Pregnancy center at First Baptist of Dunnellon shares ‘the truth of the value of life’
Editor’s Note: The Florida Baptist Convention and One More Child are partnering to mobilize our faith community to vote “no” on Amendment 4, the Right to Abortion Initiative, which will be on the state ballot Nov. 5. For more information, visit onemorechild.org/voteno.
This story explores how Florida Baptists are stepping up to offer love and support to expectant mothers and also their male parenting partners.
DUNNELLON–Some of the women seeking help at the Family Hope Resource and Pregnancy Center in Dunnellon may come expecting judgment, but Marcy Maste wants them to instead feel safe, comfortable and loved.
As executive director of the center, which is a ministry of First Baptist Church of Dunnellon, Maste said it’s this type of warm reception that will best enable her and her volunteers to help these women and reach them for Christ.
“I tell my volunteers that this will be the first time some of these women are seeing Jesus,” she said. “I want the love of Jesus to flow from us to them. I want us to be like a lighthouse, on top of the hill shining out to offer help.”
The center provides a variety of free services to help women, including:
- Pregnancy care, which includes pregnancy tests, medical and ultrasound referrals, adoption information and post-decision support, including abortion recovery.
- Family and health care classes not only for women, but also for their male parenting partners.
- Baby supplies, including clothing, diapers, wipes, baby food and other larger items.
The center offers a boutique of baby items that clients can earn by attending health, pregnancy and faith-based online classes. Through its “Earn as You Learn” program, women earn “love bucks” by completing the online courses, and use those bucks to purchase needed baby items. Many clients get excited about the opportunity to earn items for their baby by taking the classes, Maste said.
It is a huge blessing and a great opportunity to lean into the lives of families in our community - young mothers and young fathers, encouraging them to consider a parenting route, whether it be them or through adoption. It’s great to have the opportunity to share the truth of the value of life.
Through the Bright Course platform, clients are assigned courses to help address their current needs, such as what to expect in your first trimester, the effects of alcohol or smoking during pregnancy, and parenting babies and toddlers. While the bulk of courses are on pregnancy, health and parenting, the women must also complete faith-based courses to earn the love bucks.
“We are transparent with our clients. They know we are pro-life and that we are a faith-based program,” she said. “If they don’t complete the faith-based courses, they won’t get credit for the others.”
‘Huge blessing and great opportunity’
The church’s partnership with the center began about 15 years ago when the church allowed the center to operate from a house on church property. About two years ago, its directors were retiring and asked Pastor Russ Randall if he would consider allowing the center to become a ministry of the church. As he thought it over and prayed about it, it didn’t take long for him to say “yes.”
“What better relationship could there be between the church and a pregnancy ministry like this ministering to the community?” he said.
The church did some research, meeting with Mary Lou Hendry of One More Child, who helped them walk through what this ministry would look like. They visited other centers, including those similar to this one. When the church partnership with the center was presented for consideration to the congregation, the pastor said it was overwhelmingly embraced with many church members wanting to volunteer and be involved.
“We are very pleased with the impact it is having and what has been accomplished in a short while,” Randall said. “It is a huge blessing and a great opportunity to lean into the lives of families in our community – young mothers and young fathers, encouraging them to consider a parenting route, whether it be them or through adoption. It’s great to have the opportunity to share the truth of the value of life.”
‘Collaborative effort demonstrates collective commitment’
I tell my volunteers that this will be the first time some of these women are seeing Jesus. I want the love of Jesus to flow from us to them. I want us to be like a lighthouse, on top of the hill shining out to offer help.
According to Hendry, director of sanctity of human life for One More Child, this center is one of several in the state that operate as “single church” models, where one church provides primary responsibility and oversight. These include First Baptist of Orlando, First Baptist of Kissimmee, First Baptist of Merritt Island and First Baptist of Leesburg. Various associations in the state also provide support to pregnancy crisis centers including Nature Coast, West Florida, Harmony and Holmes County Baptist associations.
“This collaborative effort demonstrates the collective commitment of the Florida Baptist community to come alongside parents in times of uncertainty and crisis,” Hendry said.
Randall said many churches could be doing this.
“We are not a wealthy church. We are not different from many other churches,” he said. “I think there are many churches out there who could do something like this or similar to this. If nothing else, join hands with someone else doing this or just encourage a ministry like this in your area.”
Pregnancy center finds benefit as church ministry
Like other ministries of the church, the pregnancy center has a committee that provides oversight. As its part-time executive director, Maste presents a report about the center at quarterly church business meetings.
While Maste had been on the board for the center for years, she became its executive director about a year ago. When she gives quarterly reports to the church, she doesn’t give names but she does provide numbers of how many women have been helped and some of their success stories.
“It’s interesting to see a progression of what God has done each step of the way with different directors,” she said. “We have definitely benefitted by becoming a ministry of the church. And I think the church is able to see a little bit more of the work that the center does and what it’s for.”
Maste said she would eventually like to see the church begin a ministry for single mothers like the clients she sees in the pregnancy center. She said most of these women are unchurched and unmarried.
“The traditional family of mom and dad and kids sadly is not what family looks like for a lot of people. I’d love to start a single mother’s ministry to bring in unchurched moms, unchurched children and help them one night a month or one night a week and include a meal to help them.”
Take a virtual tour of the pregnancy center here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/TpNpC7g1iWeb9puw/