María is a 14 year old girl from a Barrio in Dominican Republic. She goes to a Baptist Mission and is getting ready for the National Youth Retreat where she is going for the first time.What a surprise for María to know that her only pair of shoes her mom had taken them to the shoe repair shop because they were broken.It was 5:00PM of the day before the retreat and she thought she was not going to be able to go to the retreat because her only pair of shoes where at the repair shop…

God is perfect and his plans are always for good….What a surprise for María to see that her oldest brother had brought her only pair of shoes around 7:00PM. María started to prepare her backpack for the next day when she was going to be picked up by the Missionary Madeline Flores to take her to the retreat.

What a joy and wonderful experience for María of getting to know new friends, brothers and sisters from other Baptist churches. She was the only one from her church, but not for long…she started meeting new friends and soon she was part of the crowd. They announced a game and everyone was getting ready to play….many of the ones there went to get their sneakers, boots, shoes for the muddy game and María was standing there thinking on what she was going to do…she said to herself, this is the only pair of shoes I have, if I play in the mud with them, what am I going to use the rest of the days? But, I want to play, she said. I do not want to be here alone and I do not want others to know that I do not have more shoes…what a dilemma Maria had!

Once again God is good! A group from Puerto Rico had brought a suitcase full of shoes, sandals, flip flops to give away and they had them there! What a surprise for María to see that someone was watching her and new that she was struggling with her only pair of shoes and gave her shoes to play and María was part of the game and fun.

This is a story that touches the heart of many of us that have more than one pair of shoes…it makes of think of those in need and always understand that not everyone in the world has more than one pair of shoes. In the Dominican Republic we have many María´s…with only one pair of shoes and willing to serve the Lord no matter the situation.

Please pray for girls like María and when you go to the store to buy "another" pair of shoes, think of those who only have one!