Jessica and I talked a month or so ago about starting a club for the graduated orphan girls who are now pregnant. Unfortunately it seems to be a very common occurrence and there seemed to be more and more of them cropping up - ones that we know a bit more personally - and we hoped to have a place where they could go to get information about babies, healthy pregnancy as well as support that they may not receive elsewhere.
We had our first meeting on October 14 (I know, I'm way behind with my blogging) and we had four girls who are expecting. We also had a few young moms come, and a few women from churches we're connecting with who are really interested in helping and who have a passion for this type of ministry. New Hope Center is great about opening their doors to new ministry opportunities and they told us to feel free to plan it as we wanted.
The group at our first meeting:
I was there too, unfortunately this photo is blurry but it's proof I was there, ha ha.
We had Natasha - the wife of a man who works with New Hope Center - come as a guest speaker. She is expecting as well and we thought it would be a great opportunity to share what it's like to be pregnant from a Christian perspective and felt it would be extra helpful because she is currently pregnant and could relate really well to the girls.
Some ladies did some decorating and we gave gifts to each of the girls - mostly pampering items like lotion, bubble bath and chocolate.
We baked sugar cookies and Anya from New Hope Center cooked a delicious meal for us.
We had a friend, Olya, lead the evening with some questions and fun little games.
We plan on having one of these meetings every two weeks (so that means we had one today and I won't be around for the next few) and we hope it will really be helpful for these girls. It's sad to hear how many of these young girls are in this situation but hopefully we can build relationships with them and be able to share Jesus with them in the midst of it.
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