Tony Cummings reports on the Dove Award winner with the boyish good looks STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN.

This man is just one of many who have taken the time to let Steven know the kind of impact his songs are having. Some of the letters speak of the scriptural integrity of Steven's lyrics, while other are a simple "thank you" for an encouraging song. But some letters paint a picture so touching that Steven can only marvel at the work of God through his music.

Take the letter from a mother whose five-year-old son recently died from leukaemia. She tells Steven: "I thank God that through your music He is healing me...I listen to it...and it really lifts my spirits." Another letter from a young wife who lost her husband to lung disease tells of receiving 'Real Life Conversations' from a friend. "The first song my husband heard was 'His Strength Is Perfect'...I found him kneeling on the floor, weeping before the Lord. He was so discouraged...thank you for pointing him back to the Lord...I know he is weeping no longer."

A teenage girl confides her heartbreaking story of being sexually abused as a child, and tells Steven what a difference his music has made: "your words are so comforting."

Whether they comfort, challenge, or encourage, there is no doubt that the songs of Steven Curtis Chapman are having a powerful effect on those who listen. Sometimes that comes as a genuine surprise to Steven, as evidenced in his response to the success of his most recent US Christian chart-topper, "I Will Be Here".

"I hear people are using it in their weddings, and I just have to wonder," says Steven. "This is not a happy love song. It talks about the reality of commitment."

"I Will Be Here" was written as a gift to Steven's wife, Mary Beth. In it, he talks about the troubled times as well as the joyful times in a truly devoted Christian marriage. And the two of them have tasted plenty of both in the five years since they were married. "Whoever said that the first six months were like an extended honeymoon was wrong - it wasn't for us," says Steven.

This then is Steven Curtis Chapman. He might have the cherubic clean cut looks of the all American boy - hardly likely to make him a Greenbelt mainstage hero - but as a consummate crafter of quality songs which have the rare ability to truly touch hearts, his phenomenal rise to American gospel music stardom is to be warmly welcomed.