Still Waters Children’s home
A great evil oppresses children in Egypt. Due to extreme poverty, death of a
parent, divorce, outright abandonment, and/or Common Law marriages, there are
2,000,000 children living in orphanages and on the streets in Egypt.
The tiny minority of these precious children live in orphanages and are mostly
Christian. The overwhelming majority are Muslim and live on the streets,
fending for themselves and struggling to survive. Called "street children" by
Egyptian society, they are despised by parents, the police, and business
owners.
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Ages 1-5
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Beg for money
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The most sexually abused
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Ages 6-10
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Sell goods
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Accept the sexual abuse
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Ages 11-15
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Thieves and robbers
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Prostitution
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Bear children...the next generation of the street children society
The LORD has gripped our hearts with the plight of these orphans and street
children and has given us a vision to help them. Divinely-rooted in our hearts
is to go to Egypt in Jesus’ name to build and operate children’s homes - to
love, feed, clothe, shelter, educate, and provide job training to as many
unwanted children as the LORD provides us.
The vision for Still Waters Children’s Homes (aka Waters of Comfort Children’s
Homes when translated into Arabic) is to have a campus north of Cairo, in the
Nile River Delta where clean water is most available. Water is life; most
diseases are attributable to unclean water. Between Cairo and Sadat City, the
water table is near the surface and the clay in the soil provides excellent,
natural filtering.
With ample, safe water, a children’s campus is possible. The Waters of Comfort
campus, a walled complex of buildings with adjoining farmland on approximately
five acres of land, will be home to 144-180 children, ages newborn to
independence or marriage. The campus includes housing, educational,
congregational/recreational, and vocational facilities.
Boy’s Home
A two-story, hacienda-style house with kitchen, dining,
laundry/storage, and infirmary facilities. The locking front gate will be the
only access into the home and it will open into a courtyard where the boys can
play. The home will led by an American couple and their children. Eighteen to
twenty bedrooms will provide living quarters for 72-80 boys. The older boys
will help care for the younger boys. Two bedrooms will share a common bathroom.
Girl’s Home
Identical to the boy’s home. This home will be led by another American
couple and their children and will provide housing for 72-80 girls.
Chapel/Recreational Center
A multi-purpose building that will serve as a worship center and a
recreational center for the entire campus.
Education/Vocational Building
Another multi-purpose building will house the ministry office,
educational classrooms, and vocational training facilities.
Illiteracy is a serious problem in Egypt, particularly among the street
children, as can easily be imagined, whose energies go toward surviving the day
rather than toward preparing for the future. We will provide a secondary and
primary education to all the children on campus.
The older children will receive vocational training in trades and professions
that will equip them to be productive members of Egyptian society and for
raising families.
Both literacy and vocational training are needed to break the cycle of poverty
that ravages this nation. Garden
The soil in the Nile River Delta is very fertile. Agriculture is a
primary industry in Egypt. To help feed over 150 people every day, a garden
will be planted and tended to grow vegetables.
In addition, chickens will be raised as an egg and food source.
Sports Field
An important part of children’s health is physical activity and play
time. Toward that end, a sports field will be set up between the boy’s home and
the girl’s home, thereby acting as a buffer between the two genders.
An above-ground pool will provide some fun and relief from the summer heat.
Safety will be a top priority on the Sports Field and in the waist-deep pool.
Guest House
Many people, from both outside and inside Egypt, come on short-term
mission trips to minister to the children and their American care-givers. This
building will be their housing. Farmland
For the express purpose of providing food for the children’s home and
agricultural training for the older children, the land adjoining the walled
complex of buildings will be farmed to grow grains (wheat and corn) and beans
in rotation.
A vertically integrated small agribusiness will be established to equip the
children with business skills and help to maximize the amount of bread that can
be given to the needy. Grain will be cleaned and milled and bread will be
produced by the children in a bakery in the educational/vocational building.
With sufficient yields, surplus bread and foodstuffs will be used to minister
to the street children in Cairo and to the local poor.
Shops and Food Distribution
At the point of access to the walled campus, there will be a structure
for shops and a food distribution center. Goods produced by the children in the
vocational building will be available for sale to the general public, providing
at least a small revenue stream for the children’s home.
Surplus grains and food will be distributed to the local poor in this place.
Following the vertically-integrated plan, quality food will be available to the
general public. Additionally, and if logistically and economically feasible,
grain in the form of food aid will be imported and distributed to the needy.
If the LORD sees fit to bring us more unwanted children than this campus can
accommodate, other campuses like it will be built and operated by Still Waters
Ministries.
The enormity of the task is daunting...if we were to go alone. But we do not go
alone. The LORD, our Provider Who multiplies loaves and fishes, goes before us.
He has set before us this open door and we will walk through it by faith. We
will "pray in" our needs and watch the LORD provide them so that:
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believers in Jesus Christ will be strengthened in their faith
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unbelievers will witness the power of the living God and LORD Jesus Christ to
change lives
The Word of God (Isaiah 19:19-21) promises that the LORD will do a mighty work
in Egypt in the end times. His hand is upon Egypt right now. He hears the cry
of the orphans, the street children, and the widows there. He has given the
same vision to multiple ministries in Egypt, yielding a unity of the Spirit. He
is collecting the tears of the fatherless and His answer is on the way!
Mission trip photos
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