Enough for me.

I am honored to write for Soles4Souls monthly newsletter and feature stories about people contributing to our mission in their communities. This month I wrote about Hannah Holton, check it out:

Hannah is Not Just a Student, But a Teacher

Hannah Holton is five years old. She is a kindergartner in Frisco, Texas. She loves to read and play outside. She daily teaches her mom, dad and two brothers what it looks like to love others as you love yourself.

In December she saw her mom looking at photos from a friend's mission trip to Haiti. The mission team was working in an orphanage so there were lots of kids in the pictures. Hannah had lots of questions about life in Haiti. She said that one day she wanted to go there and play with the children that looked so happy, although many of them had no family of their own.

In January, she heard "Haiti" in a news story and asked what happened. Her mom found out many of the children in the pictures were devastated by the earthquake. Donations were already being sent to buy supplies for the orphanage. Hannah had the idea to sell grape Kool-Aid to her friends, from a wagon she pulled through her neighborhood. As people bought their drinks, Hannah told them about the earthquake, and the children in the orphanage. She collected $5.17 in about an hour.

On Palm Sunday, Hannah's church put out baskets and asked people to leave their shoes to send to Haiti and to others in need. The pastor announced that the church would begin a month long collection of shoes for Soles4Souls, and that church members should clean out their closets and donate any gently worn or new shoes they do not wear. All types of shoes were needed; because they would be sorted to go to Haiti, people looking for jobs, and other kinds of places. Hannah again heard "Haiti" and asked if the shoes would go to the kids she had seen in the pictures just months before. Her mom explained that yes, some of the shoes could get to those kids.

She went to the altar with her mom, and as people put their shoes in the basket, she asked if she had to leave hers. Her mom said, "Only if you want to." They were her favorite white shoes that she had just gotten to wear with her Easter dress. She stood there for a minute and then slowly took them off and put them in the basket. She seemed a little sad, so her mom gave her a hug and asked her what she was thinking. She said, "I really love those shoes because you bought them for me and they are pretty. Some of the kids in Haiti don't have moms to buy them shoes so I gave them mine. That makes God happy and I know he'll get me some more shoes."

On the way home, Hannah asked if everybody's church was collecting shoes. Her parents said "probably not." She decided to make poster to pass around her neighborhood and friends in an effort to collect more shoes. Her mom set her up on the computer and after a little editing, she printed the flyers and went to deliver them. Hannah went barefoot to ask people to look for shoes. Over the next few weeks, people would ring her doorbell and leave bags of shoes. Hannah collected about 25 pairs of shoes.

Hannah's church has a Mission Possible Kids group who does monthly outreach projects with elementary school kids. For April, they sorted the hundreds of shoes that were collected and wrote notes on those that could be going to kids. Hannah found her white shoes in the pile, along with a pair of silver sparkly little girl's tennis shoes. As she worked to tag them somebody said, "I'll bet some little girl is going to be very happy when she gets these shoes" and Hannah said, "I'm happy that we have so much that we get to share. God likes it when we share."


Tiffany Johnson
Spokesperson



And I sent her a copy of my CD and a book called 'New Old Shoes" as a thanks from Soles4Souls.

Her mom sent me this email upon seeing the newsletter today:

"Hi Tiffany,

Thanks for the email. Hannah did get her package and she loved it. She took the book to school for Show and Tell to read to the class. She also put the CD straight into the player in our kitchen and carried the case around with her. She said you look like Cinderella!

You have been a blessing to us and we thank you."


This is enough....enough for me. That is it, ya'll. What it's all about.