Dirty foreheads...

Brenda's sweet feet in the market.

After watching Brenda dance around in her shoes and stretch her toes out, a thought crossed my mind which she confirmed to be true. Today, Brenda put on her first pair of shoes! I don't know who was more excited, me or her!

We're getting better at group shots...new shoes may have something to do with that!

Mandy's new shoes! Shoes will give support to her right foot which bears all her weight because of polio.

Most of the new shoes on my proud friends!

Cute "jellies" on beautiful feet.

Margaret had the biggest foot and got the cutest shoes!

Anxiously waiting to see which shoes would go on their feet.

Trip one to the market. Measuring shoes on outlines of feet on construction paper.

Today was shoe shopping day! This is a day that makes everything within me happy! There is only one thing I love more than buying shoes for myself…buying shoes for sweet little girls! It’s a little different than running to the mall to be able to shop for your options here in Jinja. We went to the market to shop through slim pickings! It would have been different if we would have been buying 2 pairs of shoes, but no we were buying 19 pairs of shoes and about 11 of the girls needed the same size. As you can see in the pictures, the shoe of choice were what we called “jellies” when I was a kid. The girls needed the closest thing we could get to close-toed shoes so we could prevent the jiggers from reoccurring (Thanks to a little research done by my secretary…my momma!). After about an hour of shopping we thought we had all the shoes and sizes that we needed. The girls were beside themselves when they saw me walk up with a bag full of shoes! There was lots of screaming and dancing! It was all we could do to get them to sit down and wait for us to put the shoes in order of size. After some, okay much, excitement and a little confusion, 12 of the girls had shoes that were perfect for them! After lots of pictures, it was back to the market with the 7 remaining girls to get the shoes exchanged. When we pulled up to the market the girls just sat quietly in the car, none of them knew what to do. It was a little overwhelming having 8 (one snuck in the car for the field trip to the market!) little girls with three adults in the over-crowded market. The teacher in me kept doing a head count! We must have been a spectacle, two Ugandan adults, one mzungu, and eight little girls who are obviously from a village with no shoes on and tattered clothes, I had one on my back and was holding multiple hands. Our excitement only grew as each of my friends got a pair of shoes that fit. I know the other shoppers must have thought we were crazy, because every time that perfect pair of shoes got slipped on that little, dirty foot dancing and cheering began, and hugs and kisses on their foreheads were doled out! The trip out of the market was so different than the trip in. I still had one on my back and hands tucked in mine, but my sweet girls were confident and proud. Cinderella has nothing on my girls!

When we were almost to our shoe lady, a Ugandan man got my attention and said “You better be careful, they are going to run off with your camera!” While I did appreciate his concern later, my first reaction was to be offended. I immediately thought you don’t know my sweet girls! The Lord used this to convict my heart later, because it’s not fair for me to only advocate for my precious friends, and forget about everyone else. It’s not fair for me to turn my nose up at those who I don’t think deserve my help. My barefooted, now shoed, babies aren’t the only ones in their situation. The Lord used that situation to remind me that all of us are His creation, not just the ones that I love deep down in my heart. There’s a world of His creation out there waiting for someone, me and you, to reach out to them. And they aren’t just in Uganda, they are everywhere. Your ministry might not be kissing dirty foreheads, but we are ALL called to serve. So find your dirty foreheads today. Love on somebody who needs you.