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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.
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Speaker 1:You can mentor. Alright. Welcome to the You Can Mentor podcast. I am here with the reverend mister Clarence Ford the third. Clarence, say hi today, my friend.
Speaker 2:Hello, Zach and all of Zach listeners. Hope all is well today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man. Now, why don't you tell people how how we met We
Speaker 2:met at the National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC. I passed by your sign and I forget exactly what it said, but it said something about mentoring, being discipleship. And I was like, that's a guy I need to speak to. So we had a conversation, and I guess the rest is history. Didn't know you had a podcast at that point, but yeah, after you told me that you had a podcast, you know, you might as well have been my best friend at that point.
Speaker 1:I love podcasts. I do. Man, you're a self described kind of podcast junkie there, aren't you, Clarence?
Speaker 2:I am. I am. And it's it's, I don't know. I find it a little disgusting, that I listen to podcasts as much as I do, But I spend a lot of time in my car, and I I used to listen to a lot of talk radio, and that that got kinda toxic. And, you know, of course, the music being what it is.
Speaker 2:And, so so, yeah, podcasts for, somebody who's a former teacher, as I know you are, who, loves to learn. You know, and I'm a history guy because I was a history teacher. So I listened to a lot of history podcasts and ministry podcasts and, a little bit of everything else. So so yeah. Awesome.
Speaker 1:Love it. So mister Clarence Ford, he is the program director for Crossroads Mentoring Program in Houston, Texas, baby. Love it. Yes, sir. Easttown.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And so they, it's partnership between, a church that is called what? One
Speaker 2:Church at Bethel's Family.
Speaker 1:Okay. And you're partnered up with Houston ISD. Isn't that correct?
Speaker 2:Yes, sir. We're, we're, we're an HISD partner. And we do work in other schools and other districts, but we created our programs specifically for HISD schools, but we've branched out to other school districts and are proud to to say that we do serve, kids in in other school districts throughout the Houston area.
Speaker 1:I love that. Well, it's a it's a big place down there. So there is, definitely, definitely more schools than one, mentoring, mentoring kind of program can handle. So For full. Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So why don't you just share with us about who you are, talk about your family and how you got here today, Clarence?
Speaker 2:Okay. So, my name is Robin Clarence Ford. I'm, the wife of one, Lisa. I'm sorry. I have one wife.
Speaker 2:I'm the husband of one, Lisa. And I am the father of two, two girls. I'm a girl dad, Lauren, who is 24 and Caitlin, who is 18 and a senior in high school. So I am also, the grandfather of one. His name is Linden.
Speaker 2:He is the joy of my world. And, I'm his favorite person in the world. So whenever we're together, he's usually with me. So, that is, my family. I am the student pastor by day, at the One Church at Bethel's family.
Speaker 2:And we got involved with this mentoring thing because I, as I know you believe this as well, believe that mentoring is discipleship, in that Jesus told his followers to go and make disciples. And what we endeavor to do is just walk alongside young people at a critical stage in their lives to help them, overcome challenges, accomplish their dreams, and, be the best version of themselves. And if we have the opportunity to, to tell them about Jesus, we do that too. So, it's, it's a great work. I'm a product of mentoring.
Speaker 2:I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana, and I grew up in a very rough time. Both of my parents were, addicted to narcotics. And so I saw a lot of things that I wasn't supposed to see at a young age and, probably did some things that I wasn't supposed to do. And were it not for mentors who came alongside me, at that critical point in my life, I would not be here today, literally.
Speaker 1:And it it's amazing how the Lord can use one or two people who step in at just the perfect time in someone's life where they can be going down this track, and then God shows up by way of relationship. And the next thing, you know, you're heading on this track. So it's a power of a story, my man.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Okay. So now you've been working with youth for quite a while now, which was very surprising to me because you don't look a day over about, you know, about 35 years old, but you've been working with youth at
Speaker 2:I've been in Houston for, seventeen years since 02/2007. My wife and I met in college. We went to college in Virginia. And, we moved to her hometown, Philadelphia. So we live right outside of Philadelphia for about ten years.
Speaker 2:And then we, we moved down, closer to, a lot closer to, to New Orleans than, to Philadelphia for sure. And this is as close as I could get, to my hometown and not, get myself in a whole lot of trouble. So, accepted, the call to gospel ministry, eventually accepted, the invitation to be, a full time youth pastor. And, You know, we, we started a mentoring program at, at the church and that, that grew into what crossroads, has become, today. So it's exciting in a lot of ways to see your life and your work, come, come full circle and, and God to use every experience, every, bad thing and good thing to work together for his, for his glory and for my good.
Speaker 2:So it's been a, it's been a wild ride, but it's been a blessing.
Speaker 1:Amen. Yeah. So whenever I say mentoring is ministry, Clarence, tell me what that means to you, my friend.
Speaker 2:It's the gospel. It's it's, the personal relationships that, Jesus asked us to go and create, in Matthew 28, in order to make, disciples. It's walking alongside young people, and sometimes not so young people. But in the context of what we do, it's walking alongside young people, helping them find the answers to life's questions, helping them to discover their purpose, the meaning of life, and all that God has for them. So it's been quite, for me, it's been the story of my life's work.
Speaker 2:Because even before I became a minister and pastor, I was a teacher and a coach, mentoring kids in that context. And so, to me, it's been a real blessing to do the work that God has called me into and to continue that work from a standpoint of ministry, because I believe it was all ministry. It was all God ordained, but this, this is the gospel. So it, it excites me.
Speaker 1:And so there are so many mentors who are able to go into the schools as teachers and as coaches. Can you just tell me what kind of opportunities being inside of the school afforded you in regards to building relationships, gaining trust, earning the right to be heard, all of those good things?
Speaker 2:I I think when you come in with the blessing of the school, affords a certain bit of legitimacy. The parents know that the school would not allow you in if you haven't been vetted. And so, we are received. And here's the blessing of what we're doing with working in schools. They want us here.
Speaker 2:They need us here. There are in HISD alone. There's 200,000 students and about 100,000 of them are eligible to be in our program. And that's not to mention all the other districts. And they know the work that we do as a church.
Speaker 2:They know the work that we're doing in the community. And they need help. They need a lot of help with their kids, many of whom have gone off in the wrong direction and are disrespectful to adults and just don't have any hope. And part of what I endeavor to do as a teacher when I was working in the school system is to help kids find that hope. To be on the other side of it, to come back to schools.
Speaker 2:I kind of feel like I'm the patron saint of schools in this area because we get to do a lot of other things with them. We get to connect, the kids to resources, to meet real critical needs. You know, Jesus, told the story of the good Samaritan, and we want to be that for schools to help kids and their families do, really to overcome the basic needs and challenges that many of them face so that they can be open to the new experiences and ideas and ultimately open to the gospel. So this is a critical work in a big, huge mission field with a lot of opportunity. So I invite all the help that is out there into these schools because this, this, this is a really huge mission field, for, organizations and churches, like mine.
Speaker 2:And I'm sure it's probably the same everywhere across America.
Speaker 1:Man, that's a great word about hope. You know, hope, a heart that doesn't have hope, you know, that's a tough deal. It's very, very hard to overcome that. Tell me, Clarence, how do you instill hope into the lives of kids who have been dealt just in extremely tough hand in life?
Speaker 2:Man, I I think the biggest thing, Zach, to be honest with you, is getting kids to dream again. You know, many of them, and the thing that got me over is I always had a hope. I had a dream. I wanted to do something, to be something. I had goals.
Speaker 2:Many of our children in schools today, they exist, you know, day to day, almost moment to moment, and they don't allow themselves to dream of a hope and a future beyond what's right in front of them. And so to come in and say, Hey, you can accomplish anything that you want to accomplish. You can, create fantastic goals and dreams for yourself and you can do the work that's necessary to accomplish it. If you had a little bit of help and we're here to help you. And, it doesn't cost you anything.
Speaker 2:And it's what, not only what we wanna do in a lot of ways, what we're called to do, you know, to, to be the purveyors of hope for a hopeless, generation and a hopeless society, to help people find the hope, that is in Christ. And, and he is ultimately who gives us not only the hope, but the will to do this work. So, like I said, man, this is, this is, I get chills just thinking about it. It's it's, it's an exciting work. It it's, and it's fantastic to be on the other side of it, right?
Speaker 2:To, to, to see that kid who was once, a young kid who didn't have the hope, be an adult, who's living what their dreams are. And I, I can say that because I am on the other side of it because, you know, even though I did have hopes and dreams, I knew what my life was. And I didn't think that it were possible, that it was gonna be possible for me, except for the fact that my mentors kept me on track. They kept me, focused on what my goals were, and wouldn't let me give up, give up on my goals, dreams, or give up on life. And, and, that's the work that we do and that's the hope that we provide.
Speaker 1:And like the two of us have talked so much about partnerships. Right? And about how it really does take a village. You know, you've got the mentors. You've got the schools.
Speaker 1:You've got other community partners. All of us have the same goal. Right? All of us wanna see these kids not only fulfill their own potential, but to help them know who Jesus Christ is, to surround them with people who care about them, to really see these kids thrive. Right?
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You just kinda speak to that, just one, the importance of partnerships, but two, how would you do partnerships well? Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:Great question. One is we find like minded people. Right? And I'm I'm sitting in the office of miss Elliot Moreno, who is the executive director of, No Need Among You. And, she was gracious and generous enough to, loan me her office for, for the day, to work with these students.
Speaker 2:And she is a school partner, a community partner, and she's doing great work in the community. We have the same goals. And I think teamwork makes the dream work, right? As a coach, you want to, have, and I was a middle school football and basketball coach, so I can say this right. You want to have, your, your team working together, everybody doing their part to help the team win.
Speaker 2:And, we do mentoring well, but we work with organizations that do other things well. We work with organizations that connect kids to mental health resources, to connect families to counseling resources and basic needs, healthcare, food. We can't do it all. But what we can do is to partner with organizations that do what they do well so that we can be that village for families who need the hope, right? And when I tell kids that we're not just coming alongside you, we're coming alongside your whole family.
Speaker 2:Because if your family needs food, maybe you're not necessarily thinking about having a mentor, right? You're thinking about where you're to get the next meal from. Well, Bethel's Heavenly Hands can provide your family with meals so that you don't have to think about that. Or if you're a kid who needs to work, if we can have a partner who, specializes in helping, kids find, part time jobs or helping their parents find full time job and training so that they can engage in careers that work, then let's do that. And then I think, again, once we meet the basic needs that people have, it's a lot easier to talk about mentoring.
Speaker 2:It's a lot easier to talk about disciples. It's a whole lot easier to talk about the goodness of God and the love of Christ once he sends you to meet people's basic needs. And, and, and that's the part that I really love about what I do because it's not just working with kids and adults and matching them and helping kids reach their, their, their goals. But it's really about helping families and working with so many other good people out there who are doing the Lord's work and what they do to make an impact on this world for time and eternity. And and so, so, yeah, that's that's what we do.
Speaker 2:And that's that's what it means to, work together with other people to help, do this work.
Speaker 1:I feel like so often with me, at least, there's a couple reasons why I don't engage in partnerships. Right? And I think the number one thing is I'm just too busy, like, to find other people who are investing in my community, are trying to serve these kiddos, to call them up, to go grab a coffee. I mean, that takes some effort. But, also, what I found is it may go slower.
Speaker 1:It may be harder, but it is 10 times more effective. Mhmm. Because so often in mentoring and doing full time ministry as well Mhmm. I am I am so focused in on me and what we have to do and the funds that we have to raise and we have to recruit mentors. We have to get into the schools and we we we that sometimes I forget to think about the kid.
Speaker 1:Right? And one thing that I always wanna ask myself is, how can I give this kid the best environment possible that they can thrive in? And it's just gonna be better time after time if there's more than one caring adult in their life. So the more, the merrier. Right?
Speaker 1:And that is where partnerships come in. Right? Like, yeah, they might come to you for mentoring. They might go to this, you know, spot for church. They might go to this spot for food.
Speaker 1:They might go to this coach for for basketball or for football. And and just the more positive people we can introduce to this kid's network, the more, support we can give to these families, I mean, that is the body of Christ. All of us are on the same team here. And when we stop trying to trying to, focus so much on our own silo, when we look up and take a look at the whole field, it just tends to go better.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And, just to speak to Elliot, can I can I tell you about Elliot and the amazing work that she's doing in this area? She has an eight block radius of Houston, Texas, and probably perhaps the most underserved neighborhood in the entire city. And she opened a boxing gym right across the street so that kids and their parents and the teachers and staff, I know the principal, he goes and he works out in the gym across the street. And their whole goal is ministry, but they're able to do things well that we can't, that we just, like you said, we don't have the time for.
Speaker 2:Right? But how cool is it to be able to partner with her, not only to use her office, but to connect kids and families to other resources that are far beyond what we do. And that's the beauty of it. So, so yeah, I think partnerships and working together in the body of Christ. Unity is what God calls us to.
Speaker 2:Right? And unity does not mean sameness. It does not mean oneness. It means that we're all different. We all have different roles in this body, but we are all working toward the same goal.
Speaker 2:And that's what it means to me at least, to have partners, who are just as committed to this work as I am. You're right, Zach. It takes a whole lot more work, to go out and create those partnerships, but the impact on families is much more. And at the end of the day, I'm really saving myself a lot of work because I, I, I know a lot, I've seen a lot of boxing, but I've never been, in in a ring. Well, actually, I was once, and it did not go well for me.
Speaker 2:But but, yeah, just to have people on the ground who are doing things that I can't do to me, makes it, easier for me in the long run.
Speaker 1:So I know whenever I was up in Dallas doing my thing, I it just kinda hit me one day. I'm like, oh my gosh. If all these people who are serving the same kids, if we get in the same room together and we talk about what we're doing, that can save us a ton of heartache. That can save us just a ton of time, a ton of different kinds of resources. And so but it takes intentionality.
Speaker 1:Right? Like, it takes picking up the phone. It takes having conversations. It takes a pursuit. So my encouragement to you, if you are mentoring specifically in in a in a tight community, right, find out who's doing what and just call them up and take them out to coffee.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Perhaps if you have a big space, if you, just pick a day. Hey. The last Thursday of every month or the last Thursday of every quarter, we're just gonna get lunch, and we're gonna meet all at this church, and we're gonna talk for ninety minutes about who's doing what and how can we support each other. I have just found that pursuing people, taking them out to coffee, and having a meal with them every so often, that really is kind of a mentoring, kind of best practice
Speaker 2:stuff. Yeah. And, we also partner with another organization called, Loving Houston, and Loving Houston specifically connects churches with schools. And one of the things that we do with them is, is we have quarterly lunch and learns. And we get together with all of the other people that are interested in doing this work in schools to share best practices, to connect, to network, to talk about what we're doing that's working and not working.
Speaker 2:And so whatever teams, you know, I can get on is what I'm trying to do. Because, even other mentoring organizations, right? We, we have a niche as it were. We only mentor middle and high school students, but we work with other mentoring organizations that mentor, well, that focus on mentoring elementary school students. We also have a niche in, we have a priority because we train our mentors to, work with kids who have been impacted by, drugs and alcohol.
Speaker 2:And, so our mentors are specifically trained for that type of kid. Whereas if there's a kid who, like my mentee, who's relatively, you know, doesn't have those challenges, maybe that kid might be better served by being in another program where we can accommodate the kids who really need to benefit from what it is that we do well. So, I encourage all mentoring organizations to even consider, as we do, partnering with other mentoring organizations that do this work and inhabit it or have a specialty, where, you know, every organization can do what it does well. You know, there's some that only focus in, dealing with mentoring refugees or mentoring immigrants or kids who've been adjudicated. And those are areas that are niche areas that may not be our niche that we may need to refer out to another program that might be able to serve that kid better.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And so you spoke to how you kind of serve a specific kind of kid, right? Like those who've been impacted by alcohol, those who been impacted by certain kinds of drugs. Mhmm. Tell me how you train up your church members who might not have had any exposure to that to mentor these kids in a safe and effective way.
Speaker 2:Wow. Okay. There is a lot of pain for that. And as such, right? Everyone, even, the church members are not as, willing or ready to take on that responsibility.
Speaker 2:So, it comes with, recruiting well, to let people know what they can expect. And training them intensively. We provide substance use disorder training, mental health first aid training. We provide a specific training that's designed to help our mentors understand what kids who have been impacted and kids who have been maybe users or abusers themselves, what they are going through so, they're better able, to help them. And so, between the basic trainings that we do, for all mentors and the ones that we do specifically for kids who are impacted by drugs and alcohol misuse.
Speaker 2:You know, we're talking about thirty, thirty five hours worth of training, which is a lot. But if you really want to do this work, and you really want to have that impact on people, on young people, then it really is necessary to be prepared, for what you might encounter, dealing with kids who, need that kind of help.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I've found that the the harder kind of the harder kinds of places that our kids come from. Right? Like, the more that kid has experienced certain kinds of traumas, it's almost like the more the mentor needs to be trained up. Just because it takes a lot of skill and it takes a lot of different kinds of training to know how to serve those different kinds of kids in the best way possible.
Speaker 1:And so so this will be my last, kinda question for you, reverend. But if someone came up to you and said, hey. I've been thinking about mentoring. Try to talk me into it. Tell me what you'd say.
Speaker 2:One, if you're a believer is what Jesus calls us to, in Matthew 28. Two, it's an opportunity for you to make a difference in the life of a single individual. We only allow our mentors to mentor one kid because we want our mentors to really be able to focus on that one kid. You don't ask to monopolize your time. We only ask that you meet with your kid for about an hour a week.
Speaker 2:And, you have the opportunity to be used by God to make a difference in the life of a young person that will last forever. Hopefully that does it. You know, and if not, if it's not for you, that's okay. God has called us all to a work. That's why he gives us all spiritual gifts.
Speaker 2:And maybe I can talk you into another opportunity. We need admins. We need volunteers. We need people to make phone calls, people with technical, expertise to, to do other things, for the program. So, you can, you, you can help, if you don't want a mentor and there's opportunities available there as well.
Speaker 2:But whatever you do, use your gifts, your talents, your abilities, to, to build the kingdom because that's what, God has called us all to do.
Speaker 1:Awesome. The Reverend Clarence Ford, check out Crossroads Mentoring in Houston. You can find him on their website, CrossroadsMentoring.org. He's a great guy. So all of his contact information and everything like that will be in the show notes.
Speaker 1:If you guys enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend. And I hope that you guys were, encouraged just like I was. Is there anything else that you have for us today, Clarence?
Speaker 2:No, I think I I covered it all, Zach. Just, thank you again for the opportunity and, thank you for the work that you do, where you can mentor. You're you're meeting a need and and serving God's people. So I really appreciate you, in in all that you do, and and your team, because I know you don't do it all.
Speaker 1:Thanks, bud. We do appreciate you guys. Thanks a lot for tuning in. You can rate our podcast wherever you listen. We sure would appreciate that five star.
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Speaker 1:Thank you.