Dear friend, welcome back to the course. We are so blessed that you are considering mentoring with Setting Captives Free, but it is right that you know the challenges that lay ahead if you join the team of volunteers.
Mentoring with Setting Captives Free is a unique ministry experience. You sit behind a computer, receive lessons from students you have likely never met, pray about your response, think through how you can point them to the cross and help them with their problems, and then write a reply. Some students begin to get it, start looking at the cross, experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit, and start having their hearts cut and healed, their minds renewed and their lives transformed. But many don’t. Most of those who don’t respond well to gospel ministry will leave the course without a word, much less a thank you for trying to help.
Of those whose hearts are opened by God to respond to the gospel (Acts 16:14), many give a minimal response to your input. They may graduate the course happy and thankful but never mention your name. Now and then, occasionally, one person might express gratitude for you as a mentor or even thank you personally, but this is rare.
As you consider this difficult aspect of mentoring with Setting Captives Free, please read through the following passage:
“While Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, He was passing [along the border] between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As He entered a village, He was met by ten lepers who stood at a distance; 13 and they raised their voices and called out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" 14 When He saw them, He said to them, "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were [miraculously] healed and made clean. 15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, glorifying and praising and honoring God with a loud voice; 16 and he lay face downward at Jesus' feet, thanking Him [over and over]. He was a Samaritan. 17 Then Jesus asked, "Were not ten [of you] cleansed? Where are the [other] nine? 18 Was there no one found to return and to give thanks and praise to God, except this foreigner?" 19 Jesus said to him, "Get up and go [on your way]. Your faith [your personal trust in Me and your confidence in God's power] has restored you to health." Luke 17:11-19 (Amplified Bible - AMP)
Put yourself in Jesus’ sandals here. He personally, through His power as God, and because of much compassion in His heart, healed ten lepers. They were made new; they no longer had to cry out “Unclean, Unclean” as they passed other people on the street. They no longer had to be isolated from others; now, they could experience the joy of human touch again, be reunited with their families, join in corporate worship, and be productive members of society.
And yet nine out of ten of them wandered off, not returning to give so much as a thank you to Jesus.
Question 3. How would you, personally, feel if this happened to you?
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