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A Front Row Seat
to Life,  Barbara
Pinto ’86, ABC News

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A Different Kind of Medicine

James Rogan '83 is a respected doctor in Tell City, IN. His patients say he's professional, knowledgeable, and devoted. He's the only doctor for miles who is qualified to do surgery, and he still makes house calls.

Danny Steele '02 knows a Jamie Rogan who practices a different kind of medicine: helping young people get cleaned up from the inside out. "I just get them to do stuff with me," Rogan says. Since he has a 200-acre ranch, there's plenty of "stuff" to do: corn and soybeans to plant, hay to harvest, beef cows to feed, and more.

"After I help them establish a sense of self-esteem," Rogan says, "I help them begin to understand God. They see my relationship with Him and they want to know Him too."

Rogan rewards good behavior (i.e. staying off drugs, finishing homework) by letting the kids run his bulldozer or drive the dune buggies. For Steele, who had been dealing drugs on the streets of Washington, D.C., keeping clean was rewarded with an all-expense-paid scuba-diving trip to Puerto Rico. Rogan has also paid for several young people to attend Houghton College.

     "God's the reason I'm at Houghton today; He used Jamie," says Steele, "Jamie showed me what it means to love unconditionally. Living with him was like boot camp; he prepared me for college, and for life."

     "Professors at Houghton challenged my immature view of the Scriptures and tossed rebar and concrete into the foundation of my faith," Rogan says, "God  has blessed me with a lot. I must share it with others."