23 Salvations. 14 Baptisms. 1 Faithful Father.

Last month accompanied the closure of our 2021-2022 Program Year at Forerunner Mentoring.
So many moments that we got to experience this past year were filled with God’s faithfulness as we saw boys in our programs grow as men of God. The growth came through relationships with their mentors, their coaches, fellow forerunner brothers, and locking arms with other like-minded organizations that believe #RelationshipsChangeLives. Prayers and goals that were vocalized three, four, and five years ago became a reality within this past year. One of our prayers that we saw answered this year was: Our forerunners will experience freedom from sin and generational curses. The life of every forerunner will celebrate the Lord.

We saw this prayer answered at our End of Year Celebration. As many of you know, we are a faith-based program that teaches our young men how to follow Jesus in everything we do. As a part of this, we plan opportunities for boys who have made the personal decision to follow Jesus to celebrate that choice through a baptism ceremony. We define baptism as a public declaration that you have decided in your heart to follow Jesus. We see baptism as a thing worthy of celebration because it is a symbolic representation of the new life in Jesus that we get to receive when we put our faith in Him and leave our old ways behind. This year we had 23 salvations and had the privilege of baptizing 14 people within our community: 12 boys, 1 single mother, and 1 of our coaches!

“I met a mom in person tonight that I’d only ever talked to on the phone back when I enrolled her son into our programs. She was crying on that phone call. She told me about how her son was going down a bad path, and she blamed herself for thinking that she’d waited too long to intervene. She came to Forerunner in a state of desperation...literally saying “I’m scared that it’s too late. It's hard for me to ask this but I need your help.“

She saw her son be baptized tonight.

This is a picture of God being faithful. When all hope seems lost, He has a different narrative. He says it’s not too late. As an organization, all we can say is thank you. If you’re reading this, thank you. If you’re a mentor or volunteer, thank you. If you’ve followed us this past year, thank you. It’s because of people and relationships that we get to do what we do. Here’s to more program years filled with God’s faithfulness and Him showing what He can do when we continue to show up, build up, and share Jesus in our relationships. Thank you.