98.5 FM KTIS Ministry of the Month ~ January 2010
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IT’S ALL ABOUT KIDS
Life Coaches for Kids® is a nonprofit ministry committed to helping children from single parent families by linking them with caring Christian mentors. Life Coaches® equips churches and youth ministries with the vision, training, organization and support to form one-on-one mentoring relationships.
THE VISION
To end the cycle of father absence.
THE MISSION
To equip the faith community to mentor and disciple at-risk kids.
Read more in our 2009 Annual Report
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Drew & Darnell’s Story
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Last summer Darnell moved to Kansas and, after 6 years of almost-weekly meetings, I said goodbye to the boy I mentored through Life Coaches. When I first him in 2003 at Urban Ventures in the Phillips neighborhood of Minneapolis, it was not a match made in heaven.
Darnell was 9 and I was a 24 year-old stranger. I said hi. He said hi. And that was about it. I remember some more stiff conversation and a promise from me that if he wasn't having fun, we didn't have to keep meeting. I was not a dream candidate to mentor anyone. I'm shy. I'm lazy. I don't communicate well. My life isn't full of the sort of trials and tribulations that make for a powerful story. But I can do one thing well - show up.
Fortunately, Darnell was a good kid who only needed someone to show up. When I met him, he had been having some behavior problems at school. Almost immediately after we began meeting, these problems stopped and have not been an issue since. I watched him grow from a shy nine-year-old to an increasingly confident fifteen-year-old. I watched him learn to appreciate his education. By all standards, we were a success. I can't say I did anything particularly noteworthy. Mostly, I ate burritos with him. I listened to him. I prayed with him. On my more ambitious days, I rode bikes with him, carved pumpkins with him, or played chess with him. But it worked, just like the handbook said it would.
I loved mentoring, though it wasn't always easy. My life was busy. I had a job and a family with two (now three) kids. Time and energy were hard to find. There were days I didn't want to drive out of my way or spend an hour doing anything besides sitting down on my couch. But without fail, after I'd meet with Darnell, I knew that I had just spent an hour doing exactly what I should have been doing. That hour cleared my head of all the crud that life had implanted. It gave me a sense of perspective and made me eternally thankful for the gifts I have. And it gave me a friendship that will be with me forever.
So thank you to everybody at Life Coaches who made this part of my life possible. Thank you to the donors who support this powerful mission. Thank you to the mentors and champions who helped me along the way.
God bless you all. Keep up the good work. You're making the world a much better place, one hour at a time
Click here to read more stories of life coaches and kids
in any of our newsletters.
Life Coaching is believing in a child
until they believe in themselves.
