I just read about this in the NM online magazine. It sounds like a wonderful program.

I've been a Big Brother in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for over 7 yrs now and I am on my 3rd Little Brother.

I don't have any kids of my own and I am also single which really has afforded me the flexibility to mentor the little brothers I have had.

Like the kids in the Fathers In the Field program, most of the the Littles in our program do not have their dad around. It has been very rewarding fulfilling and lifechanging to share my love, friendship, knowledge, fellowship and guidance with these little guys. I feel it is what God has called me to do and I have always seen it more of a ministry than just an activity.

I will be glad to share the info on your program to my pastor and church, too!

JT
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Keep up the wonderful work Fathers in the Field...

Check out this video clip...thought I would post the address on Tangle... just imagine when Fathers are not in the home where their boys can learn from them and grow in Christ. Where do they learn what they need to know? No wonder abandoned boys are in such a jam nowadays. Copy the address link below on www.Tangle.com

http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5486ae62fd502645138e&sp=1
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FitF -

Taylor and I are in our 6th month of our Fathers in the Field Journey Curriculum and things are going great. Taylor is a pretty quiet guy so anytime we get to spend working or hunting is great for growing our relationship and loosening him up to talk. Recently, we were invited on a waterfowl hunt in a very exclusive duck hunting club in the MS River Delta. Due to a prior commitment, Taylor was unable to make a morning hunt so we went that afternoon. We had plenty of action and Taylor took his first mallard duck! Our host was so gracious to open his duck hole for us. Here is a link to my blog where you can view a quick clip of the hunt:
http://thebuffpad.blogspot.com/2009_02_01_archive.html
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Just thought I'd send an update on me (Mentor Father) and Taylor's (Field Buddy) journey. Taylor and I have been hanging out since mid-September. Right off the bat I dropped the ball and was unable to organize our community service project. Well, that changed in October. Taylor and I met one of our widow women from our church who is now home bound. I asked what she needed done around the house. She simply asked that we weed her flower beds around her home. Well, I learned a most valuable lesson here. I thought this would be a project that Taylor and I would knock out in no time but after 4 hours we only managed to complete half! It always helps to assess the "jobsite" before you show up for the job. Taylor and I will be going back this weekend hopefully to finish what we started. Also, our whitetail season for youth opens this Saturday (Nov.15) and Taylor and I are going to try to get us one if we have time. I'll let you know how that turns out.
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A Father's Story

This is a father's story of moral failure and blindness that I tell today in the hopes that those who read it will find peace and grace and renewed hope.

It is the story of a young man who came to know Jesus as his Savior one night in a revival meeting as he stood with his father who had brought him to hear the Word of God preached. The young man was fourteen years old that night ……..The night he gave his heart and soul to Jesus......the night he became a new creature because of Christ's sacrifice for him.

He was an average student but in the months that followed, he was sure that God was calling him into ministry of some kind; to share his new found love with others. Imagine how special it would be to tell others that God loves them; for them to hear "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

For five or six years this young man grew to know Jesus and to love Him. But shortly after his first year in college he became sexually involved with a young woman who told him she was pregnant with his child. Both of their lives were changed forever. They eloped and started a new life together. As it turned out the young wife was not pregnant but within the next year she was and a young son was born to this family and to this troubled marriage. Many counselors were consulted as this marriage struggled and struggled and struggled. The young man who was so earnest about ministry and, who had actually found work in a Christian organization by this time, lost his bearings in his Savior and entered into reprehensible moral failure and quietly walked away from his marriage and his children.

"Our enemy is a roaring lion who paces up and down seeking whom he may devour." It seemed that seven people were, if not devoured badly mauled in the process. It was shameful.

The prodigal's son was on the run. Searching for meaning, touched by riotous living, immersed in grief, shame and loneliness. God had said "I will never leave you or forsake you", and He meant it! This father of five had said the same things and he grieved because of his failure, particularly toward his children. It is quite likely that he experienced a nervous breakdown as he tried to immerse himself in survey work among Christians in other countries. When he wasn't working eighteen hours a day, he walked the streets to dull the pain. His loneliness was a bottomless pit and he made choices with that in mind. For almost two years he wandered, and ever so quietly God wandered with him and was ahead of him heading off disastrous decisions that he would have made. What a Father.and what a promise keeper He is.

God used two men to bring him home. One, the earnest brother in Christ who gave him the job to do survey work with Christians and the other a former employer who asked him to run a sales division in his new company in the area where his children were. And God said again, "I will never leave you or forsake you". And, I won't leave your children either, and I was started on my journey home.

There was a young woman who was searching for God and was drawn to the faith of this father when they worked together for a short time where the former employer (and now current employer) and he had worked.

They had talked of the Gospel and of the Savior years before and when he left that company he bought her a Bible and urged her to read a chapter each day. Now these six or seven years later on a night in the late summer, this young woman had broken up with an earnest suitor who was not a believer. She wasn't a believer either but there was this yearning in her soul. She prayed on the porch of her summer home, "O Lord, why isn't there a man for me like my friend of years ago?"

In the days just before this, the father's employer, mentioned this young woman and told the father where she was. The next day he called her. Who said God doesn't answer prayer!! This young woman had a 3-1/2 year old son and a continuing longing for Jesus.

The father arranged a visit with the young woman and her son and a week later proposed marriage on the telephone and she said yes. Three months later they were in their moving van headed toward home for him and a new home for her and her son.

Within weeks, one son moved in with them and, within months, the four joined them and within a year a new baby was added. His, her's and ours! And Jesus was working and the young bride fell deeply in love with Him. Praise God!

The pastor of the family's church paid a visit and indicated that the session of the church felt strongly that the father needed to make public confession of sin in a Sunday church service.

He asked his new wife and their two children, the baby and four year old he had adopted, to stay home and he took the older children to the service of confession.

The place was packed, the confession was offered in some detail and most, including the father, were in tears. As he came down from the pulpit to join his children in the rear of the church, a young man named Al got up in the back and came down the center aisle and threw his arms around the father and held him as they cried together. It was Jesus saying "come home. I've missed you so."

In a few months the ministry invited the father to come back to his original ministry. He was home, his children all confessed their faith in Christ.

God gave him the wife of his dreams and gave her eternal life. He gave them a ministry too as well as the children. As He promised in Joel 2:28 "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten." O, what a faithful and loving Savior who has told us, "I will never leave you or forsake you and I will remove your sins as far as the east is from the west, and I will
remember them no more."

Several years ago, God led them to a son his new wife had been forced to give up at birth. He is not yet a believer, but they pray earnestly for him to understand they thank God that his wife is a Bible Study Fellowship girl who knows Christ and shares that with their two young daughters.

Dad now has five sons and three daughters, all precious to him and all precious to Jesus. And the promise, "my sheep hear my voice and I know them and no one shall pluck them out of my Father's hand."

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

Dads, as you read this, perhaps you need that encounter with Christ yourself and the confession that goes with it. God will do that for you if you ask Him.

If you are like the father of this story, one who ran away, you need to confess that to the Lord and head back to the family and make it right by confessing it to them and asking for their forgiveness too.

All of God's promises indicate that He loves you and your family and that He can make it, not just right again, but gloriously new.

Please come home Dad!!

If this does not represent you……why not become a surrogate dad for a boy whose dad will not be home again. You can learn more by getting in touch with Fathers in the Field at fathersinthefield.com.

Anonymous

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John,

Just a note to say our FitF program is underway. Currently, there are two of us serving as Mentor Fathers with another to soon join us this fall. Our boys are actually from our church body. The moms were very receptive to the ministry. In fact, one mom shared with me that she always wanted something like this for her son but as a single, middle aged woman she was afraid of the impression she would give to other women in the church if she reached out to some of the men to mentor her son. Needless to say, she was relieved that we reached out to her.
I'll keep you posted as the year progresses.

Your brother in Christ,

Keith
Crossgates Baptist Church
Brandon, MS
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My father beat my mother and I for fifteen years. At the age of fifteen I was emancipated from my parents and placed in juvenile detention and finally left to my own devices. I was raped and molested by a pedophile. I became violent, abused drugs and have been in jail many times. Eventually I went to prison for four years. In my late thirties I sold everything I owned and set out on a journey across country.
One day while searching for firewood I met a man. He had some phamplets titled "My Father Myself." Walter asked me do you want to meet that man? Of course I said yes. He was a converted Christian who had left his old life behind to serve the Father. I was amazed that God could do this. 25 states later I found myself in Salt Lake City. Finally I began to speak to God. I asked him to show me a sign. When I turned the corner there was a sign. It was yellow with black letters and it said,"Jesus Saves."
It was the SLC Rescue Mission for the homeless. I went in and recieved Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I stayed there a while. Later God gave me a beautiful wife and we have continued the journey. We now live in Seattle, Washington. I just lost my job and my wife is also unemployed yet we know somehow God will provide. We know God has a plan and when I saw this guy on tv, the one who came up with this idea of Fathers in the Field I was compelled to visit and write this testimony. God bless all of you and if there is anyway I can help let me know.

Patrick
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Thank you for what you are doing. My father abandoned me...I finally forgave him..it took 40 years..here is my letter.

Dear father,

I write this letter with sincere trepidation, but relieved sorrow. I have been living with the deepest of pain, anger and disappointment over your abandonment of my sister and me – I was just born and your daughter was three years old. I will be forty this October.

I write this letter to wash clean my wound that I did not know how to heal until now. I want you to know that I entered this life and grew up without a father to hold me, protect me, guide me into manhood or to sacrifice for me. Instead, you gave your son up for some other convenient life. Your love and time went to others for which you eventually gave up as well. Therefore, so you understand completely, you abandoned your daughter and me for something that you eventually threw away. Again, you abandoned your daughter and me for something you threw away. Those are powerful actions with a profound meaning to living souls. Deep wounds that you created that I am now able to heal. However, I now realize I will never have that opportunity with you, time has gone by. This is painful to write, but so necessary. As I unburden and heal my soul, I do want you to know where I am coming from and the purpose of this letter. I want you to know, that what you did was terribly wrong, it mattered greatly in my life, and that I have come to forgive you.

As I hold my son and daughters, I could not even imagine turning them over to the world without me there. I did not understand fully why this deep wound and hurt would not heal. My anger has grown inside me as I see me in my son. The scabs have finally been torn off for the last time. As I catch my children in my arms as I arrive home from work, as I read to my children, comfort them during periods of pain, experience their daily achievements, participate in their memories, and to honestly, completely be there for them as a father is called to do, I understand where my anger and hurt is coming from. I have said I love you all my life as something I was supposed to do, out of respect. It was not a love I now know should have existed. I bristle every time you say I acted a certain way as a baby when referring to my son. You were not there. You would not know. I do not have childhood memories, pictres, stories or traditions to share about my father with my children. But rather, I have confusion and questions I can not answer to myself or my family. Not once have you ever explained, shown remorse, regret, or discussed your actions. We, I have done all of the sacrificing for you and on your behalf.

I thank my Lord and Savoir for the angels he sent to watch over me. They have always been there and I give thanks every night. I thank my mom for being such a strong person and caring mother. My love for her could not be any stronger. She gave unconditionally and sacrificed totally of herself for her children. I saw her joy and love for us through all her unselfish pain and loneliness as she made decisions out of necessity. I saw my big sister starve for love for a father that was not there for her. Her search took her in painful directions. I am so proud of her for being so strong and becoming such a caring and loving person.

I love my memories of my Uncle. He was the man of my life growing up. I learned from him as I grew up in search of what it meant to be a man. I learned to be fun from him. He took the time to be our Santa Claus. I felt the joy of throwing a baseball as high as I could to him and felt the thrill of catching the baseball that touched the stars from him. He gave me confidence and I will forever be grateful to him. Where were you? Devoting all your time and energy to others and not your children – only to lose it all. I do not understand.

Your efforts toward me as I was older have been noticed, but I have been unable to fully accept or appreciate them. I now know why. There is no foundation to build on. I would, however, like to share with you a moment I cherish deeply. A son needs to know his name - who he is in this world. Upon me entering high school, you made it clear to me you wanted me to use my birth name. You gave me the courage to fight for that name and I got it changed my freshman year. I remember saying to myself, I now, at least, know my name – I know who I am. As symbolic as it may sound, it meant everything to me at that time. And, it still does.

I cry as I write this, tears of yesterday’s pain and tears of wounds healed. I have a selfish prayer. I pray for your soul that you may find our Lord, Jesus so that we will not be separated again upon departure from this earth. Father and son are meant to be together. It is a gift from God that should not be thrown away.

Thank you for reading this and I truly hope you understand my purpose. It is my prayer that in the time remaining, we can have a relationship that deepens.

Your Son, the boy you walked out on.

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