We were thrilled to have over 50 mentors at our recent Mentor Enrichment, where Garrett Smith, our Director of Mentoring, encouraged us to have a redemptive imagination regarding how God will move in the lives of our students. He gave a word from the book of Hebrews that challenged us to have hope in Christ even when immediate circumstances seem hopeless, and to anticipate God showing up and surprising us in unexpected ways.
After we shared a meal and prayed for our students---for a biblical imagination to explode inside us all---we split up into smaller groups to share stories and wrestle together with questions about mentoring. Moving stories of mutual transformation were shared. Stories about families opening their homes, building trust between parents and mentors who work together to help children flourish. There were stories about kids and mentors exploring their gifts together, with one mentor showing us the purse she made with her mentee as they explored her student's passion for fashion. Among all the stories of quiet students beginning to finally open up, with small gestures of gratitude showing growth was occurring in students, a number of stories were along the lines of one shared by a mentor that went something like this:
I guess what's really impacted me has been entering into a new world that's so far outside of my old bubble. I mean, life has happened to my mentee, and I don't really know what to say or do---I can't fix it---but I can just be there with him when life happens. I feel like it's totally changed me in the process, and I almost can't relate to people from my old bubble anymore because my mentee's world has blown open the small view of the world I used to have. My relationship with him, and my experience at Mercy Street, has changed my relationship with the Lord and made me sensitive to so many challenges that I hadn't previously been exposed to. It's made me so much more dependent on the Lord, and I feel like God led me into my student's life to change me in the process.
The whole room nodded in agreement, with several "Amen" and "Me Too!" words of solidarity thrown in the mix. Everyone walked away feeling encouraged, not because we found all the answers to solve the problems, but because we remembered together that God is at work in the mutually transforming relationships forming in West Dallas.
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