While I was sitting at my desk working, I received an e-mail from Uganda with the subject line “WE MISS YOU.” After my initial reaction of “Hmm, is this SPAM?” I decided to open it ... and then I was crushed.
Six months ago, I housed two orphans from Uganda and their chaperone. They were a part of the Watoto Child’s Choir — a choir of orphaned Ugandan children that travels the world to put on performances and bring the spirit of Uganda to the world. Having these three amazing young people (Moses, Edwin, and Steven) in my house for a week was one of the best things I have ever done in my life. They taught me about love, appreciation, gratitude, wonderment, hope, faith, joy ... and every other amazing positive and redeeming thing about life I could ever want to learn. The theory was that I was the “giver” by letting them stay in my home. The reality is that they gave me far more than I gave them.
As I opened the e-mail, I saw a screen grab of a video. It was Steven ... so I hit “play.” For the next two minutes I sat, watched, and listened as Steven told me how much he loves me and filled me in on the children. “Edwin and Moses are doing well. They still wear their YOU MATTER T-shirts and they truly believe it more and more every day. We all miss you and hope to see you again.” Yes, I was crushed.
I don’t have children of my own. I have a beautiful niece and nephew (Kate and Gavin), and I have taught hundreds of kids to swim, but my role as a father has yet to begin. Or has it?
In addition to Edwin, Moses, Kate, Gavin, and the children of friends of mine, I have also spent the past eight months working in schools. We have written an amazing K-12 school curriculum, based on our book, geared toward making sure our youth understand how much they matter. They matter to themselves, their families, their school, their community and beyond. In a very short period of time, we now have tens of thousands of children engaged in our curriculum in schools all across the country. This has led to speaking engagements at schools, e-mails from students, and one-on-one conversations with kids ranging from 5-18 years old. And, like Edwin and Moses, it has been an eye-opener, because every day I realize how much I am personally influencing the molding of these beautiful lives. And, I would assume that it has to feel similar to fathering my own children.
The point of all of this is that we, adults, have a huge responsibility to help our youth grow up to be happy, healthy, loving, caring, contributing, confident adults. Whether it is housing orphans from Uganda, getting involved with schools, parenting, uncle-ing, aunt-ing, or any other sort of “ing” we can do, we must assume our responsibility as role models as though it is our mission in life. These children need us...and we need them.
FACTS
n 3 million children are currently enrolled in a mentoring program.
n 15 million youth are in need of mentoring. If they don’t get it, they’re more likely to not reach adulthood successfully. These youth are:
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