Shoes for the Soul

Last week a generous donor decided to respond and "made it personal" by donating a pair of work boots to a homeless friend of mine. This person heard about a need and responded. I'm writing this to tell you the impact this small donation had on Ed's life.

Ed and Gary (See previous blog post) are good friends. They usually spend most of their time together every day at the Dallas Public Library job hunting online or riding around Dallas on DART to pass the time.

Every saturday I see Ed, and every saturday he tells me the same story:

"Man, this week I'm going to get me a job at a barber shop, I used to be a real good barber." To the average person, this seems like an effortless task, but to Ed the harsh reality is that he has to survive on a day to day basis. Therefore, he collects soda cans from people's garbage from about 7am-5pm about 5 days per week and makes roughly $20 per day. But each week, he has the same goal ahead of him "I'm going to get my barber shop job back".

I hope that he never gives up on his goal. Right now it's all he has left.

He has tried to get a decent job, but tells me, "It's hard to get a good, steady job... people don't want to hire a homeless guy and it is obvious to them when I only have 2 pairs of old nasty clothes, worn out rain boots I found in the dumpster, no phone or contact number, and no home address". Ed is stuck in the homeless rutt.





On this particular day, we (ragamuffinLife) worked together to take a step forward to help Ed get on track and then I saw that something much more powerful had occurred.

A pair of nice, new work boots were donated. When I gave these to Ed on saturday, his eyes lit up. After finding out they were a gift for him, he snatched them out of my hands and immediately dropped to the ground, ripping off his ragged, dirty rain boots to try on the new work boots. A perfect fit. I wish I could have taken a picture of the look on his face; it reminded me of what I expect our reaction to be when we meet our Father in Heaven some day. -A smile from ear to ear, similar to the look on a proud, new father's face-

And then he said something that really tugged at my heart strings, "Man, somebody took real good care of these boots ::implying that they were hand-me-downs::" I told him, "Ed, these boots are brand new!" and he lit up like a 6 year old on Christmas morning. He said that since he had been homeless he had not received ANYTHING that was new. He took the food he was storing out of his backpack, quickly ate it, and put his new boots in it. "I'm only gunna wear these to get me a good job.. I'm not gunna get them dirty diggin for cans", Ed said.

He carried around the biggest smile for the rest of the afternoon, showing his new boots to anyone he came in contact with. You see, the boots were more than just new shoes to Ed, they were Shoes for his Soul.

Ed still needs some things to help him get "his barber shop job back". He needs a virgin mobile pre-paid cellphone, virgin mobile minutes for the phone, assistance with a resume, life counseling, and a job. He is not a drug addict and he doesn't drink alcohol. You will be able to donate on the ragamuffinLife.org website soon (currently under construction) or you can contact me directly to help Ed out.