According to a local newspaper at the
time, L. W. Larson, a blacksmith from Loomis, was without his wife and found he
was unable to care for his daughters. The three girls were brought to the
pastor with a request that he provide for their care. Since Nordin was a
bachelor, he enlisted the help of his mother, Mrs. Lars Nordin. It soon became generally
known that they took in destitute children and orphans, and consequently
received additional applications. In
over a year the number of children increased from three to nineteen, with eleven
boys and eight girls.
Nordin, originally from Skultuna,
Västmanland, Sweden, was converted to faith during his youth and began to
preach at age twenty. When he arrived to America, he joined the Free Mission work.
His mother, Anna Stina, and father, Lars, immigrated in 1884, settling in
Phelps County. The Free Mission church at Phelps Center had been established in
1880 by Fredrik Franson who along with burgeoning Free Mission Friends drew
upon the Swedish Pietism of P. P. Waldenström and American Revivalism of D. L.
Moody.
When the home incorporated in 1889, the
board included such members as: J. G. Princell and John Martenson of Chicago, Axel
Nordin, John Dahlström, and several highly respected citizens of Phelps County.
The home was incorporated with the understanding that any homeless child of any
race or religious faith would be admitted. The home’s early history titled Hågkomster och Minnen (Recollections
and Memories) reported that Nordin knew that such an undertaking would require
effort and sacrifice and that the education of the children entrusted to his
care came with great responsibility. This work was “not the management of
perishable things or temporal capital, but the care of eternal souls whose
formation shaped essentially who they would become then, as well as in the
future. To undertake such an exceedingly great responsibility before God and
humanity was not to be taken lightly.”
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| Mary Johnson Norlen |
In 1890 the home continued after Nordin accepted
a call to become pastor of the Oak Street Free Mission, now First Evangelical
Free Church, in Chicago. Miss Mary
Johnson (1850-1927), affectionately known as “Tant Mary,” came from the Windy
City to assume responsibility as the housemother. She was assisted by others
including Charles Norlen whom she married. The Norlens themselves adopted two children,
Jennie and Reuben.
The orphanage was designed to be a
safe and healthy environment— an alternate home for distressed children. Most of them came from where “hardly a ray of
human love and affection was known.” The children often arrived “dirty, clothed
in rags, and devoid of humane treatment.” It was reported:
They
have perhaps a father in their life, but he consumes everything he earns and
then wastes everything he possesses, and moreover, when he comes home, he is a
terror to his family. … They have perhaps a mother, but because of sorrow and
hardship, she has become so overwhelmed that she has hardly a trace of motherly
instinct left. … O, the poor children that are raised in such homes! What can we
expect will become of them? How bleak is the future for these small, innocent
creatures! Should not philanthropy’s (människokärleken,
love of humankind) sunlight displace the dark, heavy clouds that hang over
these troubled homes, ready to crush so many of their futures?
The Free Mission Friends who
supported this work maintained a theological view of social obligation in this
world and eschatological hope for the
world to come. In light of the
circumstances that “put innocent children in the most horrific distress,
without homes and without care” and in “hearing the heart-rending cries for
help until the blood curdles in one’s veins,” they were prompted to ask: “Why
all this suffering? Why all this sin? Why such neglect?”
Nordin and the staff who followed him
were saddened as they witnessed extreme poverty alongside luxuriance, and wondered:
“How can some people so completely forget the needs of others? For, from one man ‘[God] made of one blood all the nations of men,
that they should inhabit the whole earth.’” Like earlier Pietists whose sense
of social obligation was shaped by the Bible, these Free Mission Swedes believed
it was their responsibility to care for God’s creation, and asked, “Should we
not all be struck by the Master’s words: ‘For I was hungry and you gave
me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a
stranger and you did not invite me in…Whatever you did not do
for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”
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| Personnel of the Orphans' Home |
In contrast to Jesus’
words of warning, the home’s staff held to the conviction that they were “here
on earth to protect and care for each other.” They thought that to neglect this
responsibility would bring fearful consequences. They held that everyone would “give
an account at the judgment.” And yet they looked forward to Jesus’ second coming,
saying: “Come soon, come soon!” In essence, they viewed Jesus’ return in glory as
“a day of rejoicing for many,” but also a day of “woe to those who will be held
accountable for their neglect!”
When Nordin presented his plan for the
children’s home at the Free Mission’s meeting at Phelps Center in 1889, it was
received with great interest. Since no
orphanage existed among the Swedish free-church denominations in America at the
time, the need was easily recognized. The Free Mission preachers from different
parts of the country pledged their support, and interest continued among their
churches as well as other Swedish-American denominations. Although the home was supported mostly by
Swedes, the doors were open to every needy child as long as room and funds
permitted. At times there were “twelve to fifteen children of [other] foreign
nationality.”
From the beginning, the primary objective
of the home was “to be a Christian home”—a home that surrounded the children
with Christian influence. Therefore, the staff was generally comprised of those
“who professed and proved to be Christians.” With such close proximity to the
Free Mission church in Phelps Center—just five minutes away—the children attended
Sunday school and occasional preachers’ meetings. Regarding the children, it
was reported:
Not
a few have given their hearts to God, and profess faith in Christ. It is certainly
great to see human beings saved from temporal suffering and destruction, but
how much greater is it to see them saved eternally. Temporal life and happiness
are valuable enough but do not compare with eternal life and happiness. How
beautiful it is to hear the children’s testimonies when they say they will live
for Jesus and obey him. We believe, too, that while seeds planted in the
children’s minds may soon be forgotten and we may not see the long-awaited
harvest as soon as we would like, the seeds will sooner or later bear fruit.
When we have sown and watered, have we done our part; God makes it grow.
Clearly,
the home not only observed the mandate to care for others but also the mandate
to proclaim the good news of Jesus, keeping in view the Pietist principle of
personal conversion.
The Christian Orphans’ Home sought
the children’s safety and wellbeing, much like the biblical concept of shalom, often translated as peace but
includes wholeness or holistic health of body and soul, and living in harmony with
God and fellow man. From the beginning, the home was to be a “life-saving
institution” (räddningsanstalt).
Sometimes it was not mostly orphans
who needed protection and care but defenseless children, victims of domestic violence.
One such child had come to the home after having been mistreated by the father.
It was noted: “The child would scream with all its might whenever a man came in
the vicinity.” In light of the home’s purpose, the early history records:
What
a contrast between what things should and could be, and how they are! A
happy
home is the best imitation on earth of heaven, while an unhappy home is the
extreme opposite. To escape from such a “home” and enter a Christian orphanage is
a benefit to these little ones… Therefore, a great deal of insight and
understanding is required in order to lead and nurture the minds of these
children in the right direction, and in this manner, we pluck the weeds that
have taken root and started to grow, and replace them with what is wholesome
and good.
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| Girls at the Christian Orphans' Home |
During its years of operation the home purchased
240 acres of land, erected and expanded its dormitory, and added other buildings
including a school. In 1926, it relocated to a new facility west of Holdrege
and changed its name to the Christian Children’s Home. The work continued until
1954 when growth of the foster care system in Nebraska enabled an alternative
setting for the care of homeless and abused children.
Between the years 1888 and 1954, it is
estimated that the home welcomed over 1,100 children. While some were residents
briefly, others grew there to adulthood. The facility has continued until today
as Christian Homes Care Community, providing nursing care and assisted living to
senior adults.
The Christian Orphans’ Home remains
an example of a theologically informed and socially engaged Pietism. This
continued through the early decades of the twentieth century when American Fundamentalism
was separating social action from the Christian life and focusing almost
exclusively on “spiritual” matters. Yet during this period and afterwards, the
Christian Children’s Home practiced a faith that proclaimed the gospel in word
and deed. This charity on the Nebraska prairie is an example of what it means to
love God and neighbor.
