Wonderful Lives

By Alice Ross, Area Director

Remember the theme of the classic Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life?” George Bailey thinks his life has been wasted, and an angel named “Clarence,” shows him what his world would have been like had he not been born.

I got to thinking how different things might be if Long Island Youth Mentoring had not been “born.” As our 25th year comes to a close and our 26th begins, there are 300 children currently being mentored, and thousands of adults who were mentored over the years as children. Some of their best childhood memories are preserved in our picture file; there are pages and pages of smiling faces, of kids obviously having fun. They are going down snowy hills in big, airplane inner tubes, horse-back riding, canoeing, playing ball, going to ball games, picnicking, and riding the flume and other rides at amusement parks. There are kids joyfully making art projects at our camp, feeding the hungry in New York City, searching for clues on scavenger hunts, raking and doing service projects, fishing, bowling, swimming, roller-skating, ice-skating, and going to the circus.

Those pictures can capture the moment from the outside, but unfortunately, without “Clarence,” cannot show the work of the Lord on the inside.  God softened their hearts, renewed their minds, and gave so many of them hope and faith, and a sense of worth because a man or woman trusted Him and obeyed the call to volunteer to mentor them.

You cannot look at the pictures and see the adults they have become.  You cannot measure the anger that isn’t there or the crimes that have not been committed.  You can’t know about the college degrees that never would have been earned, or the career opportunities that would have been missed.  You cannot appreciate the self-control that would not have been there, or assess the goodness, kindness or forgiveness that would be missing.  You cannot know what more loving parents those boys and girls have become, or that they are taking their children to Sunday school.

I have seen so many lives redirected, reclaimed and restored in the last nine years that I have been on staff, because God has worked through the lives of the mentors of Long Island Youth Mentoring. 

My name is not Clarence, but I hope you can see through my eyes, God in this ministry.  It requires trusting Him, denying yourself and reaching out in love to the “least of these.”  It requires praying up, then showing up weekly, then trusting him for the outcome.  But, then we have the privilege of watching miracles take place.

This ministry has God written all over it, and I am grateful to Him for the “wonderful lives” it has touched, and for the privilege He has given you and me to be part of it.