"What an honor to be a vessel in this seemingly small way that can make such a huge impact."

One day, I saw a resident (we’ll call him Dominic) leaving campus and stopped to talk to him. It turned out Dominic was done. He had had enough of this Gateway thing, and he was leaving on his terms – not on anyone else’s. We started chatting and processing through what had happened. We turned around and started to walk back toward campus while he expressed his frustrations and fears over what was going on in his life.

There wasn’t anything I could say to change his mindset, there wasn’t anything I could do to change his situation. I just listened. And helped him externally process.

The next day in school during devotions, the topic was about “God’s unconditional love”. Dominic shared with his teacher how he had felt this the previous day. “Yesterday. That was it. That showed me you guys really do be loving us.”

While making up missing credits, progressing through counseling, and working toward their independent living goals are very much on the forefront of our minds as we “help to restore hope” to each individual resident, showing them love is the foundation of it all. Not just any love – God’s unconditional love. And for them to be able to actually feel and know that love is one of our biggest goals in working with these teens!

I’m so thankful God spoke His unconditional love through my actions to Dominic. What an honor to be a vessel in this seemingly small way that can make such a huge impact.