Life Articles
Today I Made A Sign
By: Judi Clarke
Today I created a sign for the door at work that made my heart heavy. It said, “Due to financial concerns, Living Hope Women's Center is temporarily closed. We are very sorry and will miss you during this temporary time. We would appreciate your prayers. Thank you.”
Finances are tight all over. Everyone is feeling the pinch. Here at Living Hope Women's Centers our finances are at a level critically low enough to force the drastic measure of temporarily closing our doors. Some of our staff, those who are able, are continuing to work, volunteering their time in various ways to serve this ministry.
As a staff member, I understand the hardship that going without a paycheck is to our employees, myself included. But what saddens my heart the most is my concern for our clients. We provide so much to our clients! It's not just the material help we provide in the way of diapers, quality baby clothing and maternity items, bought essentially for free with “Mommy Money” and “Daddy Dollars". It's the valuable education we provide that helps them develop better parenting skills and teaches them how to better invest in their children's upbringing, creating strong, healthy families.
Our mission statement is a powerful one: “Assisting men and women in making choices that REMOVE obstacles, BUILD strong families and HONOR life.”
After I made the sign, I called a young pregnant couple who had an appointment for classes today, telling them we were closed for a time. They are a sweet couple, so eager to learn all they can about their coming baby and about being good parents. They come regularly to classes and are starting to look around our Baby Boutique. I hated to have to cancel on them. I told them to keep checking with us because we certainly hope this closure will not last.
As I left the center, I saw a client getting back into her car after reading our sign. She is a beautiful, young single gal who first came to us shy and scared, having just learned she was pregnant. We have stood beside her and walked along with her for nine months. She brought her new baby in recently so we could meet him. Today she wanted to take a class. Not because she needed to earn more Mommy Money to buy something. She has plenty of our internal ministry money saved up and said she's doing OK in her diaper supply. She just wanted to take a class because of the valuable information she gains from them. As she left she said she would be praying for us because what we offer is so good.
Later in the day I ran into another client in a store. She'd gone to the center and seen our sign. She is a single mom with four children, one of whom is a precious baby. We saw her through her pregnancy, too, and walked with her as she freed herself from the lingering ties to an abusive situation. It's tough, her situation on her own. Our ministry has helped her make ends meet and provide for the needs of her new baby. Our ministry has given her support and love, strength and hope. She has been exposed to priceless information that is helping her parent not only her young baby but also her older children. She has told us the support she's received from Living Hope Women's Centers has meant so much to her.
But our centers all have signs on their doors today. We are closed.
Temporarily. We are determined to get through this. We are praying hard. And we are asking for help. We understand the valuable partnership we have with our donors. Our donors have a heart for our clients, too. Our donors have a passion for saving the unborn from being disposed of as a mere inconvenience. Therefore they give to us. It is an outstanding partnership, between donors and us. We cannot minister to our clients without our donors. Our donors cannot minister to our clients without us. We are the hands and feet and voices of the ministry meeting face to face with scared and needing clients, but our donors are the foundation upon which we can serve.
Will you pray with us? Daily even? For a renewal of commitment and giving to this cause, the cause of the unborn, the cause of strengthening families, the cause of “assisting men and women in making choices that REMOVE obstacles, BUILD strong families and HONOR life."
To make a donation: visit http://www.womenscpc.org/ and click on the “donate” button. A gift of any amount will help us get back to work helping those in crisis pregnancies choose life. Thank you!
Lynnette Carter
Executive Director
Living Hope Women’s Centers
1000 E. Huning St.
Show Low, AZ 85901
(928) 537-9032 office
(928) 245-3271 cell
