IN OTHER WORDS | SCOTT COLLINS
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From the beginning, seniors have been the soul of Buckner International’s ministry. Retired pastors and missionary families came to live in homes on the outskirts of Buckner Orphan’s Home. There, they found a caring community where they could thrive, living out a distinctive lifestyle dedicated to faith and service. The same spirit those early seniors discovered at the orphans home has driven Buckner to become the second-largest provider of non-profit senior living communities in Texas. Learn more at
buckner.org.
Hands out
We talk a lot about feet around Buckner. That shouldn’t surprise you, given the popularity of the Buckner Shoes for Orphan Souls® ministry. I’ve been personally involved with Shoes for Orphan Souls from before its beginning with Buckner, traveling with a group from radio station KCBI in February 1999 on their last shoe distribution trip to Russia, just before Buckner took over the program. Our daughter Claire was 4 years old back in 1999 when our family went to the mall and bought a couple pairs of shoes for her to donate. Claire is now 19 and a student at Texas Tech University.
I’ve lost count of the number of “shoes mission trips” I’ve been on, but I do remember the images. It’s impossible to forget the sight of Americans bending down, removing dirty socks and old shoes from the feet of orphans, washing those feet and placing warm new socks and shoes back on the child’s feet. I’ve seen a lot of special moments these past 15 years, watching them over and over through the lens of a camera, trying to convey the power of that experience.
Obviously the focus of my camera is on the
feet, the shoes and socks. But always there, almost unseen, are the hands. They are the hands of faithful volunteers. Hands that gently and lovingly do the work. They are hands that once the feet are washed, the socks snug on the feet and the shoestrings tied, extend in a loving embrace – that added touch that says, “I love you.” We hear a lot today about the need to empower people, not enable them, giving people a hand up, not a hand out.
Those are great long-term goals for people living in poverty and despair. But when you see hands out, tying shoelaces on a new pair of shoes for a child, you know that in this case, a hand out equals a hand up.
Scott Collins is Vice President of Communications at Buckner International.
SPRING 2015 ISSUE • Buckner Today 5
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