Simple Acts of Kindness
by Tyler Lemmons
I have enjoyed the last few months of ‘weird mentoring’ during the pandemic. It has been a pleasant surprise how well everyone has adjusted to meeting outdoors, and I’ve appreciated everyone’s great attitude as we are still not back to ‘normal’. We have all been affected by Covid in one way or another, and our kids and mentors are no different. Recently two sisters in the program reported that their mother was sick with the virus. I let both of their mentors know and within minutes they both independently responded with concern and a desire to help. Through coordination with our children’s minister they supplied the family with groceries and gift cards.
This may sound like a simple act, and it is a simple kindness, but in moments like these the big picture of mentoring becomes clearer. For one, this mother was unable to work for two weeks, and since she couldn’t work, she didn’t get paid. This mother has never met our two mentors, yet because of her two daughters’ relationship with them, their family now had food and other needs met which would have been a huge financial challenge. Secondly, the girls have now seen that the women they meet with once a week care about them in a way they hadn’t known before.
Mentoring is a simple hour a week. However, those simple hours add up to become something much larger and you can see God’s unifying force moving within these relationships. I have seen many similar simple acts of kindness over the last nine years of Impact Mentoring but they do not become less profound. I acknowledge and celebrate the large and vibrant community the God brings together at Impact on Monday nights and am thankful I am a witness to powerful, yet simple acts of kindness.
