In November of 1981, Kansas City Missouri, Bob Hentzen and 3 of his 14 siblings, along with their friend Jerry Tolle, founded an organization known today as Unbound. Bob and his friend Jerry were former missionaries. They used the family Christmas card list to connect families in America with families in Latin America to connect someone who wanted to give help with someone who needed it.
Fifteen years later, the 60-year-old Hentzen walked four thousand miles from Kansas City to San Lucas Toliman Guatemala. Then, in 2009, at age 74, he walked eight thousand miles from Guatemala to Chile, traversing the Atacama desert. He did these walks because he wanted to meet the families he was serving on their own terms. The boots he wore are these brown, Nike, nylon and leather . . . well . . . artifacts. The toes have been cut away, and there's a giant hole near the heel on one side. I saw them at the Unbound facility in San Lucas Toliman in a case with some other items Bob wore and carried along the way.
Full disclosure, Unbound flew me down to Guatemala to tell the story of Father Stan Rother; the priest who was martyred there in 1981, a few months before Unbound was founded.
Stan Rother was an inspirational figure in the founding of Unbound.
I also came away with today’s story, the story of this charity based in Kansas City, helping families all over the world.
A story told in the thousands of miles walked in these boots. Today’s thing is this pair of once hiking boots and today’s episode is “looking through windows; a 4000 mile walk to say I love you. Then 8000 miles more.”
