Compassion Pregnancy Center 2008

I thought you would like to hear from one of the counselors who meet with the girls every week at the Compassion Pregnancy Center. The things that the Lord is doing in the center are amazing! I love when the plans he has are so far beyond our wildest dreams!

I thought it would be best to start at the beginning. Back a few years ago I remember sitting in church and hearing you talk about the CPC and how they were looking for women to volunteer to meet with the girls that were coming into the center. God spoke to me and told me I needed to inquire about what they needed. I made a choice not to listen and I never asked anything about the center. In time I had completely forgotten that the center even existed. Little did I know the Lord hadn’t forgotten and he was about to give me another chance to do what he was asking me to do. The Sunday that Peggy got up to talk about the center and how they needed new computers and volunteers, the Lord spoke to me again. So after the service, I went and found her so I could talk to her about the center. I told her of my past experience of being in an abusive relationship that ended in a pregnancy. We talked about some of the decisions I was faced with and how I handled them. Peggy then asked me if I had ever thought of using my past to help other girls through similar situations. We talked about the center and the services they provided there. Then she asked me to pray over what the Lord was really asking me to do. Through much prayer, I felt the Lord leading me to be a counselor and use my experiences to help others. From other conversations with Peggy I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to do that since I worked full time during the day when the center was open. When I went to Peggy to let her know what I felt I was being called to do, she informed me that they wanted to have the center open one night a week. I was so excited because that was going to work perfectly for me. I volunteered for this position expecting to help other women having no idea how much it was going to help me heal from my past!

I now have 3 clients that I see every Thursday. 1 of the 3 I have had since the center opened in the evenings. She is due in March and just got engaged earlier this week! In the 3 months that I have been seeing her we have been through many events together! We are at a point in our relationship where I am one of the first people that she calls when she needs to talk or needs advice or direction. She knows that she can ask me anything and I will be honest with her. Since coming to the center, she has started going back to church! We talk often about God and how he fits into her life and her future. She is so optimistic and willing to face any challenge she encounters! At the center, she is learning to be a strong Christian woman and to look to God for guidance in her life.

One of my other clients is new. I have seen her 3 times now not including the day she came in and took a pregnancy test. She is 17 years old and senior in high school. Her boyfriend comes with her to each visit and is also participating in our Earn While You Learn program. They both were fairly heavy smokers when they started coming to the center. One of the first lessons we did was on smoking and how it harms the baby and the mother. Since then, she has completely quit and he has cut back a lot and is on his way to quitting as well. They are very eager to learn and are like sponges every time they come in. They want to learn all they can about being good parents and caring for their baby. They also have talked about getting married and we have talked about how serious marriage is and how it shouldn’t be taken lightly. They love earning merits that they can spend in the baby shop since neither one of them has a job right now and can’t afford anything for the baby. I have talked with them about going to church and the Lord as well. They are open to talk about anything that has to do with God, but are not ready to take that next step and have a home church yet.

My last girl is personally my biggest challenge as she has been through so much stuff that I have a hard time wrapping my brain around! She is just a couple years younger then me. She has 3 kids that all live with their dads, she is pregnant now and she has had multiple abortions. The most recent was January 2008. The father of her baby now is an alcoholic and she left him but she feels so guilty about her decision. She has tossed around the idea of giving this baby up for adoption but the selfish part of her wants to keep it to “make up” for some of the bad decisions in her past. Progress with her has been slow, but she is starting to open up to me. One of my next steps with her is to have her talk to another girl that works at the LaGrange center who had given her baby up for adoption. I want to give her all the knowledge I can so that she can make the right decision for herself. She found our office while looking for the Medicare office. She had originally come in to see if we could give her directions. While she was there, the girls talked to her about the services that we offered at the center and she made her first appointment that day. The first time that I met with her, I asked her to tell me her thoughts on God. She told me that she does believe that God exists but she doesn’t think that she is worthy of anything he has to offer! She has had multiple bad church experiences. She truly believes that God doesn’t want her to go to church or have anything to do with the church. Her heart is so broken from the multiple people that have taken advantage of her. One of the only questions she has ever asked me is “What do you want from me?” When I explained to her that I wanted nothing from her, that I was there for her to take from me, she had a really hard time with that! She isn’t used to someone just being there for her, to love her and help her without expecting anything in return! By the end of our first meeting together, we both left the room crying! My heart hurts horribly for her and her situation. My prayer for her is that God will use me to show her his love and teach her how God can take something that others see as so broken and make it something so beautiful.

I look forward to Thursday every week because I can’t wait to see my clients and hear all about their weeks. The Lord has blessed me more then I could ever explain! And because I finally chose to listen to him, he also has brought me healing from the past! Praise God that he can make Broken into Beautiful!!!!!

A Changed Life – and Changing Others Too