According to Merriam-Webster, a mentor is someone who teaches or gives
help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person.
As a new student's wife, new mom, new to Wake Forest,
with a new job and with no friends or family nearby, I needed someone I could
talk to. I needed someone who had been
through the things I was going through, both past and present.
I came across an email from the Women's Life
Office of SEBTS. The email mentioned that
they had a mentorship program. I looked
into it and read through the list of faculty wife mentors available, wondering Do I
really need this? God kept pressing on my
heart, Yes, Stephanie, you do. Yet
I decided to pray about it for a few days.
I did pray about it and found myself sending an email to
set up a time to talk about the mentorship program. God led me to pick the faculty wife who had
been a missionary. Why God would want me
to pick the person with missions experience was beyond my understanding at the
time. But I did as God told me, all the
time saying, Really God? Missions?
Okay God. You're gonna have to show me this one.
Little
did I know that it wasn't because of her mission experience that God crossed
our paths this way; it was because of her "other" experiences that
God allowed our paths to cross. She had
been where I was and was still dealing with them at the same time. AMAZING how God works things out.
The mentorship program was exactly what I needed at that
time. Without it, I'm not sure where I
would be today. My mentor and I would
set up times to meet over coffee, lunch, frozen yogurt, dinner. It gave me a time to talk, to ask questions, tell
her what I was struggling with (which is a hard thing for me . . . I'm sure it's hard for most people to admit
that they are struggling!), to ask for prayer, and to know I was truly being
prayed for. Not only did it help me with
the things I was struggling with at the time, but I gained a new friend.
Almost three years later, I'm still friends
with my mentor. Even though my family
and I have moved more than 6 hours from SEBTS and I'm no longer a part of the
program, I know that because of our mentorship, I have a forever friend.
Would you like to know more about the Thrive Mentoring program? Contact Women's Life at
919-761-2340 or womenslife@sebts.edu
to see how you can be involved!
Stephanie Bates is a child
of the one true God, friend, daughter, sister, wife, and mother to two precious
boys (Levi-3 & Lane-11 months). She is currently serving alongside her
husband, who is the Senior Pastor at Sardis Baptist Church, Sardis, GA. She
LOVES all things girlie, purple, blogging, and the GA Bulldogs! You can find their family blog at http://lifewiththebates2005.blogspot.com/
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