This will be a short post tonight, but I wanted to share with you one more project at Buckner International.  While our gang from First Baptist Church Richardson was sorting shoes, there were several other people preparing gifts to be sent to Peru for Christmas.

These volunteers filled knapsacks with toys, clothes, and school supplies.  The bags are carefully packed according to a master list, and then they are packed into boxes.  In Peru, there is Buckner International staff  that will share these gifts with the children.  Our gang has worked on projects for Peru before, and it is always a good feeling to hear the reports from Peru.

It was fantastic to see Becky and Ethan helping with this projects.  Ethan is Becky and Nathan’s son who is doing real life learning as part of his home schooling.  How neat is that?  Becky is married to Nathan who is the son of our dear friends Sheila and David.  It was wonderful to see them at Buckner International.

Blessings to you and yours,

Marsha Christmas sent me some interesting information about TOMS shoes.  She mentioned that this company reminded her of the work at Buckner International.  I thought I would share it with you.  No TOMS does not know me.  In fact, I can’t wear their shoes because they are too narrow for my wide feet. –Wish I could.

Company history – This is from Wikipedia:

Blake Mycoskie first visited the country of Argentina while competing in the second season of The Amazing Race with his sister in 2002. He returned there on vacation in January 2006, where he noticed that the local polo players were wearing a form of shoes called alpargatas; a simple canvas slip-on shoe that he himself began to wear. The shoes have also been worn by Argentine farmers for hundreds of years and were the inspiration for the classic style of Toms shoes….Later in the trip he was doing some volunteer work in the outskirts of Buenos Aires when he noticed that many of the children were running through the streets barefooted. After discovering that a lack of shoes was a wider problem in Argentina and other developing countries than just this one community, he decided that he wanted to develop a kind of alpargata for the North American market, with the caveat that for every pair sold he would provide a new pair of shoes free of charge to the shoeless youth of Argentina and other developing nations.[9] Mycoskie had learned that the lack of shoes was a problem that had a serious impact upon these youth, threatening the ability of the children to go to school, prevent infection, and so forth.[10]….

The company name (TOMS) is derived from the word “tomorrow,”[7] and evolved from the original concept, “Shoes for Tomorrow Project.”[14]….

By 2012 over two million pairs of new shoes had been given to children in developing countries around the world. 

Thank you Marsha Christmas for sending this.