These shoes are made for mission

12 April 2007

If you had stepped into Christ Church Pitsmoor last Thursday evening (5th April) you might have been forgiven for thinking that you had walked into a second-hand shoe shop. Spread right in the centre of the aisle was a collection of old shoes and boots; each telling a different story.

With labels attached to them, each shoe told inspiring, not-so-pretty and real life stories of the shoe owners. One pair described the moment when its owner, an asylum-seeker, was forcefully thrown out of their Sheffield home early one morning by the authorities.

The Shoe Extravanganza event is part of the mission placement of four church Army evangelists-in-training (Yvonne Hayes, Louise Yaull, Patrick Samuels and Kate Hatton) alongside members of Christ Church Pitsmoor, who wanted to have a different kind of event over the Easter break.

"The idea about shoes came from Greenbelt originally where some members of the church had seen a circle of shoes displayed from around the world and this idea was developed for the mission at Pitsmoor," says evangelist Louise Yaull. "There was an area in the centre of the church where donated shoes were displayed along with attached labels that told the story of where the shoes had been and a little about the person who had worn them. The church was decorated with footprint cut outs from all the people that the mission team had met during the month, including school children, people from the local art and history groups, youth projects etc. The idea was to use the shoes and footprints as a way of gathering stories from people and how they came to be at Pitsmoor and where they hoped to be going in the future. The hope was also to see where God's story might be in part of their journey."

The extravanganza which was open to members of the community regardless of their backgrounds attracted about one hundred people from the church and surrounding community. "There was an opportunity to share food brought in by the church members and to watch a short drama 'Miss Bossy Boots' from the Church Army team as well as joining in a fun shoe quiz and singing," continues Louise. "The vicar, Martyn Snow finished the Maundy Thursday celebrations with an Agape communion and invited people to wash one another's feet as Jesus had done for his disciples during the last supper. Who would have thought that you could learn so much from shoes?"