Loving: Another Word for Mentoring ~ Titus 2 Tips {on Thursdays} A Guest Post

I have always enjoyed being around young people.

Early in my teaching career, I loved being with the little people in the early primary grades. I found them to be funny, caring, enthusiastic, and for most of them a keen desire to learn. I received lots of hugs back then, and I am thrilled that when I meet former students [now with children of their own] they still like to give hugs!

When my husband and I went to Ecuador to serve the Lord for four years, there were new people to love. These were the children of missionary families who were working in a small town on the edge of the Ecuadorian jungle. They brought a variety of new experiences to share as they came from several countries around the world.

I had the joy of leading a bible study for some months, to the ladies who were there. It was a bit of a shock, to realize that I was one of the older ladies. As we shared with each other from God's word, we grew in love for our Lord Jesus and with each other. What fun I had to have special “teas” for these busy people who enjoyed the dozen china cups and saucers I had taken with me. This was a strange thing to pack and ship, but somehow I knew they would get used.

One of my dearest friends was a sweet lady named Rosa, who came to help me [as I was to help her]. She was a new Christian and had come from a very difficult background.

As we communicated with each other in my broken Spanish, sign language and lots of laughter and smiles, our hearts grew close to each other. The first time I served her tea in a china cup, tears ran down her cheeks, as she was used to having a tin cup solely for her use.

How blessed I was to have her in my life.

I never was comfortable speaking Spanish, new experiences were sometimes frightening, and I keenly felt I was far away from home. Little did I realize that God was using these things to teach and prepare me for later on.

When my husband went home to heaven, I realized that I would need people in my life to serve and care for. I took a course on being a “host” to a New Canadian. I was paired with a young woman from the Philippines who had married a Canadian and had just arrived.

We were to spend time together once a week for a year. What a lovely young woman she is. The year has long gone but the friendship remains and now I am “Grandma Jan” to her two almost teenagers. We connect over “tea” at an outreach at the chapel, with the children, just going for a walk and most often now on the internet.

When our local university needed host families for International students, I signed on. This was a big step for me because I had always considered myself a “little kids” person. University students were bigger, smarter and younger [no doubt about that one] than I. I quickly learned that they were still the same sweet children only in a bigger size. They loved being called by endearing names and hugs were quickly given and received.

Over the years the Lord has brought many wonderful, sweet, bright, loving young women to enjoy my home with me. Some were here for only a few times, others for a week and even several months as there was a need.

Those china cups and saucers come out and we learn about each other: our homelands, our food—they love homemade treats—our faith, and our families. This home that the Lord has given me is a place of calm, safety, warmth and love. What a blessing it is to be a Mother—more like a Grandmother in reality—to these young women so far away from home.

I have a great empathy with them because of my experiences in Ecuador. I am able to help those just learning English because of my teaching skills. For those times of homesickness, I can share how the Lord brought me through. Although we may be of a different faith, I always pray with and for them.

The Lord blessed me in leading two young women to the Lord after a period of bible study. What greater joy is this.

I have been serving in a Coffee house ministry for International students for several years now. I meet so many students and often their friends. When they return home, it is very difficult, but I pray then for the special ones God will bring into my life the next semester. I keep in contact with many of these dear friends through social media.

I pray that through using the gift of love, they might come to know the One I love. I am but a link in a chain.

For me, the word Mentor, is simply another word for Love.

Janice was born into a Christian family, born again at 8 years old. Her parents set a wonderful example as they had many speakers from the chapel and missionaries come to the family farm. She and her family heard wonderful stories and saw God’s faithfulness to His servants around the world. Janice taught school for 35 years—mostly in the Public school system—4 years in a missionary school in Shell, Ecuador. She was married to her wonderful husband Elwood, from December 21, 1968 to July 19, 1989. She has two married daughters, 4 grandchildren, 3 great grandchildren [and one on the way]! Now, Janice is mostly involved in student ministry.

Titus 2 Tips I am honoured to host these guest posts in this series on women mentoring women.   Some weeks you may find tips from the kitchen or healthy recipes, tools other women have used to grow spiritually, hints to help us build up and love our husbands, and lessons they have learned as they have walked along with their children to teach them to love God wholeheartedly, habits they have developed in keeping their home, ways they have worked on to keep their behaviour respectful, or rhythms that allow peace and rest in the home and hearts that dwell there within. You will find all the posts in the series here. "Older women likewise are to be reverent in behaviour, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." {Titus 2:3-5}

*all photos used by permission from Janice