"A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you." — Bob Proctor
If you haven’t had a chance to watch our IGTV from last week, I encourage you to watch it and “meet” our former Program Manager! He shares about his experience working with children, teens and moms in Haiti and gives us some advice on how to best approach non-profit work in Haiti.
The one thing that stuck with me was how one woman changed the trajectory of his life by offering to pay for his college. Apart from this, Cay became like a mom to him and invested in him. It was this ONE long-term commitment that allowed him to pull himself out of poverty and that ultimately led him to give back to his community. Cay changed Frantz’s life.
After two years of working in Haiti, I learned that no amount of programming and job creation can replace the power of relationship. I recognized that the young men we worked with had allowed their orphanhood to define who they are. No amount of programming was going to break through that narrative. What they needed was ONE person to believe in them and to commit to being there for them in the long run.
Isn’t that what we all need? Our ONE person to back us up? I don’t know where I would be if it wasn’t for a very small group of people God placed in my life along the way. One mom that nurtured me. One counselor who pointed me in the right direction. One father-in-law who pastored me. One husband who protected me.
So many young people lack that ONE person willing to walk by them and believe in them even when they don’t believe in themselves.
That’s why mentorship is part of the HUGG Pillars. Our young men attend three churches in the community and we encourage them to get as involved as they can. We ask more established church members to pour into them. When you commit to building this pillar, it gives us the resources to go into these partner churches and develop leadership skills among church goers so that they can learn about the power of mentorship. It doesn’t take an entire program--it takes ONE person willing to do for our young men what Cay did for Frantz.
Will you be that person?