Guest Column: Fathers in Field founder tries to help 1 boy at time

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with John Smithbaker, the founder of the Christian ministry, Fathers in the Field.  It was refreshing to talk to a man that has the passion and vision to reach out to abandoned boys ages 7-17. When asked how he developed the idea for Fathers in the Field, John shared the “healing moment” in his life when he accepted Jesus Christ as his savior.

He was driving late one night on his way to fish with his uncle when “the Holy Spirit grabbed a hold of me.” He pulled off the road and stopped his truck, got down on his knees and asked God to forgive him. John said at that point in time he saw the world from totally different eyes. Once John Smithbaker understood the forgiveness that he had been granted, he knew he had to forgive his earthly father who had abandoned him. 

“This was something that I thought I could never do or would never do” John said.

With God’s help John was able to do the unthinkable.

“I wrote my father a letter and told him that what he did was wrong but I had forgiven him and I had been forgiven, too.”

From that healing moment of forgiveness, John said the plight of child without a father, without a protector, a provider, and a pastor, was placed upon his heart. This was the genesis for Fathers in the Field.

“The fundamental premise of Fathers in the Field addresses the emotional wounds of the abandoned boy not just his needs,” John explained. “The emotional wounds of the abandoned boy are so deep that they cut to the soul and he can never be whole until it is healed.”

Healing takes place when you share with the boy that he has a loving Heavenly Father that created him for a purpose and the feelings of abandonment and being thrown away are only temporal. The next step is forgiveness. The boy has to forgive his earthly father for abandoning him.

The ministry utilizes God’s great outdoors coupled with the maturity of Christian outdoorsmen. The influence of Godly outdoorsmen will counter the tendency for boys to be overly bonded to their mothers.

Fathers in the Field will utilize one of the most under-used assets in churches today, the empty nester, and a father whose children are grown. The abandoned boy will be exposed to the masculine side of life learning both earthly fatherly advice and heavenly wisdom.

The practical side of Fathers in the Field involves a mentor father and his field buddy. They have at least four contacts monthly which center around the planning and preparation for an annual fishing or hunting trip, what John called “a rite of passage.”

One of the monthly meetings is called journey talk. The mentor father and his field buddy study a lesson in the Father in the Field handbook. The first-year lessons are based on the Lord’s Prayer.  The Lord’s Prayer is broken down into small increments such as Heavenly Father as provider, and protector.   The points of the compass are used to strengthen the field buddy’s spiritual, North-never fatherless, East-the eternal father, West-wisdom of the father, East-eternal home. 

The mentor father is expected to pick up and take his field buddy to church twice a month. The fourth monthly contact is a service project for an individual in need.

“The service project is important because the abandoned boy sees that someone is in greater need than himself, and he can provide a valuable service to them,” John said.

These projects teach the boy that he has value and allows the mentor father to teach the boy the value of work. The field buddy is taught to run equipment, to rake, build or just common everyday skills.

The ministry is designed to rekindle the spark that boys have been given for the love of adventure and to teach them that they have a role and purpose in life. The ministry is directed at American children who are raised in fatherless homes. Eighty-five percent of men involved in the criminal justice system are fatherless.

The problems created by the abandoning of our children run through the very fabric of our society. John Smithbaker, Christian, husband, father and mentor father, with God’s help is trying to meet the challenge one boy at a time.

If you would like additional information about Fathers in the Field see www.fatherinthefield.com or call John at 307-332-0901.

(Dan Schurg was a guidance counselor for more than nine years at Troy High School. He is now retired and living in Lander where he continues involvement in outreach to youth).