"What's a dad supposed to do?"

A couple years ago I started to make a point of taking out the inner city boys one on one.  The idea was to get to know them better and to mentor them a little more.  What I found was that all the boys didn't know how to react when I invited them out, and when we did go out, they felt awkward.  I quickly realized that these boys didn't know how to behave around a man, or father figure.  They always asked where the other boys where and had very little to say.  It's taken some time for them to get comfortable with going out.

One time I took out an eleven year old boy, Nolan, for dinner.  It was was awkward at first but he eventually started talking.  He'd been going through a rough time at home and school and I wanted to find out why.  He started to share with me that he had just found out the year before he had a father.  I had a conversation with him that went something like this:

me: "So what do you think about having a dad?"
Nolan: "I don't know.  I never thought about it before."
me: "How do you feel?"
Nolan: "I don't know, what's a dad supposed to do in your life?  And how come he wants to be in my life now?  Now that I'm a man he wants be around, where was he before?"

There was a lot of hurt, anger and confusion in Nolan's heart.  It was compounded by the fact that his absent "dad" was starting to fight for visitation and custody rights through the court system.

It's been a tough journey for Nolan but he's a good kid with a great heart and trying to find his way through it all.

What really concerned my heart was the comment, "What's a dad supposed to do in your life?"  It's a question that many if not all of our inner city kids ask themselves.  How will they learn to be godly fathers without a father in their lives?  There's no one to teach them how to fish, learn a new video game, or treat a woman right.  They need to be mentored, they need to know what a man of God is.  Will you help?