Reynosa Mexico Trip Day 1

I just back to our hotel in Texas after our first distribution. Our little group of 8 left the hotel earlier and entered Mexico with our shoes, stopping to have lunch before the distribution. I ate something like a deep fried baguette, filled with ground meat, cilantro, avocado and hot suace, called "lonches", and it changed my life. I also drank a Coca Cola sweetened with real cane sugar...wow. We walked around the market for a little while, and it was just a market, full of stuff.
Then we headed outside of the city area to Reynosa to a church just getting out of their service. We got there, and unloaded the shoes, and it was a little crazy for a while. We tried to get everyone in an orderly line, and sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. All in all, we probably gave away 200 plus pairs of shoes, mostly to children. We would measure their sweet little feet with a paper measuring chart, and do the best we could to find their current size or something they could grow into. The pastor's middle daughter, Abbi, became my little sidekick and a tremendous help. She translated for me, helped me measure and I just felt such love and grace from this 10 year old. She is going to grow into an amazing woman. She blessed my heart with her sweet face and freckles.
You go on these trips to do good work for others, that is the bottom line. But you are the one who receives the good work. I was measuring these sweet babies feet and looking in their deep dark eyes and making faces at them so they laugh and smile, I had them wiggle their little toes to make sure the shoes worked. I realized today that the stinky feet smell doesn't even bother me; I welcome it, because that means I am a part in helping to make their world better.
Tomorrow is the orphanage, which I know will be amazing and beautiful and hard too, because I will want to bring them all home with me.

For right now, I am headed the the McAllen Wal-Mart, to introduce Ellen and Nancy, two sisters from NYC and Miss Alex from North Dakota, to their very first MOON PIE.
I am out, ya'll.