“The Lord has done great things for us,  and we are filled with joy.”

These children joined the service in 2018 in the villages of Ashnin and Bani Ahmed

Over the course of 6 years, through our children’s service program, which includes education and the spiritual and health program, these children received many spiritual and social lessons, we spent together Times of prayer, education, play and sometimes painful times such as the covid period and the lack of meetings،،

And now the time has come to start practical life, we pray for each of them in his life that God will work with them and always be in success.

Our dream is to see child abuse end completely in the villages where we serve, and eventually Egypt and the world. The heart of Jesus was and is to show children they are valued and loved, not exploit them or harm them. And so, one of our missions at Our Children/Awladna is to teach both children and their parents about what is right/wrong when it comes to child s*xual abuse.

We have been working diligently over the last year to train up our volunteers across our 6 villages, and our staff, to teach children about this matter, and in the correct ways. We were thrilled to launch a campaign initiative this month, where we traveled to all 6 villages and hosted gatherings to make these children aware that their body is theirs to care for and protect.

Our staff, volunteers and doctors did an amazing job of reaching 1200 children! This included children from our program, but also many other children from the villages. They used games, shows, visuals and paper worksheets packets to teach the children that absolutely no one should touch them in their private areas. And that if anyone does, the children must go tell their parents about this right away.

Continue to join us in praise and prayer for these children! Praise the Lord that we reached 1200 children about this subject matter — a topic that is highly hidden and unspoken in Egypt. Pray that each child will remember this teaching and will go to a safe adult if it happens to them. And pray that God would end this sin amongst these villages and bring protection, joy and safety to each and every child!

We continue to invest in the fathers of the children in our sponsorship program. Many of the children suffer emotionally and physically due to fathers treating them in unhealthy and un-Christlike ways. We knew as we helped the children that long term change would only come if we helped their fathers (and mothers) as well.

For the last few years, in some of the villages we are able to host “Fathers Meetings.” During these meetings that we encourage (but don’t require) the fathers to attend, our male leaders speak with them about parenting, what are the right ways to father a child, and help them see that what is “culturally acceptable” is not what is acceptable to God.

To our continuous amazement, God works and opens their hearts and minds to hearing what we have to teach them and show them. Just recently, in Ashnin village (our first village we started serving in), we opened up the opportunity for the fathers to share with us what this time together has done for them, changed in their lives or helped their family. Here’s what a few of them shared:

• Mr. S., daughter in grade 5 now – He shared that he knows that kids are a gift from God, but he didn’t take the responsibility. When he was hearing that in a meeting where we taught ” how to deal with your kids,” you must be their friend and love them more, it changed his perspective on his responsibility as a father.
• Mr. Sh., daughter in first year prep – He shared with us that the meetings and teaching are very helpful especially for his anger control. His elder daughter was in the last year of preparatory school and he was very angry with her about her first term exams results. But in the second term, after being taught in these meetings, he changed his attitude and he started to encourage her. He said to her, “you did your best; I’m so proud of you.”
• Mr. A., daughter in grade 5 – He shared that his relationship improved with his wife and kids.
• Mr. M. – He shared that in his opinion, helping his wife in home chores was not his business. But after the meetings, he learned that helping is his responsibility.
• Mr. S., daughter in first year prep – He shared that the teaching was very helpful personally and said, “I must catch what I missed.”
• Mr. M. – He shared that, “Before the meetings, I was disappointed, but now I started self-learning, especially on the anger topic.”
• Mr. S.– He shared that he was hitting his kids before and now he stopped hitting them and tries to be their friend.

These mothers dream of a new future for their families, one where they can contribute an income for the family. And as opportunities come, we jump on the chance to give them trainings in trades that can turn into job and micro business income. Every small step toward independence is a huge step out of poverty for these families.

In partnership with the Synods (Heads of the Evangelical Church in Egypt), we started a training in Zawyet Sultan village with 23 mothers from our program this summer. They are learning tailoring and hair dresser training to be enabled to start their own work! It’s a wonderful blessing and we pray it is fruitful for them and their families. Pray with us!

A few times a year, we provide the children with some extra clothing to help them in different seasons, like winter and summer. Christmas is always a special time to have them come and pick out a few items from our supply and see the smiles on their faces as they receive Christ’s love in such a tangible way. We also take time in this special season of Christ’s birth to have a real celebration with them as a group in each village. Thank you for making these moments and these gifts possible through your regular sponsorship! Merry Christmas!

We are thrilled to announce that all 160 of the children across 3 of our villages are fully literate! Our normal program includes giving the children who are illiterate extra tutoring and help to learn to read and write Arabic. We have seen steady progress, but it has also been slow.

However, this summer, we were able to focus on this and give extra time and resources towards these children, helping them jump over the hurdle of illiteracy. By the end of the summer, we were thrilled to experience every single one of these children reading and writing! Praise God that they can now start the school year ready to learn and be able to read their Bibles as they go to their discipleship classes.

All 210 children in our sponsorship program now have their new school supplies and books for the year and they are smiling big! Through your sponsorship, we provide supplemental books for their education lessons and much needed school supplies that their families cannot afford.

If you would like to learn more about sponsorship and/or become a sponsor, click here: http://i19.14f.mywebsitetransfer.com/index.php/donate/.