“Thanks for coming in and have a great day!” These are the most common farewell words used at our Teen Pregnancy Center. All though they are sincere and caring words, we want to see them slowly disappear. Ok, now that I have you really confused, let me explain. Typically when a young lady comes into our center doors she is scared and confused. We generally get to spend 45 minutes with her to give her a pregnancy test, explain her options, listen to her story, and let her know that Jesus loves her no matter what. However, the staff and I want to see that 45 minutes turn into a year long relational ministry time. We want her first visit to be just the beginning of a relationship with The Center. Here are the steps that we are putting into place in order to make that happen:

Parenting classes: A weekly afternoon class that runs for 8 weeks. About 75 girls attend each year.
Mom2Mom: Our mentoring ministry that matches up a young mom to a Godly woman in the community for a year.
Hope Chest: A ministry that includes baby and maternity clothes from Josephine’s Closet, as well as needs based donations of diapers, formula, and food.

These are just a few ways that we are trying to become more relevant in their lives. These ministries provide us with an avenue to truly develop a relationship with that young lady allowing more time for them to be loved and experience the love of Jesus.

Talk is cheap, the easy thing to do is try to just save the baby and pat our selfs on the back. But Jesus was never into the easy thing. These girls need hope, they need real love, they need grace and they need Jesus. That can not all happen in a 45 minute time frame. We all need to start investing into the lives of teenagers, we need to be able to let them hear AND see Jesus.

Talk is cheap! Show them Jesus.