For more than 15 years, BCI volunteers have “socked and shoed” thousands of kids in orphanages both in the spring and the fall. Because there are fewer children living in fewer orphanages, BCI did not have a shoe team this year. We still had some shoes and I purchased more in sizes where we were short. The boys from Borovtsi did an amazing job of fitting and shoeing!

• May 17. Belogradichik home – 30 kids Gavril Genovo home – 13 kids
• May 18. Vratsa baby home – 18 kids Vratsa home for school-aged 38 kids Roman : 58 kids
• May 19. Borovtsi preschool – 10 little kids

We still had many preschool shoes left so I arranged with a mayor of an obshtina (county) near Vratsa to have a distribution there on June 1 – the International Day of the Child. They bused in preschoolers from the entire county of Boichinovtsi. We put shoes on ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-EIGHT kids from 3-6 years of age! That is the official number from the preschools, but the actual number is higher because many kids came with their parents. Teo Angelov, Stevcho, and another Bible Society worker came to help and brought with them books of children’s Bible stories and children’s Bibles. The adults received regular Bibles!

From Boichinovtsi we traveled another 40 minutes to the home for school-aged children in Borovan and had a much harder time of fitting 27 older children there! Sorry we don’t have more pictures – everyone was working with the shoes!!!

Thank you, Buckner Benevolence for the thousands of pairs of shoes you have provided over the years. Thanks to Sugar Land Baptist and The Heights for sending them – and much more – to us in containers. And many thanks to the hundreds of volunteers that have worked hard in the States and in Bulgaria! I am grateful for the opportunity and financial ability to travel to serve all these children. That is what BCI has always done! Thank you for supporting this work.