In the fall of 2012, Our Father’s Children (OFC) began a new program, a mentoring club for 6-11 year olds. The club meets as a group once a month during the school year and then the mentors meet with their mentee for another 2-4 hours each month outside of the group meeting. Relationships are formed and strengthened that hopefully will enable the children to live more of an ordinary life realizing their potential and uniqueness as a child of God. Here is a story of one such developing relationship.
Candy? Dressing in a costume? Games, bounce houses and popcorn? Christy was all for all of it! I took a box full of costumes my kids had collected and outgrown to Christy’s house when I picked her up for our mentoring date. She pulled several things out of the box, admired them and laid them aside.
Then she found a “bee” costume, with a dress, headband, wings and gloves in bright yellow and black, with sparkles on the wings and headband. Once she had all of that on, she bounced around the room and to the mirror to admire her reflection in the costume. She called her big sisters out to look, and they oohed and ahhed along with her mom. Dressed as the bee, there was no more looking in the box and she was ready to go!
We had lots fun at the “trunk or treat” party a nearby church was hosting for the neighborhood. She did every game and bounce house, collected her treats and thanked each person handing them out, put on her plastic fangs, rings, and glowstick happily. After all that excitement, she was hungry, so we “buzzed” over to IHOP for pancakes and hot chocolate. She basked in the attention she drew at IHOP, and only took her fangs out when I insisted she couldn’t eat pancakes with fangs in her mouth!
It only took a few hours from my Saturday to give this little girl a night she still talks about and remembers happily. We look forward to getting together each month for our Mentoring Club meetings, and also to the time we spend alone together. We have had a picnic, visited Santa, shopped, and had manicures together, and her favorite place to eat is now CiCi’s pizza. She loves the air hockey game there and manages to win most of the time. She has claimed a spot in my heart and I think I might look forward to our “dates” even more than Christy, but her mom says she asks EVERY Saturday if it is a “buddy” day! I think we have both found a perfect mentoring match.
OFC is looking forward to a great year of serving children, developing Camp Akiva, and seeking God’s blessing for our programs.
Please join us in 2013 by praying, volunteering, and supporting the efforts for these precious children!
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT OUR MENTORING CLUB
