“The Shoes of the Fisherman”

Toronto’s St. Barnabas Anglican Church possesses both a priest and a congregation who firmly believe in putting the Word into action.

Though the church may often be short of money, it is never short of ideas about how to make this happen. Thus it was that on Easter Sunday past not only a large congregation walked into morning service … but so did 50 or more extra pairs of brightly coloured plastic shoes.

Here’s the backstory: St Barnabas has long had a vigorous outreach programme, bringing both spiritual and practical help to people who need it, both locally and abroad.

In the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake disaster, a friend of the parish freshly returned from Haiti told the congregation that one of the most-needed items was something probably few relief organizations would have thought was a priority: shoes.

The word went out … and the congregation went shopping. How to get most shoe for the money? Concentrate on plastic “croc”-type shoes: cheap, comfortable, indestructible, available in all sizes.

It all came together at Easter Sunday service, when in place of bright Easter egg decorations, the church was hung with hundreds of pairs of cheerfully coloured plastic shoes, making a brief appearance before taking off to Haiti.

Priest Debby Koscec, standing in the pulpit holding a plastic shoe in each hand, thanked the congregation for their massivek away from the disaster that befell them.

Said the Reverend Koscec, “If that’s not a Resurrection, I don’t know what is.”

Amen to that.

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Crocs for Haiti! The first Sunday after Easter, April 11, 2010, at our 10:30 am worship, we were joined by two people who are our Teddy Bear connection with Haiti. This couple sharing not only pictures of the children who received the Teddy Bears but also their recent experience

support of the shoe drive to help the Haitian people, both literally and symbolically, wals and their ministry amongst the Haitians. One of the things that Sandra and her husband suggested, if we would be interested, was to collect crocs for kids. Crocs are plastic shoes and can be bought at the dollar store for $2.00 a pair. The crocs are vacuum-packed for transporting. If anyone would like to buy a pair of crocs for Haiti -call the office, or bring a pair to church with you!

What do teddy bears, rubber shoes, God and a creative community have in common? It all started with one parishioner who saw a video of medical relief boxes being unpacked in Haiti after the earthquake in January.

The first things out of the boxes were teddy bears which were given to the children surrounding the truck. The thought of comforting these children who had lost so much sparked an idea that was to blossom over the next few months. She remembered seeing patterns for knitting and crocheting the “bears” online and brought the information to church to share with other parishioners – thus began the Teddy Bear Ministry at St. Barnabas.

The question then arose about how to actually get the bears to Haiti. The answer came when the church office received a call from an independent filmmaker who had spoken about her relief efforts overseas to the congregation last year. She and her Haitian-born husband were now involved with a “mission” to Haiti supporting children whose orphanage had been destroyed in the earthquake. Not only would they welcome the chance to transport the teddies in their suitcases, but they added that the children were sorely in need of sturdy shoes to replace the sneakers that could not withstand the rubble that lined the streets. Could we also send those colourful croc-like plastic shoes for the children – they were quite inexpensive, readily available in stores and seemed provide the solution to this problem? The call went out to the parishioners and, by Easter Sunday, over 60 pairs of shoes and more than 30 teddy bears were ready to be vacuum packed and taken in the suitcases of this young couple.

This will only be the first trip – the mission will continue. The shoes, the bears, the creative community, the committed couple – they were pieces in a puzzle and God provided the glue to stick them together.

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