“You saved my baby’s life, and saving my baby saved my life.”

It is a refrain of deepest gratitude that our staff members have heard from many clients over the years.  Each time we hear it, the glory belongs to God.  But the thanks extends to you, people from the local Body of Christ who have wrapped yourselves around our ministry.  You have embraced our clients and their unborn children with a sacrificial love and compassion that can only come from people who have themselves been forever changed by the grace of our Lord and Savior.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good…For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
1 Corinthians 12:4-7, 12

This Thanksgiving we pause once again to express our sincere appreciation for all that you do. As I was walking through the clinic this morning I was struck by this one door that illustrates what we mean when we say the Body of Christ in our community wraps itself around our ministry. It may look like a simple door, but the story behind this door is really just a micro-example of the story of Assurance.

At our 2016 banquet, we asked for design help. Erin Calihan, Church of the Savior, and Mark Garrison, Tates Creek Presbyterian Church, offered their expertise.  They met with our staff, listened to our needs, and created a plan to maximize our space and enhance our client experience.  One part of that plan was closing off an existing space to create a lab for our nurses to process tests for sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy.

Mark recruited a volunteer work crew from Tates Creek Presbyterian Church, including Jeremy Kelley who donated the door, to put up a partition wall and install the door. Jack Duff (pictured with the door), Daybreak Community Church, installed a window.  Sherri Burgher, Christ Covenant Presbyterian Church, is painting the door along with other volunteers from her church.  Lyndee Buttery, our Client Services Director from Trinity Church, coordinated all the various phases of the work.
Now our nurses from College Hill United Methodist Church, Apostles Anglican Church, First Baptist Church Georgetown, and Greater Faith Apostolic Church can perform tests in a private and professional lab under the oversight of our medical directors from Porter Memorial Baptist Church and Shiloh Baptist Church.

I could go on and on listing people who helped with other parts of the renovation as well (we will recognize them when we share pictures of the completed work) and the many congregations that supported Assurance this year in other ways.  You have, among other things, covered the cost of providing the services performed in the lab.  But I hope by now you get the picture.  Truly, it is beautiful to see how God uses His people to provide for every last detail of what He calls Assurance to do as we care for and support mothers and fathers facing unplanned pregnancies in our region.

Every time I think of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray,
I make my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my
partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time
you first heard it until now.
Philippians 1:3-5

Happy Thanksgiving and God bless!