OWI Garage Sale

Ordinary Women, Inc. is having a GARAGE SALE!

 

 

When:               Saturday, April 30, 2011

 

Time:                8:00 – 12:00 am

 

Where:             Judy McCoy's house

                        28651 Rancho Maralena

                        Laguna Niguel, CA 92677

 

All proceeds will benefit the OWI Orphan Program

 

 

We have general garage sale items and LOTS of BOOKS!

 

This garage sale is in conjunction with the Rancho Niguel neighborhood garage sale so there will be other garage sales in the neighborhood.

 

So come on out and see what treasures you can find!

Hope to see you April 30^th!

 

Please pass this flyer on to anyone you know who might be interested.

 

 

Ordinary Women, Inc.

Judy McCoy

(949) 233-5340

 

 

If you wish to be taken off the OWI mailing list, please reply to this email with REMOVE in the subject line and we will be happy to remove you from our contact lists.

OWI Kenya Update, March 2011

Hello Friends and Family of Ordinary Women, Inc., (OWI)

I hope this finds you well and thriving in 2011.  Our Orphan Program in Kiminini, Kenya, continues to change lives, one life at a time.  It is so exciting to watch!
 
Today, I want to introduce you to Bramwel.  He is 11 years old and is in the 5th grade.  He has two sisters, a 6th grader and a 1st grader, who are also in our Orphan Program. 

Bramwel was born in a home with the mother and father intact.  Bramwel's father was a businessman doing work throughout Kenya and Uganda.  In 2005, Bramwel's father went to Uganda for business and never returned.  Bramwel's mother doesn't know if he was killed or what happened to him.  So, Bramwel's mom was left to support herself and her three children which came to be an impossible task.  In 2008, these three children were accepted into the Orphan Program under the care of their mother.  However, in 2009, Bramwel's mother brought Bramwel and his two sisters to the Orphan Program office and left them there while she ran an errand.  She didn't return. 

In Kenya, when children are abandoned like this, they end up living on the streets.  Without the Orphan Program, it is likely Bramwel and his sisters would have been forced to live on the streets.  If these three young children lived on the streets, they would be dirty, in tattered clothes, hungry, eating out of garbage piles, with no safe or warm place to sleep, and probably addicted to sniffing glue.  Most of the street children in Kenya are addicted to glue to ward off the emotional, mental, and physical pain of living on the streets and feeling unwanted.

But this is not what happened to Bramwel and his sisters.  The Orphan Program staff and one of the supporting churches of the Orphan Program immediately went to work to try to find a temporary placement for these three precious children.  What they came up with were a few rooms at the church,  where there's a kitchen and bathrooms.  They recruited a couple of women to come in and stay with the children and take care of them.  So, they set up their "temporary house" right there at the church and made due with what they had.  They tried to locate the children's mother as well as other family members or another guardian to take them in.  All the while, the children were fed, clothed, cared for, and monitored closely by the social work staff of the Orphan Program. 

After six months, the maternal grandmother of the three children was located.  She lives in Western Kenya.  Patrick, the Director of the Orphan Program, traveled to meet the grandmother, to present the situation of her grandchildren to her, and to see if she would be interested in taking in her grandchildren with the assistance of the Orphan Program.  She was so happy to hear of her grandchildren.  She hadn't heard from her daughter or her grandchildren for years and thought they had moved to Uganda. 

Even though she is very much a senior citizen, she willingly took in her grandchildren.  Patrick went to the local school in their area and explained the situation of the children and asked that they be accepted into the school.  The Principal welcomed them in.  Bramwel now leads his class in academics and in good behavior!  He is being very successful in his life and wants to be a pilot someday. 

Bramwel's mother came back in 2010, and the social workers soon found out it was mainly for the food provided by the Orphan Program.  So the children have not been returned to her, but she visits them at the grandmother's house.     

The children's social worker, Sarah from the Orphan Program, goes to visit the children and their grandmother one time a month (as it is very far on the bus) to check on them and make sure they are being well cared for.  Sarah has built a good relationship with the grandmother who always tries to offer Sarah bananas from her garden, which Sarah takes willingly to encourage their positive relationship together.

So many lives are being changed, and none of it would be possible without you, our sponsors.  We are eternally grateful to you.  Thank you.

If you are interested in supporting one of the orphans in our Orphan Program for just $35 a month, please go to our website at www.ordinarywomen.org where you can choose your orphan from the profiles.  Or you can write to us at:

                                                          Ordinary Women, Inc.
                                                   26861 Trabuco Road, Suite E#146
                                                         Mission Viejo, Ca. 92691
 
Joining Hands for Global Change,
Darla Morfin
Ordinary Women, Inc.
Executive Director-OWI Orphan Program

If you are no longer interested in receiving emails from OWI, please put "Unscribe" in the subject line and reply to this email.  Thank you.l

March 17th TBN taping: HEALTH AND NUTRITION

Hi Friends of OWI ~

 

We thank all of you who have supported Ordinary Women, Inc. by joining us in the audience for the Trinity Broadcasting Network live tapings.  This is a wonderful way to help raise funds for the increasing cost of food for the children in the OWI Orphan Program in Kenya.

 

We ask that you join us again for the TBN taping on Thursday, March 17, 2011.

 

It's Doctor's Night!  Don't miss this opportunity to hear an interesting discussion on the topic of:

 

Health and Nutrition - taking care of the Temple of God.

The hosts:  Matt and Laurie Crouch

The guests:  Cherie Calborn (Juice Lady), Dr. Scott Hannen, Dr. Scott Morris, Dr. Eric Braverman, Dr. Edward Wagner and Dr. Edmund Chein.

 

Dr. Scott Hannen, and Dr. Scott Morris are medical doctors as well as ordained ministers.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are some answers to questions you might have:

 

Yes, I want to come – what do I need to do?

            Reply to this email to reserve seats for you and your family/friends.  There are plenty of seats so feel free to forward this email to your small groups and friends.  You will then receive directions to TBN and a reminder closer to the date.

 

How much will this cost me?

            There is no cost to you, this is a freebie!  TBN will pay OWI a $20 stipend for each person in our group that stays until the end for a group picture

 

What is the date of the taping?

            March 17, 2011   this is a Thursday – we must be seated by 5:00.

 

Where am I supposed to go?

            Trinity Broadcasting Studio, 3150 Bear Street, Costa Mesa, CA  92711 (ornate white building) a map and a reminder will be emailed to you.

            The studio is on the second floor and the security guards can direct you where to go.

            There is ample free parking through the white gates in front of the building.

 

What time should I arrive?

            We will start gathering at 4:30 and must be seated by 5:00.

The seating is first-come, first-served.

 

What if I cannot arrive until after 5:00?

            Its okay, come when you can.  You will either be seated in the studio or in the overflow room.  You will join the rest of the group afterwards for the group picture. 

 

What time does the actual taping begin?

            The actual taping will be from approximately 6:00 to 8:00

 

What if I can't make it home for dinner before the taping and I'm hungry?

            TBN has a café where you can purchase dinner, however, no food will be allowed in the studio.

 

Can I cut out early?

            Ordinary Women, Inc. will receive from TBN a $20 stipend for each person that stays until the end for a group picture, so we ask that you stay for the picture.  We will be told at the end of the taping where to gather for our picture.

 

Can I invite my friends, family and small groups?

            Absolutely!  We encourage this.  Let us know the names of your friends and family so we know approximately how many seats to reserve.

 

What If I do not have my name on the TBN list and decide to come at the last minute?

            It is no problem.  You may come to the taping even though you do not have your name on the list.  

 

Who do I contact to add or remove names from the TBN list or to ask questions?

            Feel free to call Judy McCoy at (949) 233-5340 or email info@ordinarywomen.org. 

 

We hope to see you on March 17^th!

ORDINARY WOMEN, INC.

Judy McCoy

 

If you are no longer interested in receiving emails from OWI, please put "Unscribe" in the subject line and reply to this email.  Thank you.

OWI Kenya Update, January 2011

Hello friends and family of OWI (Ordinary Women, Inc),

I hope this finds you well in the beginning of this new year. 

Our Orphan Program in Kenya continues to thrive.  OWI Kenya and the Social Workers organized a very successful Christmas party for the orphans.  It was a big celebration!  They sang songs, did presentations of poems and choruses.  They played soccer and handball together.  They ate lunch and had a cake.  The orphans were presented with their new school uniforms for this year, too.  Patrick, the Director of the Orphan Program said the orphans were so happy at their Christmas party.  Without you, the sponsors of the Orphan Program, none of this would happen.  The majority of the guardians cannot give the orphans anything for Christmas, so they are glad that OWI Kenya offers them a Christmas party, a place where the orphans know they belong, where they can celebrate Christmas together. 

Allow me to introduce you to one of our orphans, Peter.  Peter just graduated from the 8th grade in Kenya and has just received his grade on the exit exam from junior high to get into high school.  I am told that anything above a score of 240 is high and will get the child into a good high school.  Peter scored a 313!  He has high hopes and big dreams, wanting to be a doctor someday! 

Peter has not always been able to dream big though.  Peter's father was a police officer in Kenya and died in 2005 of AIDS.  This left Peter and his two older brothers to be cared for by their mother.  Their mother struggled to pay for the basic needs of food and shelter for herself and the three boys, but the oldest brother had to drop out of school in the 8th grade to earn money for the family.  All three boys were relied upon to go to the fields for day labor to make a few shillings to buy food for the family.  Peter's mother passed away in 2007 from AIDS and anemia.  This left the three boys alone.  Shortly after this, the OWI Kenya Orphan Program began, and Peter and his older brother (who is now going to be a junior in high school) were taken into the Program.  They were placed to live with their very elderly grandmother. 

Because of the Orphan Program, both Peter and his brother Paul have both thrived in the Program.  They have found a "new family" in the Program.  Their grandmother passed away in May, 2010.  This was a sad day for Peter and his brothers as well as all in the Orphan Program, as they have become a tight knit family together.  This is a lot of loss for Peter.  In spite of these losses, Peter thrives because of the support of this Program.  Peter continues to live with his older brothers, as they are of adult age. 

Peter continues to dream big as he begins his adventure into high school. 

Thank you for your ongoing support for orphans like Peter, who even while looking at adversity, can rise above and have big goals, and realize his dreams.

If you are interesting in supporting one of the orphans in our Orphan Program for just $35 a month, please go to our website at www.ordinarywomen.org where you can choose your orphan from the profiles.  Or you can write to us at:

                                                          Ordinary Women, Inc.
                                                26861 Trabuco Road, Suite E#146
                                                        Mission Viejo, Ca. 92691
 
Joining Hands for Global Change,
Darla Morfin
Ordinary Women, Inc.
Executive Director-OWI Orphan Program

If you are no longer interested in receiving emails from OWI, please put "Unscribe" in the subject line and reply to this email.  Thank you.

OWI Fundraisers

Dear Friends and Supporters of OWI:

 

We are excited to see what blessings and challenges the New Year will bring as the Ordinary Women, Inc. Orphan Program begins its fourth year of operation.  As you know, fundraising for the Orphan Program is an ongoing necessity and the contributions of our individual donors are the prime support that enables the Orphan Program in Kenya to operate.   With this in mind, we hope you will join us for the following fundraising opportunities that have been made available to us:

 

Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN)

We have been invited by TBN to be part of the studio audience at upcoming TBN live studio taping sessions in Costa Mesa, CA.  The studio tapings are on Thursday evenings February 17^th and March 17^th.  Each person that sits in the audience as part of the Ordinary Women, Inc. group earns OWI $20 which is paid by TBN.  There is no cost to you to attend the taping - just sit back, enjoy the experience and be blessed.  

 

If you think you might be interested in attending the TBN tapings, have questions about the evening, or would like more information regarding the subjects of these tapings, please reply to this email. 

 

ORDINARY WOMEN, INC.

Judy McCoy

(949) 233-5340

 

If you are no longer interested in receiving emails from OWI, please put "Unsubscribe" in the subject line and reply to this email.  Thank you.

 

 

OWI Kenya Update, December 2010

Hello Friends and Family of OWI (Ordinary Women, Inc.),

 

As we reflect upon this Christmas season and all we have to be thankful for, I can't help but thank God for the OWI Orphan Program (OP) in Kenya.  Even though most of us live across the globe from this program, your sponsorships and prayers are making a difference in these precious orphans' lives.

 

I want to write this month about a fourteen year old girl named Risper.  Risper started in the OP at the beginning of the program in January, 2008.  She is HIV+.  She contracted HIV/AIDS from her mother who died from it.  Risper's mother contracted the disease from Risper's father who was a refugee from the Congo.  He returned to the Congo, and they don't know if he is alive today.  

 

Through our program, family members agreed to take Risper into their home.  Risper had not been getting medication at all for HIV/AIDS before the OP.  After being placed in the OP, she started going into Kitale (about a twenty five minute bus ride from Kiminini) to a treatment center to receive free medication from the government.  However, because of the stigma in Kenya of HIV and the lack of education on how the illness is contracted, the guardian family was treating Risper like an outcast.  She wasn't allowed to play or be around the other children in the home for fear that she would give them the illness.  And Risper continually got sick because the family didn't give her the medications as prescribed.  So, after attempted trainings with the guardians and no change for Risper in the home, the social workers of the OP found a boarding school that Risper could attend where a nurse would monitor Risper's medication and health.  Because of the OP, she was able to be placed in such a school and a positive living environment.  

 

During the school breaks, Risper returned to her guardian home, and Patrick, the Director of the OP, visited her and her guardians to work on building their relationship.  Through their hard work and diligence, and through the ongoing HIV/AIDS education provided by the OP, the guardians' attitude toward Risper has completely changed.  They no longer stigmatize her.  They accept her, they accept her illness, they allow her to play with the other children in the home.  They are taking her in as one of their own.  This is truly a miracle.  And we have been fortunate enough to watch it unfold. 

 

Risper is no longer at the boarding school.  She doesn't need to be.  She stays at her guardians' home and goes to school at the local day school.  She goes monthly to Kitale to the treatment center for her HIV medications, and she takes them as prescribed.  She recently had a rash from taking her medications, so the guardians took her to the hospital to get the proper treatment.  She received it, took her medication for the rash, and is healing from it.  

 

This is another way that the OWI Kenya Orphan Program is leading the way for cultural change in Africa.

         

If you would like to give an extra gift during this holiday season that will help us pay the orphan food bill or for boarding school tuition costs for the orphans, please send your tax-deductible donation to the address listed below or go to our website and make a donation using paypal. 

 

If you are interested in supporting one of the orphans in our Orphan Program for just $35 a month, please go to our website at www.ordinarywomen.org and you can choose your orphan from the profiles.  Or you can write to us at:

 

                                                                                     Ordinary Women, Inc

                                                                            26861 Trabuco Road, Suite E#146

                                                                                   Mission Viejo, Ca. 92691 

        

 

Joining Hands for Global Change,

 

Darla Morfin

Ordinary Women, Inc.

Executive Director- OWI Orphan Program

 

If you are no longer interested in receiving emails from OWI, please put "Unsubscribe" in the subject line and reply to this email.  Thank you.

OWI Kenya Update, November 2010

Hello family and friends of OWI (Ordinary Women Inc.),

 

Thanksgiving, what a wonderful season.  As a culture, this is a time that we stop and reflect about what we are thankful for.  And we have so much to be thankful for.   

 

I want to share a story of one of our orphans and the gratefulness she and her mother have for our program.  Her name is Rael.  Rael is number four out of seven siblings.  Rael has Marfan's Syndrome, which is a connective tissue disorder.  The connective tissue is weakened, which affects the tendons, the cartilage, and the major arteries in the body.  A person with Marfan's Syndrome is usually tall, has long legs and arms, long fingers, and poor vision.  Rael's father was a police officer and died of heart disease in 2004 because of complications from his Marfan's Syndrome.  Marfan's Syndrome is passed down generationally. 

 

The passing of Rael's father left Rael's mother in a very difficult situation.  She was struggling to provide for the basic needs of her children with her job of going to the marketplace and buying and selling vegetables.  She had to make some very difficult decisions like not sending her children to school and finding other places for her children to stay.  Two of Rael's older siblings had to drop out of school.  And with Rael's condition of Marfan's syndrome, Rael had difficulty with her eyesight.  Rael needed eye surgery, but her mother was unaware of this as she was struggling to provide the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter for her children.  Ignorant of the symptoms of Marfan's syndrome, Rael's mother thought Rael was rude, lazy, and slow, and she blamed Rael for being a difficult child.  Rael had dropped out of school and was staying with her grandmother.  Rael's future looked very bleak until she was placed in the Kenya OWI OP (Orphan Program). 

 

Since Rael was placed in the OP two years ago, she and her siblings have returned to the safety and security of their mother's home.  Rael's mother is provided with food every month for Rael which is part of the support offered by Rael's sponsor, so Rael and her mother don't have to worry about how Rael is going to eat every day.  Through extra financial gifts, Rael has gotten the eye surgery needed so now she can read her textbooks.  Also, Rael's social worker in the OP has educated her mother on Marfan's syndrome, so she understands Rael's symptoms and behaviors better now.  Because of Rael's low self-esteem from Marfan's syndrome, her social worker has provided encouragement by reminding her that Abraham Lincoln and Mary, Queen of Scots (1542) both had Marfan's syndrome and yet did powerful things in their lives.

 

Rael has returned to school.  She is now seventeen years old and is in the eighth grade.  She is studying for her exams which she needs to pass to go on to high school.  It looks hopeful that she will enter high school next year.  Her goal in life is to become an Optometrist because she wants to help people with their eyes as she has been helped.        

 

Each month at the guardian day in the OP, Rael's mother is one of the first guardians there to show her gratitude to this program.  She is so thankful and grateful she has her children living with her again, that she can provide for their basic needs, and that Rael has gotten the eye surgery she needed.

 

I thank God for you, our sponsors, encouragers, supporters.  Without you, the OWI Orphan Program in Kenya would be non-existent.  You are making a life changing difference in these childrens' lives.  Thank you!  To you, we are very grateful!  If you would like to give an extra gift during this holiday season that will help us pay the orphan food bill or for school uniforms for the orphans, please send your tax-deductible donation to the address listed below or go to our website and make a donation using paypal. 

 

If you are interested in supporting one of the orphans in our Orphan Program for just $35 a month, please go to our website at www.ordinarywomen.org and you can choose your orphan from the profiles.  Or you can write to us at:

 

                                                                                     Ordinary Women, Inc

                                                                            26861 Trabuco Road, Suite E#146

                                                                                   Mission Viejo, Ca. 92691 

        

 

Joining Hands for Global Change,

 

Darla Morfin

Ordinary Women, Inc.

Executive Director- OWI Orphan Program

 

If you are no longer interested in receiving emails from OWI, please put "Unsubscribe" in the subject line and reply to this email.  Thank you.