way that He would.
After speaking with another sister of mine about the shoe drive, she promised that she’d ask her VBS class to bring in shoes. However, an unexpected injury kept her from teaching her class. Still eager to help, she decided to ask her church’s youth leader if she would have the VBS kids collect shoes for my church’s shoe drive. Those kids ended up collecting fifty pairs of shoes for a church they weren’t even familiar with. That in itself was a blessing, but what took place next was undoubtedly God stepping in big time. And all I can say is . . . when GOD steps in, look out!
It was during VBS at my sister’s church, when someone from a neighboring church had called, asking the youth leader if she needed anything for her youth group. Asking specifically, if she needed prizes or “shoes.”
According to what the youth leader would later tell me, being asked if her youth group needed shoes was such an odd question to be asked. Especially since in all her years as youth leader, no one had ever asked her about shoes before. Prizes yes, but shoes; no.
I have no doubt God prompted that phone call because although the youth leader didn’t need shoes, she informed the woman of someone who did, me. All it took was one phone call to a church in an entirely different county, for me to receive over 1,000 pairs of shoes! Not only was my church going to make its goal, we were going to surpass it!
With more enthusiasm than I could contain, I told my pastor the good news, and then set for us a new goal; the population of our small town, which was somewhere around 3,600 at the time. “I actually think we’ll make it,” he chuckled, his enthusiasm matching mine.
I recently heard someone on K-Love radio say, “Show me the areas in your life that you are worried about and I will show you the areas in your life where you don’t trust God.”
I have learned through various trials in my life that trusting God is the only way to overcome them. So the next time you find yourself worried and with an obstacle in your path, look at the shoes upon your feet and remember how one little church, whose attendance was barely 40-50 on a good day, had managed to collect more shoes than the population of their town, over 3,600 pairs of them!
Never let the doubt of others, dismiss what God is telling you . . .