The featured photo is of Barb and one of her team members in their beautiful classroom that says, “BE AWESOME” on the wall.
This is the second article in a series we are running about the local church’s involvement in the pregnancy medical clinic. In the last few months, as we have talked with church leaders all over Broward County about the unborn children who need their help and the young women who come to Hope considering abortion, we have seen a fire of enthusiasm start to build.
Some of the projects that have already taken place or are currently up and running demonstrate the creativity of people who have submitted their imaginations to the Holy Spirit. This week, I want to tell you about a small church who had a big dream and put it into action.
Calvary Chapel of Coral Springs pastor’s wife, Barb Reul, heard about a program called YouMom when she was living in Palm Beach County. After moving to Broward, she contacted us and asked if we offered classes for pregnant girls or new moms. When we told her no, she called her women together, got counsel from the program creator in Palm Beach, and a few weeks later the first group of 7 girls started on their 8-week journey to learning how to be moms. Next week they complete their study. They have learned about prenatal nutrition, exercise, childbirth, and all things relating to pregnancy. They earn points for attending classes and after their last class, they can use their points to shop in the “Baby Store” that church members and others have stocked with all things baby.
Pictured above: the first 5 girls to graduate from the YouMom 11-week class, surrounded by the volunteers who have taught them, loved them, fed them, and showered them with gifts for the last 11 weeks!
Barb’s team is made up of about 13 women who love on these girls like they are their own daughters. They prepare a hot meal for them prior to every class. They invite the baby-daddies to come and be part of the classes, too. At the end of the class there will be a huge baby shower and each “graduate” will receive gifts – not just from church members, but from baby stores and other businesses in the community as well.
When you tell Barb what a blessing she and her women’s group has been to our clients, she tears up and says, “No, we are the ones who have been blessed.” They already have the second “semester” of classes planned and an elementary Bible Study is included this time. All of the graduates of this first group plan to move up to the next level and continue learning.!
We are watching the living church at work, and we are amazed! “Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live, not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is good. Then they can urge the younger women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.” Titus 2:3-5
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