James & Carolanne

As some of you may already know, we recently took a family trip with our parents (Loren and Becky) down to San Diego to visit supporters and relatives and reconnect with the friends at Mission Valley Community Chapel. This was our first time travelling any sort of long distance with the kids. We were not quite sure what to expect but as it turns out they travel VERY well.  Julia was an angel for most of the plane ride, spending much of it sleeping on one of our laps.  Ben had a blast, and especially liked the "bumpy clouds" when we hit a bit of rough weather in one of the smaller planes.

We had a great time on the trip as well.  It was so good to be able to reconnect with people down there again as it's been a number of years since we have visited.  The last time Carolanne and I went down we didn't have kids. (or even prospects of kids :) )  We really enjoyed having the opportunity to reconnect and visit with many of the people there who have faithfully supported us in this ministry for many years.

While we were down there, I was asked to speak in church on Sunday to give a brief update on where things are at in the ministry.  After my talk, one of the things I heard people wishing I had done was to share more of the personal stories from people we have been ministering to.  In light of that, I'd like to share another story now.  This was just sent to me by my director here at P2C and she has given me permission to pass it on to you.

Over the past year we’re been partnering with DM Live - a US radio ministry for teens. They have had great success reaching teens, so much so that they would get far more calls than they could answer in the course of the show. We partnered with them to use the Mentor Center to make sure that every teen had the opportunity to talk to someone who cares.

Recently, a 14 year old girl was matched with a mentor. In an email to her mentor she wrote:

“I would like to take this opportunity to tell you how thankful I am for all your help and advice. I am so glad that I decided to sign up for a mentor. I feel like without this experience in my life, I wouldn’t know where I’d be, probably dead, though I am not proud to admit that, it’s most likely true. I truly feel that you are one of my best friends, even thou we’ve never met and don’t know a lot about each other I feel like you were meant to be my mentor, like God knew it from the start that that’s what he wanted you to do. Thank you so much for being here for me, and I’d love to continue emailing you.”

Her mentor emailed us saying, “What an encouragement to mentors who wonder if what they are doing is really important.”

It’s so exciting to see lives being changed every single day! I’ve attached a report we put together for DM Live about their partnership with us. Take a minute to read it - there are some very encouraging stories. Last month we received 942 emails from teens and mentors responded to every one.

Please continue to pray for this ministry. We are always looking for more teen mentors. If you are interested in mentoring teens, we’d love to talk to you. Teen mentors are required by law to complete a criminal check (because they work with minors) but we can help walk you through that process. If this sounds like something you’d like to try you can apply using the regular mentor form, just be sure to select “Teens” from the list.

http://truthmedia.com/training/mentoring/mentorapply/

For me, this is just one more reminder of why I do what I do.  Even though I'm not on the "front-line" of where the ministry is taking place, the work I and my technical team do is directly responsible for helping connections like this to take place.

Thank you for YOUR part in allowing this to happen.  We could not continue long in this ministry without the support and prayer from people like you.

Have a great week, and be encouraged!

James W.