By Michelle Cook (Michelle and her husband Doug are missionaries to Slovakia)

In April of 2006, we had our last missions conference before leaving for the field in Chesapeake, Virginia.  Portsmouth and Chesapeake, Virginia, are old stomping grounds for me, since I graduated from High School, and my parents, John and Lydia Gouge (Baptist Mid-Missions veterans) were sent out of a local church in this area.

As we arrived at the church, friends from the past hugged and greeted me, all asking if I had been inside the sanctuary yet. "Oh, you need to go inside; you will be so surprised". Upon entering, I noticed the large banner which read: "Filling the Empty Shoes.” Around the auditorium were pictures of missionaries who had gone home to be with the Lord.

Wow, what a great theme. As I walked around the church, I began to read the names. The Collins Family was one I knew, but many of the names were unknown to me.  However, the very last picture hanging on the wall was a picture of my dad, John Gouge, veteran missionary for over 30 years.  He had just passed away a mere six months earlier from complications resulting from a lung transplant. I must admit that I was taken back.  I have been used to seeing portraits of William Carey, Adoniram Judson, and others who had left their mark on the world.  But here before me was a picture of my own dad, stating the fact that his shoes in Slovakia were now empty.  I knew in my heart that I needed to do my best to fill his shoes. As the conference went on, those words kept echoing in my heart....”filling the empty shoes.”  And the Lord gave me this song:

We have heard of saints gone on before the Lord has greatly used
To tell a lost and dying world, the wondrous gospel news.
So who will go instead for them, pick up their sword and fight,
Fill their shoes, finish their course, to keep their goal in sight?

Empty shoes, who will fill
Those shoes that left their home and land to do the Father’s will?
Empty shoes, who will fill,
Who will surrender self, to fill the empty shoes?

He was born so many years ago in a land across the sea.
He loved the Lord enough to bring the gospel here to me.
But he’s gone Home and now you see his country needs the truth.
Who will go to his land, filling his empty shoes?

Not long ago a precious saint took his final breath,
Met his Savior face to face, but oh the task he left.
Shoes left behind, so hard to fill, the task he left so great.
I’ll take his shoes back where they’ve been, I’ll fill his empty shoes.

The last night of the conference, I was able to sing that song with my mom in the congregation.  Oh what a need we have around the world to fill the shoes of dear saints that have gone on to Glory. Doug and I are here, in Slovakia, in the same town that Dad labored in for over 13 years, yet anyone that knows my Dad knew that he had big shoes to fill.  We could use help filling his shoes.  Who will surrender self……to fill these empty shoes?