NEW YORK – A youth ministry on Long Island is showing God’s love by reaching out to youth in the area and making a constructive environment for them to grow in.
Long Island Youth Ministry (LIYM) is a non-profit organization that provides one-on-one Christian mentors to fatherless and at-risk children, and has been successfully doing it for 26 years.
“We can not expose fatherless kids to this Christian example by planning events,” explained John Cragg, executive director of LIYM, in an article. “These blessed ministry opportunities take place at the times and places of God’s choosing as our mentors faithfully ‘pray up’ and then show up to share their lives, and God’s love, with our kids – just a few hours each and every week.”
LIYM first began its ministry in 1981 known under the name Long Island Youth Guidance. After looking at the surrounding areas, the founders realized the need to offer love to those kids who often acted up and were friendless. They simply needed someone in their life.
The group heads pride themselves on providing a place for youth whose personalities are not simply the stereotypical “troubled child.”
“We all have a picture in our minds of the type of child that Youth Mentoring works with,” states the ministry rationale. “We see them in the news and hanging out on street corners. We call them ‘troubled teens’ or ‘at-risk kids.’ However, many other children who are common to Youth Mentoring are unseen, unnoticed, withdrawn and too often friendless. God sees all these children and calls them ‘Mine.’”
The group’s mission statement reflects this goal as the group members try to show youth the love that can come from a relationship with Christ.
It states, “[Our mission is to] assist the Christian church on Long Island in the responsible evangelism of at risk youth and their families, providing them with hope through caring relationships and developmental opportunities for the whole person (spiritual, mental, physical, social).”
The organization allows anyone interested to help in the program. Those who feel called by God can become mentors for the children and would spend up to 2-4 hours per week with their child as well as praying for them. Others can also help by signing up to pray for the child mentors, who need the added support in that mentoring can be very difficult.
“Most Christian mentors do not understand the true impact of this ministry until many years of commitment,” explains the LIYM website. “It is typical for us to see incredible results and for the mentor to say, ‘I did not do anything.’ This is not really a true statement because they did do something very significant.”
