A Child's Heart began many years ago as a vision of Jackie Cotton, an unwed mother raising her then-seven-year-old son. In this vision, she saw a party taking place in her back yard. Children were running and playing on the grass while adults talked on the deck. In an instant everything disappeared. In the quiet, she heard crying.
Seeking the source of the crying, she looked under the deck and saw three small boys of different ethnic backgrounds. A burden overwhelmed her heart so powerfully that she was moved to tears. As Jackie looked to God's Word for the meaning behind the vision, Psalm 27:10 came to mind: "If my father and mother leave me, the Lord will take me in."
Her heart was stirred to "bring these children out from under the deck, clean them off and tell them God loves them. The church and society are walking above them on top of the deck, unaware of their broken-hearted feelings of abandonment and shame."
This is when the name "A Child's Heart" came into existence, along with the urgency to seek and carry out God's plan for healing these precious families.
The plan came from the book of Nehemiah. Out of the initial jumble of images and words (broken walls...broken families), God revealed the following: Take away the shame these children live with. Confirming this was Nehemiah 2:17: "Then I said to them, You see what a bad condition we are in; how Jerusalem is a waste, and its doorways burned with fire: come, let us get to work, building up the wall of Jerusalem, so that we may no longer be put to shame."
Following this came Nehemiah's confession of sin and his admission as part of the problem. Bingo! As an unwed mother, Jackie confessed to her part in the problem and asked for forgiveness and restoration, not only for herself and her son, but for broken families throughout America. Nehemiah 1:6
The map of restoration lay in Nehemiah chapter 3. Each neighborhood rebuilt their own part of the wall. God-fearing laypeople devoted themselves to the task and helped each other. God brought the work to completion so quickly that everyone was amazed and praised Him!
A Child's Heart believes that God is calling each church body to take responsibility for rebuilding its section of the "wall"—the broken families in their neighborhood—with the stones of Christian Bible study and the mortar of weekly support groups.
A Child's Heart was incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1992.
Through A Child's Heart, various churches in Colorado Springs and Denver, as well as the Colorado Springs Salvation Army, offered "Street League," a sports-based outreach to children and youth from broken homes. Street League reached an estimated 250 children and young adults of all ethnic backgrounds during the years 1994-1999.
In 2000, Walt and Valerie Acuff, of the non-profit organization Skills for Living, granted A Child's Heart permission to adapt their international healing adult Bible study, "Building Healthy Relationships in an Unhealthy World," for children.
www.skills.org
Since the summer of 2002, A Child's Heart has been writing, piloting,and revising the material for elementary-school aged children, calling the Bible study "A Child's Heart." Mini day camps ("Camp Nehemiah") have been held in local parks with foster children. Some of the children have also been from Family Life Services in Colorado Springs, a residential program for single mothers and their children.
Our main writer has been Ernamae Weidner, a schoolteacher for 37 years and a devoted servant of the Lord. Mrs. Weidner worked with Daria Boeninger to establish a lesson format, then adapted nearly all the “Building Healthy Relationships” adult curriculum into lessons for elementary-age children, finishing 10 of the 12 sessions and adding a Foundation Session based on Psalm 1. We are honored to have had her wisdom and heart for children, and her ability to bring the kernels of the adult lessons into a children’s curriculum. Mrs. Weidner went home to be with the Lord on March 5, 2018, but her investment in the lives of children will continue through her foundational work on the “A Child’s Heart” Bible Study.
The “A Child’s Heart” Bible Study is currently being offered to churches and ministries in Colorado Springs, to use in volunteer-led weekly support groups. The series contains approximately 60 weeks of material, with about 10 more to come. Each session consists of several weeks of Bible study, with a potluck dinner party at the last meeting of each session.
We also envision using this Bible study in the context of a Christian basketball league—Street League—for boys. We will approach several ministries so that we can form a small basketball league for boys from different foster agencies and churches. The league will consist of eight or nine meetings per session. Each week everyone would study the same Bible lesson; the children and adults (parents) would then have recommended discussions together as a family during the week. We have found that a special way for families to end a session is to meet in a central location for a dinner and a review of the session. Skype/FaceTime may be used for those out of town. During that event, the children would participate in friendly competition while all the families cheered their children on.
A Child’s Heart has also begun adapting the “A Child’s Heart” Bible Study into a format called “Single Parent at Home.” The parent completes their portion of the "A Child's Heart" Bible study at home and teaches the children's portion to their children during the week. At the end of each week, the parents and children gather at the "home base" church/ministry for age-level support groups, led by volunteers, to discuss the week's lesson. After a 6-8 week session, everyone convenes for a potluck meal and review of the session. When single-parent ministries from different areas of the city all start their sessions at the same time, the potlucks can bring together all these single-parent families, offering a broader perspective and additional positive encouragement.
