Making Disciples

By Jeremy McClain

The mission of the DayBreak Mentoring program is to demonstrate God’s love to inner-city children through one-on-one relationships that bring support and encouragement based on the gospel of Jesus Christ. It’s from this mission that three main goals have been established: 1) to build trusting one-on-one relationships with protégées and their families, 2) to encourage protégées in utilizing their God-given abilities, and 3) to support the protégée’s spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional growth through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Much prayer and counsel was provided throughout the development of the program’s mission statement and goals. The mentoring team, consisting of John Radke, Melissa Ho, Kristy Petralia, and Jeremy McClain, is currently working hard to make this mission a reality.

So what does it take to bring this mission statement to fruition? How can the goals of the mentoring program be continually met? The answer is simply consistent and devoted male and female mentors committed to this mission. Therefore, mentor recruitment has now become our top priority. Prospects for mentoring must have four basic qualities. They must: 1) have accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior, 2) study and try to personally apply God’s Word, 3) desire to be a mentor for inner-city children, 4) be willing to learn how to be a mentor for inner-city children.

Research shows that mentoring plays a vital role in child development. Children participating in a mentoring program are more likely to attend school regularly, have positive classroom behavior and avoid drug use. The possible effects on the mentor are also beneficial. The mentor may find great intimacy with God as they begin to labor in prayer over their protégé. The mentor may also find fulfillment from serving and gain fresh perspective on life.

Though becoming a mentor may add responsibility to someone’s life, this new responsibility will be accompanied by new opportunities for times of joy and lasting memories. God has designed, equipped, and called every Christian to go and make disciples. The DayBreak Mentoring program is attempting to answer this call by mentoring the children of Lincoln Heights. Would you consider being a part of that answer? Pray about it!

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