BAGHDAD, Iraq - “I guess the old Persian adage; ‘I wept because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.’ is an appropriate summary of this humanitarian effort,” said 1st Lt. Paul Woodward, 1-244th Assault Helicopter Battalion chaplain of Enid, Okla.

CH Woodward, together with Capt. Emmanuel Woods, 5th Engineering Battalion chaplain, delivered much needed school supplies, toys, and two pair of shoes to two grade schools in northern Iraq on Nov. 3.

“The term ‘wealthy’ has new meaning for me,” CH Woodward said. “It is so easy to forget how wealthy we really are until you meet someone who needs what you would throw away.”

The chaplains took school supplies provided by Natalbany Baptist Church of Natalbany, La. With all the donated things for the kids, there was one pair of boys’ sandals and one pair of girls’ tennis shoes.

The one child who touched the group the most was a girl about nine years old; the recipient of the one pair of donated girls’ shoes.

“It was obvious that the shoes she was wearing, some old, blue, closed-toed sandals, were about four sizes too big for her,” CH Woodward said.

She tried on the shoes, and they were a perfect fit.

“We were informed by the principle, afterwards, that this girl would have to borrow her mother’s shoes to go to school, and then have to give them back when she returned home,” CH Woodward said. “She has never had a pair of shoes of her own before.”

For this little girl, these shoes were truly a blessing.

“I don’t know her name; the school she attends doesn’t even have an address,” CH Woodward said. “It seems like it took this war to basically illustrate to one nine year old little girl that freedom can bring real blessings. “