Flip Flops arrive in Ethiopia and Malawi!

A family adopting from Ethiopia took some of our flip flops when they went to get their daughter! Here is a quote from them: "The staff at the orphanage were SO THANKFUL for those shoes. They just couldn't stop thanking us enough. I tried to explain who these flip flops were really from, but I don't think they got it. Those kids were in DESPERATE need of these shoes. So feel good about that."

We met a lovely Australian couple in Haiti and now they are in Malawi. They took shoes with them, too. Cay helped me hand out shoes in Haiti and was very helpful!

Here is a quote from Cay: The folk on the steps showing their flip flops are the staffers at the Lydia Foundation in Zomba, Malawi and they send their heartfelt thanks as do the 3 orphan girls.
Please, take just a moment and click on this picture to enlarge it to really see the expressions on these happy faces! Acts 20:35 states,"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" Indeed!

New Connections, New Blessings!

I don't believe in coincidences. We met some amazing people in Haiti and made some great connections with people who are excited to get flip flops to those in great need. Here is one of the wonderful women we met at the Port-au-Prince airport on our way home. Her name is Michelle Lacourciere and she is the Director for the Sirona Cares Foundation. If you click HERE you can see what Sirona Fuels is doing for countries like Haiti. She was kind enough to do a post about the Flip Flop Fleet on her blog and she is excited about taking flip flops with her when she heads to Haiti in May! Here is a quote from her email that put a smile on my face from EAR TO EAR!! "I will gladly accept whatever you can send to me and will happily put them on the feet of beautiful children."

Another interesting point is that Sirona Fuels partners with C3 Missions, who we donated flips to after the flooding last fall. We plan to continue to work with C3 in the future as well.

Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with partnerships like this one. We know that meeting Michelle and her lovely family was not an accident.

Blessings Abound!

Please click HERE for a wonderful post by our online friend, Cara. Lee found this blog before we ever knew about Patricia and Philippe. I remember him saying as he read their posts, "Hmmm, maybe we should adopt from Haiti some day!

Thanks Cara and Greg, for educating us on Haiti, for sharing this great shopping story and for 61 more pairs of flip flops!

1600 Pair!

Here at the Flip Flop Fleet, our shoe count has been stuck at 1593 pairs of shoes for months!Jennifer over at God Sees and Protects decided enough was enough and got us 7 more pair so we now have an even 1600! Thanks, Jennifer!

Flip Flops in Haiti!!!

We brought 200 pairs of flip flops to the kids' orphanage for the kids and the staff. Here are the kids all lined up ready to get new shoes.

Snazzy new pair of orange flip flops


I got pretty good at guessing what size shoe would fit what size foot!

Here are the nannies and other orphanage staff getting their new flip flops. It touched my heart when a few of the men refused shoes for themselves and took a small size for their child at home. I wished that every staff member could take shoes home for all their kids, too!

This says it all!

Just a sampling of the large group that got new flip flops! Thanks to everyone collecting shoes! We made some other great connections in Haiti, and your efforts are blessing and will continue to bless others!

"The flip flops were a hit!"

The title quotes Dr. Hess regarding the Flip Flop Fleet's contribution to his recent trip to Honduras.

Thank you Dr. Hess for partnering with us to get some shoes to people in need in Honduras!

And thank you to everyone who has donated shoes. We have many more places we could be taking these shoes, let's keep watching for opportunities!

Stay tuned for some more reports of Flips going to people in need... isn't this fun? My favorite part of all of this is seeing the smiles.

Flip Flops on their way to HONDURAS!!

Lee used to be an optician several years ago, and one of the doctors he worked for went on annual trips to other countries on VOSH Missions Trips. In the past 25 years, he as visited approximately 30 countries helping people to see better! He is currently the VOSH Minnesota president.

From their website: VOSH Minnesota is an organization dedicated to serving the vision needs of people around the world who cannot afford or do not have access to vision care services. We are an independent volunteer group of optometrists and other concerned individuals who travel around the globe to help provide better sight to those less fortunate.

I was talking to Dr. Hess about the Flip Flop Fleet and since they already had shipped their needed items for their current trip, he was happy to take flip flops with him to HONDURAS! He took 75 pair and the wonderful thing about flips is that they are so light that the box, which needed to weigh 50 lbs or less, weighed only 35 lbs. He said that someone once donated baseball caps and when they handed them out the people were so happy! We are praying that our flip flops bring many blessings!

Think creatively - there are many people going on missions trips of all types this time of year and we have great opportunities to get these shoes on some feet! Will you ask your church if there are any teams going out to areas in need? Please let us know if we can help!