As a nine-year-old living in Nigeria, Manny Ohonme's life was changed when a Good Samaritan gave him his first pair of shoes. Years later, Ohonme and his wife founded Samaritan's Feet, a ministry that gives new shoes to children in need, as an avenue for sharing Christ. Since 2003, more than half a million shoes have been distributed in the U.S. and around the world. For more information on Samaritan's Feet, visit the website www.samaritansfeet.org

When can a new pair of shoes change a life? When they are presented alongside a message of hope and given to a child living in poverty.

That is the story of Emmanuel (Manny) Ohonme, founder of the ministry Samaritan's Feet, and now, years later, he is extending the same gift to children around the world.

Growing up in Nigeria, Ohonme had never owned a pair of tennis shoes. But when he was nine years old, he was befriended by a missionary from Wisconsin; a Good Samaritan who gave Ohonme his first pair of tennis shoes.

Because of those shoes, Ohonme was able to participate and excel in sports. He received a full basketball scholarship to the University of North Dakota (Lake Region), where he also met his wife Tracie. After graduation, Ohonme went into the software technology field and eventually held an executive position at a leading technology company.

But in 1997, Ohonme returned to Nigeria for his father's funeral. During that trip God began to move in his heart, directing him to bring a message of hope to the millions of poor, barefoot children who live like he once did.

"The confirmation for this ministry was birthed when I saw many of those children like me and I was reminded that I was blessed with a pair of shoes many years ago," Ohonme says. It's part of God's providential plan that He uses other people to be a blessing to you, and then He asks you to do the same to others.

In 2003, Ohonme and his wife, Tracie, took that step of faith and founded Samaritan's Feet with a mission to help put 10 million shoes on the feet of 10 million children over the next 10 years.

This mission is being accomplished through Shoe of Hope shoe drives and distribution events. Working in the United States and in countries around the world, Samaritan's Feet has raised and distributed more than half a million pairs of shoes. Recently, the ministry completed a major Shoe of Hope distribution in the Washington D.C. and Virginia area, reaching over 2,000 children and homeless people.

A poor man in the Amazon, South America, had been praying because school was about to start and his children did not have shoes. "God, would you allow me to have enough money to buy sandals for school this year," was his simple prayer.

Through Samaritan's Feet, God answered his prayer.

At a shoe distribution outreach, his children received new tennis shoes, far sturdier than the flip-flop sandals he had prayed to afford. Ohonme says the father's faith was built as he saw God provide for his children's needs.