About us

• Most preteens ages ten to twelve are still receptive to guidance from an adult, which gives a teacher or a parent a last chance to build their character before they become teenagers.
• A growing number of parents today are concerned about the increasing darkness in our media and culture which often leads to aggressive behavior, substance abuse and a sense of hopelessness in the lives of our teens and preteens.
• According to materials published by the Research and Education Association, some of the personal characteristics that have been linked to substance abuse in children are: aggressiveness, emotional problems, inability to cope with stress, and low self-esteem. (TExES Generalist EC-6, Chapter 6 by Luis A. Rosado, Ed. D)
• Millions of tax payers’ dollars are spent on drug/alcohol abuse and suicide awareness programs in schools. But too few prevention programs focused on building character and positive reinforcement have been developed and offered to the students.
• School district budget cuts often affect the number of counselors hired for the school year. In a big school setting, a counselor’s work load often gets in the way of quality one-on-one and small group counseling time. A supplemental guidance program can close the gap and make a difference in children’s lives.

The vision and inspiration for the ministry came to me in South Florida, where our family moved from Indiana in 2007. We left our house sitting on the market and signed a short lease at the apartment complex.

Next thing we knew the housing market collapsed. Since we couldn’t sell our house right away we had to rent an apartment for a while. Little did we know that “for a while” would last us three years.

So we were pretty much stuck in an unexpected lifestyle. No fences, no thick walls, no garage doors, no neighborly “How are you? “. I could hardly memorize our neighbors' names. Families kept moving in and out without any notice or goodbye. We quickly learned how beautiful beaches, magnificent mansions and soothing ocean breezes can awkwardly coexist with alcoholism, high crime rates, drugs and brokenness.

I was disappointed… more than that, I felt doomed and unsafe. All I wanted to do was to protect and guard my children against my "unclean," not so loveable neighbors and their unadjusted kids.

I didn’t succeed.

My own kids taught me how to take care of a seven-year-old girl from downstairs who never went inside. Her single mom juggled three jobs to pay the rent.

We learned how to love an eight-year-old boy who had to walk his mom home every night because she was too drunk to do it on her own.

I figured out how to invite a nine-year-old girl to our home. She only saw her mom once a year, and her single dad was raising her.

We worked hard to forgive an unlikable eleven year old boy who bullied every kid in the neighborhood because he was angry with his parents. They had been divorced for years, but still lived in one apartment, sharing just about everything except love.

These kids’ parents weren’t “my kind of people”, to be honest. Not only did I not love them, I didn’t like them at all. They were too different. Some drank; others cursed and wore big tattoos on their arms and legs.

I thought I was doing my best by keeping my kids away from those moms and dads. But just to be nice, I invited them to our church every other week or so, and the attempt failed miserably. They had no interest in religion. Our kids, however, played quite well together and eventually made good friends. Their bond kind of forced me to help the parents, just by listening without judging or by babysitting their kids.

It took me awhile to get adjusted to the idea and finally open my eyes to how “Love your neighbor” doesn’t read as “Love your lovely neighbor”. There’s no mistake. That’s when I started writing short encouraging notes for my kids, their friends and sometimes, for the kids’ parents. Over time they grew into series of booklets titled Under His True Light and became a backbone of our agency.