This is not an easy ministry. It is a costly one.

The Heartlight program is seeking young men and women who feel genuinely called to pour their lives into teens who are hurting, resistant, and in need of consistent, Christ-centered love. This role requires far more than just living with a group of teens, supervising, or leading activities it requires presence, perseverance, and personal sacrifice.

To live life among broken teens day after day is no small task. But for those who are called, it is deeply meaningful, eternally significant work.  Heartlight works with 13 – 18-year-old teens   that come from all over the country and stay with us up to 12 months.  These kids are privately placed and are involved in weekly counseling, therapy groups, programmed activities, and pursue their academics online at our certified school.  Because this is a residential program, we are looking for wonderful and teachable people to live in-house with the teens and be involved in all aspects of the teen’s stay at Heartlight.

The Weight and the Calling

As a Live-In Residential Staff Coach & Mentor, you will be involved in every aspect of a teen’s daily life. This includes moments that are ordinary, inconvenient, exhausting—and moments that are holy.

You will:

• Grocery shop and prepare meals
• Enforce structure and discipline when it’s uncomfortable
• Sit with them when they’re sick, overwhelmed, or angry
• Walk with them through setbacks, and slow progress, and work with them through consequences
• Celebrate small victories that others might miss
• Get to know these teens and help them through the most difficult time of their life
• Provide a listening ear, develop a relationship with one who is struggling, and provide your wisdom and insight that could change the course of their life.

This is not a “clock-in, clock-out” position. It is life-on-life ministry. This is a marathon ministry, not a sprint.  Half of the teens that live with us have stated that they wouldn’t be alive had they not come to Heartlight.  And while they have struggled, made poor choices, been victimized, or have experienced traumatic situations, they are great kids that are longing for deeper relationships in their life.

Living Side by Side

Heartlight mentors do not minister from a distance. You live in the home with 4 to 8 teens. You share the rhythms of daily life with the teens. You model consistency, boundaries, humility, and grace—not in theory, but in practice, in a world where you are immersed in the life of those teens in our care.

By living side by side, students are given something many have never experienced:

• A steady adult who doesn’t leave when mistakes are made, but provides a steady relationship during their more difficult times.
• healthy structure and accountability
• A listening ear to their struggles, difficulties, and hardships
• Love that holds firm even in hard moments
• A relationship that doesn’t stop even if they don’t respond
• An opportunity to work with our Licensed Professional Counselors to begin to experience a season of hope that they don’t have to be controlled by their choices or by those things that have happened to them.

Through your faithfulness, students are given a taste of the character of God actions speak louder than words, and sharing your life by the way you live, respond, forgive and remain engaged.  These kids are not rebellious…. they’re lost.  And in great need of hope, a relationship that lasts, and restoration with their family.  You are to be a light in the darkness, not a mouth in the wilderness.  These teens are in need of an example, not another teaching sermon.  Your “withness” will be your “witness”.

What We Ask of Our Mentors

Each mentor commits to intentionally investing in students for one year, living with 8 at a time,  knowing that:

• Progress may be slow
• Trust must be earned
• You are a substitute parent with teens living away from home
• Change often comes through persistence, not quick results
• The teens won’t always like you, and might express it occasionally, but in the long run, will be appreciative of your investment in them.

We ask our staff to bring their whole selves—heart, energy, faith, and time—into this role, trusting that God uses obedience in unseen ways.

Who This Ministry Is For

This role is best suited for individuals who:

• Have a deep, personal relationship with Jesus Christ
• Understand that ministry is where your witness is your with-ness.
• Are emotionally resilient and spiritually grounded
• Are willing to be stretched, refined, and humbled
• Believe that faithfulness in hard places matters
• Where the Christian faith is more “caught” than “taught”

Requirements include:

• Willingness to relocate and live on Heartlight’s beautiful Longview, Texas campus
• Unmarried with no children (family housing is not available)
• Age 21 to early 30s (to support an aunt/uncle mentoring dynamic)
• High school diploma or university education
• Valid driver’s license
• Authorized to work in the U.S.

A Ministry That Costs—and Gives

This ministry will ask much of you. There will be days when you feel tired, discouraged, and unsure if your efforts are making a difference.

But there will also be moments when you realize:

• A student stayed instead of running away
• There are cuss words you’ve never heard
• Your sense of humor is essential to your existence
• A relationship softened
• A family’s trajectory began to change
• You learn how to “fill your own cup” in healthy ways
• You are an integral part and that conflict is a precursor to change
• A life saved because of God using you in a teen’s life

The impact of walking faithfully with one teen can echo into families, futures, and generations.

A Final Invitation

If you are looking for comfort, predictability, or ease, this is not the right role.

But if you are willing to live fully present—allowing the love of Christ in you to shape daily moments, hard conversations, and ordinary routines—we invite you to prayerfully consider joining Heartlight Ministries.

This is hard work.  It is also important work. It’s work that saves the lives of teens and changes the destiny of their family….and you are essential to that process happening.