Our success stories

Testimonials

Testimonials

Johnathan |Baltimore, MD

We met Johnathan weeks before his senior year was about to end. He was about to flunk out. Upon discovering this, we sat on him around the clock until he turned in all of his missing assignments. By a miracle of God, he graduated a month later by the skin of his teeth.

Johnathan’s father passed away before he was born, and his mother was unable to raise him. Custody was given to his grandparents, but right before his senior year of high school, his grandfather passed away. He became indifferent to the things of God, and stopped caring about doing well in school. He was on a bad road and had it not been for God’s intervention and his grandmother’s prayers, he would be living a very different life.

This change happened when he moved into one of our staff’s houses. He became accountable to his assignments, learned how to create and keep a schedule that included study hours, received much needed tutoring and a community of support towards forward movement, and lastly, grew exponentially through much needed spiritual mentorship. Lancaster Bible College not only helped him to realize the potential of his future, but also, how to find God. This caused him to eliminate bad relationships in his life, strive towards the truth, and love who he is becoming in Christ. He recently ran the Missions Week movie night and thoroughly enjoyed it. There are huge gaps in his life, and he is still fighting to get his feet under him.  It continues to take him longer than the average Lancaster Bible College student to complete his work, but he is choosing to stay in the fight.

Nyasha | Carlisle, PA

Nyasha was one of the first volunteers in our program. Though she felt God call her to Bible College as a teenager while on a missions trip in Africa, she ignored the calling, and elected to go to Millersville University after high school. She was in school for one year, and it was a time of worldly living and one of the hardest years of her life. The call of God persisted and before the end of the year, she sensed God’s drawing again. She decided to follow this time. She enrolled and eventually graduated from Maryland Bible College & Seminary in 2016.

In 2019, God introduced an even crazier idea, a Masters Degree. Previously, school had not been a strong point for her and she had never believed she could succeed in academics nor had it been modeled. However, she had just never been taught how to study and apply herself. Today, she is a Graduate Assistant in the last year of her masters program. She will be pursuing her doctorate in counseling upon graduating. Nyasha is actively involved in the Up & Out Program and volunteers on a weekly basis in addition to her studies.

Joey, Dover, PA

Joey is perhaps one of our greatest spiritual success stories. We met Joey in his junior year of high school. He had just lost a close friend to a drug deal that went bad and it was a wakeup call. Up to that point, he was failing out of high school and had been issued an out-of-school suspension. His mother was desperate for God to work a miracle. Joey had no academic goals and had no hope for his future.

Through connecting with us, Joey began to discover God’s call for his life. He has a deep love for the word of God and for people. Although, the dream seemed hard to believe, he began to have a growing burden to get a degree in counseling. This is incredible because he was always told he was academically challenged and college seemed completely out of reach.

He was in our Christian School for a year and a half, and then we helped to homeschool him for his last year of high school. At 19, he chose the hard road of filling in his learning gaps and earning his high school diploma rather than nominally graduating from the public school system. As a part of our curriculum, he concurrently took Bible College classes at Maryland Bible College & Seminary and loves learning about who God is. His decision to go forward with God has affected his entire family in a very positive way, and he is seeing the fruit of his good decisions.

He graduated high school with a 3.8GPA and now attends Lancaster Bible College for a dual degree in Bible and Counseling. 

From mom’s point of view

What We See As Limitations, God Sees As A Great Story

Since Joey joined Up & Out, Iʼve noted many changes that have affected his faith,  academics, and character. Joey had been raised in church, but by the time he met the staff of Up & Out, he was at a crossroad with God. He could talk the talk, but he was also living a double life and got mixed up into drugs and the wrong crowd. Up & Out not only encouraged Joey to grow deeper in genuine faith, but practically provided opportunities to learn about God. For example, they incorporated hybrid learning with Maryland Bible College & Seminary in his last years of high school. They provided transportation for these classes, mentorship, tutoring, ensured regular church attendance, and set up hands-on ministry experiences, such as leading an online youth Bible Study, and attending missions trips as far as Spain and Switzerland!

With regard to his academics, the biggest challenge Joey had to overcome was his disbelief in his own ability to learn. For years, he was in special education classes, had an IEP, yet he was still failing. By the time he had met the staff of Up & Out, he thought he had passed the point of no return. He was 17, in the 10th grade, with a 0.64 GPA. With their help, within two years, he graduated with a 3.8 GPA and 7 seminary credits. He went on to receive an academic scholarship from Lancaster Bible College, and with this consistent effort and guidance, he has made it to his second semester studying for a double major in Counseling and Bible. He never thought he would graduate high school, much less further his education in a college setting.

All in all, I would have to say that Joeyʼs spiritual maturity has grown leaps and bounds from when he first started. He has the ability to identify negative patterns of behavior, he has learned how to respond to situations rather than react, and he can now identify what would be self-destructive versus spiritually productive. This is more than I could have ever dreamed possible and I want to shed hope to all that what we see as limitations, God sees as a great story.

Jessica Giourtis

 

From Grandma’s point of view

A Future and a Hope

My name is Ellavinia Thomas and my grandson Johnathan Thomas is a participant in the Up & Out program. A little background information about Johnathan is that his father died before he was born and his grandfather died when he was seventeen. His last year of school was a struggle as a result of this loss. During this time, Johnathan was lost. He wouldn’t open up or want to talk about anything and he wasn’t looking towards the future. I felt that I had to do something, but I didn’t know what. In 2021, Up & Out came to my house to help me remove certain things as they heard through a relative that I needed assistance following my husband’s death. On a whim, they invited Johnathan to go on a trip with them down south. It was an eye opening experience and a turning point in his life. When he returned, he was a different person. He was excited, he wouldn’t stop talking, and he was looking forward to the prospect of attending Lancaster Bible College that fall. Prior to this trip he had made no efforts in applying for colleges. Even though he was a participant in a program at Morgan State, and they were encouraging him to fill out the application, he did nothing. Jonathan has turned into a young man with goals who sees a future for himself. He is in school for criminal justice and social work and plans to continue beyond his Bachelor’s because he wants to be able to help people in need. I know Johnathan is safe where he is because he’s with the Up & Out program. 

I have three other younger grandchildren that I also bear the responsibility of raising, and they can be a lot. Because of this, I have appreciated Up & Out’s invitations to their retreat home and their invitations to host me for the holidays and at other times of the year. It has allowed me to be able to get away and relax, and have time for myself there. I have also been invited to attend Sight and Sound productions with them. These invitations gave me opportunities to get out and be with people other than my grandchildren; to be with other adults. Even though I knew I desperately needed this, it wasn’t until I received their invitations that I finally made time for myself.  This organization has taken a huge load off of me. Up & Out has taken both Johnathan and I in, just like we’re family. They have also become part of my family.

Ellavinia Thomas

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