On about a weekly basis we find ourselves stunned by the outpouring of support from people all over the country for The Mentoring Project. The passionate Church communities in Iowa, garage sales in North Carolina, exceptionally large t-shirt orders from Texas. The list goes on a on.

Yesterday we received an amazing package in the mail from an indie-rock band in Baltimore, Maryland called This The Rescue. I'd been in touch with Jake from This The Rescue a few months back and he had mentioned his band's intention to give 20% of every dollar his band makes to The Mentoring Project. 20%! Now I've worked in the nonprofit sector for a long time, and with promises like that, to put it bluntly, seeing is believing.

But there was something special about Jake and This The Rescue. They seemed really committed, had mailed us their most recent album, bought a few TMP t-shirts, and I was secretly hoping we'd hear more from them.

So we opened the package they sent and the contents were pretty exciting.

First, a very classy This The Rescue t-shirt, which you are seeing our President Dr. John Sowers rocking while holding a photo off our wall of a Portland mentor/mentee pair.

Secondly, they sent us $71.20! For a band who makes their money playing basement shows and nightclubs up and down the Eastern Seaboard, this is pretty amazing. I have a number of friends in bands and I'm always stunned to hear the number of couches and dirty hardwood floors they've slept on in the last year. Not to mention the gas station food on the I-5 corridor. So the sheer fact that the band sent us $71 of their hard earned money is remarkable.

Lastly, and most importantly was a very touching letter they included in the package. Rather than summarize, I thought I'd just copy it all out here and end on this:

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Dear Friends at TMP,

When we first contacted you about the possibility of partnering with you guys, we decided as a band to commit 20% of everything we make to what you are doing. Because we don't make much money, our 20% really isn't much in terms of a dollar amount.

As we wrap up the recording process and find more and more the real costs of releasing our first full length album, we are learning that committing to The Mentoring Project probably isn't really about The Mentoring Project - it's about what we are being taught and challenged towards. It's about trusting God as we try to move on the things that He has given us passion for. It's about putting into practice and really believing in the things we sing about - because at the end of the day, if we are just slinging guitars and singing melodies, then we haven't really done anything.

Thank you so much for allowing a small band in Baltimore to practice living a better story with something that really matters. Thank you for allowing us a place in a much bigger movement.

We are deeply thankful for you, and for what you are doing.

Matt, Tom, Luke, Chris and Jake, This The Rescue

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Find out more about This The Rescue: http://www.thistherescue.com/

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thistherescue

Maybe thank them for how amazing they are?

"I say this as someone who grew up without a father in my own life.  He left my family when I was two years old. I still felt the weight of that absence. It is something that leaves a hole in a child’s life that no government can fill.”- President Barack Obama

For the past three years, President Obama has strongly advocated for fatherhood and healthy families.  Last summer, The Mentoring Project President, John Sowers, participated in a White House Fathers Day event that included top politicians, celebrities, actors, and leaders of national non-profits organizations.

The result of that 2009 meeting started a national conversation about fatherhood and the need for mentors, and it culminated in a series of citywide events that brought together leaders and communities for the task. This year, President Obama invited Sowers along with a group of leaders, celebrities, and politicians to DC to announce his new Mentoring Initiative. At the meeting President Obama said:

“We know what too many fathers being absent means. Too many fathers missing from too many homes, missing from too many lives. We know when fathers abandon their responsibilities, there is harm done to those kids. We know that children who grow up without a father are more likely to live in poverty, more likely to drop out of school, more likely to wind up in prison. They are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. More likely to run away from home, and more likely to become teenage parents themselves."

Watch the full video below:

For the past three years, I had the privilege of mentoring a young guy named Oz. I usually picked him up after school and we would go get a burrito, or to the carwash, or to hit wiffle-balls. Sometimes went to Chuck-E-Cheese and I would dominate on the Skee Ball. Oz liked the tickets. And the cool prizes. Like laffy-taffy. 

I remember once, after I picked up Oz from school, the first thing he asked me was, “Are you an Uncle now?” His mother had told Oz about my nephew, and Oz and his mom had been praying for him and his health. I was impressed that he remembered and had been praying for us.

As made our way to the Cold Stone Creamery, I asked Oz the usual questions: 

"How is math going? How are you treating your mother? How is track?" 

That week, Oz won a track race with the other first graders in his school, and he was pumped to show me his gold ribbon. I listened to it several times and told him how proud I was of him.

Oz also had a new green-and-blue football that changed colors when you held it. But I knew that Oz was struggling some in school and his mother had recently hired a tutor, so I asked him how that was going. He talked about how hard it was, but I told him that I was proud of him for trying.

Later, while Oz was downing his chocolate fudge ice-cream cone, I decided to ask him about his father, as Oz never spoke of him. I asked him if he ever saw his dad.  

Oz said: 

“I don’t have a dad. Will you be my dad?”

I sat there. Stunned. Not really knowing what to say. After a moment, I managed to get out, “I am here for you buddy and I love you,” to which he replied, “I love you too.” 

- Spanning continents and turning charity upside down -

Bob Goff, founder of Restore International, called me last week to let us know that young men from The Restore Leadership Academy (pictured above) have decided to make a donation to The Mentoring Project to provide mentors for kids in Portland, Oregon.

Apparently, with the help of Restore, a number of these young men have started growing & selling their own crops. After hearing about The Mentoring Project, they wanted to give a small portion of their profits to our work.  

When we heard this news we were shocked, and a little unnerved. What were these young men thinking? Are we seriously going to accept donations from kids in Uganda? Many of these students were former child soldiers, their lives upended by poverty, conflict, and civil unrest, and now they want to give to The Mentoring Project?

It's easy to be cynical about something like this and assume it's not in the best interest of The Mentoring Project to accept donations from young people who are, for the most part, in a much harder situation than the fatherless boys in Portland.

But in talking to Bob about it, we realized that accepting the contributions and allowing Ugandan youth the opportunity to give generously is the most empowering thing we can do.

Bob described these students as the future leaders of Uganda and how this donation is a powerful incentive for the development of their country. The gift is a boost for us, but also an act of nation-building for them. 

Due to an eclectic mix of colonialism, foreign investment, and resource allocation, the world of international aid and development is dominated by 1st world countries supporting the livelihoods of 3rd world countries. Rarely, is it the other way around.

Coincidentally, alongside my work with The Mentoring Project, I run an international education organization called These Numbers Have Faces. As both organizations solicit support through various means, it's exciting, and also inspiring, to see ordinary Americans, Canadians, and Europeans feeling empowered and overjoyed to give to our work in America and South Africa. 

We've learned that there is something meaningful and deeply enriching in the act of giving itself, regardless of the amount.

Remember the parable Jesus told about the widow who gave her last coin to the poor in Mark 12? In the same vein, let's not take away the opportunity for the boys from Uganda to be blessed by God and experience the joy of giving.

We wanted the students in Uganda to know how much we appreciate their donations, so we mailed them a few copies of this thank you page showing one of the mentees they are helping us support here in Portland.

Basically, Restore International is turning charity on its head. They are saying that the privilege of financial progress and the joy of financial generosity shouldn't be reserved exclusively for the global north. And, maybe if we gave the global south more opportunities to experience the joys of giving, they'd be more likely to pull their own countries out of poverty. 

Needless to say, we're just thrilled to be along for the ride.

- Justin Zoradi, Marketing Director, The Mentoring Project
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Check out a great article by Brian Wurzell about The Mentoring Project and the power of mentoring.

Click the image below or go here: http://brianwurzell.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/mentoring-donald-miller/

“McDonalds, McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and a Pizza Hut…”

I remember singing this song in music class once a week during my nine months as a 5th grader. My classmates and I would all sit down in alphabetical order and make golden arches in the air with our hands as we sang, further enforcing in our young minds the idea that convenience is something worth celebrating.

As I’ve moved years beyond elementary school, I’ve come to see that this children’s tune represents so much more than a nation’s affinity for french fries. For America, the ideals behind fast food are no longer seen just in drive thru restaurants, but have weaved their way into our entire culture, influencing everything from religion to blockbuster films. For many of us, it better be quick and satisfying or it’ll lose our attention. I most plainly see the evidence of this belief that faster is better not only when waiting for my happy meal, but whenever I pursue something that flies in the face of instant gratification. Something like mentoring.

At first glance, the connection between McDonalds and mentoring seems odd at best, and yet their correlation lies not in their similarities, but in their differences. The more that I talk with our mentors and mentees, moms and teachers, the more convinced I become that one of the main reasons mentoring is so transformational is the fact that it’s slow.

Relationships take time, and unlike food, no amount of shipping and processing and packaging can speed it up. We often remind our mentors that “slow is okay.” In fact, it’s better than okay… because slow takes commitment and faithfulness, both of which are qualities that an adult male role model may never have shown before to children growing up in fatherless homes. For our mentors, faithfulness means just showing up every week for the first six months to shoot baskets or paint pictures or build model cars. It means celebrating their mentees’ small victories. It means patiently asking the same questions every week waiting for the day when the mentee trusts you enough to answer.

Read more here...

As a summer camp counselor, I’ve grown accustomed to middle school boys spontaneously breaking out into pretend sword fights and re-enactments of various World War II battles. But for 12-year-old Peter, I knew within the first few minutes of camp that it would be a challenging week for him.

As time went on that first day, I began to notice that Peter felt very uncomfortable being outside. He didn’t like the idea of climbing trees or swimming. And with all of this discomfort came an inability to stop talking about the popular video game, ‘Halo.

For many children Peter’s age, discomfort with being outdoors is common. His generation is growing up without the knowledge of how to play outside. The various benefits of nature, like escaping noise, using the imagination and resting our TV-strained eyes are not apart of their lives.

Read more below...

The vision that we have at The Mentoring Project is for churches to rid America of what many call "the fatherless problem." Sure we could run a great organization on our own, but we see a huge opportunity in releasing local churches to follow this vision in their own communities.

The Hero Workshop is a training organization in Erie, Pennsylvania that gives 100% of their proceeds to The Mentoring Project.

 Why the name "Hero Workshop"? There are dozens of children waiting for you on Sunday—children who are looking for a hero to introduce them to God. You and your teams need training that equips and inspires you to lead these children.

The Hero Workshop is located in Erie, Pennsylvania and has a half-day workshop coming up on September 19th. If you are in or around Erie be sure to look into attending the workshop.