Washing feet and new shoes

I love this photo as it shows a glimpse of what this trip was all about. Katy and Jennifer are washing the feet of two young, homeless boys as we'd bought new shoes for them. We played soccer with them in the pouring rain and the Lord highlighted these two and a young 4 year old girl. They all got new shoes! The smallest boy had a crooked leg and was scared to death of us...afraid that we were going to take him to the doctor, so his older buddy insisted he go with us for new shoes and came along with him so he wouldn't be afraid and he got a pair of new soccer cleats, wonderfully donated by the local YMCA here. This was probably one of my favorite days of the whole trip. When we arrived to play soccer with the kids they were using a ball that was deflated and Jennifer stepped out of the bus with a air pump and the kids came running and screaming, so excited! Little did they know that we had so many brand new real soccer balls in the bus that we'd brought with us. They were just elated to have their old ball blown up. Jennifer was so cute as she looked back at the bus as us all with this huge smile of amazement and awe at their excitement.
Those of us women who aren't as competive, stood under umbrellas as little boys hundled next to us, soaking wet and shivering. I would just pull them close to me and hug them as we watched, with little care to how wet I was getting from their clothes. We used this great opportunity to speak through interpreters to tell the kids about Christ and lead them through salvation prayers. There had to have been 50 of them. Then, a random man, an angel I honestly think...came over and told us that there was there big "christian" event going on in the convention center around the corner, so I loaded a boy on my back and all of us..walked through the rain to this event. This man also told me that "they" had saved seats for us. As we walked in I was content to sit in the back on the vacant rows, but no, this usher immediately told me to follow him and there were two WHOLE rows completely empty at the very front of the service and our team and about 30 of these wet, dirty little boys all piled in. They jumped and danced to the worship music and the service ended up being about orphans and one little boy was in tears as the preacher spoke in Alhamric about HIV. On our way back to the bus this little girl, about 4 years old came up to me to beg and so I put her on my back and I noticed she had no shoes. I was trying to figure out a way to get her new shoes without all the other kids literally rioting, and this wonderful, handicapped man came up to me in front of all the ohter kids and told me, "if you do not do a thing for the rest of us, do something for just this one..." That was a word from GOD! So, i took her with us and she got some new shoes and a new baby doll and clothes that were donated. They told us that her mom was homeless and was mentally ill. I continously prayed over her...