Faces

Language therapist Lucy Smith launched a faith-based literacy program for Texas prisoners. Spending eight hours a day in Dallas and Fort Worth jails, the 61-year-old grandmother of seven oversees 44 tutors who teach roughly 60 inmates per week. "If a person can't read the Word of God for himself, he cannot ascertain truths for his life," she told WORLD. Her efforts caught the attention of state prison officials who are now encouraging the development of faith-based programs across the state. After a career of ministering to shut-ins as a chaplain in hospitals, sanitariums, and prisons, 93-year-old Rev. Karl Mix isn't ready to turn in his time card yet. So the retired Lutheran pastor volunteered his services at a geriatric psychiatry center in Canton, Ohio, where he visits patients once a week and leads Sunday morning services. As the founder of the Chattanooga, Tenn., police department's first gang division, Lt. Jeff Francis spends his days working with troubled youth. Then he goes home and works with troubled adults. For the past 16 years, he and his wife, Gail, have cared for mentally handicapped adults as house parents for the Orange Grove Center. They also homeschool their four children and interpret for the deaf at their local church.