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Fred Smith is now my substitute father. He's 90 years old and a man of great wisdom, a man of deep spiritual beliefs. I don't make any major decisions until I check with him. In fact, I've been taking him to Dallas every other day for the last two years—picking him up out of his wheelchair and putting him into a dialysis chair. He's just amazing. He can hardly walk, but you'd better be on your toes if you're talking to him. He's as sharp as a tack.

One reason I think our prison ministry is so effective is that our counselors are like substitute fathers for the kids. They have to meet once a week for 2 hours for 12 weeks. We've had unusual success with that. We only have about 10 percent who get back into trouble, instead of the normal 80 percent. It incorporates everything I'm talking about—the blessing, conversion, mentoring, father/mother substituting, and, to me, it is really the answer for the kid in prison.

Nancy Madsen is a senior at Wheaton College, Illinois.

Copyright © 2006 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Champions for Life: The Healing Power of a Father's Blessing is available from Christianbook.com and other book retailers.

More about Bill Glass's Champions for Life is available on their website.

Other Christianity Today articles on fatherhood include:

Our Fathers Who Are on Earth | If Satan thinks they are a key battleground, shouldn't we? (May 3, 2005)

Affectionate Patriarchs | In the popular imagination, conservative evangelical fathers are power-abusing authoritarians. A new study says otherwise. An interview with W. Bradford Wilcox (Aug. 6, 2004)

Editor's Bookshelf: Creating Husbands and Fathers | The discussion of gender roles moves beyond 'proof-text poker.' (July 19, 2004)

Editor's Bookshelf: Raising Up Fathers | An interview with Maggie Gallagher (July 19, 2004)

Complicit Guilt, Explicit Healing | Men involved in abortion are starting to find help (Oct. 27, 2003)

Fatherhood on the Rebound | What we can learn from the real history of basketball. By David Blankenhorn (December 6, 1999)

The Pursuing Father | What we need to know about this often misunderstood Middle Eastern parable. (Oct. 26, 1998)

Touchstone's January/February 2001 issue examined human and divine fatherhood. Books & Culture's John Wilson had praise and criticism.

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January 2006, Vol. 50, No. 1