Creating Safe Spaces for Fatherless Boys

SPEAKER 01 : 0:01

Hey, it’s Mike Trame with Crawford Media Group and 670 KLTT. We’re joined by Bobby Solomon. Bobby’s the founder and president of Mentor Me Ministries. Bobby, I’m going to ask you, why don’t you unpack a little bit about Mentor Me, what you do and why, and then we want to talk about Fatherless Day, which is coming up here really soon.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:22

Okay, thank you, Brother Mike. Let me first read a Bible verse that I like to read a lot. And I think it’s very special, like all the Bible is. Very special to our ministry work to mentor fatherless boys. And it’s from Psalm 68, 5. And hello, everybody. And if there’s any fatherless boys listening… Hello, how are you all doing? It goes like this. A father of the fatherless and a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation. And God is definitely a father to the fatherless. He really cares for them because they don’t have a father anymore. with them. We all have a father, a biological father, but sometimes we don’t have a father with us. Fatherless boys either never or rarely have their dads. And God is also a defender of widows, too. And he is holy. He does it in a very loving and perfect way. And this ministry started out in the year 2000 Two mentor fatherless boys for Jesus, and we’ve always done the same thing for all these years. And Fatherless Day is a very special day that we have encouraged others to do Fatherless Day events, Brother Mike, and we have done many ourselves. It’s the day before Father’s Day because fatherless boys and their single mom families cannot celebrate Father’s Day because the father isn’t in the household anymore. So God put together this day called Fatherless Day. It’s always the day before Father’s Day. And this year, it’s June 14th, 2025. And we’re going to do some fabulous things on the radio and the Internet. And we’re going to encourage the church to do things in person in your local communities and neighborhoods for fatherless boys and their single mom families.

SPEAKER 01 : 2:12

So, Bobby, tell people where you typically see young boys that are fatherless, what kind of situations those are. You mentioned the single moms. That sounds like that’s kind of the sweet spot where a lot of that happens.

SPEAKER 02 : 2:26

Yeah, you can find fatherless boys almost anywhere, and probably most of the listeners have seen a single mom with their children somewhere, and maybe at church or maybe at school, maybe in the workplace or just walking down the street, and it could be in the park, and you just notice repeatedly, hey, there’s a child. a mom with children, there’s never any dad around, or you might see that situation in church. Doesn’t mean that they’re without their father, the father might be working, but there are many fatherless boys around, and they’re in our neighborhoods, And they go to our churches. And unfortunately, if the fatherless single mom family is not embraced at church, sometimes they feel really low down and they may not come back. So you’ve got to reach out to them. But they’re everywhere. There’s a lot of fatherless families, unfortunately, in USA and across the globe everywhere.

SPEAKER 01 : 3:32

Bobby, why do you think that is? Is it just where dads have just walked away from those responsibilities? These moms, why do they find themselves in this position in your experience?

SPEAKER 02 : 3:45

Oh, my, there must be all kinds of reasons. In my particular situation, brother, my dad died when I was 12. So, you know, he was there one night. I said goodnight to him. The next morning I wake up and he’s not in the house. He was taken away to the hospital. Yeah.

SPEAKER 01 : 4:01

Yeah, I’m sorry. Yeah, so that – for moms, the single moms, that means a really difficult road they have to traverse, doesn’t it? And it just doesn’t – there’s not that father figure. How does a mentor me – how do you work with that to kind of help where these kids can have – you know, true biblical guidance? And how do you do this security part too? Because a few people have asked me that is, how do I know it’s, you know, secure and right? And I know the answer to that, but I’d rather that you tell listeners.

SPEAKER 02 : 4:35

Well, sure. What we’ve always done in this ministry is our mentors are background checked, they’re fingerprinted, and reference checked, and we always work in groups. And we did this type of activity and events for Fatherless Boys for many years, and now we are… On the radio, we’re encouraging others to do it. We’re praying a lot on the radio, and we’re actually giving messages to the fatherless boys themselves on the radio. And we hear from the single moms. We hear from them, and they order Bibles for their fatherless boys. Let me just say this. that anyone listening right now can mentor a fatherless boy, but you must do it safely. I recommend you do it in groups. I recommend that you do it with men from your church. And some of you may not be going to church. You might say, well, I’m in between churches, like that. But if you group up with other Christian men, even get yourself fingerprinted with the local authorities just to show that you did it, work in groups and be in public settings then um it will work out and give it in prayer to jesus so the enemy doesn’t come in you can group up at the park for fatherless day that’s for the whole family so it’s for the moms the boys the sisters the babies your grandmas and you can do that at your church for fatherless day and why not do it it’s in scripture that we should visit the fatherless and widow that’s in james 1 27 and it blesses them it’ll bless you and it really pleases god to group up and have a nice little gathering for fatherless boys And single mom families with food, Christian music, with Bibles. You have a call to come to Jesus. You share the gospel. And people will get saved. And they’re blessed. Because on Father’s Day, I’m sorry about the wind. I know that you’re hearing winds. It’s not bad. We’re good. Apologize to everyone. On Father’s Day, it is a real downer for the fatherless boy and his family. They can’t do anything to celebrate. In fact, it’s kind of a negative. But on this special day, Fatherless Day, it could be any time in June. But just to bless the fatherless boy and single mom family, it’s a special day. And you can do it. You can do it. And, Mike, if I might just interject here, prayer. I want to encourage everyone to join me in praying for fatherless boys, especially around this time of year as Father’s Day approaches, as a special thing for Fatherless Day, even if you don’t get to spend any time with them, because I believe the Holy Spirit will take that prayer that he gives you and bless that fatherless boy and single mom family. And, Mike, you have asked me in the past, what if it’s just your own family and you have a neighbor that is a single mom with children? Well, you can invite them to your house for a meal with your wife and children and bless them as a fatherless day event. It’s very, very easy.

SPEAKER 01 : 7:53

We’re speaking with Bobby Solomon. Bobby is the founder and the president of Mentor Me Ministries. Heard here on 670 KLTT. Just go to the website. Easiest way to see the different times that Mentor Me radio is heard on the station. That’s 670KLTT.com. And Bobby, we want to make sure these boys have… godly men in their lives, and you have all sorts of great ideas. One, in fact, several you just brought up. Invite the father’s boy and his mom to your house. Have dinner. Have them over. Say you have kids of the same age. It’s easy to have the kids play together, and you can kind of love on the mom and Man, being a single mom, Bobby, speak to that because that’s a hard road.

SPEAKER 02 : 8:45

It’s a very hard road. It’s a very hard road. Many of the moms that I have met that are single moms, they never got married and they never really saw a good marriage. And these children, many of them don’t see a marriage. They don’t know what it is. They themselves don’t get married. But if they get to know Jesus and his ways, even if they were to see it, for example, if you’re a Christian man or woman right now listening, and I’m sure that you are Christian, most everybody listening, if you were there with your family, With the single mom and her family, fatherless boys and the rest of the family, for a fatherless day event or a meal at your house, it could be any time, they will get to see a husband and wife unit together. Maybe they haven’t seen it very much in their own family. And if you are a man who wants to do something like this, but you’re not married and there’s nobody else in the household, please do not invite the single mom family to your household with the children and there’s nobody else there. But if you want to invite maybe another brother and sister from church to join you or somebody that you know to join you, then you have a setting where you’re not alone with a single mom, and it’s a safe setting. Make sure you have a woman there with you if the mom’s going to be there with you. too. And if you don’t know how to do this, but you just have it on your heart that you want to, just pray. Please pray. For those of you that really pray, please pray this. For those of you that don’t pray, pray it for the fatherless boy, that he has a mentor in his life to mentor Jesus Christ to him, and so he can know God as a father in his life. Amen.

SPEAKER 01 : 10:36

Yeah, awesome. Awesome. All really good. And Bobby, you’ve done this for so long. People need to use you as a resource. And Fatherless Day can take a lot of different forms. We’ve got a couple minutes left. Talk about a couple of the cool ideas that you’ve seen people use for Fatherless Day.

SPEAKER 02 : 10:57

Something that is really, really neat is if you have an area at your church, a green belt or a family room or somewhere where you have activities, that you have food, you have food. toys for the boys and the sisters, something for moms. The ladies at church can gather up and they can put together little handbags with scarfs and toiletries and things and scripture for the moms and give it to them. I’ve seen that done where hundreds of these were put together and they were nice handbags and it really blessed the moms. You can have games. And if you do it outside at a park, you can do softball. You can have water balloons if it’s hot, you know, things like that. And make sure you have a gospel sharing and a call to come to Jesus Christ. It’s very, very important. And they’ll never forget it. They’ll ask about Fatherless Day all the time if you see these families again.

SPEAKER 01 : 12:02

Yes, amen. I think so. When you have a chance to minister to and help a single mom who’s probably working like crazy just trying to keep her head above water, and that young boy, and like you said, don’t forget the sisters, right? Because a lot of times it comes with sisters or another brother, that kind of thing. It just changes their outlook because they realize, oh, Somebody does care. People do care. And getting a church on board with this, not hard if you just go after it.

SPEAKER 02 : 12:37

Do it now. That’s good. I like the way you said that. After my dad died, I would have done anything if a man gave me the time of day, and some of them did. Some of them did. My mom even worked hard to try and set up like a fishing trip with with somebody from work. And then finally, after years, an uncle I never knew stepped into my life. If you’re a Christian man, it’s even better. And even if I just wanted to say this, Mike, I know we might have a minute or 30 seconds, whatever’s left. If you see somebody at church, a boy without his father, now you think he’s without his father. Maybe you don’t even know that he’s without his father. Maybe you do. And you see him and you walk by him. If you are a Christian man, please look him in the eyes and smile at him and give him a high five or thumbs up and just say, it’s so good to see you today. That’s all you have to do. That’s mentoring, and that is loving, and that’s showing God is our father to these boys. They will never forget it. They will not forget it. That boy might feel like committing suicide. He might be so down. You look him in the eye. You just smile and say, God bless you. I’m happy to see you today. That’s something from a man to a boy growing up trying to be a man, and he doesn’t know how.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:08

So good. Back to you, Mike. So honoring. Well, Bobby, I think, make sure I have this right, mentormeministry.org.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:17

Mentorme.org, M-E-N-T-O-R-M-E.org. Mentorme.org. And the phone number, if you want to call us to have any questions, 800-787-5044.

SPEAKER 01 : 14:31

Bobby, you’re such a blessing to us. Thank you for taking the time today. Thanks, Brother Mike, so much.

SPEAKER 02 : 14:41

I thank everybody. Happy Father’s Day and happy Fatherless Day.