God Made Her Strong

 

God has knit my heart together with my cousin Amie's heart. 

We are both passionate about our family, Jesus, 

and mentoring among many other things.

I recently asked her to share about her passion for mentoring.

I'd like you to meet my cousin, Amie, and hear her heart today.

 

 

He gives strength to the weary
and increases the power of the weak.
Isaiah 40:29

God made me strong!

I’m not only talking the kind of strong that you learn from growing up with cousins on a farm. I am strong like that and can do heavy lifting, but it’s more than that. I’m strong headed.  I like to think that He created me to do heavy lifting with my brain as well. Now, if you ask my parents or the Jolly German (my husband), they will probably tell you about the downside to this, but I know it is a gift from the Lord.

Over five years ago, the Lord called me out of a strong position in the secular world to do full time ministry. My strong brain told me this wasn’t logical. I couldn’t go back to the salary I made when I graduated college and still make ends meet. There wouldn’t be enough money. I wouldn’t be challenged enough. But the reality is, the Lord’s ways aren’t always logical. My best friend showed me a video of the vision of the North Charleston DreamCenter and I couldn’t ignore it. North Charleston was 7^th in the nation for violent crime per capita and it was only 15 minutes away from my house. I couldn’t sit back and ignore it.

I had no idea at that time what the Lord had in store. I stepped up to volunteer for 6 months and found myself leading Children’s Ministry. The funny thing about this is that I have no children. Here I am learning and teaching others about how to bring up a child in the ways of the Lord – yet I have never done it myself. Just another way the Lord uses the least of these and He sure did. The ministry grew from ground floor to just at 100 kids in 3 years before stepping aside to allow others the room to step into ministry.

I took a year off of Children’s Ministry to help establish the fundraising strategy of the Dream Center and in this time found my heart bending towards our e3 mentoring program. e3 (educate, elevate and empower) is a youth mentoring program that matches at-risk kids in middle and high school with professional and community mentors on a one-on-one basis. The mission is to help the youth become productive citizens who make positive contributions, good choices and love God.

The program was established in August 2009 to address the needs of the youth in our community and in 4 years, we have mentored an average of 35 students each year. By targeting issues such as staying in school, finding part time work, developing character and teaching students how to set goals we have been able to effect the community for generations.

The Impact

• 100% of the Seniors enrolled in 2011 Program Graduated – 12 Students
• · Graduation Rates at Local High School are Rising

2008-2009 @ 36.2%

2009-2010 @ 40.2%

2010-2011 @ 45.1%

• Increased Student Exposure with Trips: Columbia, Myrtle Beach, Orlando, Cape Canaveral and Washington, DC
• Lives Forever Changed by Relationships Centered in Christ

I have played a background role in the mentoring program for the past 4 years,

but I am excited about stepping up and growing this program. There are more than 400 kids in the Lowcountry area that don’t graduate each year in our local high schools. I feel like God has given us a vision to reach 400 students through the e3 mentoring program in the next 4 years and hope that you will pray alongside us for the resources to make this happen.

If you’re interested in the e3 program, sponsoring a child, or taking the step of mentoring, you can contact me at amieheath@seacoast.org or call 843.375.1099 x1703.