Riley Letson is striving to meet the needs of families living in poverty in the Appalachian mountains and communities hit by natural disasters from the Gulf of Mexico to the WV mountains. Christmas 2014 - Riley told her parents she wanted to collect shoes for kids who did not have shoes overseas. She would continue to ask about collecting shoes and her parent’s reply would be “We will think about
it.”
February 2015 - In preparations for Riley’s birthday party, she insisted on having people donate shoes instead of presents. Shortly after her birthday, Riley and her parents had a serious discussion about collecting shoes. Riley shared with her parents how God told her in a dream that He wanted her to collect shoes for children who did not have shoes. Riley and her parents shared God’s vision with Pastor Jimmy Guffey of CenterPoint Church. Jimmy was very excited and together they decided to ask the entire church to participate. Shoes, shoes, and more shoes began to pile up, but the team still had no plan to find children without shoes. The team contacted the North American Missions Board and began conversations with Bill Barker. Bill is the director of the Appalachian Regional Ministries which covers the mountains in KY, WV, TN, NC and VA. August 2015 - Bill traveled to CenterPoint to share about how bad the poverty was in the mountains and how the shoes would truly be a blessing to the children and families. Riley’s Soles 4 Souls collected 550 pairs of shoes! Bill was driving back with the shoes, still unsure of where the shoes were needed. On the road, he received a phone call from a pastor in Richwood, WV and asked where would he be able to get shoes for the kids in the community. God knew exactly what He was doing. Bill delivered the shoes to the church and within 30 minutes, all the shoes were claimed by people who needed them. God did an amazing thing and this was only the beginning! God laid it on Riley's heart to keep collecting shoes. July 2016 - Riley opened up the collection to the community of Brunswick, GA! With the help of CenterPoint church and the community, Riley and her team collected 789 pairs of shoes. Riley and a small team of adults personally delivered them to the people of Richwood, WV! Riley and her team look forward to seeing what God will do through this amazing ministry. Riley dreams about more than shoes because Richwood, WV was recently destroyed by a flood and the families who had nothing, now have absolutely nothing. Please pray for Riley and her team as they plan and prep for their next trip to Richwood, WV! As of February 2023 we have collected over 16,000 pairs of shoes. We have helped the community's affected by Hurricane Michael in Port St. Joe, Florida and Mexico Beach, Florida. Whether it was serving through disaster cleanup or delivering shoes, we have continued what Riley was told to do and that is to collect and distribute as many shoes that we can. Every pair of shoes we collect is one life that we have to ability to impact or change.
