farragutpress

Childhood hardships inspire Kingdom Guardian

Local woman seeks $ to help make a happy Xmas for children’s home

September 18, 2024 by Alan Sloan

Forced to grow up without parental support as a teenager, Lucille Casillas-Bowers of West Knox County developed a heart for underprivileged children and teenagers.

Her focus, through Kingdom Guardian, is making Christmas a happier time for children and teenagers alike — namely at Smoky Mountain Children’s Home in Sevierville.

“I started in 2015, and I do 150 Christmas stockings for the group home and for foster families there,” Casillas-Bowers said of combining necessary items with small, personal gifts in each stocking.

As with so many things in life, the public’s financial support is vital to her meeting annual holiday goals.

“I am just one person, and I started the organization Kingdom Guardian 10 years ago,” Casillas-Bowers said. “I felt led to provide children in the children’s home with Christmas stockings and also help families provide Christmas stockings and a few gifts at Christmas time.”

Even with financial support, Casillas-Bowers’ task can be challenging.

“I struggle with tremendous health issues, like with physical health and just pain, and I suffer a lot,” she said. “So I don’t have a 9-to-5 job and I didn’t want to go and apply for disability.”

Most importantly, “I really felt God calling me into this,” Casillas-Bowers said. “I was a teenager and I lived in group homes (in Indiana). And I remember at Christmas time that Christmas would roll around, and it just felt like the teenagers were forgotten. We just felt sadness every Christmas.

“I remember we got a hair brush and toothbrush and toothpaste, and that was something we needed. But we just felt forgotten,” she added. “And it didn’t feel good.”

Of all Christmases through her teen years, “I had maybe two or three that I could have good memories of,” Casillas-Bowers said. “I just remember that feeling because it wasn’t just me this time.

“I was used to me feeling disappointed every Christmas growing up, but when I looked around (at the group home), I’d see my friends hurting, I’d see the other girls sad,” she added. “So that stuck with me.

“I ended up running away from the other group home that I was in when I was 16.”

Casillas-Bowers ended up in Tennessee, in Maryville, “and I remember spending a Christmas with a family that took me in,” she said with emotion in her voice. “And the woman that took me in, she gave me a Christmas stocking, and she bought me Christmas gifts — and the stocking was filled.

“And I just remember how excited I was being a teenager, a 16-, 17-year-old getting my first Christmas stocking,” she added. “I felt loved, and it was just the most wonderful feeling.”

Her adopted Maryville mother “handmade me a Christmas stocking with my name on it,” Casillas-Bowers recalled. “It was just absolutely a beautiful memory.’

However, her health issues began taking root.

“I had to end up removing my colon, and I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis in my back, and I had a spinal infection,” Casillas-Bowers said. “I just went through so much.”

However, “the Lord put it on my heart” to help children who rarely, if ever, would otherwise enjoy Christmas, she said. “He’s like, ‘I want you to do Christmas stockings for children — and the children in the children’s home.’”

At first, “I was like, ‘No, I don’t think I can do that,’” Casillas Bowers recalled. “… I’m just not able to do that because I was dealing with a lot of anxiety and stress because of what I had gone through. (But) I knew it was God” wanting her to help children. “And I said, ‘Ok, God, if you will provide for me, I will do this.’”

However, “I went to several people asking for donations and help, and I was turned down by everybody,” Casillas Bowers said about her initial failure. “... But it was obvious God didn’t want me to go through a church. He wanted me to do this on my own.”

Turning point

A local prominent real estate developer, Doug Horne of Farragut, “is who I went to first,” Casillas-Bowers said (Horne is owner of Republic Newspapers, Inc., parent company of farragutpress).

“I went to Doug Horne and I was like, ‘I’m doing this for Christmas stockings; Would you mind donating?’” she added. “He donated. And that first year, I got it done.”

Though needing Horne’s help for the second Christmas, “‘‘I promise you I’m not going to rely on you every year for financial backing, I’m going to grow.’” she recalled telling him. “‘I’m going to do this.’

“But by the third year, I kept my word,” added Casillas-Bowers, who was able to reach out at large to get the necessary funds.

“I had partnered, finally, with All Smiles Family Dental. For the past 10 years, they have been providing toothbrushes and toothpaste for the children’s home and the families in need.”

The next step? “I went out and I got flyers and I started a Facebook page, and I just really started fighting for this,” Casillas-Bowers said. “I ended up getting donations from people. I did a little GoFundMe and little things like that.”

Extra help, growth

As for storage, “I had everything stored in my living room. I was hand-decorating the stockings by myself, doing all the Christmas cards by myself,” she said, while also getting help from husband, Caleb Bowers, and their six children.

“My children helped me. I had small children, and they helped me throughout the years,” added Casillas-Bowers, who had to secure a storage facility to meet demands.

To give financial and/or volunteer assistance to Casillas-Bowers and Kingdom Guardian, call her at 865-693-3804.