Teen Pregnancy

I shared with you here that I had a planning meeting at church to get things going with the Women's Ministry at my church. One of the ministries a woman has felt led to start is a Teen Pregnancy Program. This young woman actually came to me last year about getting this program going but she became pregnant with her 5th child soon after giving birth to her 4th child so obviously God was showing us the timing just wasn't right yet!

We introduced this concept at the meeting and asked for helpers if anyone was interested. I am letting my friend take the lead on this one...sort of mentoring her...she has never done anything like this before. She scheduled a planning meeting this past Wednesday night for the four women (out of the original 10) who said this interested them. Our preliminary plans so far are:

• Schedule a community baby shower for the end of May geared to teenage moms who are pregnant
  
• Get the word out - flyers in the schools, word of mouth, flyers in places they frequent
• At the shower - first and foremost - let them know we are here and care for them and we are starting this program for them.
• Give them list of community resources available to them (for example - WIC, Medicaid)
• Working on giveaways, door prizes
• Will have monthly support group put in place by then - place for them to come and meet
• Will begin announcing this to church in a week or two and asking for mentors for these young ladies.

I am excited about this ministry. I was a teen mom. My daughter was a teen mom. The statistics are out there - they are everywhere - but there are not too many of them in church, at least not in our church.

Any comments, suggestions...would love to hear them!