Middle School

Vision Kids IIFollow us on our new blog!  vk2blog.blogspot.com

VK2 is the second step of the mentoring journey. VK2 builds on the two year foundation built by mentors in the Vision Kids Program. In VK2, we seek to equip mentors to walk with their students through the rocky, often awkward years of adolescence. We also begin to specifically teach our students that our choices have consequences. Good choices bring good consequences. Bad choices have bad consequences.

By His Grace, our hope is that, after three years in middle school and 5 years of being mentored, our West Dallas youth will have a firm foundation in Christ from which to become young men and women filled with hope not only for their lives but for the life of their community.

The mentor is supported in various ways, one being the assignment of a new mentor coordinator who is specifically knowledgeable in the ways and minds of middle school children.

In addition to mentoring the kids, we also provide enrichment activities for our students like weekly Bible clubs, sports leagues, and educational opportunities. We also try to create easy opportunities for interaction for our mentors and students, like the monthly events and the Ice Cream Socials. To learn more about the program contact Sam Flores at 214-905-1042x113 or Turn on JavaScript!.

Weekly Bible Study - most Sunday's

Girls 6-8pm in the Library at Mercy Street

Guys 6-7:30pm in the Cafe at Mercy Street 

If you are a mentor and have a question contact your mentor coordinator:
Garrett Smith at 214-905-1042 x105 or Turn on JavaScript!
Jill Harmeyer at 214-905-1042 x111 or Turn on JavaScript!

VK2 Coordinators: Garrett Smith & Jill Harmeyer

The Smith’s moved to Dallas in 2005 after they got married to pursue Bible training at Dallas Theological Seminary in preparation for a lifetime of ministry. They anticipated returning overseas after their 2 year stint in Dallas, but God moved them across the river to West Dallas. Their hearts were captivated by the young people in this community. The Smiths moved into West Dallas and within 6 months took in their god daughter Amber (a teen in the Mercy Street program) in January 2008. In addition to Amber God enlarged their family when Mindy gave birth to their daughter, Hattibelle, in May of 2009.

Originally from Houston, Jill moved to Dallas in August of 2011.  After working with children with severe special needs in Denton, a longtime passion for urban ministry was brought to life when Mercy Street was in need of a new Mentor Coordinator.  She's just the girl!  Jill desires to bring active compassion & understanding to the community of West Dallas.  It is her hope to encourage & challenge mentors to invest their lives in the life of their mentees. 

Quotes From the Street

  • Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah or demolish you like Zeboiim? My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows.
    ~ Hosea 1:8

  • Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with dwellings.
    ~ Isaiah 58:12

  • If you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will be like the noon day.
    ~ Isaiah 58:10

  • I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living.
    ~ Amos 5:24

  • but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves.
    ~ 1 Corinthians 4:7

  • I have given them the glory you gave me, so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me.
    ~ John 17:22-23

  • Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
    ~ Psalms 37:3

  • For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jews first and also to the Greeks.
    ~ Romans 1:16

  • "Gilberto helped me see that I grew up with privileges and wealth others simply don’t have."
    ~ Chris Clark

  • "Anthony and I love driving around listening to music. Sometimes we talk about the lyrics, sometimes we sit in silence just enjoying the harmonies together."
    ~ Greg Jenks

  • "I cannot describe the change I have seen in Wilmer. He is a different man and I am so excited about it."
    ~ Baxter Underwood

  • "Mentoring has grown us, our family needed to live outside the bounds of our family, our comfort and our convenience."
    ~ Sarah Stehlik

  • "If the people who are not following Christ are not intervening, who is going to intervene?"
    ~ Sarah Stehlik

  • "If you are waiting for a better time (to mentor) when you don't have things going on, you'll wait forever."
    ~ Sarah Stehlik

  • "Rodney has really become like part of the family. We love spending time with him."
    ~ Mickey Friedrich

  • "Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them."
    ~ Mother Teresa

  • "Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom"
    ~ George Washington Carver

  • "Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."
    ~ C. S. Lewis

  • "A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education."
    ~ Theodore Roosevelt

  • "A high school dropout is 8 times more likely to commit a violent crime than those who graduated from high school."

  • "A study by two prominent economists found that a 10 percentage point increase in graduation rates would reduce murder and assault rates by about 20 percent."

  • "Every Timothy needs a Paul; Every Ruth needs a Naomi."
    ~ Pastor Aaron Williams (Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Seattle WA)

  • "A lot of people have gone further than they thought they could because someone else thought they could."

  • "You really can change the world if you care enough."
    ~ Marion Wright Edelman

  • "Children are likely to live up to what you believe of them."
    ~ Lady Bird Johnson

See all quotes

Contact Us

214.905.1042
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3801 Holystone Street
Dallas, TX 75212