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Every mentor has a different story. They come from different backgrounds, experience different things in life, and can bring unique elements to the table in a mentoring relationship. The organization they get plugged into for support also affects the ways in which they mentor through different trainings, mentoring philosophies, and equipping. That's why asking a mentor their why is so important. Each mentor has a different reason for pouring into the next generation; to volunteer their time to help guide a child into adulthood. Recently, You Can Mentor had a series hosted by the editor asking each of Forerunner Mentoring's coaches what their "why" behind the job was. This week, John takes it to the next step to bring fresh perspectives in. De'Onte Garrett, the Director of Mentor Connect at the Mentoring Alliance in Tyler, TX joins him to discuss his childhood, the mentors that poured into him growing up, and his why behind mentoring.
Connect with The Mentoring Alliance:
https://thementoringalliance.com/
Purchase John's Book:
Mephibosheth! The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community
Connect with The Mentoring Alliance:
https://thementoringalliance.com/
Purchase John's Book:
Mephibosheth! The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community
Purchase the You Can Mentor book:
You Can Mentor: How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses
youcanmentor.com
Creators and Guests
What is You Can Mentor: A Christian Youth Mentoring Podcast?
You Can Mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders through resources and relationships to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. We want to see Christian mentors thrive.
We want to hear from you! Send any mentoring questions to hello@youcanmentor.com, and we'll answer them on our podcast. We want to help you become the best possible mentor you can be. Also, if you are a mentoring organization, church, or non-profit, connect with us to join our mentoring network or to be spotlighted on our show.
Please find out more at www.youcanmentor.com or find us on social media. You will find more resources on our website to help equip and encourage mentors. We have downloadable resources, cohort opportunities, and an opportunity to build relationships with other Christian mentoring leaders.
You can mentor is a network that equips and encourages mentors and mentoring leaders to love God, love others, and make disciples in their own community. Learn more at you canmentor.com or follow us on social media. You can mentor. Our main man, Mr. John Bernard has released a book entitled Mephibosheth, The Search for Identity, Purpose, and Community.
Speaker 1:It's an amazing book and I know it will encourage you and your fellow mentors. While you're at it, pick up my book, You Can Mentor, How to Impact Your Community, Fulfill the Great Commission, and Break Generational Curses. You can find both of these resources on Amazon or on our website. Lastly, follow us on social media. Listen to the podcast and share everything you find valuable with your mentoring friends.
Speaker 1:We're here for you and we wanna add value in whatever way we can. Thank you so much. You can mentor. We here at You Can Mentor are toying around with the idea of having a mentoring gathering or conference where mentoring leaders can come, get encouraged and equipped as they lead their ministries. Our goal in this is to create a safe and fun environment where mentors can share stories of struggles and successes while bonding together with their mentoring team and other mentoring leaders all across the country.
Speaker 1:If you lead a team of mentors and are interested in learning more about this gathering, please reach out to us. We'd love to pick your brain on how to create a gathering that best serves you and your team. Since this is our 1st year doing it, we want as much input as possible to create the best experience as possible. Thanks. You can mentor.
Speaker 1:Mentoring leaders, are you looking for a place to discuss important mentoring issues with other people who are passionate about mentoring? If so, let me introduce You Can Mentored Learning Labs, a monthly call with other mentoring leaders to support each other as we lead mentoring organizations and other mentors. Each call will focus on a topic and allow you to share as well as hear from others on the struggles and successes they have had regarding this specific topic. To sign up, please reach out to zachkarza@zach@youcanmentor.com, or find us on social media. Thank you.
Speaker 1:Remember, you can mentor.
Speaker 2:Welcome. You Can Mentor listener. This is John, and today's episode is a why I mentor. And so please welcome with me Deonte Garrett. Deonte, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, man. I'm I'm sitting here in Waco. You you're in Tyler. Is that right?
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:Deontay, you work with Mentoring Alliance there in Tyler. We've been fortunate enough to have a Mentoring Alliance employee these last few weeks with with having an interview. And so now I'm real jazzed about having this conversation with you as you are at Mentoring Alliance there at the is it the headquarters basically in Tyler?
Speaker 3:Right. Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:East Texas.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir. Are you a Tyler.
Speaker 1:Are you
Speaker 2:a native Texan, Deontay?
Speaker 3:I am not. I am from Arkansas, the best state in America.
Speaker 2:There you go, man. I'm I'm I I appreciate your energy. That's gonna be really good. Are are you a a Razorback fan?
Speaker 3:Oddly, I'm not a huge Razorback fan. I I actually just love Arkansas.
Speaker 2:Alright. Alright. Well, listen. Zach's gonna be real excited that I knew the name of the Arkansas team, so that was maybe more for him than anything else. Listen.
Speaker 2:I know you do some really great work with Mentoring Alliance, and I'm excited to hear your story, Deontay. Man, let's start off at the beginning. Let's go back. Tell me, when in in your life did mentoring when did you take notice? When when did someone begin to invest in your life?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So my father passed when I was a baby. So, I mean, I'm sure people were investing in my life even when I was that young. I don't recall them, but, obviously, he invested in my life before he left us. And I was raised by a single mom, 2 older brothers, and a older sister.
Speaker 3:So she taught us a lot, man, about just hard work, but definitely with limited resources. We we struggled a lot, a lot of poverty situations. Bounced around a lot, staying with different family members at times. I know what it's like to, you know, have your electricity cut off, have your water cut off, sleep on some floors, but all that stuff wasn't really poverty me at the time. It felt normal.
Speaker 3:Like, that was just, you know but because we was always together Mhmm. For the most part. And so kind of fast forward up to the age of 16, my oldest brothers were out of the house. It was me, my mom, and my sister. And I guess at that time, I kinda felt like it was my time to be the man of the house kinda thing.
Speaker 3:And so, football became a huge thing for me, and I was building up, you know, a name for myself in the city. I'm from El Dorado, Arkansas, specifically. And, you know, I go to my mom. I'm like, hey. What do I need to do to be the man of this house?
Speaker 3:And, she tells me one of the greatest things she's ever told me outside of I love you. She said, Deontay, I can't teach you how to be a man. She said I needed to find it somewhere else, you know, which was awesome. Very humbling of her. You know, she had taught us so many things, but still facing the reality that she wasn't a man.
Speaker 3:And there were certain things in this world, man needed to teach me. You know, and and I don't even know if she understood the weight of what she said because I wouldn't listen to other men at the time. Mhmm. I didn't listen to coaches well. I didn't listen to teachers.
Speaker 3:I didn't listen to pastors. There were men trying to invest into my life at that time. But because my mindset was always, you're not my daddy. Don't talk to me. Even though my father was gone, I still had a daddy one.
Speaker 3:I still longed for him. And so when she kinda released that, Dalton was like, Deontay, I can't teach you how to be your man. You have to find somebody else. Mhmm. Then I was actually open to listening to other men in my life.
Speaker 3:And so at that time, me and the group of football players started attending a local church, Emmanuel Baptist, mainly every Wednesday night. And I tell people it was really for the free food. You know, they got pizza and lasagna and all of that. So we was going. And and so a group of men at their church started getting to know us, and they found out that many of us actually didn't have father figures.
Speaker 3:So a group of men there got together and decided that they would mentor and disciple us. And I love that because one of the things I do in my role is go out and recruit godly men and godly women to mentor. Okay. There was no mentoring alliance there. There was no big brother, big sister programs.
Speaker 3:This group of men just got together and saw the need in the community and, like, addressed it. I love that. And so it was at that time a man named John Moore. He had heard about me. He was familiar with, what I would like football wise, and small town football was a big deal.
Speaker 3:So Mhmm. He kinda had knew a little bit about me, and he decided he would mentor and disciple me. So he came into my life, 16 year old. He's still in my life today. This weekend, I'll be going out to his lake house in Hot Springs.
Speaker 3:So he's considered grandparents to my baby boys. They walked down the aisle at my wedding. So he began to come in my life and really just teach me how to be a man. So it was at at age of 16. So when I met John Moore and only up from there, I guess.
Speaker 2:And was he a church member at the church that He
Speaker 3:was a member at Emmanuel Baptist Church. Oh,
Speaker 2:that's really great to hear. So this was an intentional ministry that the that the church had that they really wanted the point at Young Men, sounds like. Right?
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 2:And yet it was it was church members that were doing the ministry. Yeah. That's remarkable.
Speaker 3:One day, I was like, did y'all have any, like, paperwork or anything? Like, he was like, no. We just got together and and said we was gonna do it. I just I was like, man, it's awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Right? I think that's a really wonderful reminder. I think sometimes, especially, you know, with us as being professional mentors or or in ministry. My background is in ministry as well.
Speaker 2:It's just like we we can sometimes really kinda miss the opportunity to to take some of that momentum and really just start meeting need because we get so bogged down, right, in the policies and procedures. And, you know, somebody wants to make some kind of a t shirt graphic or whatever else. Right? But instead, it's that it's that reminder that so often just a grassroots, you know what? Here's the need.
Speaker 2:Let's start spending time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, Deontay, in mentioning John Moore as your mentor and doing this doing really the work of of investing in your life, you know, sometimes we have the challenge when we're talking to to mentors and about mentoring that people feel like they're just not qualified for it. Did you have any sense when you were or has he told you since in that relationship that you guys have? Did did John feel pretty confident in his skills or in in his ability to mentor you, or did you ever sense or did he mention that there was an apprehension to that?
Speaker 3:I don't know the direct answer to that because I never asked him that that question. I do know he was raised right. Great father, great mother. Just awesome awesome man of God before mentoring. I've just seen his work in in so many things in that city, and he's still doing great things today.
Speaker 3:So I think what it what it truly is is is as believers, we start getting the knowledge to wanna do more and go deeper and build relationship and really be who God has called us to be. And him stepping into my life really allowed him to do that in a great way because it didn't it it may have started with me, but it kept going after me. So that was really who he was.
Speaker 2:Just an overflow of his character and personality.
Speaker 3:Overflow of his character. Exactly. I mean, we went really deep. So from a mentee perspective, you know, for me, trying to build relationship with a man that I I didn't know that relationship dynamic. I didn't know what they needed to look like.
Speaker 3:So it was slow. I was quiet at first. I was, like, reserved. You know? Even sitting at their kitchen table, just watching and listening to how he spoke to his wife and how he disciplined his kids and, you know, how they prayed and and and everything.
Speaker 3:We just knew. So I'm just watching. And then as I spend more time with him, I get closer with him. It it was one night I was dealing with a lot depression. A lot of stuff had happened that day, and I ended up calling him, like, 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 3:But it blew my mind that he answered the phone. I don't even know if I told him what was going on, but he said they had a conversation with me that late at night. And that that moment drove into me like, oh, this guy's for real. Like, he cares. And so I was all in from that point, and and so we just built a relationship from the on then, and I wasn't perfect.
Speaker 3:I definitely want the perfect mentee, Jeremy. But he definitely can say consistently showed up. So Yeah. To me, he was awesome. I don't know how he felt, but from my perspective, he was awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, listen. What I think is really great in that in that moment that you shared is that that that was kind of the the moment that you knew that he was legit. Right? And that he was really there for you. And so I'm sure that that went a long way just kind of in your mind and heart thinking that, okay, here's the guy that I can trust.
Speaker 2:Right?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I think that's really important to note that oftentimes there will be that one circumstance that it kinda hinges, you know, that that your mentee's kinda waiting to see if you are the real deal or not. And then and then when you can be obedient or consistent with that, it kinda just opens up some more opportunity. You know, you mentioned that you're able to kinda see how he lives his life in his home with his family. Was that the setup where you did you did you kinda go over to his house on a weekly basis, or what did mentoring look like at at the beginning stages there?
Speaker 3:Sometimes. I think the first thing we did was probably go to, like, Sonic.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:But then he's I would go to I would go to football games with him. You know, I would go eat dinner with his family. I was still a part of Emmanuel Baptist Church. So if if we were doing the event with the youth group, he was typically there. He was typically volunteering with the youth group anyway.
Speaker 3:So I was always around them in some form of fashion. Mhmm. But dinner is probably one of the staples just eating at the table, him and his family.
Speaker 2:Sure. Sure. And did you guys just pretty much casual conversation. Was there ever kind of a kind of a, like, a bible study situation? Would you pray together?
Speaker 2:Did you kinda learn anything, any of those disciplines or any of the the ways in which we can kinda worship through John as well?
Speaker 3:Definitely always prayer. Always church, going to church. He actually would have me speak to the younger guys. So he led a small bible study. What's it called?
Speaker 3:Bible study or was it calling the the church class before Sunday?
Speaker 2:Sunday school.
Speaker 3:Sunday school. Yeah. He led Sunday school, I believe, the 56th or 78th graders. So he would let me, like, lead some of that. So he would give me those opportunities.
Speaker 3:I've always been, pretty gifted gifted speaker. So he was giving me some of those opportunities initially, which at a very young age, I probably wouldn't even mature at all at that point, but I do appreciate that because it kinda led to what I get to do now.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Gotcha. Well, that sounds great. So to kinda take me to that next stage, Deontay, when did you maybe begin to think that that mentoring might be for you or that you wanted to begin to invest in the lives of others?
Speaker 3:Man, I so even around that time when I was 16, 17, 18, I was getting opportunities to, speak to youth in the city. Obviously, working with the young man he would allow me to work with. So that that kind of part, for young people has always been there, I feel like. I've always, I guess, rooted in my family, feeling like I I wanted to do something for my family, but then it kinda exploded that to wanting to help people. And so I go to college.
Speaker 3:I go to Harding University, really chasing football at that point. But from there, I started going up to New York every spring break through a mission trip. It was Timothy Hill, Children's Ranch is where I was going. A lot of those guys come from homelessness, coming out of jail, things like that. And so the first time I went up there, I'm like, wow.
Speaker 3:Like, blown away from like, just the background stories that they were going through. A lot of abandonment, neglect, in and out of jail, a lot of the gang type of stuff. And so and some of our stories were compatible. So a lot of those guys were looking up to me, and I was just so amazed, but it was only a week. You know, you have Spring Break Mission Gold, then you go back to school.
Speaker 3:I'm like, nah, man. That that felt like something I need to be doing. And so those experiences were really showing me what I wanted to do. I was also going to camp ministry, Kids Across America. Mister Moore actually connection with my mentor.
Speaker 3:His brother-in-law works at Kids Across America. So they connected me to go be a counselor there for one summer, and and that's when I really start growing in my relationship with the Lord in a deep way. I would say I I view the Lord like a superhero almost. You know, he's way up there. We're here.
Speaker 3:But when I went to Kids Across America, which was a connection from my mentor, I sat around all these college guys who talk about the Lord as if they had a relationship with him. And I realized I didn't view him that way. Like, it was completely different. And so really went all in on the Lord that summer in my whole life trajectory. Everything changed the way I view things, the way I view people, his people, myself, my identity, really freeing myself for the daddy wounds out there at camp.
Speaker 3:Like, a lot of stuff happened through kids across America. A lot of amazing men I met there. Ricky Jimerson being another guy that's super huge and impactful in my life to this day. I would say mister John Moore and Ricky Jimmerson are the guys that really anchored me down to be a man of God, and I still follow them to this day. If I make any big decisions in my life, they get in the phone call.
Speaker 3:So
Speaker 2:I'm sure That's what
Speaker 3:I would say. So going from there, I moved to New York after Harding. So after I graduated college, because I talked to the CEO at Timothy Hill Children's Ranch, and I was like, hey. I I wanna open a a children's ranch in the south. And he was like, well, you need to come to New York if you wanna do that.
Speaker 3:And I was like, well, shoot. I didn't wanna come to New York, but I chased it. And so I I prayed about it, man. A lot of my family went on board. My wife's family went on board.
Speaker 3:Like, we were fresh out of college and like, man, we're gonna move to New York. So we went way up there with, Penske truck, $700 worth of gift cards. It was just like, okay, Lord.
Speaker 2:And Deontay, you're so you're married already? You're married at this point?
Speaker 3:So, like, right after college in that summer, I got married. Gabrielle Gared is my wife. 2 beautiful boys, Joshua and Judah. So beautiful family, but I'm married. Go up there and just start living the dream.
Speaker 3:At Timothy here, I started working in the houses, working with these young men. I say living the dream like this is a ministry. You know what
Speaker 2:I'm saying?
Speaker 3:Like Sure. Yeah. So you work in the house with young guys that don't wanna be there. They court mandated it. I ran the workout program, man, but really just being there, God showed me exactly what my purpose was, and that was to help break the cycle of the father's home.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And and because my my whole goal in life to this day is to do that very thing. Not to be a great to point them to their biological father, because some of these fathers aren't coming back, but to point all these young men to their father in heaven. I didn't have my biological father. You know? But what mister Moore did, what Ricky Jimmerson did was point me to Christ.
Speaker 3:And so once we know who our true father is, then we can understand our identity, and then we can really live out in that. And so that's that's been my goal, man, to help break that cycle. Right? So that really started up in New York, but all that was rooted in the fact that mister Moore came into my life. I had a lot of rough edges back then.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. I don't know if I get to a point where I can meet a Ricky Jimmerson and really listen to him. Because he's he's a little bit more military. You know? He but I think mister Moore softened the edge is me being able to to listen and learn from him, helped me be able to listen and learn from Ricky Jimerson and and and how they they don't they don't necessarily work together, but how they work together to really mold me into the man I am is really awesome for me to even view.
Speaker 3:So how they both were compatible in my life, me going to New York, moved from New York down to Tennessee, started a whole another Timothy Hill children's ranch there. Okay. Working with more young men, loving on them, serving them. Still the same goal. He'll break the cycle of the fatherless home.
Speaker 3:Then from Tennessee, I came here. So I I I really left Timothy Hill because I felt like I needed to. That guy needed me to transition into something else. I got with a judge in Tennessee. We started a 1 on 1 mentoring thing in Tennessee, but I didn't know anything like this existed.
Speaker 3:My grandmother was sick at the time. I grew up 3 hours from here in El Dorado, Arkansas, and so I I did have a desire to be closer to home. And when they told me what the job was, mister Ricky Jimerson actually connected me to this job, and was just telling me all about it and and how he felt like it fit me. I talked to my wife. When my wife said yes, I felt like the Lord gave me approval as well.
Speaker 3:We got on and came on over here. Man, to this day, been one of the best decisions I've ever made. Man, I get to be myself. I thrive, and I get really just get to live out my mission. Our mission here is different from my personal mission, but it is all connected.
Speaker 2:Sure. Sure. Well, man, look. Let's take you back just a little bit, though. You're in New York.
Speaker 2:You know, you're a newlywed. You're trying to figure out what it means to be a husband still at this time. Right? And in some ways, you know, we still are. Right?
Speaker 2:I've got
Speaker 3:a whole another fire can.
Speaker 2:But but I'm curious, Deontay, when it when it comes to, you know, being a part of that New York ministry, and it's a it's a hard ministry, I know that you're doing such good work. What what were the keys to your remaining consistent and and your, like, staying encouraged enough to continue to do that good work and and drive in that?
Speaker 3:It's your why. It's your why. So I I knew my goal is to help break the cycle to follow this home. So you're gonna have days had days where guys spit at me, kick me, cuss me out, threaten me, but the reality is that's that's their default. They don't know no better than that.
Speaker 3:Like and so and at that time, I may be viewed as the enemy, but if I love them, love is a bird. It don't just go up and down and wane. Like, I I tell them I love them, and so I'm gonna show up. I'm gonna be present. I'm gonna stay consistent.
Speaker 3:I had a guy I ran workout every morning at 6 AM. So if I come in there rowdy hype, they come in there not rowdy and hype, then we go clash at times. But I had a kid that would tell me every morning, if you you're going to hell, I hate you. And if he became too disruptive, I would have to kick him out. And so I decided that I would stop kicking him out.
Speaker 3:And so we would have to deal with this. If you you're going to hell, I hate the and then I would meet with him afterwards and just say like, man, what's going on? Why why is this 6 months of the same thing every morning. And, man, it was one morning, we walking out. And I looked at him and he looked at me and I'm like, what's up, man?
Speaker 3:What's up? Kevin was his name. He said I said, Kevin, I love you, man. And he looked at me. He said, I love you too.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:6 months. Just go it blew my mind. I was in tears. I'm like, man, what the word has happened? Because he would tell me doing the workout, if you, and I would yell back at him.
Speaker 3:I love you too. I would be the guys in the room would be going crazy to laugh and they hyping it up, trying to end the workout. But that I just stopped kicking them out. It was like, man, every time you say f, I was like, I'm a I love you too. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. More than just that in the workout, I will follow-up with him and see how we can mend this relationship and just showing up with that. And that gave me a lot of relationship equity with that guy. There were a lot of guys there. Once they find out you actually care for them, they'll listen to you.
Speaker 3:They don't care about your food.
Speaker 2:Listen, Deontay. This is so interesting because the the last episode that Zach and I recorded together, we were talking about how not to be offended all the time by your mentee. And, you know, you you tell a story, I think, that that just, like, dovetails with that so perfectly of that idea of you staying on purpose. I love how you put it. You you you stick to the why.
Speaker 2:Right? You always remember. And the fact that you can always have that negativity be coming at you, and it didn't wear you down. In fact, what you did in a way, you wore him down, right, with your consistency and with your love for him that eventually he just had enough. Right?
Speaker 2:And said, okay. I'm gonna be honest. I've seen you. I've seen your consistency. I've seen your care, and that and that was the game changer.
Speaker 2:Man, that's a wonderful story. Hey. Tell me a little bit about you said, was it that you went to Tennessee and then began a 1 on 1 program with a judge? What was that?
Speaker 3:So I I went to tenant the the reason I went to Tennessee was to start another Timothy Hill Children's Ranch. And so I did that. Ran that one for, like, two and a half years. Just felt called to to transition out of that ministry. Like I said, that's a terrible work.
Speaker 3:I I love and support everybody that does that. It's awesome work, but it's tough. 365, those guys are there. You gotta love them and stick through it. But we had we had just had Joshua, my first born Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And and it was just a lot. And so I just felt led to step away from that. But during that time
Speaker 2:Hey. Can I ask one more question? That organization, is it a is it a residency organization? Are you kind of It is. Like a houseparent?
Speaker 2:Okay. Gotcha. Okay.
Speaker 3:Yep. And so I met with this judge where I was living at in Tennessee, and he had a desire to do basically 1 on 1 mentoring. So it was grassroots. It was called the SOAR program. It is it's still happening.
Speaker 3:It it had got up to 10 mentors. I was one of the mentors there in the town, and we were meeting with kids at a school every morning from, like, I think, 7 to 7:45. And then we were doing some outside stuff as well. But it had just like, it had been running maybe a few months before I got a call about this place.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. That's great stuff. You know? So that so that program then, you're you're saying that that was kind of a before school. The kids would arrive early maybe to to meet with their mentor?
Speaker 2:Okay. Yep. Very good. I'm always so interested. You know what?
Speaker 2:You know, Deontay, mentoring means a lot of different things, and it can look a lot of different ways. And so Oh, yeah. My, you know, my goal with even this resource is to always just be showing our listeners that there's always a way to there's there's just no one way to do it. You know?
Speaker 3:Oh, so many different young, old, I believe we all should be mentee. Till I turn ever old, I'm gonna get I won't consider myself a mentee and a mentor. We should always be doing something like this, learning from somebody and giving it back to somebody else. Amen. Always.
Speaker 2:Oh, for sure. For sure. Okay. So now you're you're in Tyler, Texas. Tell me specific.
Speaker 2:Why why don't you maybe start off with specific to Mentoring Alliance? Just tell us a little bit about the organization as a whole, the context of of what mentoring looks like, and then what what are your responsibilities?
Speaker 3:Well, our mission is we exist we exist to mobilize godly people into the lives of kids and families to provide tangible help and eternal hope. Think about mentoring the lines like an umbrella. There's 3 pillars of the program. It's a a summer camp, after school, and mentor connect. Our summer camp programs, our after school programs operate inside the school district.
Speaker 3:So we're partnering with several school districts. We go into the schools. If you come out and witness one of our summer camps, you probably blow your mind. You walk into a school and you see summer camp, like, happening. You walk into after school program.
Speaker 3:You hear about Jesus. You see them working with kids' homework. And so our after school is viewed as a a safe place for a lot of families and a time for the kid to learn about the Lord, but also do homework and just be there with them while parents get other things done. Our summer camp program is full of faith, fun, academics. We we've seen, the summer slide either stop or improve based off of test scores.
Speaker 3:So we have the data in the back. Like, what we're doing in these school districts is awesome. It blows my mind. I think it should be everywhere in the world. So I'm honored to be a part of that, but also super honored to lead the Mentor Connect program.
Speaker 3:When we go into churches, we recruit godly men and godly women. A mentor in our program is 18 and older, and they have to be a part of the church and willing to meet with the kid 2 times a month. Our mentees are 3rd through 10th grade, guys or girls living in a single parent home, while living with extended family, or can be a part of an adopted family, and our program is completely free for the families we serve. So a lot of what I get to do is managing that. I have a team of 3 mentor coaches, 1 mobilization coordinator.
Speaker 3:A lot of what I do is recruiting, going out to new churches, going out to some of our existing partners, meeting with them, taking care of some of our alumni mentors. It's just spreading what we get to do, exposing the community to it. It's awesome.
Speaker 2:Excellent. Oh, that's so good. And recently, Mentoring Alliance is now in West Texas. Is that right? Midland?
Speaker 3:Abilene.
Speaker 2:Abilene. Thank you. Yeah. Man, so glad to hear that that just what you do and what the organization is all about because, again, it's important. And, man, I'm always reminded of that.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you're familiar with the mentoring project. It was a nonprofit that was around just a few years ago.
Speaker 3:I'm watching POs. Yep.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I just remember reading in their their handbook that they that they printed, which was a really valuable resource, but they said, you know, it's it's a lot easier to get a 1,000 people to meet up at the church and, like, spend one day raking people's yards than it is to get 10 mentors who will actually spend one day a week, you know, with a with a kid mentoring. And it's like, that is so so very true. Right? This is this is the act of farming.
Speaker 2:Investing in other people's lives is about just being that consistent, showing up daily, weekly, being there for them. And so, unfortunately, it's
Speaker 3:I think we gotta we gotta understand the need for it. You know, I I I found out that 18,400,000, and it's way more than it now, live without a father in the United States. 18.4. And that was as of, like, 2020 or something like that. There's no biological father, no stepfather, no adopted father.
Speaker 3:They're present in the home. You know, the stats say these kids are 7 times more likely to become pregnant as teenagers. Four times more likely to live in poverty. 2 times more likely to go to jail. 2 times more likely to drop out of school.
Speaker 3:Like and it goes on and on. Mhmm. So we understand that some of these fathers are dead. Some of them are in jail, and we know that some of them actively choose not to be there. And and so what we need to do about that is godly people is step up and step into their lives for those of us that can to point them to our true father in heaven.
Speaker 3:They need to know who he is and see that lived out through somebody else. It's exposing them to truth. And so I I think we all need to be doing that in some form of fashion if we have the ability to.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Question, Deontay. Do do the mentors in Mentoring Alliance who are part of these after school programs, do they do they actually get the opportunity to share their faith? I mean, are the schools pretty open to these volunteers being able to to
Speaker 3:share their faith? It's it's it's like it's nothing like illegal. It's after school, so not doing school time. In summer camp, not doing school time.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:One thing different about summer camp is the teachers actually come in and teach a hour of reading and an hour of math. And so that's why the the stats and stuff go out the roof. But, yes, all of our our after school part time staff get to share the gospel. All of our mentors are encouraged to share the gospel. This is what we get to do.
Speaker 2:Amazing. Alright. So listen. If I'm in the Tyler area and I'm, you know, impacted by what you're sharing, these statistics are are, you know, very discouraging and they're very real, and it shows that we just continue to need more to step in to the gap of of mentoring. How do I how do I reach out and how do I maybe find out more about Mentoring Alliance and being able to volunteer?
Speaker 3:Yeah. You can go to our website, the mentoring alliance.com, thementoringalliance.com. Go over to that yellow connect tab. It says mentor connect at the top right and click become a mentor, or you can just look at our videos, look at our testimonials, check out our after school summer camp websites. Have a lot of information on there.
Speaker 3:We're also at 19 09 South Broadway.
Speaker 2:Got you. And my guess is that you guys also provide, like, training. Is that true for mentors who are coming in? So maybe maybe nobody has anything but just the desire. Right?
Speaker 2:No experience, and they can, I'm sure, find out find a lot of resources.
Speaker 3:And and so that's the purpose of our mentor coaches. What we consider a match is is a mentor coach, a mentor, a parent or guardian, and the mentee. And so the mentor coach's job is really to be the glue of their relationship. They're monitoring the safety. They're making sure they're meeting, they're training, and equipping their mentor.
Speaker 3:We do some front end training. We do consistent training throughout the year. We connect with a lot of You Can Mentor podcasts and post them on our pages. We have You Can Mentor books. There's always information out there to grow and develop self, and we try to share that with our mentors as best we can.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. So, Deontay, you know, again, I think you made a really valid point of saying that we're always needing to be mentees no matter what. Right? If we're even even if we're professional mentors that we we realize that we never stop learning. And even personally, you're in a season.
Speaker 2:You're still parenting. Right? How old are your kids right now?
Speaker 3:19 months 7 weeks.
Speaker 2:There you go. Okay. So you're right in the thick of it, my friend. I've got teenagers in my house, but you you, my friend, that is the that is the pure parenting. So many needs.
Speaker 2:Listen. Who's you know, is it John? Is it Ricky? Who who's speaking into you know, who's kinda helping you at this stage of what it means to be a a husband and a dad at this time?
Speaker 3:I I meet with mister Ricky actually every Friday at 9 AM. We're going through discipline of a godly man, which is something he actually took me through when I was at summer camp with him. And I talked to mister Moore. It's more sporadic, but probably the same amount of time. Once a week or once a month, we text him about something.
Speaker 3:Obviously, I sent him all the pictures and all of that stuff. And so I said, I'm going to his house in Hot Springs this weekend, so we're always connected. I love that. You know, I think that's the dream. I think any of us in
Speaker 2:mentoring would say, like, that's what what you've got is what we want, you know, to be Yeah. On either side of that. Right? Like, generational ministry in that way. So I was in youth ministry for a couple of decades, and it's still just a joy, you know, to be able to talk to some of these now people in their thirties that I can can just see what God has done in their lives in such great ways.
Speaker 2:Well, Deonte, you know, just before we we go and we wrap up our conversation today, what do you feel like I would just kinda wanna focus on the listener. You know, whether they're thinking about doing some mentoring or they're they're a seasoned mentor, you know, we as I mentioned, we're always wanting to equip and encourage, and your experience and your insight has already been a real gift to listen to. But what would you maybe wanna leave our listener with to maybe remember or to maybe think about, pray about as they as they consider what they're doing in their mentoring relationships?
Speaker 3:I would tell him that god is not calling you to be a superhero. He's calling you to be you, exactly who he created you to be. I mean, and he wants to use you to impact kids, impact families in your community. And so something I tell all of my mentors, I tell my team, I tell myself, how you dominate daily is show up, be present, and stay consistent. Show up, be present, and stay consistent.
Speaker 3:That's it.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it. That is true. Show up, be present, and stay consistent.
Speaker 3:Get on my board, but I'm
Speaker 2:seeing it, man. It's right behind you. Right? Write that on the wall.
Speaker 3:Write that
Speaker 2:on the wall. I'm gonna cross this down on a pillow. That's amazing. Well, Deonte Garrett, thank you so much for sitting down today. Thank you for the work that you do.
Speaker 2:Thank you for sharing your testimony as well because it shows us that God is good. Right? And that he can be trusted, and you can see that in your life that he has had some amazing people, family, and mentors really step up and and just continue to provide in great ways. And I know that that's that that's with that level of gratitude that you have in your heart for what God has done. I'm sure that's the well that you that you draw from and being so so healthy and and a man of margin for for so many.
Speaker 2:So thank you for your work. Thank you for believing in mentoring. For for so many.
Speaker 3:So thank you for your work.
Speaker 2:Thank you for believing in mentoring, and I just personally
Speaker 3:am encouraged by by your story, and
Speaker 2:I hope that we have a chance to have another conversation sometime. We'd love to hear Oh, yeah. Your insight and and,
Speaker 3:again, with what you do.
Speaker 2:Love for you guys to maybe visit Waco sometime.
Speaker 3:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Plenty of reason to come down here.
Speaker 3:Been in Waco, so I'll be out there.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Perfect. Well well, we'll have you, as a con with a conversation right here in the shop. Again, thank you so much. Blessings on you, your home, your your ministry, and all at Mentoring Alliance there.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir. Thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, listener, thank you so much for joining us today. We wanna remind you one more time that you can mentor.