Our Father’s Children

History

Darren & Melinda’s Story

It is hard to remember what life was like before Our Father’s Children.

When our church children’s minister approached us in 1997 about directing a summer camp for kids in foster care, we definitely had some doubts and hesitations. Do we have the time? Where do you even have camp? Who would come alongside us to serve? How do you fund-raise for something like this? However, after a lot of conversation and prayer, we attended Director’s Training in 1998. At that time, we thought we would only direct camp for 5 years, but God had other ideas.

In December of 2004, Melinda left her teaching position. In May of 2006, Darren left his corporate job. God led these big steps in our lives and provided everything we needed: financing, steadfast volunteers, prayer warriors, and the passion to continue serving our campers.

We can now look back over 25 years of serving and loving abused and neglected children of North Texas. It is impossible to express what this ministry means to us and how it has so radically changed our lives. This mission remains our passion: it’s what we think about, pray for, plan for, dream about every single day. God has very clearly shown us both that this ministry is in His plan for us! Our hope is that it will continue for years to come, and the impact to the kids we serve will be life changing and life giving.

Timeline

June 1999

The first RFK Camp!

We launched our first ever Royal Family Kids camp in east Texas.  We served 72 kids that year – over 25 years ago

 

December 2003

Formed Non-Profit

We officially formed Our Father’s Children in 2003 in hopes of serving more kids

February 2004

First weekend retreat

We held our very first retreat, Onward & Upward, in 2004 and served 39 teens

July 2006

Second RFK Camp

We added our 2nd summer of RFK in 2006 and served 81 campers

May 2007

1st Summit Retreat

We held our 1st high school retreat in 2007 and served 14 teens

October 2012

Camp Akiva

We officially purchase Camp Akiva in 2012; God provided the perfect space for us

August 2016

3rd RFK Camp

We added our 3rd summer session of RFK in 2016 and served 62 campers

April / Nov 2021

1st RISE Retreat

We held our first gender-specific retreats, service 19 boys in April & 19 girls in November

2022

422 in 2022

Still recovering from the pandemic, we served 422 campers across all programs in 2022

Current

Our Team

We currently have 9 full time staff; 4 at our NRH office and 5 at Camp Akiva

Read our stories

Our camps and retreats are filled with stories. Stories of hope, fun and the love of God.

Our Father’s Children exists to provide HOPE to children of abuse and neglect in Texas, ages 6-18, in week-long camp settings and weekend retreats. We recruit volunteers from a variety of cities, churches and organizations who have a heart for offering these kids hope in Jesus Christ. Whether as a volunteer or donor (or both), we would love to have you join us in providing hope to these kids!

Address

6250 N.E. Loop 820, NRH, TX 76180

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Phone

817.788.2360