Great needs, great blessings:
New Hope for Murrow Indian Children’s Home
Supporting the Murrow Home through National Ministries
Financial donations may be sent to National Ministries (Attention Mary Ann Helsel), P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, Pa. 19482-0851, with a notation "Murrow Home - Targeted Gift."
For information about Volunteers In Mission, contact Victoria Goff, coordinator of Volunteer Services, at 800-ABC-3USA, ext. 2449.
Through White Cross, church members provide urgently-needed school supplies and personal care items for the children. See www.abc-whitecross.org
National Ministries’ Mission Service Projects encourage churches to provide practical supplies for the Murrow Home and other ministries. Listings include baby care kits, Bibles and books, games, knitted items, quilts and more. Financial gifts of any size also are appreciated. For a Mission Service Project catalog, contact National Ministries at 800-ABC-3USA, extension 2073.
The Murrow Home was one of three 2007 Vacation Bible School mission projects sponsored by National Ministries. Director Joan Brown is a Special Interest Missionary assigned to churches in American Baptist regions of Idaho, New Jersey, Oregon, and Pacific Northwest.
For more than a century, Murrow Indian Children’s Home, in Muskogee, Okla., has been committed to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with disadvantaged Native American children. Now, renewed interest and help from concerned American Baptists and other friends has—for the time being—averted a financial crisis that forced the home to make a broad appeal for funding late last year, bringing new hope for the home and its children.
The Murrow Indian Children’s Home was founded in 1902 by an enterprising missionary and educator who began taking in orphan and homeless Native American children soon after the Civil War. Two Indian tribes later donated land for an orphanage, and concerned Baptists in the local community also gave land and buildings. The American Baptist Home Mission Society assumed full responsibility for the school in the early 1900s, and the orphanage was moved to the campus of Bacone College in 1910. Over the years, the Murrow Home has provided loving care for hundreds of abused, neglected or abandoned children.
Currently serving 22 children and youth, the home offers residential and crisis care as well as daycare for children of teen mothers. Children, many from the Creek Tribe, live in family-like cottage settings and attend local public schools or day treatment programs. The home often accepts children and youth whom state agencies have given up on, says Director Joan Brown, a commissioned American Baptist missionary who serves through National Ministries. Children are also encouraged to learn about their Native American background and culture. "Our staff is experienced and our program has a good reputation,” says Brown. “Most of all, we offer a loving, caring environment and an opportunity for the children to be more like normal children should be."
The Murrow Home depends heavily on church donations, and during the last few years, a lack of funds had become a critical issue. “Perhaps people didn’t realize how crucial the need was, in light of all the recent natural disasters and other needs in our country and around the world,” says Brown.
Just before Christmas 2006, the home was unable to accept a large sibling group because one of its residential cottages had been closed due to a lack of funds. “It broke our hearts,” Brown says. Soon afterward, the home announced that it might have to close entirely within a few months. “We wanted our friends of many years to know about our financial crisis,” she says. “People may have assumed that things were OK. But our children need stability and consistency, and at times we had to decide whether to pay staff or buy groceries.”
Once the word was out, many friends helped to spread the word about Murrow’s plight. In February, members of the Creek Tribe made a one-time gift of $100,000. According to the Rev. Marilyn P. Turner, National Ministries’ associate executive director, Program Ministries, the tribe is also considering funding construction of a much-needed community facility on land they originally donated to the home. In May, Tallgrass Broadcasting sponsored a “Radiothon” on eight area stations to publicize the home’s needs. People prayed, made financial gifts, and contributed volunteer services as well as much-needed practical items. American Baptist Homes and Caring Ministries, a program of National Ministries, has also committed resources and training assistance to the Murrow Home in the area of development and long-range planning.
A Heart for Mission Volunteers serve Murrow Indian Children’s Home
The Rev. Jack Smith and his wife, Hilda, of First Baptist Church, Dixon, Illinois, are appointed volunteer missionaries serving the Murrow Indian Children’s Home through National Ministries’ Volunteers in Mission program. The Smiths also spent several years working with Alaska Ministries and Kodiak Baptist Mission. Jack, formerly a bivocational pastor and manager of a food processing plant, handles truckloads of supplies – this summer he is supervising delivery of some 2-1/2 tons of food to the home. Hilda’s quiet and loving presence belies the tremendous energy it takes to cook for volunteer groups of all sizes. Both are committed and passionate about volunteering. “I do what I can and the Lord will take care of the rest,” says Jack, who maintains an e-mail newsletter network offering updates on the home to interested people.
“Many American Baptists have been asking about how they can be engaged in mission with the Murrow Home,” said Turner in the spring. “National Ministries has maintained a close relationship with the home through White Cross and several other avenues. While the home now has funding for the next several months, ongoing prayers, financial donations, and other forms of support are all much needed and appreciated.” .
American Baptist volunteers—individuals and church groups from Massachusetts to Minnesota—offer bright rays of hope for Murrow’s children as they give their time, love, and caring through projects as varied as cleaning, painting, leading VBS, reading to the children, or coaching a game of stickball. “People are interested in the mission and ministry of Murrow,” says Brown, who has served on the staff since 1975. “Our children’s lives are greatly enriched by American Baptist volunteers and others, and they learn about spirituality and God’s love through these caring people.” She says one volunteer from Iowa, a recent college graduate in education, recently spent six weeks at the home, helping a girl who had to neglect her own education to care for her siblings.
Many Murrow alumni return to visit the Murrow Home, wanting to look at their old rooms. A number of graduates have become “success stories,” excelling in various fields and going on to college. One young woman spent all her growing-up years at the home with her brother. Later, after moving away, she returned to Muskogee and worked at the home for several years, eventually as a case manager. After completing her college education, she became a teacher and has stayed in the local community.
Sometimes Murrow children are reunited with their parents, as in the case of two middle school-age children who rejoined their mothers in the Muskogee area. “That took a lot of coordination,” Brown says, “with the Indian Baptist Church (also on the Bacone College campus), the Creek Tribe, and others.”
Brown says these stories speak well of what American Baptists have given to the Murrow Home’s ministry. “Many blessings have come in,” she says, expressing heartfelt thanks for all American Baptists have done to help the children.
