Ministers asked to preach barefoot on Easter Sunday

Atlanta - Samaritan's Feet has designated Easter Sunday, April 4, as Barefoot Sunday. U.S. Pastors are being asked to preach barefoot on Easter Sunday.

Easter Sunday, April 4, will be the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. At a press conference on Friday, March 19, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta GA, two of Dr. King's children, Martin Luther King III and the Rev. Bernice King, in alliance with Samaritan’s Feet, announced the national launch of "Barefoot Sunday." Senior pastor of Ebenezer, Rev. Raphael G. Warnock, said the recent earthquake in Haiti is a reminder of "how poor the poor can be." Their desire is for the pastors to preach barefoot so they can provide a voice for the 300 million impoverished people throughout the world who have no shoes. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution nearly 100 Atlanta area ministers will be preaching on Easter without shoes on. They want people to think of what it is like for the poor children who don't have any shoes. CharismaNewsOnline said the Barefoot Sunday services is to kick off a 10-month campaign to raise money to buy and distribute 1 million pairs of shoes worldwide. Pastors will ask members to donate $10 that will buy and also ship and distribute shoes to children who do not have shoes. Organizers said some of the shoes will go to children in metro Atlanta. Samaritan's Feet is a North Carolina-based ministry that has put nearly 3 million pairs of shoes on children. Their goal is to give 10 million pairs of shoes to children in 10 years. Their focus is on children from North America, Africa, South America, Asia, Middle East and the Caribbean. Manny Ohonme, a native of Nigeria, is the President and founder of Samaritan's Feet. He started the organization in 2003. Manny received his first pair of shoes when he was 9-years-old from a missionary. Ohonme said, "We were trying is to use that platform [of Easter Sunday] to be able to bring about an opportunity for people to be able to tangibly translate that hope to folks that are living in hopeless situations, to be able to inspire and encourage them that here is hope and that Christ has given us that hope. The way we can demonstrate that hope is by tangibly modeling and showing compassion. You may not be able to change the entire world, but you can impact one person." Information about Barefoot Sunday can be found on Samaritan's Feet web site.