“Aged Out” Orphans

As orphans turn 18 where do they go? That has been a compelling question, and now our prayers have been answered.

In Nigeria the Religious Freedom Coalition does not operate in a vacuum; we work with other ministries there as well. During the January mission and inspection trip to Nigeria we met with several other ministry leaders who also assist displaced Christians.

I brought several of those leaders to visit our orphanage and introduced them to the children and the staff. There were offers of assistance for those aging out of the orphanage.

Because of that cooperation, we have at least a temporary solution to help the orphans who are aging out of the orphanage. For now, seven of the aged-out orphans will move to Makurdi and serve in apprentice programs inside ministry operated businesses there.

But this is a temporary solution for only seven of the young adults. There are eleven more who will age-out of the orphanage this year, and there will be more in the future.

We just can’t turn 18-year-olds with no real job training out onto the streets. They had no families to support them and no source of income while they were in the orphanage. Job training and apprenticeships are a must!

We can do this!

The arrangement for seven of our graduates gives us time to plan for the annual graduation of even more young adults.

We have located an unfinished house near the orphanage that we can take over and refurbish and have plenty of space to house and train young adults. I am waiting for estimates to make this possible.

Our goal is for our graduates to stay in Jos. Giving up on Plateau State and handing it over to Muslims by moving everyone south to Benue State is the wrong thing to do. Jos needs to become a strong Christian enclave. Raising up strong new Christian leaders is the response we should have and that is the goal!

Please pray for those young men and women who are going off from our orphanage to represent the Lord in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, younger orphans are being escorted to our door because of the reputation of the orphanage.

We can’t take more orphans because the orphanage is functional, but it is not completed! To finish out the buildings, including the new chapel, will cost 46,738,196 Nigerian Naira. That comes to a little over $63,000 USD. That amount sounds like a lot, but for the results we will get it is a relatively small.

William J. Murray, President