'Putin's' New Shoes

Six SVP MUSCC members on homeless run in Manchester

I am touched.
After having just returned from another homeless run in Manchester city centre, I am finding it hard to put one of the people I've just met out of my mind. His name is Vladimir, and he is from Bulgaria. He has Parkinson's Disease, and he was freezing cold. Or rather, as I write this, he is still freezing cold.

But his shoes fit.
His shoes fit because of SVP.

When our little group of students -six of us altogether -, stumbled upon Vladimir, we were, truthfully, beginning to flag. It was getting cold, we were tired, we were running out of food to give out. At the point when we were ready to turn and head back to chaplaincy, we found this man. He was shivering with cold, he wouldn't accept food, and he was feeling at odds with the world.
As we stayed and made conversation with him, my eyes rested on his feet, and I noticed that his trainers were folded down at the back. His feet were too big for them.

The shoes that I held in a plastic carrier bag had already been offered out and refused by people tonight. They were too big for the first man, and not suited to the second man. I wasn't very optimistic that the shoes would fit our friend Vladimir - or 'Putin' -as we nicknamed him (much to his amusement!) Nevertheless, I offered the shoes to him.

They fit like a glove! Vladimir's face lit up, and while we all looked on he suddenly shot up and did a dance of joy in his new shoes! He cried out, beaming, "I have new shoes!" while we all marvelled at the fact that these shoes seemed to have been made for him. We left Vladimir with a grateful smile on his face, and something resembling relief there too.
Something so simple had meant so much to him. The basic necessity of a pair of shoes that fit him brought him such joy. This moment touched all of us volunteers and gave us the renewed vigour we needed for the last stretch of the homeless run.

We will not forget Vladimir quickly; not only because of the turnaround in attitude that our gift gave him, but also because it woke us up. The ensuing animated discussion over who decided to donate the shoes, who brought them out tonight, whose idea it was to offer them to Vladimir: all highlighted the true nature of the SVP. The work that we are doing is not the work of one individual; we are all members of a greater network. Those who give up their time to volunteer and those who donate clothes and food to the homeless runs are dependent upon each other in making a difference to the likes of Vladimir.

At the end of tonight's homeless run, I know I speak for my fellow volunteers when I say that we feel privileged to have witnessed firsthand the difference that we are making in the lives of the people we meet.

Long may it continue.