For 2010, the percentage of children that lived in single-parent homes in South Carolina was 42%, the third highest value in the entire United States. To help single mothers raising teenage boys, ManMaker was launched in the fall of 2011 in Berkeley County, South Carolina. In this program, eighth grade boys are taken once a week by bus to one of two local churches, where they receive free tutoring and participate in a number of activities. The Director of ManMaker is Michael Mitas (Ph.D., Emory University School of Medicine), who received an appointment to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1977, served as an Assistant Professor and researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina, was recently issued two U.S. patents for cancer detection (1,2), and is the current Men’s Ministry director at First Christian Church of Moncks Corner.
The primary goal of ManMaker is to improve your son’s academic standing. For boys meeting at Macedonia Christian Church, this will be accomplished by tutoring with Dr. Mitas and T.J. Stone (B.S. Atlanta Christian College; Youth Minister, Macedonia Christian Church). Our secondary but equally important goal is to help build your son’s character. This will be accomplished by participation in athletic activities (kickball, dodgeball, softball), participation in groups discussing heroes of the Christian faith, and repair/cleaning of homes in the ManMaker program. Men from the local church will supervise home repair projects, which will be subsidized by local businesses.
The naming of this program as “ManMaker” serves to emphasize its overarching goal. Although most men have their own ideas of what it takes to be a man, we believe that the concept of manhood is best articulated in a quote from Matthew Henry about Joshua, the man who first led the Israelites into the Promised Land and later conquered it. Because Joshua was feared by many, Matthew Henry said of him, “Nothing can more raise a man’s reputation, nor make him appear more truly great, than to have the evidences of God’s presence with him.” Thus, the naming of this program as “ManMaker” sets the benchmark for manhood extremely high. We look forward to watching how God makes your boy into a man in the upcoming years.
