End of Year Appeal
Check our blog for new mentoring spotlights featuring Matt & Tami (above), coming soon! Photo from last year’s Braking Cycles Christmas cookie decoration event, coming again this Friday night!
Our wonderful mentors regularly let us know how their mentoring journey is going. We love hearing from them as we seek to best support their match. While most share about routine events like eating out, visiting parks, playing games, baking goodies, or attending events there are also references to some of the more deep and meaningful work that goes on. (Mentor comments shared with permission.)
Some of our mentors are faced with silence on a regular basis. This can be especially true of newer matches. But then a breakthrough comes, and it is pure gold:
“We did a brunch run to Starbucks and actually conversed!”
There is often a lot going on in the lives of our kids. Sometimes our mentors are able to step in and teach some basic life skills.
“[My mentee] doesn’t have any clean laundry…I might teach her how to do laundry and see if there is a shared laundry in the apartments so maybe she can do it on her own.”
Trauma, sadness and emotional issues are elements many of us, mentees included, have to deal with throughout life. One mentor shared:
“[My mentee] told me she will be seeing her dad less often as he can no longer afford to fly all [the] kids out to [a distant state]. She seemed understandably sad by this so we talked about it for a bit.”
Another mentor shared:
“[My mentee] was in a bad mood when I picked him up... after about 15 minutes of driving without any talking...he leans forward and says ‘I hate my brother’... I ask why and we chat a while…”
Sometimes our mentees just need a place of rest.
“[My mentee] and I went for sushi and boba tea [then] came back to the house and she was tired so she took a nap on the couch.”
Eventually our mentors report signs of growth. One of our guy mentors noticed that his mentee
“...seems easier to hang out with and listens a lot better than in the past.”
A lady mentor was encouraged to share how she was able to support her mentee by walking around the neighborhood with her while she sold candy for her school band.
“I was proud of her. She had a pitch, and she performed it well! ”
These young lives are being impacted in profound ways by our mentors, and by you. If you pray, give, share about us or volunteer YOU are making a difference by showing the love of Christ to children throughout the Portland area. And many of our mentees notice that there’s something different about our mentors. Several have asked for their own bibles this year, and Trout Creek Bible Camp and local VBS programs have been a blessing to many young people who leave refreshed physically and sparked spiritually.
This year we were worried. With increasing costs and declining revenue, we didn’t know if we’d be able to keep our mentoring program alive. But then God showed up and provided a way in the form of a ministry merger with Transitional Youth/Braking Cycles. We are thrilled to be bringing our mentoring program under their umbrella and excited to reignite our training program in January. We have 6-8 excited potential mentors ready to learn more with plans to expand, in God’s timing.
As we enter the final month of 2024, and our final few weeks as an independent non profit, we are facing a financial deficit. We feel battered, yet hopeful and excited about January when our merger becomes official. In partnership with Transitional Youth, our goal is to raise $100k to sustain our mentoring program and enter our ministry partnership with some assets. We are excited to announce a number of financial matches which can help your donation go even further! Will you help?
