Even before he was born, the conditions for John Smithbaker’s ministry training began. While still in his mother’s womb, John’s biological father abandoned their family and left them to fend for themselves. As a young boy, teen, and well into his adult life, the dark hole that bore through John’s heart grew. Try as he did to camouflage the deepest of soul wounds through an unrelenting pursuit of personal successes and worldly accomplishments, nothing could fill the void left by not having God’s fatherhood plan in his life.

One fateful afternoon on route to a fishing expedition, John’s life was changed forever. In his very own “Damascus Road” moment, the Heavenly Father made clear to John the nature of his pain, the profound magnitude of the fatherless epidemic in America among boys and men, and what he needed to do next. However, like so many who are terribly hurt, John had largely externalized his pain and held fast to bitterness about his broken home. There on the side of the road John’s own sins flashed before him. At the prompting of the Holy Spirit, he gave up his commitment to pain and resentment and repented for the deepest sin in a fatherless boy’s life — unforgiveness of his father.

Soon after his miraculous Christian faith conversion, John was called by the Lord to abandon his worldly pursuits and the comforts and fruits of being a successful CEO in business to become a full-time missionary. God commissioned John to become a national advocate for precious fatherless boys who have no voice and gave him a unique vision to develop and launch the life-impacting ministry of Fathers in the Field. The ministry’s mission is to go boldly into the fields of the fatherless to bring God’s redemptive love to boys and men across America.