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by Elizabeth Evans Hagan on January 31, 2017 Leave a Comment

You Brought Christmas Joy!

Many thanks to all of you who supported our end of year giving campaigns! For all of you who generously gave in 2016, you supported three projects. I’m so excited to tell you about them today.

Feed the Children Center in Kenya

Our Courageous Kids asked Feed the Children Kenya– a residential facility for 100 + children, many of whom have special needs– what would help them thrive in the New Year.

The answer was a trampoline for their playground! Though trampolines are a Christmas gift many parents can easily provide their children in the US such equipment is quite expensive in Kenya. So for the center to have a trampoline: a pure treat!

As you can see the kids were thrilled to jump and jump till to their heart’s content knowing that this was theirs (not a rental that needed to be returned the next day). Kids of all abilities enjoyed playing with it, each in their own special way.

Trampoline (10)Trampoline (7)

Casa del Nino Honduras

Casa del Nino is a residential center for boys between the ages of 6-17 living in La Cieba, Honduras. When Our Courageous Kids asked what would help them thrive in the New Year they asked for us to support their Christmas festivities. On Saturday, December 19th, the boys along with their caregivers celebrated Christmas in style.

Each child at the center received a Christmas present (something that would not happen without Our Courageous Kids’ support). The children laughed, danced and played with games and special rented activities on their campus.

You can tell by their smiles that they had a great time! image1 2

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Hekima Place

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Hekima Place is a residential center for over 60 girls from infancy to late teens in Kiserian, Kenya. Most of the girls at Hekima Place have been orphaned by HIV/ AIDS. When Our Courageous Kids asked Hekima Place what they would like to thrive in the New Year they said support for their counseling program.

Many of the girls comes to Hekima after experiencing abuse or trauma. They need a safe place to share their experiences and work through their feelings of loss.

When I visited the center last April, I was impressed by the staff’s attention to the emotional wellbeing of the girls and enjoyed seeing the room where the counseling takes place. Your donation to Hekima ensures that this program has the funds it needs for the 2017 operating year. image1 4

As we move forward toward supporting more projects in 2017, we’d love to have your support as monthly giver. See below how you can make reoccurring donations through Pay Pal.

Helping Orphans Thrive,

Elizabeth

Filed Under: Project Reports Tagged With: celebrations, Christmas, giving, orphan care

by Elizabeth Evans Hagan on November 10, 2016 Leave a Comment

Orphan Sunday is November 13th!

os-carousel-photoDid you know that globally there are over 150 million orphans? 

My story of connection to orphan care began in 2012 when my husband, Kevin became President of Feed the Children. Over the course of three years, my life within this organization became immersed in the stories of children caught in cycles of poverty and abuse. Kevin has a different job now. But, the children we met, the need we saw and the bonds we forged with kids living in orphanages remained a big part of our lives. I wanted to keep doing more.

I’m a communal person so of course my next step was to try to find other likeminded churches, pastors, leaders, anyone really from the progressive world that were engaged in orphan care. In my search, I encountered dead end after dead end.

But, in contrast, I found hundreds of more conservative churches and groups with elaborate conferences, ministries and networks solely focused on orphan, foster care and adoption.

When I investigated all of this evangelical interest in orphan care, I found some of it stemmed from a true humanitarian desire to be good neighbors, to love as Jesus asked them to do—but some said adoption/ foster was a practice meant for Christian church because it helped to save souls alone (without concern for the whole child!). Gasp.

So this is what I want to most tell you today: the work of orphan care needs us. Especially those of us in the progressive church. We can’t be silent anymore. 

Foster children.

Would be adopted children.

Kids living in international orphanages need us to know their stories, connect with their stories and share our family life with them.

This is why I started Our Courageous Kids– this foundation with the mission of helping more orphaned children be able to go to college, high school or share in other life enrichment experiences.

Orphan Care can be an overwhelming calling, I know. 150 million children feels like a huge number.

But, I believe one easy way to plant the seeds of such in your congregation would be to observe Orphan Sunday. We can all do something for ONE child.

On Sunday, I’ll be preaching at Broadneck Baptist Church in Annapolis, MD an Alliance of Baptist affiliated congregation. The children will be helping to lead worship and the congregation will take up a special offering to support an orphanage in Zimbabwe through Alliance partner, Journey Partners.

Orphan Sunday is always on the second Sunday of November and a national emphasis sponsored by the Christian Alliance of Orphans geared toward helping churches remember the calling of James 1:27 which says, “Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress.”

If you observe it, it’s a great day to share statistics about the need for foster parents in your community. It’s a great day to have folks who have adopted domestically or internationally share stories about this faith journey in their lives. It’s a great day to speak to God’s heart for the vulnerable children in the children’s time or in the sermon.

If you would like more information about planning your own Orphan Sunday next year, you can read more here or feel free to contact me.

The vulnerable children of our nation and around the world need more champions.  We can be those people!

Filed Under: Why Orphan Care?

by Elizabeth Evans Hagan on October 10, 2016 Leave a Comment

Connecting with Christian Alliance of Orphans

connecting-puzzleWe always want to keep you posted on the activities Our Courageous Kids is connecting to for shared learning.

Today I want to tell you about the Christian Alliance of Orphans.

Within the Christian Alliance of Orphans (CAFO) you can find the largest collective of Christian based ministries devoted to concerns such as orphan care internationally, adoption, foster care in the United States, child trafficking, and teen runaways.

So obviously I wanted to get to know them.

As a collective body, they’ve said with their actions that it’s our job as people of faith to love all children, no matter what circumstances they find themselves in.  Invisible children will be invisible no more! And faith communities, these advocates say, must rise up and be more inclusive of this calling. To do this and build community among it’s members, every year, CAFO hosts an annual meeting of 3,000+ leaders called Summit.

In 2013 as part of our family’s work with Feed the Children, I attended this meeting in Nashville, TN and loved the energy and enthusiasm of those speaking and teaching.  My curiosity piqued. Like a sponge, I gladly learned what I could about such important concepts as attachment parenting, restorative therapies and what adult adoptees really thought about their institutional experiences from childhood.  It was great to apply what I learned to the kids we met during all our travels.

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So, again I connected with CAFO at this year’s meeting May 5-6th in Orlando. It was great to be in a wonderful community of Christians thinking critically about what best practices in orphan/ foster care looks like.  And again, I left the conference convicted by these stats and all the more excited about what Our Courageous Kids could do to help!

  • Globally there are an estimated 150 million orphans

  • In the US over 400,000 children are in foster care with over 100,000 actively waiting for adoption

  • 70% of children trafficked in the US are foster youth

This is what I know for sure: these are facts few in the church ever talk about. It’s the kind of work we often leave for “someone else.” But, I am confident that God’s heart is always on side of the most vulnerable– children without protectors. The question is: what are we going to do about it?

Want a simple way to think about beginning this conversation in your church?

Each year CAFO invites churches to participate in an Orphan Sunday emphasis. It’s an important day in congregations to raise awareness about children in the foster care system in your own town. It’s a great way to include those whose own stories or stories of their family have been touched by adoption. And it’s also a great day to talk about God’s desire for all of us to be adopted more fully into the kingdom of God.Home-Page-Final-16

Consider hosting Orphan Sunday on November 13, 2016. I’m excited to be preaching at Broadneck Baptist Church in Annapolis, MD this year. It’s as simple as inviting a special speaker. Talking about the foster care system and it’s needs in your community.  Or, creating a call to action. The call of orphan ministry is one we can’t ignore.

-Elizabeth

Filed Under: Why Orphan Care? Tagged With: adoption, Christian Alliance of Orphans, Christians, foster care, travel

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