Help me raise funds to travel back to Haiti with Soles4Souls!

Two years ago through an unexpected opportunity at work, I was able to travel to Haiti with a group of student-athletes and two staff members to participate in a service project through the Soles4Souls organization. Soles4Souls is a non-profit social enterprise committed to disrupting the cycle of poverty and impacting lives around the world, one pair of shoes at a time. Having no idea what to expect, I accepted the opportunity without hesitation. Little did I know at the time, that trip would soon become the best experience of my life to date!

For the first time ever, during that trip I truly felt disconnected from work and the crazy, fast-paced life that we live in. Instead, for those seven days I felt very much in the present – present with myself and my feelings, with the communities and the loving people whom we were serving, with the sights and sounds around us, and with both the love and beauty and heart-ache and struggle that we saw through those we encountered. Before that trip was even over, I made a vow to myself that I would return to Haiti again someday. My heart had been deeply touched; I felt a calling and found a joy in life that I had not before experienced.

While it has always been heavy on my mind and deep in my heart, I am now making my dreams of returning to Haiti to continue to serve others come true. With the travel bans recently lifted, Sole4Souls is returning to Haiti this winter and I am going with! I will be traveling back to Haiti January 15-19, 2020. Unlike my first trip which was a private trip where I traveled with a set group of Iowa State student-athletes and co-workers, this trip will be a public trip where I will be traveling with a group of strangers whom I do not know but rather who share in the same mission to make a difference in the lives of others. This trip will include giving shoes and giving love, memorializing the 10^th anniversary of the Haitian earthquake, and returning to our dear friends in Haiti once more to give shoes, give love, spread hope and receive joy from them.

I ask for your support through prayers, prayers for the communities that we will visit while we are down there, for our team and our travels and for the relationships that we will build with those we encounter. If you feel so inclined to give, I would also love your support financially. All funds raised will help cover the cost of my trip, including lodging, meals and travel. Just a small donation will go a long way to helping me meet my goal to travel back to Haiti with Soles4Souls. All payments and donations for the trip are tax deductible.

I look forward to sharing of my experience with you all. Please feel free to follow along with me through this journey. May we all find our calling in life and joy in our hearts.

We are called to act with justice. We are called to love tenderly. We are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.

With many thanks and love,
Molly