About

How Nebraska 117 started

Tim and Jen Bowes have been involved in the child welfare system since 2007. They felt a calling from the Lord to become a foster family. For 7 years, they served as foster parents and provided care to vulnerable children in the Omaha area. With the adoption of the youngest three children, the Bowes’ let their foster care license expire and they celebrated as a new forever family of eight!

Even though they were not fostering any longer, the Lord had planted a seed in the Bowes’ hearts that would take several years to blossom. In 2018, the Bowes’ attended a training with Promise 686 with the intent to bring back a foster family support model to implement in their community. In 2019, an informal movement began to support local foster families with ‘Care Teams’ - a small group of people that support foster families in practical and tangible ways. Over the next several years and with the assistance of many volunteers, 20 Care Teams for foster families were created. The positive impact that it had on the foster family, the foster children and the child welfare workers was undeniable. During the Coronavirus Pandemic of 2020, Nebraska 117 was officially formed. A non-profit with its name taken from Isaiah 1:17, Nebraska 117 exists to ‘take up the cause of the fatherless’ and partner with the local faith community to support foster families.

Nebraska 117 is an affiliate ministry of a national organization using a family advocacy model that has been proven in 27 states and 1,300 churches.