Pregnancy Care Center

Pregnancy Care Center

 

 

Love life.  It really is that simple. 

I recently had the privilege of speaking with Kimberly Costello, Development Director of the Pregnancy Care Center.  I think she wore a smile the entire two hours that we spoke, a joyous grin that couldn't be pried off with a crowbar. We discussed the history, services, and events of the PCC and nestled in each was a very lively story.  Oh, how I love a good life story!  As I listened to each one, the corners of my mouth began to creep upward, and when she stepped out of the room to grab some literature, I caught myself stretching out my jaw with OHH's and AHH's. Those smile-inducing stories are reflected in the name of their most recent campaign, NOW: Hope.Help.Life.   

 

In fact, the Pregnancy Care Center is full of people with hearts to help, to give hope, and cherish life.   The PCC's mission is to provide health, wellness, and relationship education for young people facing an unplanned pregnancy, and presenting healthy relationship education in local schools to equip teens to make positive choices.   They do this through their many services free of charge:

Pregnancy Testing Program Mentoring & Enrichment Programs Ultrasound Program Healthy Relationship Programs Healthy Pregnancy Classes Parents and the Law Fatherhood Program Community/Medical Referral	Family Support Program Labor and Birth Courses Adoption Education Lactation Consulting Baby and Maternity Resources Smoke-free Babies Community Presentations Choices Project

The complete scope of these all-encompassing services are quite impressive.  Pregnancy Care Center partners with more than 50 community organizations, universities, schools, social service organizations, and foundations to meet the needs of every young woman and her family members that walk through their door.  They have served over 231,617 young people since 2000, delivered crisis intervention and medical services to 12,863 new clients, and volunteers have invested more than 440,716 service hours.  With the help of their wonderful staff, volunteers, and supporters, the PCC has been able to make a notable community impact.  Teen pregnancies have declined over 24% since 2000, and 100% of those that participated in PCC's Nutrition Education Program, have avoided low birth-weight and pre-term babies.  Over 95% of clients make a positive pregnancy choice following an ultrasound, and more than 6,100 lives have been saved.  PCC has been working passionately to reduce Community Red Flags which include:

v  Child Abuse and Neglect

v  Communicable Diseases

v  Domestic Violence

v  Homeless Children and Adolescents

v  Access to Health Care

v  Childhood Nutrition

v  Smoking During Pregnancy

v  Single Parents in Financial Distress

v  Children in Poverty

v  Illegal Drug Use

Pregnancy Care Center is definitely making a difference in our community, the proof is in the numbers.  Yet, the numbers are just a side effect, the real difference is in the lives of those that need a hand to hold, a friend to cry with and confide in, someone to reassure them that everything will be o.k.  PCC's goal is to save lives by respecting, honoring, and valuing each young woman they come in contact with.  In order to reach out to those in need, the Pregnancy Care Center has acquired a Mobile Medical Unit to connect with all those that are unable to get to the center or those that are unacquainted with the services the center offers.  The Mobile Medical Unit provides professional medical staff, pregnancy testing and ultrasounds.  The mobile unit's wheels roll through the Ozarks various days of the week, offering a direct, easily accessible center to those who need it  most.

You can help Pregnancy Care Center to continue to reach out to those that need hope, help, and life!  Find out how you can volunteer in any one of the many different positions PCC needs to fill at their Volunteer page or give financially at their Donate page.  PCC holds several events each year, find out more about their Annual Banquet coming up on April 13th. You can listen to Abby Johnson, former Planned Parenthood Director, share her story at last year's banquet by clicking here. Thanks to the Pregnancy Care Center for searching out the heartbeats that bring a smile to the soul.  You can keep up with PCC and hear about all their amazing stories on facebook.  

Find a way to get involved and love life!  Yep, it really is that simple.

Heart of the Ozarks

 

In 2004, Heart of the Ozarks was just a name whispered so clearly and unmistakably into the spirit of its future founder. I had the privilege of touring the organization's facilities with Phil Wilson, president of Heart of the Ozarks.  He was so kind to guide me and narrate as we passed through each branch of HOTO.  Today,  Heart of the Ozarks is comprised of six programs including the Hand Extended Food Pantry, Family First Services, Life A New, Freedom Recovery Services, Pass It On, and D.E.R.T.  Phil had never imagined that HOTO would encompass so many services, but each service has been formed out of a need from the local community.  It has been "The local community caring for local people" since its inception.

Our first stop was Family First, a program that supplies families with the tools necessary to cook and eat healthy while being budget conscious.  The Family First facilities are still in the works and will need additional funding or donations of expertise to finish it up.  Services include nutrition, meal planning, and cooking classes, as well as budget minded shopping exercises.  Hannah Wilson, director of Family First, works with dietitians and farmer's markets to provide information to her clients about affordably living and  eating healthy.  The classes are compromised of about eight students, and Family First is hoping to work with chefs and nutritionists to provide cooking demonstrations as well as field trips to local farms.  Classes teach how to use produce and healthy ingredients in quick and easy recipes that can be purchased on food stamps or a tight grocery budget.  There is no other program in the Ozarks that fulfills this need in the community and I applaud Family First for cutting open the fresh fundamentals of cost-effective cooking.

Our second stop was Pass It On, a program that provides a Christmas shopping experience for children and their parents to pick out a gift for one another.  A temporary Christmas shop is set up for families to come browse through thousands of gifts to find the perfect present for their loved one.  Although this is a one day event, the preparations for next year are begun as soon as the previous year's event is over.  Volunteers go through donations, browse thrift stores, and conquer Black Friday sales, in which teams  are sent to various businesses with specific gift items in mind.  As items come in, they are separated into categories based on age and gender and then pulled together to create beautiful themed baskets.    A  dinner, auction, and dance is held each year to raise the funds necessary to put more than 1700 gifts in the hands of those that would otherwise have nothing to give.  This year, Pass It On, will be on Saturday, December 8th, where volunteers get to share in the joy of giving by filling cups with hot chocolate, wrapping up presents, and witnessing children and parents beam with delight as they too are given the opportunity to give.

 

Next up, the Hand Extended Food Pantry, offers a three day emergency supply of food once a month to those in need in the surrounding community.  The three day supply consists of perishable and non-perishable items that can be combined for three meals a day for each member of the family, totaling nine meals for each member.  The pantry is open just one day a week, but manages to serve over 50,000 meal portions and $120,000 worth of food to its recipients annually.  Local businesses have generously donated refrigeration and freezer appliances and continue to donate additional food and supplies.  Hand Extended literally does just that, it reaches out and lifts up those that are struggling when grocery supplies are running short for the month. A three day supply of meals can be crucial in aiding those that have fallen on hard times and can't quite make ends meet.

The Disaster Emergency Response Team, D.E.R.T., was next on the tour.  D.E.R.T is a team of local volunteers, developed to work with first responders in a crisis situation.  A number of members on the D.E.R.T team are qualified medical professionals or have received training from state agencies and know just what to do if a disaster strikes in the community.  The team has responded to several emergencies over the years, including the catastrophic EF5 tornado that hit Joplin, Mo. in 2011 and a January fire at a local homeless shelter affecting over 150 residents.  The goal of the Disaster Emergency Response Team is to be ready and prepared to be the first deployed if tragedy stands and knocks at our neighbors doorsteps.

The final stretch of our tour was Life A New and Freedom Recovery Services.  These two life-changing programs are dedicated to helping people overcome addictions.  Over 150 people gather each week for a free meal and group counseling sessions.  Those being counseled break into groups of eight, with one facilitator, and deal with life-controlling issues including alcohol and drug abuse.  Many of the facilitators are recovered addicts themselves, having walked in the same shoes. They return the favor of support and encouragement, by being an example of hope and triumph.  Those that need one-on-one counseling to break free from a controlling dependence are recommended to Freedom Recovery Services, where state-certified counselors spend time individually helping them achieve true freedom. 

I was amazed at the scale and expansiveness of Heart of the Ozarks, an organization run almost entirely on a volunteer basis, including each program director and the president himself. What amazed me even more was that Heart of the Ozarks is truly ran by the heart.  As I sat in the waiting room at the offices, I overheard  two ladies in a conversation while working away.  The chat was about how they could make a difference in others lives and that they wanted to be ready and willing to be a blessing when called upon.  As people came and went, every single one of them boasted a smile or a joyful tune.  When Phil hurried in to meet me for the tour, he was covered in dust and yellow paint splotches.  He apologized for being a few minutes late and explained he had taken a side job painting the inside of a house just down the street.  After the tour, I started to understand why the name, Heart of the Ozarks, was spoken so clearly.  The hard work, the long hours, the sweat, blood, and tears that have poured into Heart of the Ozarks, is pouring directly into and out from God's own immeasurable heart.

If you would like to get involved at Heart of the Ozarks, you can make a donation securely at www.hoto.org or you can volunteer your time or services by contacting them through their website or by calling 417-501-HOTO.  They also offer a fantastic partnership program for local businesses who would like to contribute to making a difference in the Ozarks.  Show your support of HOTO at their facebook page!

Physician's Assistant

I read an article in the local newspaper today.  The article addressed the effects of poverty on our children.  I was shocked to find out that two out of every five families in my county, with children under the age of 18, live in poverty.   My eyes scanned through the conglomerate of hopeless looking pictures that accompanied the news story.  I lowered the paper to my nose every now and then to peek on my 1- year old playing on the floor.  I watched him focus and  attempt to grasp a rather minuscule toy with his right hand, but just couldn't quite clasp it.  Normally, a simple task such as this would be effortless, but, he currently boasts a bright blue cast that ends just below his elbow .  Sadly, my poor little guy tumbled off  some stairs and fractured his wrist last week.  Luckily, we have a wonderful and caring sports medicine doctor in the family who fixed him up in less than 25 minutes,  gave him a few hugs and stickers, and told us to meet him back at the office in a month.  As simple and easy as that turned out to be, I have to admit, I was a bit irritated  after the whole broken bone incident.  I felt guilty that I was not right there next to him to prevent the fall.  I was upset that my sweet little boy had suffered a serious injury.  On a few occasions, I found myself mumbling complaints while wrapping bread bags around his tiny limb at bath time, and cleaning microscopic pieces of gravel out from in between his fingers after a sandbox fiasco.

As I read that article, my grumbling and aggravation started melting into thankfulness and  compassion.  I wondered how the scenario would have played out if one of those less fortunate children in that  editorial piece took that tumble.  Would they have received medical attention?  Probably not.  Would they have known any different?  No.  Would that fracture have hurt just as bad as it did for my son? Surely.  Would it have possibly caused growth problems if it wasn't casted? Probably so.   

In that moment of vulnerability and dependence, when I could do nothing but console and distract him during his x-rays and casting, I caught a small glimpse of what it feels like to be a mother desperate to make everything better.  I have easily justified my judgment of those that have ended up in poverty, whether they are temporarily down and out or stuck in a generational cycle.  Regardless of whether they have truly strived to escape their circumstances or have made them worse, they are all His children with fractured bones seeking a cure.  Jesus answered them, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Luke 5:31-32

As with all tragedies, those that have experienced severe poverty first hand have a deeper compassion and empathy for those in the midst of the trial.  I've listened to my mother recall a few childhood memories.   She has shared stories of packing and sweeping dirt floors and accounts of long blistering days dragging through the fields on top of her mother's cotton sack. Her family has long since escaped those hard times, and although she has left poverty behind, she has kept a resourceful insight and awareness that only one who has been immersed in such a hardship could possess.  It seems that those in the moment of great struggle and need are closer to God than I am sitting in a pew.  Even closer to Him are those that revisit the places they once stood to offer hope and triumph.  The apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 8:8-9 concerning giving,  "I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.  For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.         

In his book, Rumors of Another World,  Philip Yancey writes, "For the planet, God's will done on earth as it is in heaven would mean food, water, and homes for all who lack, justice in politics and economics, peace between nations, harmony with nature, healing and comfort for the sick, souls reconnected to their spiritual source.  For each of us, God's will means some small role in furthering the above." 

Welcome to one of my small roles.  I am creating this page, "Holding Humanity", dedicated to a different non-profit organization or charitable event each month.   Basic information such as locations, contact info., and how you can donate or get involved will be included, but I am anticipating the personal interviews and testimonies the most.  If you have any suggestions or would like to see a particular ministry or organization featured, please let me know. 

For if I am to become closer to God, I must share about and among those closest to Him.   "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'  Matthew 25:40