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Karen’s Story

About four years ago, as part of an initiative within our department to work with youth on a preventative measure, I found Team Up Mentoring. I called and met with Anna Blount, director, to set up the process. After all the necessary clearances, I got to come to mentoring on a Thursday night.

There I met my then nine year old “mentee”. During our hour and half together, we studied homework, played puzzles, ate dinner and talked. Well, I talked. He just looked at me. And looked at me some more, for about a year. I kept asking Anna if I was doing something wrong and she said “No!  It just takes him (and the others) a while to trust a new adult.” I went for about a semester not sure what in the world I was doing.

Then one Thursday night I had a prior commitment and couldn’t attend. The next day I got the phone call from Anna. My mentee wanted to know where I was and why wasn’t I there! I was so excited. I knew he did like for me to come!

Over the last few years I think I have learned more from my mentee than he has from me. I have learned how to do fractions again, how sentence structure works but most importantly I have learned the love shared between a very unlikely pair. That little boy, and all the other little boys and girls in Team Up, have touched my heart. They need someone to come to see them and spend time with them each week. They know and trust that we will be there.

On the surface, they are learning social skills, getting tutoring and being fed a meal. Dig a little deeper and you will find they are gaining life long friends, cornerstones to faith and we are all learning that the world is a better place when we ‘Team up”.

Our initiative at work stopped a long time ago, and I am sometimes asked, “Why do you keep doing that? we don’t have to do that anymore.”  And I responsd, “I do it for me as much as I do it for him and will keep doing it until they tell me not to come back.”

Thanks Team Up for allowing me to be a Mentor!

Maly’s Story

Maly is a God-send!  At just the time we were adding preschoolers, God sent Maly to us.  And guess what Maly has been trained to do??  You guessed it – work with preschoolers!  Maly prints out activities for the kids to work on and comes up with games for them to play.  She’s a joy to be around and NEVER seems stressed out by the six extremely busy lovables in our preK group.

Maly says, “The best experience in being a part of Team Up Mentoring is the close bond you receive from all the children. Within the first two days of mentoring, all the children look up to you and trust you as someone whose going to help guide them. The best part about it, is knowing that when you walk through those gym doors you’ll always be expecting a smile and a warm hug.”

Working for the Lord…

This semester, Team Up kids are learning a memory verse every month.  Watch two of our kids saying their January verse!

Full Circle

Tuesday marked the beginning of our spring semester of mentoring – our 12th semester to be exact.  It was a beautiful night full of preschoolers counting and reciting ABCs, teenagers shyly saying “hi” before starting their night’s homework, kids cradling Colossians 3:23 on peach colored cards.  Beautifully selfless adults and teenagers scooped up little ones and hugged older kids they hadn’t seen in a few weeks before settling down to work on homework and life’s work of growing up well.

All this was precious to see…but one volunteer especially stood out.  Tremane came to help out Tuesday.  Tremane has been a part of Team Up for 4 years and recently (at age 16) stepped out of our program.  He’s working a job and going to school.  A typical busy teenager.  But Tuesday, Tremane didn’t have to work.  So, he decided to come help out the preschoolers instead of relaxing at home on his  night off.  Tremane was so excited to be there – he was standing at the door waiting to hug me and the kids as we tumbled out of the van and into the gym. 

Four years of investment coloring and reading books with a 3 year old (our newest addition to Team Up) felt like everything had come full circle.

What kind of investments are you making today?

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.

- St. Teresa of Avila

 

 

Phillip’s Story

My experience with Team Up Mentoring has been wonderful. It has allowed me the opportunity to be able to work with some terrific kids and to share the love of Christ with them. I know the kids look forward to coming to every week, but honestly, I think I look forward to it even more because the Lord gives me a blessing every week. It’s simply a joy to see the kids learning and getting to hang out with their friends in a safe environment. Team Up is truly making a difference in the lives of our kids and it is slowly making a difference in our community. I thank the Lord for Team Up and I pray that he will continue to bless it and allow it to grow even more.

Crysti’s Story

I remember the very first time I came to mentoring.  I came to just “check it out” and help serve food.  Wes (my husband) didn’t come with me but when I got home I told him all about the kids and how they all just needed somebody to give them attention and show them love.  We both came that next week and have been mentoring ever since then and that was maybe 5 years ago!

I started with Raheem when he was in 4^th grade.  Oh, how I loved that child.  He was so smart and always wanted to do his best.  He would come and spend time at our house and we would go to his school award ceremonies because he always received an award.  We still have a picture of him in our family collage of pictures smiling from ear to ear.  What a beautiful picture it is.

Time has a way of changing things.  Raheem has chosen not to be a part of Team Up Mentoring anymore, but now I have another beautiful child and her name is Anessa.  She is so eager to learn and just lights up the room when she has accomplished one of her goals for the night.  She enjoys animals and especially dogs.  Her reward for the evening, if she has a good evening, is to look at my pictures of my pet on the phone.  She loves puzzles and books.  She is a delight to work with and I enjoy every Tuesday with her.  These children are a blessing to me. I am so thankful that The Lord placed a burden on Anna’s heart so many years ago to start TeamUp and she was submissive to do God’s will.

Corndogs and lemonade

Matthew 25 is one of my favorite Scriptures.  It’s a description of what Christ will say to His people when they stand before Him in Heaven.

I love it because a lot of things we might expect Jesus to say to faithful believers are not there.  We might expect Jesus to say something about what these believers did for their church, how many positions they held, what ministries they created or oversaw, or even how many people they led to Christ.  But it’s not there.  NONE of that is there.

Finger painting cuties!

Now don’t get me wrong.  We are COMMANDED as believers to be a part of a church body, worshipping and serving together.  We are COMMANDED to win people to Christ.  These are excellent, worthy things.  But what is in Matthew 25?  In a word:  COMPASSION.

Let me show you how God reads it to me.

Then the King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

For I [The Lord] was hungry and you gave me something to eat [corndogs and french fries], I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink [the lemonade was great], I was a stranger and you invited me in [I felt so welcomed here!], I needed clothes and you clothed me [thanks for the coat and gloves you gave me this winter], I was sick and you looked after me [thanks for bringing by Tylenol for me when I had a fever.  I felt so much better!], I was in prison and you came to visit me [I felt so alone while Mom was in jail - it felt like I was in prison too.  You helped me get through it]. “

Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?

When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?

The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for [Amaya, Treyonna, Anessa, Akira, Kendarius, Jay, Latoya, Rodrick, Tracie, Keonta, Tiedrell, Ta'naiah, Eshawnna, Zariah, Devecia, Shernece, Quanierra, Shai, Jaylyen, Johnnyous, Shawn, or Santonio], one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

Who are you feeding…clothing…caring for…visiting…for Jesus?

Some of our precious girls with mentor Emily Carton.

Christmas Party Time!

Last week, about 16 members of the Youth Advocacy Board (YAB) came out to host a Christmas party for our kids!  The kids had a FABULOUS time playing games, baking cookies (only truly sacrificial people would consent to bake with 20 little kids!), dipping treats in chocolate, decorating gingerbread houses, and decorating each other as Christmas trees!

My favorite part of the party?  Telling the kids the Christmas story and singing Christmas carols in a huge circle.  The singing even continued on the van ride home…a truly beautiful moment!

Group picture of our party!

Yellow plaid and fuzzy sheep

I can still remember his face – filthy and afraid.  Somehow, this little boy had gotten lost in our church building after coming on our bus ministry.  He couldn’t have been more than 4 or 5, wearing a ripped yellow plaid shirt that was unbuttoned and black flip flops that didn’t fit.  I didn’t work with our bus ministry at that time.  I taught sweet little preschoolers and was on my way into the morning service when I saw this child out of the corner of my eye. 

But something about this child stopped me.  He was so lost – so lonely looking.  I took him by the hand, buttoned his little shirt, and washed his face.  We walked to the children’s building where the other kids were making sheep from fuzzy cotton balls – learning about how God cares for us like a tender shepherd.  Honestly, this child looked like he was in desperate need for someone’s tender care.

At that moment, watching this little boy in tatters giggle at paper and cotton ball sheep – my heart was forever changed.  This child is the reason I started working in our bus ministry.  The impetus God used to eventually call me to begin Team Up.

I wish I could tell you this child’s name or what he’s doing today or that he became a part of our ministry.  But I can’t.  He was so small when we met that he couldn’t tell me his full name – just a nickname he went by at home.  He couldn’t tell me where he lived either.  When I asked the other children who regularly came to church about him, no one seemed to know him.  I did some investigating, but by the time I found the apartment, this baby had moved away to no one knew where.

I still think about that boy when I ride past the apartment he used to live in a decade ago.  He’s about 15 or so now, probably in the 9th grade and hopefully doing well.  I say a prayer for him and his family.  God used a little boy I’ll probably never know here on Earth to change my life and the lives of so many others in my community.

Two of our little boys today at Team Up.