This commitment means that she doesn't need to worry about matching her outfit, buying, cleaning or repairing shoes. Instead, she can channel her time and energy to the needs of others. What would inspire her to do that?
Three years ago, Katie Boom visited Cambodia with a goal to find out whether she could do long term missions there. On arrival, she was overwhelmed by all the heat and the chaos of Phnom Penh and immediately thought to herself: "Surely I was not destined for this place!" Little did she know at the time that one dining experience at a roadside restaurant would start to change her world inside out.
Katie shares her story:
As I spent time in Cambodia, I had been hit hard with the brutal realities of life in poverty. One evening, I was eating out at a roadside restaurant. The dinner cost us about 2 dollars each. As we were finishing our meals, a little boy came up to our table asking for some food.
We filled his little plastic bag with leftovers, the scraps from the plates we just ate from. He thanked us and ran off to a side alley where his mother and baby brother had been waiting for him. They sat down right there, in that dark dusty night and ate their dinner from the plastic bag.
By the time my two weeks were up, my initial reaction to the heat and the crazy traffic was all but a faint memory. Cambodia and its people had a place in my heart.
After I finished my music degree, I was back in Cambodia. This time I spent 5 months, writing and teaching a music curriculum for prisoners. Every day brought about new challenges, and gave fresh perspectives on life.
I spent an increasing amount of time with kids in some of the slums. One hot steamy day, a little fellow, probably about two or three years old, showed me his latest wound. I tried not to freak out when I saw the big chunk missing from the back of his heel. And he wanted a plaster! He needed much more than a plaster after getting caught in the wheels of a scooter.
I couldn't reconcile the fact that I had a dozen pairs of shoes back home, some of which I never ever wore, and here this boy had nothing to walk in; nothing to protect his feet from the disease and rubbish that is rife in the slums.
That experience really moved me. Most of us wouldn't want to walk around barefoot, even in our clean safe countries, and yet these little ones don't even have a choice. After I got back to New Zealand, I decided to go barefoot for a year. I wanted to raise awareness, have conversations about what I experienced in Cambodia and what people could do to help.
Going barefoot for such a long time requires real commitment. I've walked in mud, on scorching sand and sharp gravel. I've also stepped on broken glasses, prickles and plenty of poo. I've climbed mountains, sung opera and been kicked out of a restaurant for being barefoot. But it has been a great conversation starter. How is it different to doing a food challenge? When you are barefoot, people can see it!
This story from Katie marks the beginning of the barefoot charity named Shoeless.
Shoeless for Cambodia
Katie's barefoot challenge has made her realise how little she really needs, and how often we subscribe to what our culture says we should have. She started Shoeless as a way to challenge people about the value that we place on possessions. Her question was: what else would we do if we weren't so caught up in acquiring things for ourselves?
The slum kids in Cambodia are very eager to learn, and make a better life for themselves and their family. Despite all the hardship, there is a strong sense of family loyalty and interdependency among them.
But there are so many talented young lives on the streets, earning whatever they can, however they can. Some of them end up in prisons and others work in the sex trade on the streets. These children should have the opportunity to learn and have the chance to escape the vicious cycle of poverty.
In partnership with a local organisation Care for Cambodia, Shoeless aims to help these children by providing school packs for 1800 kids. Each school pack contains a school uniform, a school bag, textbooks, exercise books, geometry sets, pens and shoes. These are some of the essentials that most of the slum parents cannot afford for their children.
These packs cost about 20 dollars each. And how much is a pair of extra shoes? By forgoing that new pair of shoes you were eyeing up, you can send children to school for a year in Cambodia.
On the 11 April 2014, Shoeless is holding its first national Shoeless day in New Zealand. The challenge is to go barefoot for a day and get sponsorship. This may be an opportunity for you, your church or your business to get involved with Shoeless.
Shoeless has a 100% donation policy, meaning all of the money goes directly to the kids in Cambodia. There is also a separate donation option to support Katie and the admin team to keep the Shoeless charity going. This purposeful distinction between the two means that there is no separate admin cuts from ShoelessKids donations. I like that idea!
Shoeless aims to inspire people to live with less, and do more. Check out the Website in this link: www.shoelessnz.com
Reflection
In Isaiah 3 verses 16-26, the women of Judah had placed their emphasis on clothing and jewelry rather than on God. In so doing, they focused on their outward beauty instead of the poor and the oppressed around them. This does not mean that God has a problem with clothing and jewelry. But self-centred luxury is not pleasing to God. How observant are you about the needs of others in our world?
Daniel Jang is a Wellington-based consultant, writer and theology student at Laidlaw College.
Daniel Jang's previous articles may be viewed at
www.pressserviceinternational.org/daniel-jang.html