A NEW BOUNCE

thebarefootkids.com

"Wear your tsinelas,  or else..." a mother would always tell her kids, sometimes rather sternly.

Because children love to kick their footwear off and feel the grass tickling the soles of their feet, moms concerned with their health and safety just won't quit reminding them.

Quite a number of children will not hear that warning again—ever—especially in Leyte, hardest hit by storm surge Yolanda which late last year leveled entire communities, leaving many children orphans.

Thank God, because kind-hearted kababayans and people from all over the world sent or came to help, Leyte and other Yolanda-ravaged provinces are inching, though rather still painstakingly, back to normalcy.

Operation Blessing, World Vision, Campus Crusade for Christ and New Life Christian Center are just a few of many organizations which have set up base-camps in the affected areas—first, to share food daily and provide basic necessities, then help rebuild houses and jump-start the able-bodied toward livelihood.

What a solid demonstration of Christian love! Christ taught in Matthew 25:40 that we should treat "the least of our brothers and sisters" with love and compassion— because "whatever we did for them, we did for Him."

Very recently, more than a thousand kids at Santa Fe Central School, Leyte, literally walked with a fresh bounce in their steps when representatives of  Operation Blessing replaced their tattered shoes and slippers (Many kids have for a long time been coming to school barefoot.) with brand new slip-ons donated by Skechers, a world-famous footwear brand.

totteringmama.com

Santa Fe disctrict supervisor Rosario Buena said the students eagerly anticipated their new-footwear day, made doubly memorable as volunteers from Youth with a Mission (YWAM) regaled the students with a puppet show.

“Wala na kasi talaga silang... sapatos. Tinangay ni Yolanda ang lahat... bahay, damit, school supplies... Noong sabihan sila na magbibigay ang Operation Blessing ng sapatos... donation ng Skechers, sobrang tuwa nila. (The students do not have any more shoes left.  Yolanda washed away everything... their homes, clothes, school supplies... When told Operation Blessing will give them shoes... donation by Skechers, the students were so happy.)

The children's heartfelf "Salamat po!" "Thank you!" and hugs were just the thirst-and-soul quenchers the Operation  Blessing volunteers needed to cap a tedious yet joy-filled Skechers-giving day.

This image will forever be etched in their hearts: Smiling kids clutching their new footwear like treasure.

Author Alexander Pope wrote, "Hope springs eternal in the human heart." Indeed! For the people—especially the children—of grief-tricken Leyte, a new bounce is afoot.

"The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit," Psalm 34:18.