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Over 1000 of you are now supporting a mentor/mentee relationship through The Mentoring Project. I wanted you to see a quick video spotlighting yet another of these relationships. Your support means the world to us, but it REALLY means the world to the young men who are being provided positive male role models. This video spotlights Bil (intentionally spelled with one “l”) and Shawn. Thanks so much, Bil. You’re our hero. And Shawn’s hero too. Beneath the video, I’ll give you a quick update on The Mentoring Project and let you know how you can support if you haven’t already.

What is The Mentoring Project?

The Mentoring Project is a non-profit organization working to create hundreds of thousands of relationships just like the one between Bil and Shawn. We do this by partnering with churches to create a small, localized mentoring program. Churches either run the program independently, or utilize their men’s ministry or college ministry to run a mentoring branch. Right now, we are working with nine churches in Portland, Oregon. When we start a new program, we provide extensive mentor training that involves not just the mentors, but the entire church. The pastor preaches a sermon that launches the initiative, and from there we do extensive training. We partner with Big Brothers and Big Sisters (unless the church wants to use a different program, or simply mentor kids from within their church) to trim down the existing waiting list most cities have for a male mentor. In Portland, there is a 1000 kid waiting list for a Big Brother. We hope to work through that waiting list soon, and work with churches to sustain those relationships, then branch out to other cities until we are a national recruitment and training organization, not reinventing the wheel, but feeding existing and working programs.

We believe the government is large because the church has been too small. We believe fatherless boys are the lead domino affecting a number of social problems including crime, teen drop out rates, unwanted pregnancy and abortion, and eventually divorce rates. We talk openly at our board meetings about the most economically efficient way to shut down as many as 15% of American prisons within a single generation through one-on-one relationships with young, fatherless men. We believe there is only one institution that can turn back the tide on dysfunctional families, and that institution is the church.

Young kids with positive male role models have something to live for, somebody who is proud of them, somebody who cares about their well-being, a mature role model and example, and are much less likely to find trouble.

You can join us in turning the heart of the church to the fatherless generation by supporting a mentor here. We think we can change the world one relationship at a time, and change one kids world today. Thanks for being a role model for all of us, Bil.

You can learn much more about The Mentoring Project here.

(I’ll be traveling this week, so will most likely leave this post up as I won’t be able to create a new one from the road. Would you mind telling your friends about this post? Simply use the Facebook and Twitter icons below to spread the word. Every bit of exposure helps. Thanks so much!)