A Call To Action for Christian Mentoring of At Risk Children
Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009
by Dave Gregory
Temecula Wineries
Occasionally the fortuitous care of God gently demands my attention, and in doing so it rolls up the darkness of distrust that has a way of creeping into my sight. One such occasion occurred just lately. This past Friday afternoon, I was working at my desk stressing over the small details of ministry when I received a call. The person on the other end of the phone introduced himself as Robert Stinser*, and said he had been matched to a Long Island Youth Mentoring mentor when he was eleven years-old. He said that he was older now, and wanted to return in some manner to this ministry. I asked Robert how old he is now and he said thirty-three.
When I was first matched, my Father was in jail for abusing my sisters. My Mom was struggling to fulfill her own recognized needs while trying to raise three children. Drugs and men came freely into and out of our apartment. Bob, my Youth Mentoring mentor was my only constant--the only person I could really rely on. It was Bob who taught me how to ride a bike, and later how to drive a car. When I was old enough to leave on my own, it was Bob who taught me how to plan for, and get my first apartment and how to figure out my finances and budget and take care of myself. The most significant thing, it was Bob who shared the beauty of the Gospel and who prayed a blessing over me and my beautiful Christian wife when we got married. It was Bob who gave me advice on how to be a Dad--the type of Dad God wanted me to be.
I never imagined I would own my own home, but now I own my own house and have my own business. My wife and I have two wonderful children. In the last twenty-two years there has not been a period of time longer than two weeks when I did not communicate with Bob. Now my friends call me for parenting advice, and I tell them what Bob taught me."
As he stopped, I thought about the fact that this man currently has a three year old and a six year old childliving in a safe healthy home. Finally I said, Robert, your children are really what this ministry is all about. He asked me to explain. I told him that the sort of abuse that he and his sisters went through in childhood is normally passed on from generation to generation. The fact that his children have never experienced this trauma is testimony that God has put an end to it in his generation.
I could hear the emotion in his voice as he said this. John, what you say is so real. So much bad has happened in my family and I have changed dramatically that I wanted to change my name. I did not want to be associated with my family name. Now I am glad I did not, but I see what you are saying about multi-generational sin.
I asked Robert what sort of business he owns. He said, I install fire sprinkler and alarm systems. I mentioned that I had just sent out bids for such systems to be put in our new ministry facility. Would you like to submit a bid? I asked him. Robert said sure; so, I emailed the blueprints to him. He called back to say he would not be bidding on the installation because he would like to do the job--free of charge. I said, Robert, I really appreciate your generosity, but I do not want you to get hurt by being so generous, especially at such a difficult financial time. Robert replied, I have done a couple churches in my community already for free. It never hurts me. I always end up ahead, and I would like to give to Youth Mentoring.
Is not Gods care of us, His children, astonishing. Whenever I begin to forget why we work on this mission field…whenever bills, the building or broken families pierce the peace in serving Him, He sends people like Robert to my side with a wonderful, heavenly reminder of just how great, and loving, a God we have. It happens all the time. I pray that someday, reality will sink in and I will lean wholly on God and abandon my fears instead of trusting my fears and doubting God.
John M. Cragg
Executive Director
Long Island Youth Mentoring
John Cragg has been Director or Long Island Youth Mentoring for 20 years. He supports over 600 Long Island at risk children with Christian mentors. You can learn more at http://ChristianMentor.com.
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