When you’re a survivor on city streets, a nasty little pebble can really ruin your day. In fact, if it’s beneath cracked and numb feet in the cold or rain, it often leads to bloody injuries and painful infection, a hazard for homeless thousands.

But thank goodness, the foot doctor is in — on three days a week in three Minneapolis locations — and her warm soapy water and soothing voice can make you feel like you’re in heaven.

“Homeless people travel five to ten miles each day, often in snowy or soggy conditions and without a change of shoes,” said Kathy Bissen, an RN from Plymouth, MN who started Sole Care in 2006.

Today almost 200 needy clients each month receive tender love and care from Bissen and her fleet of 60 compassionate volunteers at Union Gospel Mission, Catholic Charities and Calvary Baptist Church. The outreach is supported by Allina Hospitals and Clinics, Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church of Plymouth, and numerous donors of socks, medical supplies and finances.

Licensed nurses and doctors find abused, smelly and neglected “soles” — and when their clients remove their shoes, they themselves often turn away, said Bissen. “They’ll say, ‘You don’t want to see my feet.’ They may have overgrown or ingrown toenails, hard calluses, or irritated corns. But we tell them, ‘That’s exactly why we’re here.’”

A 79-year-old woman sits down, one foot in warm suds and the other in Bissen’s ministering hands. “These feet walked 10 miles round trip to the grocery store down South just to restock baking powder and laundry detergent,” she said proudly, receiving a treatment of her calluses and a careful clipping.

The results surprise Soul Care’s first-time visitors. As the before-and-after photo of another client shows, sanding extreme calluses and massage with healing ointments may not only relieve painful pressure points and restore feeling, it can relax toes enough to straighten them for the first time in months or years.

“Without Kathy I would have been in a nursing home,” said a waiting 52-year-old woman who had knee surgery because of a torn ligament. Painful corns on her feet made walking unsteady, slowing her healing. But four sessions with Kathy worked wonders. “Now I can walk without aggravating the knee. I couldn’t have made it without her help.”

Bissen has always cared about the homeless, she said. “I’m from Austin, MN where I didn’t see poverty, but my family visited Philadelphia when I was 15 and I was exposed in a major way,” she said, the memory still causing her to tear.

Her outreach began in earnest after seven years in a Bible study when she felt God leading her to do something. After praying she was drawn to the foot care needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Then in 2006, she attended a photo exhibit at the Minnesota History Center. “I rounded a corner and was face-to-face with a homeless man on a rainy street eating in a box, and the caption said ‘Philadelphia.’ It was a profound tap on my shoulder!’”

Bissen reflected on her many years of nursing at North Memorial Hospital in Robinsdale. “As I was changing linens, I would soak a patient’s feet in warm water. Now I also look back and remember, amazingly, building a large foot, created out of snow with my girlfriends. All of this pointed to Sole Care.”

A wise man said, “Life’s greatest purpose is found while using your greatest gift to serve one of the world’s greatest needs.” Bissen has done just that. And the faith-based dimension of her outreach allows her to go beyond just nursing.

Personable Soul Care volunteers make kindly and intentional eye contact. “Our clients are used to being shunned and hardly acknowledged, much less warmly greeted,” she explained. “But we’re genuinely interested in them and always ask their names and how we can pray for them. Human touch is powerful. Their feet give us access to their hearts.”

“Our services are free but we tell people they have to advertise for us,” a strategy that has ensured Sole Care is well-known on the streets. In time word got out to volunteers as well, 70 percent of whom are empty-nest moms who have had their eyes opened, she said.

“If you only watch news reports, you are bound to have stereotypes about the homeless. But to us, they are real faces, and behind these faces are wonderful people.”

One morning, for example, volunteers heard that a woman named Pam had just been murdered in a St. Louis Park motel. Later they realized they had cared for her at the Calvary site.

Bissen vividly recalled her eyes. “Her spirit was very troubled. She shared little, but it was apparent she was living a dangerous lifestyle and wanted out, but she felt helpless. That vision remains in my heart,” she said choking up, “her troubled spirit looking into my eyes, looking for hope.”

Caring at this level is both tiring and energizing, said Bissen. “There’s the satisfaction of doing what you feel God created you to do,” but the sadness of wanting to do more.

Yet she shared a success. A man named Ed was associated in the neighborhood with the 35W bridge under which he lived. Though talented and offered many good jobs, his shame and grief over losing his 6-year-old boy had crushed him.

“My wife left me with him and he ran into the alley and was killed by a car,” he explained to me, interviewed in 2006 for another story. “I’ve never forgiven myself.”

On the coldest Minnesota nights, Ed slept in an abandoned car under seven blankets along with all his earthly possessions near 35W and Lake Street.

“But Ed has an apartment and is back to work,” reported Bissen joyfully, glad to be even a small part of his healing. Perhaps it was because he was befriended as a man with an aching heart — not as riff raff beneath a bridge.

© 2012 Todd Svanoe. Unauthorized reproduction of this copyrighted material is prohibited.

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