By Katie Horr, LifeCoach at I Pour Life
I have always had a heart for youth and young adults. I know the feeling of needing support and guidance during adolescence. I had several people who guided me, so I wanted to make sure those in need would have someone they could lean on.
There is a lot of pain in this world. If I can help bring hope and encouragement to just one person to make that pain a little more bearable, I want to do that. My purpose is to listen to anyone who needs to know they are not alone and surround them with love.
When living in Arizona, I had the opportunity to get to know two girls who were in the foster care system and attended my church. As I learned more about their story, I wanted to help them however I could. It started just being their youth leader. I started spending more time outside of the church by attending their school activities. I wanted them to know someone cared who was outside of their family.
Many people viewed their outward behavior as rebellious, but I saw beyond that. I saw two girls who just needed to know they were not alone and there was someone who understood them.
A Listening Ear and Helping Hand
In this season, I realized I wanted to work more closely with the foster system. I wanted to spend more time investing in kids who needed someone to be there and who would not judge them but truly see them.
One day in 2019, I was on the phone with my mentor, and she said, “There is an organization in Springfield, Missouri that is doing exactly what you’re already doing.” My mind was blown that I could get a job working with youth in the foster care system as a full-time job.
I began to pray about it and found out I Pour Life had an opening for a LifeCoach position. I took a risk and applied knowing that I would have to uproot my life from Arizona to Missouri. Several weeks later I moved to Springfield.
Pandemic Shifts
In March of 2020, I started at I Pour Life as a LifeCoach. I was so excited for this season! I was only at I Pour Life two weeks before the pandemic. I was in the office one Friday and the CEO told us to take our laptops home, and there could be a possibility that we will not report back to the office on Monday due to a possible mandate to quarantine. That Monday began a whole new direction for I Pour Life. The organization was used to in-person visits for all their coaching but in this season we would have to figure out what virtual coaching could look like. I was part of the team that helped launch our virtual coaching.
Even though we were only coaching virtually, I grew to love this job so much. I got to work with extraordinary people who had the same heart and passion as I did. I had so many opportunities to speak life over the girls entrusted to me to coach. I was so thankful to God for allowing me to do something that aligned with my values and passions. This did not feel like a job to me but a calling — a calling where I could live out my purpose and help others discover theirs as well.
An Unexpected Turn
Four months into working at I Pour life, I received some devastating news. Since I was a newer employee, I was among those let go due to a lack of funding for the organization.
This was a hard and confusing time. Although it was a very hard season to not be able to fulfill this role in this season, other opportunities opened up for me and God provided everything I needed. I still had such a huge heart for this organization because I believed so much in their vision. I would randomly drive over to the I Pour Life house on my own time some evenings and just pray over the current staff and for the funding in this season. I continued as well reaching out to the girls formerly on my roster, just to keep the consistency and still never lost passion to pour into their lives.
Then eight months later, I reached out to one of the directors of I Pour Life to see if they were hiring any more LifeCoaches at that point. To my surprise, they actually were looking for a female LifeCoach. A few weeks later, I got the call they wanted to bring me back on staff full-time. I was so overwhelmed with so much gratitude that I would get to come back and once again do what I felt called to.
Life Lately
I still get to live out my dream of being a full-time LifeCoach at I Pour Life. During the past several years, I have witnessed so many of my youth experience life transformation. I honestly wake up every morning with so much joy that I get to play a small part in each of these youth’s lives and speak life over them every day.
One of my favorite parts of coaching is walking a youth through their Gallup Strengths results. Many of them have been criticized for negative behaviors, but I love what sets I Pour Life’s programs apart — emphasizing their Strengths.
I have several proud moments from coaching youth, but one that stands out was from my very first youth. She is married with two beautiful kids, completed esthetician school and they just purchased land and plan to build a house on the land very soon. I have stayed in contact with her even though she graduated several years ago. I love that even though our youth graduate our program after 6-9 months, they can still be a part of I Pour Life in several different ways.
We even had a youth who became a volunteer after she graduated. She wanted to pour back into the youth because she saw so much value in what coaching did for her.
I wake up every morning thankful that I get to live my dream and help others find theirs.
Consider giving once, giving monthly, or giving your time to support I Pour Life. Visit ipourlife.org/pourintothefuture.
