Blog

On a recent Friday night, I took a young man who is growing up without his dad, to a Peoria Rivermen hockey game. It turned out to be a pretty special night, but first let me tell you how God brought me and Brandon (the young man) to that point.

Brandon is in 7th grade and lives with his mom and younger sister in an apartment 17 miles from my house. I met Brandon at our church's Vac...

Dear Friends of Next Step,

A man got a job as a woodcutter.&#...

Last week, I worked 49 hours for Peoria Charter Coach and about 30 hours for or with fatherless young men. I'm not sure I have ever given that much time in a week to work, but the results were worth the sacrifice. (The PCC shift supervisor who works on my days off...

It may appear as though this website is not updated very often - and this is true.  It is my hope that eventually our  website will become a powerful resource for guys growing up without fathers and for those who care about them.  However, at this time the website serves primarily as an introduction to Next Step and a place to gain more information than is printed in one of our brochures.  It also provides a way for people to apply for our services or contact us.

God has chosen to meet some of our financial needs by allowing me to drive for Peoria Charter Coach. A coworker of mine who heard about Next Step asked if we could help his great nephew. I only promised to add him to our prayer list, but ended up taking the 16 year old young man out to lunch and was privilege...

Dear Pastors and Leaders in Ministry,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and in good spirits.

In my experience in ministry (20+years volunteer, 10 years full-time), I have discovered that most of our churches do not have a strategy for truly reaching fatherless young men. We touch their lives through bus ministries and youth programs, but very few of us can point to anyone in our church who “made it” if t...

This week at Next Step: If you don't have time to read it all, just read the highlights marked with an *.

*Took my son and a new NS boy to the riverfront, Bass Pro, and lunch. He's an intelligent, helpful 5th grader and God has a great future planned for him. His biological dad lives out of state and he has no father figure living with him. Glad his mom found us on facebook. Going to have to start recruiting and training men to be mentors - my personal grou...

Here's a new idea to help us reach fatherless young men...

I am looking forward to developing Next Step, but between part time work and creating this non-profit, learning to build a website, etc., I feel like I am drifting from the real work...spending time with the fatherless. 

So, here's an idea that probably didn't come from Satan...host some prayer meetings in churches that will direct people to pray for Next Step,   I'll take 5-1...

God cares about guys who don't have a dad around.  Here's what He has to say about it:

Psalm 82:3,4 - Defend the poor and fatherless: do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.

2 Timothy 2:2 - And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.

James 1:26,27 - If any man among you...