A little boy in an Arizona citrus orchard gave Caryn Shoemaker an idea. The boy stood shivering in the early morning cold of January.

Shoemaker watched as he tried to keep his bare feet warm by rubbing one against the other. "I knew we had socks on the table," she remembers. "I put a pair of men’s socks on him that came up to his hips. Then he just gave me the sweetest little smile. I thought how it doesn’t take much to make people happy. I thought, some day I’m going to do something with socks."

And her ministry, One Small Step, was born. "It’s not going to cure homelessness, but I’m going to take one small step and do this mission with socks," she said. "We started just two years ago. My first delivery was 48 pairs of socks to the East Valley Men’s Center. And now we are delivering them thousands at a time to the shelters and clothing banks around Phoenix."

With the morning delivery to Community Services on N. 15th Street, in Phoenix, her count is now more than 41,000 pairs of socks delivered.

Most of the socks come from three thrift stores that save them for Shoemaker. Once a year, Mesa High School has a sock drive for the ministry. Some individuals bring her socks—sometimes up to 50 pairs at a time. She takes all sizes and shapes—even singles.

Shoemaker works hard to make sure the socks are bleached, cleaned, folded neatly, tied in bundles of four with a bright ribbon and a "One Small Step" seal.

"We have never given away a hole that we know of. We mend little holes and we throw away the ones with bigger holes," said Shoemaker. Ramona Valenzuela, Community Services director, takes some to Mexico. We make sure that every pair that we give, we would be pleased to give to Jesus!"

Shoemaker hopes that others will catch the vision and start a sock ministry in their own churches and that those who receive her bundles will think the socks are a little gift from heaven.