The Lasting Impact of a Mentor Who Believed in You

Ronnie Herrera grew up in the Dominican Republic, and his

father wasn't there. His dad had left for the United States when

Ronnie was eight, looking for work. After that, Ronnie's

picture of a father was a voice on a phone line from far away,

asking what he wanted from the States. Over the next few years,

the family lost everything to Hurricane George, and then his

father suffered a brain blood from the accumulated stress.

Ronnie was a teenager by then, and he felt hopeless. He came to

faith at a Christian school and found a passion for sharing what

he'd He and a friend felt pulled toward mission work but didn't

know how to get started. They'd heard of an American missionary

couple living nearby who might be able to help, so one day

Ronnie and his friend walked up to their door and knocked. We'll

come back to what happened when that door opened, but

first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm

Bart Leger. There's a man in his 90s named Dr. Hugh Hughley who

probably doesn't fully know what he did for me. He was a Bible

college professor, and I was a student going through some of

the toughest stretches of my life. He believed in me when I

wasn't sure I believed in myself. His smile and his encouraging

spirit kept me going more than he probably realizes. We still

talk on the phone from time to time. Decades later, I'm still

standing in part because of what he invested in me. And that's

what a mentor does. And most of us have someone like that. A

person who looked at us and said, even if not in so many words,

that we had something worth investing in. Today's episode is

for two groups of people. Those who had someone like Dr. Hughley

and need to remember what that and those who may be that person

for someone else right now and maybe doesn't even know it yet.

Here's what the Apostle Paul said to young Timothy in 2

Timothy 2.2.

Paul is describing a chain. What was put into him, he put into

Timothy. And what he put into Timothy, Timothy was now

responsible for passing to others.

When Paul came to Jerusalem after his conversion, the

disciples were afraid of him, and they had every reason to be.

But Barnabas vouched for him, stood beside him, and gave him

an opportunity the others weren't prepared to give. Paul

became Apostle Paul partly because Barnabas was willing to

go first. Most people who are doing something meaningful can

trace it back to someone who saw something in them before they

could see it in themselves. That's a description of how the

kingdom has always operated. One person invests in another, who

invests in another, and the return on that first investment

compounds in ways the original investor may never even live to

see. Seth Barnes spent one month with Miguel Santiago in 2002

teaching him to plant churches. He couldn't have known then that

Miguel would take what he received and put it into a young

man named Ronnie Herrera of the Dominican Republic, who would

take into his village, who would take it into the next one, until

there were entire communities shaped by what one man put into

another man for 30 days. That's the math of mentorship. You may

be one month away from starting something you won't see the end

of. Now let's get back to Ronnie. The couple who answered were

Miguel and Cristina Santiago, and they had been praying for

months for God to send them young people to disciple. Miguel

took Ronnie in the same way someone had taken Miguel years

before. He had been discipled by a man named Seth Barnes, who had

spent a month with him in Peru teaching him to plant churches

before sending him on his way. Seth had invested in Miguel the

same way. Miguel did the same for Ronnie, and Ronnie, after

years of being mentored, felt God telling him it was time to

do the same for others. He went back to his community and began

investing in a group of young men. They led worship services

and taught adults to read. They cooked meals for the village and

discipled individual believers, one at a time. When the people

of Cativo caught the same passion, they began investing in

the next village, who began investing in the one after Seth

Miguel to Peru for one month in 2002. By the time Ronnie was

done, there were villages full of people who had never met Seth

Barnes, whose lives had been shaped by what Seth put into one

man. That's what one investment in one person can become. You

may not know who's watching you right now. You may not know

whose door you're the answer to the way Miguel and Cristina were

the answer to Ronnie's knock. But someone is watching, and

someone's paying attention to how you carry your faith and how

you treat people when things are costly. Here's today's challenge.

who could use what you have to offer. You just need to be a few

steps ahead and willing to share what you've learned from being

there. Call them this week. Have coffee.

and you'd like to invest some time. That's how the chain

starts. That's how Seth got to villages he never even visited.

And if there's someone who believed in you the way Dr.

Hughley believed in me, call them this week too and tell them

what their investment meant. They may not realize the

difference they made in your life. Lord, you used people to

shape us, and you want to use us to shape others. Show us the

person you've placed in front of us who needs what we have. Give

us the courage to invest even before we feel qualified, and

let the return be far more than we could have planned. In Jesus'

name, amen. If you need prayer today, I'd love to hear from you.

You can leave me a voicemail at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com

slash voicemail. I listen to everyone, and it would be an

honor to pray for you by name. Thanks for joining me on Daily

Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, one investment in one

can become more than you may ever see. Come back next time

for more encouragement to help you live grounded in God's truth.

Until then, God bless and have a great day.