Dr. Cynthia Gardner, J.D., D. Div. has been blessed in her life and she shares those blessings with others. Dr. Gardner came from humble beginnings, from parents and grandparents who had little formal education and constantly struggled.
Thanks to her enterprising grandmother, she was able to receive the best education possible through Mercyhurst Preparatory School for Girls, Georgetown Undergraduate and Georgetown Law. She became an exemplary attorney, working both in the private and public sectors, including in the Justice Department, Small Business Administration, TVA General Counsel’s as well as working for one of the top law firms in the country, Jones, Day. At one point, she also had her own law firm with a childhood friend whose father gave Gardner her first job!
She never forgot the humble circumstances she grew up in and has spent the majority of her life giving back and helping to raise others to higher levels of personal and business success.
Dr. Gardner is releasing a book called God, Grace and Grit, which complements Castaway Cradles. Both are based on her experiences as an adult looking back on the child she was growing up and how she uses the tools she gathered during those times to train children now through her boot camps. She has also written other books titled CrumbSnatchers, BE and Kingdom Seed.
She also discusses the work she has done with children. Dr. Gardner works with children who come from the worst of circumstances.
She shares, “It’s basically the Genesis creationism story of we’re created out of the dust of the earth and what happens when you take that dust and reprogram it as other than dirt. If you look at children from another angle, you might see the next president or Nobel Prize winner. Everything is possible. It just depends on what lens you’re looking through.” She sees every child through the lens of becoming—teleos—not what they presently are.
It’s her belief that these children are diamonds in the rough and they only need someone to polish them a bit for them to shine brilliantly. She has personally polished many diamonds, helping young people rise to become lawyers, doctors, psychologists and other successful adults. These children grew up under circumstances that normally would have prevented them from living, let alone achieving the goals they have, had Dr. Gardner not intervened in their lives.
Her early experiences as Dependent Child Counsel for Erie County, Pennsylvania opened her eyes to the national plight of children. Dr. Gardner states, “I found that there are a lot of damaged kids out there, abused and neglected. There are also delinquent children, who are nothing more or less than the product of their abysmal environment. I said there just has to be a way to rescue these kids. They are not responsible for who they are or where they are. They just need someone to show them a different angle on life.”
Since retiring as a criminal attorney, Dr. Gardner has devoted her life to ministering full time to those in need, most especially, young children living in need. She actively seeks these children out in sandals, flip flops, tennis shoes, jeans—hardly the attire of today’s most reverent, to help them realize they are worthy, they can dream and they can become someone great. She gives them hope and a realistic path to achieve their dreams.
Dr. Gardner’s ministry runs the Kings Kid Youth Boot Camp, as well as many other programs in Carthage, Mississippi. She is continuing the very personal work she started years ago in Pennsylvania and in California.
To learn more about Dr. Bishop Cynthia Gardner and Kings Kids, visit: http://newmercyseatministries.com.