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The church is a great place for mentoring to happen. Pastor Kwesi Kamau and his daughter Nia share about the effects of mentoring within church and family life.
Show Notes
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WELCOME
You Can Mentor is a podcast about the power of building relationships. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others.
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SHOW NOTES
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 podcast about the power of building relationships with kids from hard places in the name of Jesus. Every episode will help you overcome common mentoring obstacles and give you the confidence you need to invest in the lives of others you can mentor.
Speaker 2:Welcome back to the You Can Mentor podcast. My name is Steven, and I have some awesome guests today. I have with me Nia Kamau and her father, doctor and pastor Kwesi Kamau. Thank you guys for being on the podcast today.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having us.
Speaker 4:So good to be here.
Speaker 2:Come on. Well, I wanna first off mention how I know you guys. Nia was a part of my college ministry. This your sophomore year now?
Speaker 4:Yep. Can't believe it.
Speaker 2:Come on. Yep. Dad, way to go. Getting your daughter into SMU. Way way to go.
Speaker 2:Encouraging
Speaker 3:She got herself in SMU. I'm gonna tell you right now. She did all the hard work.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's awesome. Well, Nia, what are you studying over at SMU?
Speaker 4:Yes. So I am actually majoring in human rights, and minor in Arabic. My specializations are in international, affairs and public policy, in economics. So, yeah, I I'm in, like, this really cool unique program, that is what brought me to SMU for the opportunity to just study how I can, you know, use my education to empower others.
Speaker 2:So good. Well, Nia is a leader, so I'm excited to have you on the podcast to share your knowledge. And then your father Mhmm. The pastor, Quasi Kamau, I went to your church and heard you preach. I heard you share your vision.
Speaker 2:What is the vision of your church impact DFW?
Speaker 3:Oh, fantastic. Well, first of all, thank you again for, having us on the program today. And it was great to have, you come and and worship with us. It's been a, it's been an amazing journey. Impact Church is about 5 years old.
Speaker 3:God has done an amazing work, a quick work in that time. It's because we have been on mission. So what we say every Sunday is this. We say, we are anointed to make an impact. We don't just talk about it.
Speaker 3:We be about it. And we repeat that over and over because there's something powerful in in confession, in actually stating that when it comes out your mouth
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You're committed to it. And so what we wanna do is make sure that everybody understands the the culture and the ethos of of the house. So, you know, we we we are all anointed to make an impact in Christ. Come on. We don't just we just don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 3:We wanna be about it.
Speaker 6:Say it with me. We are anointed. We are anointed. To make
Speaker 5:an impact.
Speaker 6:To make an impact. We don't just talk about it.
Speaker 5:We don't just
Speaker 6:talk about it. We be about it. Yeah. Yeah. Just in case there's a part of your spirit right now, just in case there's a part of your heart that feels a little fear right now, I want you to speak to the fear on the inside of you and say, we are anointed We are anointed.
Speaker 6:To make an impact. We don't just talk about it. We be about it. We be about it. And one more time for the holy ghost.
Speaker 6:Even when the enemy is trying to raise up against you, even when the money's funny and the bills are due, even when your your situations and your relationship seem to be falling all apart, you gotta understand who you are over against, what your circumstances say to you, and you gotta declare we are anointed to make an impact. We don't just talk about it. We feel about it. Come on and give god glory.
Speaker 5:Amen.
Speaker 6:Turn in your bibles to Deuteronomy. Turn in your bibles
Speaker 2:to Deuteronomy. Let's go. I love it. Well, first question, I'd love to just hear from each of you about a mentor who's invested in your life. Can you paint a picture for our listeners about any mentor relationship, how it started, what they did that stood out to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I would just love love to hear, your experience being mentored.
Speaker 3:I I would I would say I have had, you know, an army of mentors in my life, but I think the one that, would stick out the most would be my, my pastor, my former bishop as I was a part of the Methodist system, and he was a tremendous mentor, a exciting leader who didn't let any grass grow under his feet. I mean, this guy was enthusiastic, energetic, and filled with vision. And I'm gonna tell you right now, if you didn't have any vision, he had plenty for you. He's he's that kinda guy. I think maybe that's where I get a little of that from.
Speaker 3:But the reality is that my father, when I was 14 years old, passed away from cancer. A few months before he passed, uninvited and unexpected, we we get a ring on the on the phone saying that Pastor Williamson was here to see us. And so, you know, we we, you know, let him in, and I'd I'd never seen this guy before in my life.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:I did not go to church at that time. My family was nominally Christian. We were Christmas, Mother's Day, and Easter kind of people maybe, and it was a real struggle for my mom to get me there even on those days. Right? Here's the bottom line.
Speaker 3:When he came, he came and prayed with my dad, and then in leaving, he pulled out $20 and put it in my hand and said, no. You take care of your family. Call me if you need anything. Now at that point in time, as I said, I didn't go to church. I think maybe just a few months earlier, I had an encounter with Christ and had committed my life to Christ, but I hadn't found a church home yet.
Speaker 3:And so when I saw the church outside the four walls Wow. That was impactful for me. I ended up, joining that church. Actually, my father died on May 31st, which was a Sunday at 10 AM. And the next Sunday, I was in church, and I joined on that Sunday.
Speaker 3:Wow. Pastor Williamson, now Bishop Williamson, has spoken into my life literally every every year, every moment of my life, every significant moment of my life ever since. Wow. Certainly stood in for my father when when my wife and I got married, assigned me to, you know, several churches that I was I ended up pastoring and and, you know, showed me what a good leader is all about. He he spoke into my life, so he gave me words of wisdom that I can rattle off to you even right now.
Speaker 3:You know, it's not what you expect, it's what you inspect, you know, or understanding, you know, it you know, you must have the vision to see, the face to believe, the courage to do, you know, things like that that he just spoke into our lives and
Speaker 5:Yeah. You
Speaker 3:know, your mind is a pearl. You can learn anything in the world. You can learn 10 languages. You can do anything, you know. You know, the the respect motto of understanding that, we don't have to agree, but I must respect you and you must respect me.
Speaker 3:Those kinds of things, you know, were ingrained in me, and I then had a way of as I'm sharing it with you now, I could share it with other people.
Speaker 2:Exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So his impact was not simply in encouraging me, but giving me tools as to being able to encourage other people as well and being a leader myself.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's so good. It's like his his impact isn't just Oh, yeah. What happened to you, but it's what you do with what he gave you.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Absolutely. And we we have relationship to this day. He is out of state. I spoke to him actually this afternoon.
Speaker 3:We we talked maybe once a week, maybe once every other week or something like that, and he's always speaking life, always speaking encouragement. You know, when you when you have a commitment to people and to mentoring, it's not a commitment to a principal or to a job. It really is a commitment to individuals, and he he has made that commitment for over 30 years.
Speaker 2:So good. Yeah. I love when when you have someone like that speaking into your life, it's like they give you permission to dream, permission to think, permission to
Speaker 3:That's a really good word.
Speaker 2:That's a really good word. Lord and yeah. Like, you you can give people language
Speaker 5:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:To Yep. To use to change lives.
Speaker 3:And and tools and confidence. Confidence. Yeah. You know, learning the scripture, you know, memorizing the word of God was a challenge that I got from him. Being a prayer warrior was a challenge that I got from him.
Speaker 3:I still remember the sermon that he came back from vacation to preach called Jesus the prayer warrior. And, you know, that has made the absolute difference in my life. I have now written several books on prayer. Prayer is a major focus of my life. It's a major focus of our ministry.
Speaker 3:And that comes honest. We I received it from a father.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Would you would you say that the the things that he spoke into your life and the things you saw him doing informed your perspective of what manhood is, what it what it means to be a man. I mean, everyone learns how to be a man from somebody. Mhmm. Particularly, what we always say in in our circles that a boy will will only learn how to be a man from another man.
Speaker 3:Right. Right. I will tell you this, that, I had a fantastic father for 14 years. So I really did learn a lot about manhood from him.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But it was definitely reaffirmed and and built up, and thing about it is it's not just one person either. Yeah. Going to the church,
Speaker 2:joining the church, there
Speaker 3:was not only Henry Williamson, but then there was a guy by the name of Wilbert Thomas, a saint at memory, and and a guy by the name of Oliver Hightower, and a guy by the name of William Fields, and and Laphonza Alston, and various other men that I saw. Lemuel Johnson, I can keep, you know, rattling off the names. Edward Hubbard, I can rattle off the names. These men that wasn't just like a isolation or a unique thing. I saw men all around us, and we had a a strong emphasis for men in our church.
Speaker 2:That's really good.
Speaker 3:So as our church grew, we probably had as many men as we did women, which is, you know, statistically not
Speaker 2:very consistent. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Absolutely. So, and the men, every 3rd Sunday, we would have male emphasis Sunday, and we would have the men surround the church, not as a way of creating this this antagonist He
Speaker 2:didn't walk around
Speaker 3:it seven times. Men and women, but rather it was a matter of saying, we thank God for the women of the church who have been in leadership and who have shared and who have stood in the gap oftentimes where men were not there. And today, we wanna honor you and surround you with a prayer with a circle of prayer and love, and the men and boys of the church would all grab hands and we would pray, and it was one of the most powerful experiences, I'll tell you, in a worship experience. And so So good. It was not simply just dealing with 1 individual because sometimes we think mentorship 1 on 1, but, you know, the mentor should always bring the mentee into a communion with others in a community.
Speaker 3:Good. You know, whether it's whether we're talking about men now, but it could be with women as well. You wanna have a a sense of being engaged in a larger organism, a a larger body.
Speaker 2:That's a really good point. The role of a mentor is to resource you to even more relationships.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:I was getting emotional while you were sharing and just going off on all these men that have invested in you. And I was thinking about one of the boys in our program we just spoke with.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 5:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I was thinking about I mean, I just had a picture of him in my mind's eye 20 years from now. Yes. Is he gonna be able to list off name after name after name of men that have invested in his life? And it's a privilege of of being in this space as a mentor, mentoring kids who have a relational deficit when it comes to those relationships in the home or even in the community because the the statistics show that single parent households have a lot more difficulty committing to a community, a local church, a a place where you gather regularly. And there are a lot of issues.
Speaker 3:And and here's the deal is that my mom was intentional about taking me to a place where I could have other men place their hands on me. That's, you know, something that we we can, from a from a standpoint of my testimony, encourage other single moms, in. You know, be sure whether it's a boy or a girl, bring your children into places and spaces where there are positive male figures.
Speaker 4:So I'm really fortunate enough to say that I I do have had, like, many mentors in my life. And, of course, the first peep 1st and foremost people who have invested in me are my parents, and I'm really grateful to say that. But during, I think, my, like, junior or senior year of high school, I had a lady named miss Carrie step into my life who actually reached out to me and said that she wanted to, like, mentor me and help me, like, kind of through the college process, getting ready for college, not just, like, academics and resume, but, like, spiritually. And so I would, like, drive out to her home, and, like, we would meet usually, like, once once a week, maybe, like, twice a month. And she was just so intentional about being able to identify, like, the needs that I had Mhmm.
Speaker 4:And about, like, one listening to me and the concern that I presented. But also just listening to, like, holy spirit and being like, okay. Like, holy spirit, what do you want me to, say to Nia? How do you want me to pour into Nia? And that was really meaningful to me to have, like, a woman of God in my life who is using her life to serve the Lord through ministry, and also has a passion for pouring into other people to come alongside me and walk through that with me.
Speaker 4:We have, like, almost similar passions in the fact that we wanna, like, spend our lives serving others. And so having her there to walk me through that process was very, very meaningful. I still keep in contact with her all the time. I actually kinda, like, work for her now in some ways, which if you're, like, a good, like, mentor, you bring you bring people along with you.
Speaker 2:Hire them.
Speaker 4:Yeah. You bring them along with you on your mission. And that's something that my parents have done with me by helping me to identify God's purpose in my life, and miss Carrie has done that as well, and so I'm so grateful. She has she does, like, take me out for lunch sometimes, but, honestly, I just love, like, just sitting in her home in the quiet and, you know, just having her say, you know, Nia, how are you doing? You know, Nia, who are the guys in your life?
Speaker 4:Nia, you know, what is God saying to you? You know, all the important things.
Speaker 3:Carrie for that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's the
Speaker 4:And she had promised not to tell my dad any of it. So that's the great part. No. I'm just kidding. I tell him anyway.
Speaker 4:Michelle. Okay.
Speaker 2:Well, I wanna ask a follow-up on that. In meeting with Carrie, you mentioned that there was this point that you recognized, wow, she's here recognizing my needs. And she is sensitive to the spirit and she is listening. And would you say that that was, like, walking into this relationship, that that was something you expected, or or was it more of like, oh, wow. I'm meeting with this woman who wants to invest in me, who's like, their choice is to pour into my life.
Speaker 2:And, like, how did that affect you when you just started to recognize this person really cares for me?
Speaker 4:Yeah. I think when I, like, first started, stepped into the relationship with miss Carrie, I didn't know what to expect out of it or, like, how serious, it would be. So I was I was, like, really touched by how invested that she was in me, and how intentional she was willing to be. And, honestly, like, I think that would make anyone just feel so loved and special. I think that's something that miss Carrie gives to me is, like, just a a sense of being loved, by someone.
Speaker 4:And so I'm I'm super grateful for that. It's definitely something that, like, whenever I'm feeling down, you know, maybe with whatever is going in my life, I can always almost, like, feel the love that she has for me.
Speaker 2:Back to you, dad. I think the world would refer to a father of 5 as having a full quiver. So Mhmm. Way to go. For our dads who are mentors, they have this experience in the home of mentoring.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And then they're actively going outside the home investing in in others, in other families. And and I think that that that dynamic can be really powerful. Not that you're learning when you're mentoring Mia so that you can get better at mentoring this other guy or or those things. But I'm sure that there's some experience that you get being a father, that a single man or woman other way
Speaker 5:around. Me and I were actually
Speaker 2:talking about this once.
Speaker 5:I have been
Speaker 3:engaged in mentoring slash discipling youth and children for about 30 years. I started early. And so looking at what worked with the youth pastors and leaders that went before me. And then executing those principles and and and, you know, those patterns. And, you know, those patterns, got me into the life of a lot of young people.
Speaker 5:We we have a program called 1 Church, 1 School. So we would go
Speaker 3:into our church. We partner with several schools. We had 5 schools at one point in time when I was growing up my home church. And we would go in and talk to the kids and,
Speaker 5:you
Speaker 3:know, I learned how to give a interesting talk. I learned how to do the group, you know, mentoring process. And then from there, you get
Speaker 5:always get the one little guy here or the, you
Speaker 3:know, one kid there that that needs that extra attention and Yeah. And you give them. One of those kids that needed the extra attention is now a pastor in Nashville and and is doing well with his own family. Wow. And giving back now himself.
Speaker 3:I say this to say that as a single person, this is an excellent time for you to get engaged. Number 1, you have the tie. You have the emotional bandwidth oftentimes because you don't have a family to take care of it. And not saying that single people don't have a lot to deal with, but it is a different lifestyle. It is a different configuration of life.
Speaker 3:You know, if you are single, this is a really good time. And because I spent all of those years mentoring and working with children and youth from my little cousins to the to the young people in the schools, to the kids at our church or what have you, by the time my wife and I had kids, we kinda, you know, knew what was going on. You know? My wife did much the same kind of thing. So, you know, she worked with Job Corps.
Speaker 3:And so she she was always engaged in young people's lives and stuff like that. So, you know, it's just, you know, by the time that that we did have kids, you know, I'm not saying that we were, you know, super qualified to be parents or anything like that, but the experience that we had working with young people gave us an edge. Mhmm. He gave us a definite edge.
Speaker 2:It's really good.
Speaker 4:I I kinda just wanna hit, off of that as, like, coming from the perspective of the kid. I think sometimes people are like, oh, like, your dad's a pastor? Like, that must not be that fun. But I think it's, like, the best thing ever to have a parent who is, like, a pastor because they spent so much of their life ministering to people and investing in people. My dad had been doing it for, like, maybe 10 plus years by the time he had me.
Speaker 4:As I was going growing up and going through my own struggles, I would bring them up to him, and he would, like, immediately, like, know how to handle it. 1, just because he's sensitive to the holy spirit, but also because, like, I would think that I'm presenting some, like, new struggle to him, and he he's already, like, seen this and dealt with that, and and god has already shown him how to how to minister. And I think that really made my relationship with my parents really strong because they were just so prepared
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 4:On how to pour into me.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's really good. Yeah. It's not necessarily the reason we get into mentoring Mhmm. To figure out those things.
Speaker 2:Most most of it, the intention is, man, I just wanna love this kid well. Yeah. But a product of committing to love someone is you learn to love well. A way to flip flip the script on my question. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I want to ask how how did it make you feel your father and people he was mentoring or discipling into family life? Mhmm. Well, I would definitely say that ministry was a big part of our
Speaker 5:family life, and
Speaker 4:we always did it as a team. As far as people that, like, my dad was mentoring, it actually wasn't very much incorporated in our family life. And I almost feel like that was intentional. And looking back, it's something that I kind of appreciate because I honestly didn't know half of the things that my dad did to porn to other people. I'm, like, realizing some of it now, and I think that if I had known at a certain point in my life, then I might have felt like his attention was divided, you know, from me and my siblings, just, you know, coming from maybe an immature perspective.
Speaker 4:And now I see that, of course, you know, he's doing what God has called him to do, and God has given him the strength and capacity to do it all. But, you know, we didn't really have the people that he was mentoring, like, in the home a lot, or sometimes they'll be around, and we didn't know that he was mentoring them. It's really something that I've realized now that I'm an adult, and I just like, my eyes are open to more things. He shares more things. Like, for instance, my family went on a vacation to Austin.
Speaker 4:While we were in Austin, my dad got a call, and it was actually a call from someone who he had ministered to in Los Angeles. The person called my dad and, said, you know, I, like, I need some help. I don't know how to help me. I don't know who can help me, and he's like the guy's like, you know, I'm in Austin, and we're like, what? We're in Austin right now.
Speaker 4:Like, we're never in Austin. And at this point in time where this guy that we knew from Los Angeles needs help, we are all in the same place. Had, like, plans for the day, of course. We're gonna, like, do things, but my mom and dad had to, like, stop that, and they went to go minister to this guy. I think that kinda spoke to me in multiple ways because, one, I was really surprised at how it didn't bother me and my siblings that, like, our plans got canceled for the day.
Speaker 4:And I realized it's just because we know that there is something so much bigger that our family is called to. Then we didn't feel like we were missing out on anything because we were, like, oh, like, mom and dad, like, they're going administering to this person, and, like, that's that's more important. Even my 11 year old brother realized that.
Speaker 2:Which so that's not normal. Not normal for an 11 year old kid to think, like, life's not all about me. Like
Speaker 5:I I
Speaker 4:don't know. I have great parents.
Speaker 3:And my my kids have a good big sister.
Speaker 5:And
Speaker 3:I can say that, you know, make her blush, but it's also true. You know, if if you're gonna have a lot of kids, put a lot of work in your first home today.
Speaker 6:Oh my goodness. It really helps, but
Speaker 2:it's awesome. But
Speaker 4:yeah. But but, like, that wasn't really something that my siblings and I were involved in. Like, we never met this person. We never, like, heard the conversation that my dad was my mom were giving to this guy, but we knew that that is, like, that's what our family does. It was really also cool for me to see that my dad who's taking this vacation away from not away from the church, but, you know, like, taking a break, like, literally just left to help this person and was with this person for, like, multiple hours.
Speaker 4:And, that God gave us that very unique opportunity to pour into this guy's life and had already orchestrated everything from location, to everything. So Wow.
Speaker 5:Yeah. I
Speaker 3:think what I would wanna add and, you know, I made the joke about putting a lot of emphasis in your first child, but really you wanna put, emphasis in every child uniquely.
Speaker 5:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Individually. You don't love your children equally, you love them individually. I think part of the reason why our 11 year old son could feel the way he does is because we really do try to listen to him and to all of them and to respond to them wrestle with them. That's my thing, not not so my mom's. You know, we had a we used to have a game that Nia can't stand anymore.
Speaker 3:So heartbroken. Used to have a belly button game where, you know, I was a belly button monster and chase them all around and all that kind of stuff. Now, you know, it sounds it sounds silly and funny and quirky and and what have you. It's family. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I did bring people into the home at times, but we did it not as a mentor, a mentee relationship, it was more as family. And we we wanted to be family in front of them and involve them in the experience. And so it was never
Speaker 5:a matter of, okay, this is this
Speaker 3:is just a guy that dad's working with, or mom's working with. It was this is just, you know, someone from our community that we're having around our table. Yeah. And, and and so
Speaker 2:Well and you give you give an example of what it looks like to build authentic relationships. Yes. Yes. Because if you if you invest in someone and you treat them like a project, they're gonna connect. Oh, this is what serving people is.
Speaker 2:You you see them as an object, not as a a human.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 2:That's equal to me. Yes. And you when you create that authenticity, that's what's translated. Mhmm. They begin to have people at their table.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Let's not talk about mentoring when we're sitting at the table. Let's talk about being family. Yeah. How do you help a mentor move from just talking about it to being about it?
Speaker 4:You can't mentor specifically, like, as a Christian without being connected to Holy Spirit and allowing Holy Spirit to move through you. Yep. Because, you know, I I would just thought at the beginning, you know, oh, I can just, like, give the good advice that I read in this book the other day and, you know, I can I can, like, use my understanding to be able to tell what this problem is and, you know, maybe this person's, like, feeling insecure? So I'm just gonna, like, say what comes to mind and stuff like that. But I quickly learned that, like, god is willing to show you things that a person needs to grow.
Speaker 4:If you're walking in line with him, he's willing to give you the the words to say to them. I don't have to come up with something to say. I don't have to try to, like, reason what they might be going through. I just have to be open and sensitive to Holy Spirit. And wherever god wants that person to be, if his will is for me to be a part of their story, he's gonna open my eyes, and he's gonna show me.
Speaker 4:That's what people need to see is the power of god, not the wisdom of Nia.
Speaker 2:It's really good.
Speaker 4:And so that's something that, you know, I learned early on, but I'm still trying hard to, like, put into practice, because, obviously, like, it's a struggle against ego. It's a struggle to stay consistently connected with god because when you're pouring to someone else, like, you have to make sure that you're staying at a certain kind of level and growing yourself.
Speaker 3:You know what the most powerful mentor is? The mentor who is authentic, who is real, who has had a real experience with God, who is growing in God and who can share that journey with somebody else. That's the most important thing in the world. So talking about it, being about it. One thing is stop talking.
Speaker 3:I mean, for real. Get off Facebook, get off Twitter, Instagram, all that other kind of stuff. Stop. Wow. Say what you mean, mean what you say.
Speaker 3:Number 2, get among people who are about it. Just hang out. Just be with them. That's gonna give you the encouragement, motivation, and the staying power that you that you need.
Speaker 2:Come on. I love it. I love it. Well, thank you all so much for investing into mentors, into future mentors, into current mentors. It means so much.
Speaker 2:Tell us how people could get involved with what you guys are doing in the city. I know you're a pastor, but you've also been part of the Greater Dallas Coalition and and other things going on. So
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I'm a strategic partner with the Greater Dallas Coalition. Over the last, almost decade, we have been, having a camp that we bring together about 200 kids. And most of these kids come, from, as you say, very difficult hard places. But 80% of the kids will say that they have, either seen or experienced some kind of gun violence or sexual violence, domestic violence of some sort.
Speaker 3:A lot of them are dealing with post traumatic stress. And they are desirous of people to speak into their lives like any kid would be. So we are always looking for people who would love to come alongside, and and step into the lives of these kids in one way or another through 1 on 1, through group, mentoring contexts, and just really give these kids a way up and a way out. And listen, every bit counts. There's no little bit in mentoring.
Speaker 3:If you can give an hour, that's not a little bit. That's an amazing contribution.
Speaker 5:You can
Speaker 3:go to greater Dallas coalition dot org to find out more information. Pastor, Dorel Smith is over the camp, and there is there's work to be done. So if you're wanting to find a good place to plug in, certainly get in touch with the Greater Dallas Coalition and Dallas Champions Academy. It's awesome.
Speaker 2:K. We'll put that in the show notes. Thank you so much for listening. And if you didn't pick up anything from this podcast, let it be this. You can mentor.