Editor’s Note: This is the third of four commentaries about good things that are happening in Chattanooga through faith-based programs.
Today, I consider two community leaders who believe hope can replace despair and that people can make a difference.
Jamal Morris was a talented basketball player at Cleveland High School. His team won the state championship his senior year while he watched from the stands. He says his bad attitude got him kicked off the team. In retrospect, he says, it was a good thing since it made him take a hard look at his life and where he was headed. He accepted Christ a year later and has been active in faith-based community and church programs ever since.
He serves as youth minister at New Monumental Baptist Church in Brainerd but Jamal doesn’t just work behind the church walls. Through the InterVarsity program, Jamal, students from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and others in his church are able to establish relationships with elementary and middle school students. They eat lunch with them, attend their sporting events, play pickup basketball with them, or get them involved in the Lexia reading program to help kids that have fallen behind in school. They break down the tough façade that kids build around themselves when they are without the love and guidance they need. Once they establish a relationship, they begin the mentoring process by sharing their faith and helping the children make meaningful changes in their lives.
Jamal says school administrators welcome Intervarsity mentors because they recognize the need for their kids to associate with adults who can provide positive role models, support and encouragement.