Lots of shoes

I have a lot more shoes now than I did a week ago! Why? Because I went to León, Guanajuato!

León, Guanajuato, the fifth largest city in Mexico, is also known as the Shoe Capital, and not without reason! The city features large factories that not only produce shoes, but also boots, belts, jackets, and other leather accessories, serving both national and international markets. People go to León from all over Mexico to buy shoes and other leather goods, and there is even a large indoor shopping mall that is ALL shoe stores! For anyone obsessed with shopping for shoes, León would probably be their idea of heaven. Imelda Marcos, for example, would probably become a Christian if she thought it might get her to Leon.

Of course, I wasn't there just for the shoes. I was there to preach at the First Church of the Nazarene in León. My friend, Daniel Cordoba had been the pastor there previously until his death last year, and interestingly enough another friend of mine, Leonardo Peralta, is now pastoring that church. We had a great week, as a number of people came to faith in Christ, and lots of amazing things happened in people's lives.

The most amazing thing, however, was the opportunity this visit gave me to see the continuing fruit of previous visits. I got to meet with people who had really been impacted by what God had done in their lives in previous visits, and it was amazing to hear their stories about how those visits had lasting impacts on their lives. One woman remembered in detail a sermon I preached a few years ago that impacted her life amazingly. As she told me about the sermon, I didn't at first even remember ever having said the things she repeated to me, but once she finished I not only remembered that I had said them, I even remembered the occasion. After that particular sermon, I had felt like I had done a terrible job and accomplished nothing. Hearing her tell me how the things that I only said that once had changed her life reminded me that we never really know what kind of impact our words might have upon the people we meet.

Also while I was there, however, I got showered with gifts. Among them were 4 pairs of really nice leather shoes and a really nice leather jacket. I actually had to get an extra bag to put the gifts in! It was great! The people in León are so kind and generous. I look forward to going back again one of these days...but of course not just for the shoes. :-)