21 days till we leave!!!

This will be my last post until sometime around the 25th of January after we get back. Thank you to anyone and everyone that prayed for me or donated to us. It means a lot to both me and everybody in Oditel. We ended up raising over $7,250 which is crazy for just 100 days. We will be buying shoes for all the kids in two villages. We are buying Bibles for the kids in Oditel. The two public schools in Kapelabyong will be getting shoes as well. We are buying soccer shoes, uniforms, and balls for the village of Oditel. We are giving soccer balls to another village also. And we are exploring the idea of using the leftover money to jump start a shoe company in Oditel. This was all thanks to you guys. Without you none of this would have happened. So thank you again. We will be leaving on the 7th, so please pray that we have a safe trip. Thanks again.        ~Tim

Day-97

Thank you Portage Central for setting up the fundraiser for my last day and for all the support during my 97 days so far. For those of you that don't go to Portage Central here is the article they put in the announcements today:
 "Sick of the man forcing you to wear shoes?? Fight back, support a great cause, and celebrate with one of your fellow Mustangs. For the past 100 days, Tim Lotz has gone without shoes to raise money and awareness for children in Uganda. Those 100 days come to an end this Monday. Thanks to the work of Hoop’s 3^rd hour class, you can join him and celebrate his last day by donating $1 to receive a stylish pair blue booties to wear all day on Monday. Celebrate the dedication of one of your fellow Mustangs and help bring shoes to the children of Uganda."
And if you do go to Portage Central be sure to remember to bring a dollar and buy a pair of booties on Monday. Thanks again everybody.

Day-85

Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving! I got to go to my grandparents house in Arizona and visit with my dad's side of the family that I dont get to see that often. It was a ton of fun. We got to go to the Grand Canyon, and now I can say I hiked part of the Grand Canyon barefoot. We ate lots of turkey and played some card games and had a good time. My family and I went Black Friday shopping. We got some movies and I got a videogame, but we didn't get the laptop we wanted to get; oh well. The best part of Black Friday was one of the workers asked about 100 Days Without Shoes and donated $20. I hope your Thanksgiving was as good as mine was. Thanks for the prayers and donations.

Day- 76

Over 3/4ths of the way there!!!!!! A lot has happened recently. The biggest things being me talking to the Wednesday night 4th grade girls at my church and a church in Grand Rapids. Both of those went very well. Thanks to you guys we have gotten 18 soccer balls and we are getting 10 soccer uniforms for the orphan team in Oditel. I had a yard working job with my friend Dan last Thursday and did that all barefoot. It was a little cold, but it was fun and I didn't get frost bite. The next big thing that happened was I went to a Scarlet White concert, and it was awesome. Afterwords the band gave me $10 and said they would pray for me; that was really cool. We are leaving to go to Oditel in less than two months, and it feels like it is coming up really soon. Thanks for all of the prayers and donations.

Day-60

Hi everybody, sorry for not posting in awhile. Alot has happened since the last time I posted. The first being my church's fall retreat. It was really fun and the camp was completely okay with me going barefoot. We got to hangout with Heartsong, and after the retreat they sent me a post card saying they were praying in support of 100 Days Without Shoes, so that was cool.
The next big thing that happened was, my sister talked to her school, and got them to do a flip-flop drive for the kids in Oditel. A big thanks to anybody that brought in shoes. We got several boxes full. The next thing that is coming up is this weekend. I will be going to Art Hop downtown Kalamazoo, to raise awareness and helpout at The River's site. So if you are going to Art Hop, you should find me, and if you aren't going, you should.  It is a great way to support local artists and start your Christmas shopping.
Now that we got the bigger things out of the way I can talk about the smaller things. It is really cold out, but I'm just happy that it hasn't snowed like it said it was going to on the news. We are still getting donations every week, so Thank You everybody. The Uganda group bought plane tickets at the last meeting. so we are officially going now. Yay. Thanks again for all the prayers and donations.

Day - 45

Hi, Everybody. I'm almost half way there, and for day 50, I was thinking about doing a Q&A, so if you have any questions comment on this post. 
The exciting news is that we have raised enough money for shoes and Bibles for all of the orphans in Oditel.  We are now adopting the village of Nyada and hoping to have enough to buy shoes for all of the orphans there too!   Keep giving and blessing this kids in Africa!
Anyway, last Sunday I was at The River church because they were doing a day focused on giving to Oditel, and the kind people there gave me about $400 twoards shoes. Last week went really slow for  some reason, and not much happened. Saturday I went to go see Taken 2 and got yelled at by the guy at the connsesions stand, but after I told him what it was for he was okay with it. This Sunday we went to get pumpkins at Gene-Gene's and the lady that was collecting pay said to just donate it to buying shoes, so that was really cool. I think that is all that has happened since my last post. Don't forget to donate we still need about $900 for those kids in Nyada. Thank you!

Day - 36

The interview last Sunday went well, and we sold about $50 of wristbands at it. The week was a pretty normal week. Friday there was an article about 100 Days Without Shoes in the school newspaper so that helped awareness, hopefully causing more people to donate. As it gets closer to winter it is definitely getting alot colder in the mornings. It doesn't look like it will be like last year and not snow till Christmas. It looks more like its going to snow in early November. Oh well. Tommorow I go to The River church and try to get donations and let people know why I'm going barefoot. After that the Uganda team has another meeting to go over the Ateso language. We have reached our second goal, so now we have a Bible and a pair of shoes for every orphan in the village. This means we only need about $1,200 till we reach our final goal. I have no doubt that God will be able to get us to that goal.

Day-26

I have two things to say today. The first one is that Gabe, a kid from my school, came up to me and told me that he had thought about going without shoes. We talked a little and now he is also going without shoes. If your reading this Gabe, thanks for the support! The second thing I have to say is, thanks to all of you guys that donated. We have offically met our second goal. This means that every orphan in Oditel will get a pair of shoes and a Bible of their very own.  From here on out we are still raising money to try to get shoes for every kid in the village (not just the orphans). I really believe that we can raise enough money to do this. Thanks for all the support everybody! (Also, I am past a quarter of the way there.)

Day- 23

Hi everybody. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I got a little lazy with the blog. It is definitely getting colder. Walking to the bus stop in the mornings makes my feet go numb, but it's still not cold enough to the point of being a problem. Hopefully it will be like last year and not snow until Christmas, but with my luck it will probably snow by Halloween. Oh well. School has been going good. I have gotten donations in my donation cup almost every day, and hopefully that continues. Next Sunday my youth pastor is going to interview me in front of the youth group, and I am going to have a "suggested donation" where if people donate at least $2 they get a wristband. (I can't say I'm selling them because of IRS tax issues.) That should raise some more money. Only 3/4ths of the way to go!

Donating and goals.

I have two great things to tell you. The first is that there is a way to donate online again. Click on the link to the left of this post and make sure to put 100 days in the drop box. The second thing is that we are half-way to our goals. That means we have enough money to buy shoes for all the orphans and bibles for half the orphans. We still need about 2000 dollars (rough estimate) to go, to buy bibles for the rest of the ophans, and to buy shoes for the rest of the kids in the village, but we are half way there!

Days 10-13

Monday was a normal school day, and not much happened. I'm still not used to getting up early but other than that it was a good Monday. Tuesday (Day 11) I told my drum teacher, Josh about what I was doing, and when he found out I was going to Uganda with The River Church, he told me that's where his fiancee goes to church. So that was cool. Yesterday (Day 12), I went to the first Wenesday night youth group for the fall, and told them why I was bare foot so we are still raising awareness, which is always good. Today I got home and finally made that collection can that I talked about in the last post.  After that I went to a meeting about National Honors Society, then went to my church to paint a shirt for Messy Olympics, and play ga-ga ball. (Messy Olympics is a thing my church does every year where the high school classes compete in alot of different messy games.  I'm sure this year the Juniors are going to win!)  Can't wait for that on Sunday.

Days 6-9

Sorry about not posting for awhile. The first week of school was making me tired. Anyway, not much happened in school Thursday and Friday. Some more people asked me what I was doing, and one teacher sugested that I get a donation jar to carry around in school, so people know they can donate. I'm going to make one of those this week. Saturday I went to the Night of Destruction at the Kalamazoo Speedway with my friends Andrew and Dan. I had a good time especially when they drove a limo through a camper. I had some people ask me why I was barefoot so I gave them buisness cards. My feet did get slightly cold as it got later in the night, so that made me wonder how winter is going to feel. Today I went to church and welcomed the freshmen into the youth group, it was move up Sunday so everybody moved up a grade, then I went home and had a lazy Sunday afternoon watching tv. Over all it was a pretty good first week of school and no shoes.

Day- 5

Today was my first full day of school, and my first day wearing shoe covers. Today went even better than yesterday. I didn't have any teachers stop me in the halls, and I had alot more kids ask what I was doing. I also had some adults ask. One of the office workers saw me in the hall and asked what I was doing so I gave her my business card. The librarian said she would want to see some pictures when I got back.  And the lunch pass inspector said she would donate tomorrow. When I got home my friend invited me to the Night of Destruction at the Kalamazoo Speedway on Satuday. He even called the Speedway to make sure I could go without shoes, so that was cool. Thanks Andrew. I'll post again tomorrow.

Day 4

Yesterday was the first day of school, (I'm posting this a day late) and it was okay. I was stopped by a few teachers in the halls, but after I said I got premission from the principal, and told them what it was for they seemed okay with it. I had alot of kids asking what I was doing it for, so that's good. By the end of the day it had spread among the teachers and my 7th hour teacher already knew about it when I got there. Hopefully it is spreading through the students just as fast. Anyway, after school I got an email from my principal saying it turns out they have a policy based of heath guidelines, and that I should wear shoe covers in school from now on, so that was a bummer, but I can't do anything about it, so oh well. The cool thing was when I went to go get shoe covers, the lady that checked us out asked why we were buying shoe covers and then said she had some flip-flops she wanted to donate.

Day-2 and 3

Not much happened either of these days. Sunday was my first day at church, but most people already knew that I was going without shoes. Although I did have about 5 people ask me what I was doing. It was a little wierd walking out of my youth group without shoes. I almost went back thinking I had taken my flip-flops off and forgotten them, but I didn't have any to forget. Anyway, today was a lazy last day of summer. I cleaned out the car, and we had some friends over for lunch and some games. I spent most of my time after that thinking about how I have to get up early tomorrow. Hopefully tommorow will be more interesting, being the first day of school and all.

Day 1

Today was the first day without shoes, and for some reason, my mom decided to change all the landscaping around my house. Did you know it is painful to use a shovel without shoes? I ended up duct taping some cardboard to the top of the shovel so it didn't hurt as much. Other than that, not much happened today. I didn't go anywhere besides my house, so tomorrow at church will be the first time without shoes in public.

Day -1 (last day with shoes)

Today was the last day I will be wearing shoes for a while. I'm excited to finally be starting 100 days tomorrow. I feel like we have been preparing for a long time and it's about time to finally start going without shoes. Unfortunately this means school will be starting up soon, and that means I have to start getting up earlier. Ugh. Anyway, I will try to post what happened a couple of times each week. Bye.

Day -4 (Goals)

We wanted to share our goals with you:

• Our first and immediate goal is to get shoes for all the orphans in Oditel, which is 250 pairs of shoes.
• Once we reach that goal we would like to give the orphans something that can change their future and give them Bibles. "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news..." Isaiah 52:7a
• Our third, and God-sized goal is to get shoes for all the kids in Oditel. There are about 500 kids in Oditel.

I am confident we can reach all of our goals.

Day -14 (Shout Out)

A shout out to Tom Davis of Children's HopeChest for featuring 100 Days Without Shoes on his blog.  Check it out here:  http://blog.beliefnet.com/redletters/2012/08/100-days-without-shoes.html/

Thanks, Tom for the support!

Day -14 (Questions)

      Whenever we tell people about 100 Days Without Shoes we get asked some of the same questions over and over.  Here are some of those questions and my responses:
1. Q: What about school; don't you have to wear shoes in school?
    A: I have aready talked to my principal and he was super supportive of it.  He said he would put information in the school newsletter, and send a photo to all the teachers telling them not to stop me in the halls.  Thanks Portage Central!
2. Q: Won't your feet get cold in December?
    A: Yes, yes they will, but I will push through it.  Hopefully they will be tough enough before the snow falls!
3. Q: What about resturaunts and stores?
    A: My family rarely eats out, and I hate shopping so I will happily avoid stores.
4. Q: What are you doing it for?
    A: To rise money to buy shoes for kids in Oditel, Uganda.
5. Q: Why not just ask for money like most organizations would?
    A:  It shows how bad some kids have to live, and how good we really have it. I think it will be good to experience what the kids in Oditel have to go through every day.  By going 100 days without shoes people will see how determined I am and hopefully donate to buying shoes.

Day -25

Hey, Im just posting this to say that everything is going good so far, and that I will be trying to get sponsors tomorrow. Wish me luck.