From the Director’s Heart

Recently our entire staff was blessed to be able to attend the Care Net Conference in Atlanta. The seven of us had a great time of learning and encouragement, mixed with incredible amounts of laughter and food. Care Net is a national organization of pregnancy centers whose affiliated centers provided $63,483,392 worth of services to 872,989 women, men and families in 2017. All of this was made possible by over 28,000 volunteers and 441,000 donors. We learned a lot about corporate impact, but also about some specific steps to reach individual clients with truth. You’ll be seeing some exciting new programs in the coming months, inspired by the great workshops.

These statistics mean major impact, but most encouraging are the stories of major impact in one person’s life. Marie* came in to learn how to receive material support for her infant. She was very interested in being a good mom to her daughter. However, she was not interested in the Gospel whatsoever. Marie professed to be an atheist, as she could not believe in a God who would allow bad things to happen. She came in three months in a row for individual mentoring through our Step Up Parenting Resource program (SUPR). Each time the volunteer asked her if they could share God’s Word with her. Each time she declined. Until last week. This time the volunteer felt prompted to share about God being a Good Father, since this client really wanted to be a good parent. The client’s eyes were opened and she professed her faith in Christ as Savior. The second part of this story involves the volunteer. Sharon* had served here previously a couple of years ago and then took a year off to care for a grandbaby. Since she returned she has had multiple clients who were not very engaged (those who want “stuff” without relationship). Though Marie* had professed to be an atheist, she was very interested in being a good parent. Our volunteer used that common ground to open the door for a Gospel conversation. The young lady got saved and this encouragement saved our volunteer from stepping down.

At the conference, Dr. Tim Elmore said, “We build bridges of relationship that can bear the weight of truth.” Every day our staff and volunteers are building bridges for our clients to traverse. Join us in praying for more 2 Corinthians 5:18 opportunities, and know your partnership is providing the wood for constructing strong bridges!