A GivStory By Derri Smith | Not For Sale Tennessee

 Beyond my worst nightmares …

At 55, I am no stranger to suffering. I was regularly abused by my pastor father. I’ve walked intimately with loved ones through the trauma of rape, abuse, illness and divorce. But nothing in my past prepared me for what I encountered when I picked up a copy of  Not For Sale by David Batstone. I entered a world beyond my worst nightmares, where six year olds tout their sex trade skills to potential “customers”; thirteen year olds are sold in pairs to be raped at will and ten year old boys are made to club neighbors to death as initiation into forced “military” duty.

Only this wasn’t a nightmare, soon to be followed by a good morning. These stories are real and not just a few isolated cases of unspeakable horror; they are the plight of millions of children throughout the world. Commerce in human beings is, I learned, the second largest and fastest growing crime on the planet, affecting 27 million lives.

 In my own backyard?!

Desperation borne of such knowledge launched a quest to educate myself.  I was shocked to (continue reading…)

A GivStory by Ryan Lampa | Nashville Tennessee

Ron used to come to my house almost every other day. We’d talk about everyting from old war stories to Nashville’s weather. Ron was homeless and has been for 20 some years. Ron had a son and wife years back that were taken in separate tragic car accidents. After losing his family, everything started gradually falling away. He started running towards alcohol. The alcoholism led to his homelessness.I would get Ron extra food around the house, and sometimes would give him a few dollars here and there. Day, night, drunk or sober, Ron broke my heart. He was struggling to just find his next distraction from his current state of depression and homelessness.

I offered him a program that as long as he would bring a receipt back showing he purchased food, I would give him $5 every time he returned. He instantly and harshly declined. He did not want to change from his alcoholism. He trusted nothing else. The streets and the bottle were his constants. I found that I was being generous with out having a purpose. What was I really trying to do? Was I trying to heal him from a 20 year alcoholism and pull him from the streets by just merely keeping him accountable?

I was wanting to “make a difference” and “change a life”. But was I really on a road to doing that?

I wanted to get to know the homeless community of downtown Nashville. So I got (continue reading…)

  A GivStory by Donald Miller – Best Selling Author and Founder of The Mentoring Project

I want to share something with you that’s changed my life.  I’ve discovered that the elements that make up a great story are the same ones that go into a meaningful life.  These elements have the potential to shove us out of our plain, mundane story lines. They can allow us to have an eternal impact—to actually live stories worth telling.

 If you read my book To Own a Dragon  you know I grew up without a father.  In the absence of a real father I had a cast of characters that were sometimes hilarious, pitiful, perfect, kind, and some of them were very wise.  I gained something from all these people, but the central truth I learned about life is that I could never do it on my own.  Humans just don’t do well independently. We need each other.  One generation passes life and wisdom to the next.  At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work.  But what happens when it doesn’t?  What happens when a young boy is left fatherless—without a mentor?  It’s frightening:

•  85% of all young boys in prison grew up in homes without a father
• 80% of all rapists come from fatherless homes
• 75% of the boys in substance abuse centers are from fatherless homes
• 71% of boys who drop out of high school had no father figure
• 63% of all teen suicides are from fatherless homes.

 Boys need fathers, it’s that simple but it’s not always possible.  That’s where a mentor can step in. 

 Mentoring is about you being willing to change your story to help a child change theirs. It’s making the decision to give the best of your life so “Danny” can reach the best in his.  It isn’t about transforming his life to look like yours, but about providing him with the tools he needs to get where he is going—to become the best version of himself. This is why I started The Mentoring Project and this is part of the new story line I’m asking people all over America to consider writing into their lives.

 For years people have been saying that our government (continue reading…)