Too Many Kids... or Not Enough Mentors?

Last Monday Julie and I had around 50 kids in our living room for our Monday night dinner at our house.  We finally determined that the crew is too big for our house, so we have officially ended Monday Night Madness in Homewood.  We have invited all of the kids instead to attend the Tuesday night basketball outreach at the YMCA in Homewood on Tuesday nights from 6-8pm, and many of the kids have made the switch so we'll be able to keep those relationships going (only with more space).  Many of our Monday night group of kids are frequent visitors to our home anyway, so I think we'll still be able to impact a lot of the kids... maybe even more effectively now that we don't have to do crowd control. 

Of course, the best solution would be for us to be able to find mentors for each of the kids, but there simply are not enough mentors available right now.  That problem is not unique to LAMP, though.  I read an article recently that pointed out that there are 3 million people in America formally matched as mentors, but there are still 15 million children who want or need mentors in this country.  That's crazy, especially when you consider how much time adults who could be serving as mentors waste doing mindless things like watching TV or playing video games (or maybe working too much to be able to invest time into the children in their communities).  Whatever the reason, 15 million children waiting for a mentor is unacceptable.  I would love to see that waiting list of children come to an end in my lifetime.  Sounds like a cause worth fighting for!