Orphans & Widows

Growing up, I didn’t clearly comprehend what orphans and widows looked like in the present-day United States. Movies depicted orphanages of an age gone by. I was taught about the destitution of orphans and widows in Bible times, but didn’t really wonder what that looked like in my time and place. Then, as God called me to a career in mental health for kids and families, I started to learn. While in graduate school in Atlanta, I mentored a boy through Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. At his young age, he simply stated he had no dad. Seeing this boy, who mostly lived and breathed video games, learn to love walking in the woods and wading in the river, was a joy. But I, who had mostly lived and breathed families with both parents, learned to love what God can do in the lives of a single mother and fatherless son. To my amazement, God led his mother to my church and she started following Jesus. A couple years after that, I mentored a younger teenage boy and later older teenage boy with Youth Villages in Memphis. Both had their mother and father’s rights terminated. They were orphans, living in a residential behavioral health treatment facility. They loved doing simple things with me, like throwing football and eating snacks on the grass by their campus. Or going roller skating, bowling, or to church, parks, and restaurants. Most things we did were free and only cost some time but were invaluable to me and to them. Having counseled adolescents like them for years as my job, sometimes I wonder if my most personal and profound impact was when I was a volunteer mentor. They were curious, open, appreciative, challenging, and inspiring. God was an easy and regular topic of conversation, as were all the most important things in life. When need is high and relational and material resources low, it’s less awkward and more freeing to talk about what really matters. Sometimes I wonder if God used me the most when I was a mentor. There was no formula to follow or complicated plan of how to share the Gospel. With mentoring through an organization like Youth Villages (Youth Mentoring Programs | Youth Villages), the opportunity was wide open from the onset to listen, connect, and give relationally and spiritually. Orphans and widows live in the houses and apartments next door in our neighborhoods. Orphans fill the residential facilities down the road in our communities. Ask God if He wants you to mentor today.

- Neal Martin