01 Apr Shoes for Jesus

Adapted from a testimony submitted by Circle of Love Foundation

“I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me… Truly, I say to you as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” Mathew 25:36a,40b

After finishing the prayer and lifting my bowed head, I was surprised to see tears filling the ten-year-old boy’s big brown eyes.

We had just prayed together for him to receive Jesus into his heart, which at this point in the trip had become routine for me so I wasn’t prepared for his emotional response. Now his eyes brimmed with tears. I asked him why he was crying and at first, he didn’t reply, but then he said in Spanish, “I feel something in my heart and I don’t know why I’m crying.”

We smiled and told him that he was feeling the love of God.

We saw the Lord moving significantly among children during this trip to Guatemala. Dr. Helen was sharing the Gospel with a lady using the evangicube, which is a cube that folds out into pictures that tell the story of Jesus. While the lady heard the gospel, six little girls nearby were paying attention to the story, and they also received the Lord. We later found out that four the girls were not even her children!

We ministered two days in El Tesoro, which is a war refugee community displaced after the Guatemalan Civil War, and three days in El Rodeo, which is a community that was greatly affected by the volcanic eruption in 2018. We had fewer patients than normal which allowed us to have more time to listen to their stories and encourage them that God will never abandon them or forget them.

In El Tesoro, we were able to distribute about 200 pairs of new tennis shoes to the children. A husband and wife had been on the Circle of Love trip to Guatemala in February 2022, and while there, they noticed that many children had shoes that were falling apart and not suitable for running. They took the initiative to bring new tennis shoes on this trip, which were joyfully received! How wonderful to see little smiling faces! We pray that when they wear their new shoes, they will be reminded the God loves to bless them.

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