Oil for the Lamp: User Guide

How to install the app and use it as a mentee, a mentor, a coordinator or a safeguarding lead.

Oil for the Lamp is non-professional mentoring. It complements professional care and never replaces it. If you are in danger or thinking of harming yourself, call your local emergency number now.

1. Welcome

Oil for the Lamp is a mentoring program for people who were once doing well in life and have slipped, and who want a way back. It rests on one simple question: does this give me energy, or spend it? The app keeps the program's rhythm for the mentee, the mentor and the people who look after them, while recording as little as possible.

The name comes from the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25: the wise kept oil in their lamps. The founder's framing is faith-informed, and anyone may take part. The app never asks about religion or church membership.

The three tiers

Fuel flows from Tier I to Tier II to Tier III. Mentoring flows back the other way: people who have come through the program help the next person up.

The rhythm

• Mentor and mentee talk 2 or 3 times a week at first.
• Once things are steady, contact tapers to once a week.
• Every month they look back together and agree the rhythm for the next month.
• There is no fixed end date.

The arc of a mentee

1. Get the fuel steady. Two Tier I hours a day, and contact 2 or 3 times a week.
2. Watch daily life organize. The eight areas of Tier II move toward "organized", week by week.
3. Taper contact. Weekly meetings and a monthly review.
4. Open Tier III. After the mentor judges the stabilization milestone, simple service begins.
5. Pass it forward. The graduate mentors someone new, with their own mentor still checking in.

If things slip, the mentor brings contact back to 2 or 3 times a week. That is a normal part of the path and never a failure.

The golden rule. Oil for the Lamp is non-professional mentoring. A mentor is a friend with a method, not a doctor, therapist or counselor. The program complements professional care and never replaces it, and nobody watches the app around the clock.

The crisis card is always one tap away. Tap Crisis help at the top of any screen. If you are in danger or thinking of harming yourself, call your local emergency number now. In the United States, call 911, or call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The card also lists numbers for Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

2. Getting an account

Accounts are by invitation only. A program coordinator gives you an invite code that sets your role and your program. There is no open sign-up.

Want to look around first? Open the app and tap Try the demo. You can try it as a mentee, a mentor, a coordinator or a safeguarding lead, with no password. Everything in the demo is invented and resets every night, and anyone trying the demo can see what is typed there, so please never type anything real into it.

3. Installing the app

The same app runs everywhere. If you are unsure which to choose, the web app is the simplest.

iPhone and iPad (TestFlight)

1. Install TestFlight (free, made by Apple) from the App Store.
2. Open the TestFlight invite link on your iPhone and tap Accept or Start Testing.
3. TestFlight installs Oil for the Lamp. Open it from your home screen.
4. When a new build is ready, TestFlight tells you. Update it there. Each TestFlight build expires after 90 days.

The TestFlight link is coming soon. Until then, use the web app on your iPhone (below). It works the same way.

Android

Google Play is coming later. For now, use the direct download or the web app.

Direct download (APK):

1. Download OilForTheLamp.apk from the Download page of the site.
2. Open the file. If Android asks, allow your browser to install apps from this source. You can turn that permission off again afterwards in Settings.
3. If Google Play Protect warns that the app is from an unknown developer, check that the file came from this site, then choose to install anyway.
4. Tap Install, then Open.
5. To update, download the new APK and install it over the old one. Your account and server data are kept.

Windows

1. Download OilForTheLamp-Setup.exe from the Download page.
2. Windows may show "Windows protected your PC". This is SmartScreen, and it appears because the installer is new and not yet signed. Choose More info, then Run anyway. Do this only for a file that came from this site.
3. Follow the installer. You can remove the app at any time from Settings, Apps.

Prefer no warning? Install the web app from Edge or Chrome instead.

The installable web app (any device)

1. Open the web app at lamp.readyfortheharvest.org/app/.
2. Computer (Chrome or Edge): choose Install from the address bar or the browser menu.
3. Android (Chrome): open the menu and choose Add to Home screen.
4. iPhone or iPad (Safari): tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen, then Add.

The lamp icon appears like any other app. It works offline for what you last loaded, and it saves contact logs, Tier I time and weekly checks to send when you are back online.

Creating your account

1. Open the app and tap I have an invite code.
2. Enter your invite code, a name to show (your first name or initials), your email, a password of at least 10 characters, your language and your age band, and confirm that you are 18 or older.
3. Tap Create my account. Your code sets your role and your program.

The app never asks about religion or church membership, and never asks for your date of birth. Next time, just sign in with your email and password.

4. Finding your way around

On every screen, at the top right:

• Crisis help opens the crisis card.
• I'm worried sends a concern to the program's safeguarding lead (Section 8).

Along the bottom on a phone, or down the left side on a computer, you see the sections for your role:

Languages. The app comes in English, Spanish, French and Haitian Creole. Choose yours in Settings. Spanish, French and Haitian Creole are marked "draft translation" until a reviewer has checked them.

Offline. When you lose connection, an "Offline" marker appears and you see the last copy loaded on this device. Anything you log waits ("1 waiting to send") and goes through when you reconnect.

Demo. A yellow banner says "Demo: invented people and data." Nothing behind that banner is real.

5. For mentees

• Today. Log your Tier I time with a quick add (+10, +15, +30, +60), by typing the minutes, or with a timer. Study, mentoring calls, reading and other fuel are shared with your program. Prayer, meditation, scripture study and worship are kept on this device only. Below that: your next contact with your mentor, today's next step and anything due.
• My path. Five stages, from Tier I: fueling to Tier II: organizing, Stabilized, Tier III: service and Mentoring others. It shows where you are, what your mentor is looking for and what comes next, plus every note your mentor has written about you.
• Goals. Small goals with next steps and an optional due date. Mark them done, or reopen them with Not yet. Your mentor can add a word of encouragement.
• Weekly check. For each of the eight areas of daily life, choose Organized, Partly organized or Disorganized. No scores, no streaks. Your read of spiritual practice stays on your device. Your mentor adds their own read, which you can see.
• Monthly review. You and your mentor look back together and agree how often to meet: 2–3 times a week, weekly or monthly.
• Learning. Links your mentor picked for you. Mark each one watched or read.
• Reminders. Contact, weekly check, monthly review and goals. Turn on notifications and set quiet hours.
• Messages. An optional three-way thread with your mentor and the coordinator, kept 90 days.
• Settings. Your name, an optional phone number (seen only by your mentor and the coordinator), time zone, language and theme. Download your data, download what's on this device, or delete your account.

6. For mentors

You mentor three people at most, and the coordinator makes every match.

• My mentees. Each mentee's stage, rhythm, last and next contact (overdue in red), this week's check, open goals and flags. Filter and sort.
• A mentee's page. A timeline, plus tabs to log a contact (date, how and how long, never what was said), set goals, write your weekly note (500 characters, and your mentee can read it), record the monthly rhythm you agreed, assign learning links, and mark milestones: the stabilization milestone, opening Tier III, ready to mentor, or a return to 2–3 times a week. Each milestone needs a short reason your mentee can read.
• My cascade. A tree of the people you mentor and the people they now mentor.
• My Tier I. Your own fuel log. Optional and private.

7. For coordinators and safeguarding leads

• Overview. Program totals only: mentees by stage, contact rhythm kept, stabilization, mentoring by graduates, and open safeguarding cases as a count.
• Invites. Create codes by role, language and expiry; copy or revoke them.
• Mentor gates. Application, interview, background check, safeguarding training and signed rules. A mentor becomes active only when all five are done.
• Matching. Propose and confirm matches by language, time zone, the pairing rule and capacity. End and re-match when needed.
• Export. A CSV of totals with no names.
• Cases (safeguarding lead). Every "I'm worried" concern and every after-hours message flag. Acknowledge within 24 hours, read the flagged thread, keep escalation notes, and pause a match if needed. A paused match shows as paused to the mentor and mentee, but not why.

8. Safeguarding rules

These rules apply to everyone in the program.

1. Adults only. Every mentee and mentor is 18 or older.
2. Gates first. A mentor works with mentees only after all five gates are done.
3. The pairing rule. Women mentor women and men mentor men, or a couple mentors together.
4. Three at most. A mentor has no more than three mentees.
5. Messages stay three-way, with the coordinator always in the thread, and are sent between 7 AM and 9 PM in the other person's time.
6. No private photos. No money, gifts or promises, in either direction.
7. Record only what is asked. Contact logs hold the date, the way and the length, never what was said. Spiritual practice is talked about, never rated or written down.
8. Confidentiality is an ethical commitment, except where someone's safety is at risk.
9. Non-professional. Mentors do not diagnose, treat or counsel as professionals do. Encourage anyone who needs professional help to get it, and help them find it if you can.
10. Speak up. If anything worries you, about yourself, a mentor, a mentee or anything else, tap I'm worried. You can send it without your name. The safeguarding lead aims to acknowledge every concern within 24 hours.
11. Emergencies go to emergency services, never to the app. Nobody watches the app around the clock.
12. A pause is a pause. If the safeguarding lead pauses a match, respect it.

Nothing in the program stops you from reporting a crime, abuse or a danger to the police or any other authority.

9. Privacy

What the app stores

• A display name (first name or initials), language, time zone and age band.
• An optional phone or WhatsApp number, visible only to your matched mentor and the coordinator.
• Contact dates, ways and lengths; goals and next steps; Tier I minutes for study, mentoring calls, reading and other fuel.
• Weekly reads of seven areas, monthly reviews and short notes (500 characters at most). Mentees see every note written about them.
• Messages in the three-way thread, deleted after 90 days.

Phone numbers and notes are encrypted at rest. Every time someone opens another person's record, it is written to an audit log.

What the app never stores

• Religion or church membership.
• A date of birth (only an age band).
• What was said in a conversation.
• Any rating or note of spiritual practice.
• Location, contacts, photos or advertising identifiers. There are no analytics or third-party scripts in the app.

Kept on your device only

Spiritual-practice minutes and your read of spiritual practice in the weekly check are stored on your own phone or computer, in the app you are using, and nowhere else. They are labelled "Kept on this device only." Each app on each device keeps its own copy, so the web app and the installed app on the same phone do not share them. Clearing your browser data or uninstalling the app erases them. Use Download what's on this device in Settings if you want a copy.

Your rights

Download everything the program holds about you, or delete your account, at any time from Settings. The program does not sell data or use it for advertising.

10. Good to know

• Windows may show a SmartScreen warning because the installer is new and not yet signed. The web app avoids it.
• Android asks for permission to install the direct-download app, because it comes from this site rather than Google Play.
• Spanish, French and Haitian Creole are draft translations until reviewed.
• In a browser, reminders appear when you open the app. In the phone and Windows apps they arrive as notifications.
• Records kept on your device stay in one app on one device. They do not sync, and clearing the app's data erases them.

11. Questions

Do I need to be a member of any church? No. The founder's framing is faith-informed, and anyone may take part. The app never asks about religion or membership.

Is this therapy? No. It is non-professional, volunteer mentoring. It complements professional care and never replaces it.

Can my mentor see my prayer or scripture time? No. Spiritual practice is kept on your device only. Your mentor sees it only if you choose to tell them.

What does my mentor see? Your goals; your Tier I minutes for study, calls, reading and other fuel; your weekly reads of seven areas; your monthly reviews; your contact log; and your phone number if you gave one.

Does the app work offline? Yes, for reading what you last loaded and for logging contacts, Tier I time and weekly checks. They send when you are back online.

What if I slip? Your mentor brings contact back to 2 or 3 times a week. It is a normal part of the path, and nobody is judged for it.

Who sees an "I'm worried" concern? The program's safeguarding lead. If you send it without your name, they will not know who sent it, which also means they cannot reply.

Is anyone watching the app all the time? No. Concerns and messages are read during normal hours. In an emergency, call your local emergency number.