School’s out and there are good times at Mercy Street.  The boys and girls continue to come to Sunday Night Bible Study, and the Living Stones and Albers’ Bible Study classes had major fun furnishing the food.

The menu for the night was bar-b-cue sandwiches, chips, watermelon, veggies with Ranch Dressing, and cupcakes.  It was yummy.

The children, staff, and mentors at Mercy Street are real people with many challenges.  All are working together to change a community.  Here are some of the “faces” of Mercy Street.

This beautiful young lady really knows how to dress.  I tell you the truth.  She could be a model.

The relationships between the students and the mentors is amazing.  The one-on-one mentoring program is what makes a difference in the lives of these students.

I love to see and hear the laughter.

We have been coming to Mercy Street since the beginning of the year, and it is so nice to be establishing relationships.

Friend BB can make any gathering fun.

This young man is too cute and so polite.  The boys built-up an appetite by playing basketball before supper.

These are fine young men.  The boy in the white shirt was reluctant to have his picture taken until we mentioned that the pictures were for a blog, and we hoped to get more mentors for Mercy Street.  Then he was willing to have his picture taken.  He realizes how important mentors are.

Seeing these children tugs at my heartstrings.  What an effort they are making to better themselves.

I wanted to share with you some of the “faces” of Mercy Street.  These are real people with real challenges.  Hopefully these students will be able to break the cycle, go to college, and return to the neighborhood.  That is the goal.  Mercy Streets wants to change West Dallas by teaching of God’s love,  education, and providing support through the  one-on-one mentoring program.  It is a model that is working, and  I am proud to know them.

What a wonderful time we enjoyed.  I almost felt guilty.  It is fun to be with the children, plus we had a fantastic time of fellowship with each other.

Life is good.

Blessings to you and yours,

The following is information from the Mercy Street website that explains about the Mercy Street mentoring program.

Mentoring (or discipling) is the foundation of what we do at Mercy Street. We match Christian mentors with the public school children in West Dallas. Believing that we need to capture the hearts and minds of the children early, we make all of our “matches” in elementary school, 4th grade specifically, and ask that the mentor walk with their student through the 12th grade.

Jesus practiced the mentoring model with his disciples and they, in turn, replicated it. The apostle Paul took to heart the call to invest himself in others as evidenced particularly through his relationship with Timothy. Here is Paul’s mentoring plan for the church in Thessalonica:

But we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory. (I Thes. 2:7-8, 11-12)

We follow this plan to make Christ’s name known in West Dallas and to prayerfully see lasting community transformation occur. The Mercy Street team dreams of every young person in West Dallas having a mentor. There are over 2500 kids in the neighborhood, so we are going to need a lot of help. We ask you to consider how God might lead you to live out the call we all have been given to make disciples.

Click here to taste and see where God is at work!

For more information or any questions about the mentoring program please contact Garrett Smith, Director of Mentoring, at 214-730-4825 or garrett@mercystreetdallas.org.