REFRESHED AND RENEWED

Hello everyone,

Greetings from Lake Yale Baptist Conference Center.  Four of us ladies loaded up Thursday morning at 5:30AM and rode a little over 5 hours to arrive at this beautiful retreat center close to Leesburg Florida.  The facilities are beautiful with lakes, beautiful green meadows of grass, hanging Spanish moss and most importantly welcoming hosts for the Sound The Call Pregnancy Center conference. 

We have two worship sessions a day.  Each is filled with beautiful Christian music and wonderful preaching from pastors and organizational leaders in the pro-life movement.  What an honor and privilege it is to be with other directors and volunteers from all around Florida as we learn ways to improve our ministry and to continue with enthusiasm the services we are currently offering.  A great big THANK YOU goes out to our board who made it possible for us ladies to attend this  conference.

This past Monday and Tuesday we saw several clients with diverse stories and life situations.  Everyone here at PRC are constantly amazed and sometimes surprised with the stories of our clients.  One was a young 17 year old whose parents were pushing her toward an abortion.  When her mother called for appointment I marked that she was abortion minded, because her mother had asked about it specifically.  However, when the girl came in to the center and met with the nurse, it soon became evident that she was not in the least interested in an abortion, but was looking to parent and the father of her baby was very supportive and also wanted her to continue with the pregnancy.  Although this young woman was not thinking of an abortion, we must place her in the abortion vulnerable category, because she is experiencing strong influences around her to abort.

One of our relatively new volunteers met with her and it was her first time solo with a client.  During our counseling sessions there is a break where the counselor can come out and get information she feels the client would benefit from.  During this time this volunteer shared with me what was going on and I reminded her to make sure and give this client the information on her rights concerning abortion. In each of our counseling rooms is a notebook that clearly outlines the rights of a young woman whose family is wanting her to abort.

These rights explain that a young woman has the right to continue her pregnancy no matter what her age.  If the parents of a young girl take her to an abortion clinic and tries to force her to have the abortion against her will they are breaking the law.  We have that law printed out where we can show it to her along with a letter to her parents that explains her rights to continue the pregnancy.  We also have a letter to the abortion clinic that tells them they are breaking the law if they perform an abortion on the young girl who is there against her will, even if her parents or loved one has brought her to the clinic.

Hopefully this young girl will not need to exercise her rights in this matter, because she and the father are planning to get married.  With this girl was her friend who is also pregnant and made an appointment to come in and become one of our clients. 

Coming up:

Monday evening, October 5, the PRC will be partnering with the FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athelites)  leaders in the schools in Bay county to  share with them about our services and to make plans for ways we can work with them to reach the teenagers in our area about the importance of abstinence.  Please be praying about this event.  Several have voiced they want to be involved in the Student Outreach and some have planned to attend this on Monday evening.  If you want be a part and find out how we will be working with the FCA, please plan to attend.  It will be at the First United Methodist Church of Panama City at 7PM.  Please call the office on Monday and we can give you directions.

Volunteer Saturday training set for October 17.  Please call the office if you plan to attend.  This training will be on our Student Outreach ministry.  We will be discussing the FCA partnership, the upcoming events, and ways we can get into the schools of our area.

We are now into October and the Run Baby Run is just around the corner.  Please get your registration in to Jason White 850-819-9225. All proceeds from this event will come to the PRC.

One of the volunteers who came to the conference this week is also my roommate.  I remember the day  (early 2013) she walked into the PRC and stated she wanted to get information about volunteering.  She was so sweet and soft spoken and starting telling me her testimony.

She had been praying since a young girl that God would send her the man He wanted for her.  She shared that she was now 50 years old and had met her husband over the Internet.  I was a very curious to hear her about this new way of meeting people.  Her husband of only two years was a widower with children and as she continued I heard a beautiful love story of how they met, fell in love and married.  She had given herself to the will of God and after many years He had brought her the man she was meant to spend the rest of her life with.  Diana Rhodes is a strong Christian with morals and values we work to teach all the young women who come into the Center. 

At first she wanted to do Reception work, but soon felt confident enough to try counseling.  Then she became a proficient  Client Assistant and was glad to share the gospel with every client she served. 

If you visit the Center and see our Wall of Life you will see many of the names on our wall have the initials of DR under them.  For when a girl accepts Christ she signs our Wall of Life and the counselor places her initials under her name.  Diana Rhodes has come to love the Pregnancy Resource ministry and the PRC has come to love and value her.  She is more than Client Assistant.  When we have a client who speaks Spanish we always schedule her to come when Diana is scheduled.  She is not only fluent in Spanish, but teaches English as a second language to the Spanish speaking at First Baptist of Panama City.

She has a heart for discipleship and encourages the clients who accept Christ to attend a discipleship class.  She also has been instrumental in getting our church referral policy nailed down to where it is clear and easy to execute with each new believer.  She is always willing to work toward special events like our Banquet Planning, Student Outreach and other special events.

I believe Diana has a hunger for what is right and good, and if anyone will have the honor of seeing good things happen at the PRC  it is her.  I thank God for sending Diana to the PRC and look forward to continued service together in this ministry.

“Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.”  Matt 5:6