Hope Is Coming

Whenever the posts on this blog are spread out...you must know something is going on!  We have a lot of somethings going on with Sole Hope right now.  We have been swamped with shoe cutting parties (contact us through www.solehope.com if you want more info) and planning our trip to Zambia and Uganda...yep, you read that right, we are now going to Uganda in March also!!!  We have a three day trip that will be filled with speaking and teaching coming up for myself and Beth Gaffney (a board member) at the end of February and between now and then I must teach several more people here in the US how to make shoes, get our industrial sewing machine fixed, make lesson plans for the Elevate School of Life and Art classes on shoe making I will be teaching and....I'll save the rest for some other time.  :)  Oh!  And notice our new Sole Hope "button" on the right!  You can now share Sole Hope with your blog readers...just copy and paste the code below the button!  We have lots of supplies to buy for our trip to Africa in March.  Topping the list is thread, needles and money for fabric we will buy in country.  If you feel led to donate to any of those items we would be SO thankful!

Every now and then I go back and read the old Sole Hope blog.  There has been so much growth in Sole Hope this past year.  One previous post that reminded me of things I hoped I'd never forget was the following:

The story of his feet: The little boy whose feet are pictured above have walked many miles.  He heard of the white people who had come to a village near his.  Today he is hoping we have brought something to pass out.  Maybe clothes, food or…a pair of shoes.  You see, he walked six miles each way to get to us…through trash, over rocks, through thorn bushes and crumbled cement.  This child patiently stood next to me, watching intently my every move.  His brow was furrowed for the first little while and his face sullen.  We could not speak to one another-he did not know my language and I did not know his.  I bent down to take a picture of his feet and he slowly looked away.  He approached me after some time had passed and asked in very broken English with a whisper in his voice, “Madam, may I have a pair of shoes?”  My heart broke.  I wished he knew why I was there, because I was working on getting them ALL a pair of shoes.  I tried to explain to him that when I came back I’d have a pair of shoes but for the moment I had nothing, except a hug and a smile and a song.  I bent down and looked in his big brown eyes.  I spoke some words in English to bring him hope.  He did not understand, so I sang him a song.  He slowly lifted his head and gave me a smile...and soon I'll return and give him a pair of shoes.  My heart is burdened until I can bring him and the others like him shoes.  

We cannot bring them the supplies to make shoes until we financially have enough money to buy those supplies.

Did you know that with that handy little button to the right labeled “Donate” you can make a quick donation to our shoe project?  You can make a one time donation or a reoccurring donation.  Once you do that, this is your project too.  I know everyone can’t take off time from their families, work and daily commitments, and we understand that.  So, to make things a little easier than flying to Africa with us we want to humbly ask for a donation for these sweet little children that need shoes on their feet SO badly! Will you give, even a small amount today?

-Asher Collie