The Mentoring Project

2009 March 23
by Tyler

For the longest time I’ve been praying for God to show me a way I can get outside my bubble of comfort. Throughout my seminary classes and working at Sunset I’ve been greatly challenged that my faith cannot simply be something I keep to myself. True faith pushes believers to love others. Now for a story:

It was 2 weeks ago. I was preparing for the men’s retreat and looking around at Don Miller’s blog. Then I went to the website for The Mentoring Project (an organization founded by Don). Don describes TMP this way: “an organization that equips the faith community to mentor fatherless boys between the ages of 6 and 14.”

I noticed they had some unpaid summer internships. Something in me twinged. The good kind of twinge I guess. The kind of twinge that isn’t just in your head, but hits in your heart too. The kind you sort of think could be God’s way to trying to show you something.

Normally when I get those I know they are from God but I provide a quick answer back. In this instance the answer would have been “God, I have to work extra and make money this summer so I can pay for school. Oh and I want to take a summer course at seminary. I’m too busy for this.” I can’t explain why but I didn’t respond to God that way. My response was more like “um…God….why?”

I mentioned all this to Rose that night and told her was excited to hear about it from Don that weekend (and I did get a chance to talk to him about it).

All this to say, I’m now in the process of applying for a part time, unpaid, summer internship with The Mentoring Project.

Most often I do a horrible job of listening to the different ways God is trying to speak to me. To me, the most Godly people are those who can sense God’s leading within their life through each and every day. I’m not one of those people. I’m fairly certain that God tries to get my attention a lot, but I do a great job of drowning him out with noise and complacency.

I can’t explain why I decided to actually follow what I feel is God’s leading, but I can tell you that it feels great. After hearing from Don two weekends ago I felt greatly challenged to tell a better story with my life. For me this meant doing something instead of just talking about it. Me being involved with The Mentoring Project is a huge step for me in that direction.

  • http://godsidekurt.com Kurt Brandemihl

    You can mentor guys right here at Sunset for free…seriously I know alot of kids without dads. Why help kids from another community when kids in your community need the same exact thing.

  • http://manofdepravity.com Tyler

    I’m sure part of the internship would be facilitating something at Sunset.

  • http://www.aworshipfulheart.typepad.com janowen

    Hi Tyler, I am thrilled to hear that you are not only hearing from God but obeying Him and walking fully into what He’s calling you to do.

    I know I’ve been a very unfaithful reader lately. I’ve traveled alot – to Honduras and then to Dallas and in the meantime we hired a new pastor. I’ve been out of the loop and out of touch. So sorry about that!

    Thanks for sharing.

  • http://ryanguard.net ryanguard

    It sounds like a great opportunity Tyler, regardless of what comment #1 guy says. I doubt that your church has a program in place that would offer you the level of training that TMP would. Keep listening to God, and not your blog commenters, not even me, except when I say things like “Keep listening to God”.

  • http://dhcosbyfamily.blogspot.com Daniel

    I think it’s really awesome that you felt led by God, and then you just acted in accordance with that leading… I pray that God will use this coming summer to open your eyes and heart to more of His heart for the Father-less…

  • http://manofdepravity.com/2009/06/05/some-news/ Some News « man.of.depravity

    [...] for a summer internship with The Mentoring Project. You can read about The Mentoring Project HERE and some of the reason behind why I wanted to apply [...]

© 2009-2011 by Tyler Braun.   Powered by Wordpress.   Designed and coded by Paul Bae.