23 Pairs of Shoes

Last week in the DTS, we had a speaker named Stephan Hugo. The Holy Spirit was his topic and his ministry. The move and presence of God was so incredible that I would wake up every morning after a ministry time and feel the lingering aroma and presence of God on me and with me still. It never wore off while I was sleeping.

Last Tuesday night, prior to leading us through several hours of sacrificial giving and generosity, he told this story that so accurately and beautifully portrays the exquisite character of our God:

There was a girl named Veronica from Zambia who was doing her DTS in Worcester, South Africa. During her graduation from DTS, she stood up and shared a story with all of her classmates that none of them had ever heard. She shared how she was 23 years old. Her parents had died when she was very young so she ended up living with many different families growing up.

Because of her situation, she never, ever received new shoes. Often times, she would raid the dumpsters for shoes that others had thrown away and use those just so she would have something on her feet. Even as she came to DTS, she had never, not once in her lifetime, owned a new pair of shoes.

Veronica was going to go to Brazil for outreach. Brazil and Brazilian women are widely known for their nice shoes. So Veronica began asking her wonderful Heavenly Father to provide a brand new pair of shoes while she was on outreach.

Her outreach was eight weeks long and during the first week, she prayed fervently for these new shoes to be provided. Nothing. During the second week, she continued to pray and ask for them. Nothing. During the third week, she prayed and prayed for these new shoes. Nothing. This continued on for a couple more weeks and after week five she quit asking for them.

Week seven of the outreach, the second to last week until they left, they were ministering in a church, and after the church service was over, Veronica was climbing into the van to leave and a woman ran out of the church yelling her name. This woman was carrying a beautiful box with a red ribbon tied perfectly around it. "The Lord told me to give these to you! I hope you can enjoy them," the woman told her.

Veronica untied the ribbon and opened just a corner of the box. Inside were the most beautiful pair of brand new black, shiny shoes. As soon as she laid eyes on them, she heard the Lord speak to her, "These are not for you. There is a girl at the YWAM base in Brazil who needs them even more than you do." And instead of holding on tight to these shoes, Veronica simply obeyed God and took these beautiful shoes that were given as a gift to her and gave them to this Brazilian girl on the base who thanked her so profusely because she had been praying for that exact pair of shoes.

Veronica returned to South Africa from outreach with the same pair of shoes she left wearing.

Two days later a couple came to visit the base and asked if Veronica would like to go into town with them. She agreed and they took her to the marketplace. They led her directly to the shoe shop and told her that God had said that she could pick out any two pairs of shoes that she wanted! So she did. When she returned to the base, she went to her room and found a bag hanging from her door handle. Inside were two more brand new pairs of shoes!

Three days later, another couple on the base asked her if she would like to go into town with them. They took her to the shoe shop and told her that God had said to them to buy her any three pairs of shoes she wanted. When she arrived back on the base after that shopping trip, she found three shoe boxes in her room containing three more new pairs of shoes in just her size!!

This went on for three or four more days. At the end of it all, she counted all the shoes that God had provided her and the grand total came up to 23 pairs of brand new shoes! And God spoke to her and said, "I have given you 23 pairs of shoes; one for every year of your life that you never had a new pair."

What a precious and beautiful Father.