Morning Center: A new dawn in Memphis, part 2

Last month my goal was to catch you up on what’s been going on with the Morning Center for the past year and set the stage for what we’re about to do in Memphis. Launching a brand new project, especially one with an unfamiliar concept, requires a lot of hard work and perseverance. However, God promises that in due season we shall reap if we do not give up.

This month I’m pleased to announce and introduce the first two employees of the Morning Center in Memphis!

First, our new Executive Director for Morning Center-Memphis: Camille Clark. Camille joined our Memphis team and leads the charge to set up shop in Memphis. As our part-time Memphis executive director, Camille is highly qualified. She is a retired attorney and has worked in various health care positions in a legal capacity throughout her career. Camille has a heart for reforming private charity, ending abortion in Memphis, and bringing about a new dawn to the way we provide maternity care to poor women and their babies. Camille is married to Steve, a Morning Center supporter, who owns a successful health information technology company and has offered to help the Morning Center with our health information technology needs. We’re thankful to have someone of Camille’s caliber and experience involved from the start in Memphis.

We have also hired our first midwife for the Morning Center: Davin Johnson. Davin has her master’s degree in midwifery from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing and has worked as an R.N. at Southern Hills Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, since her graduation from Vanderbilt last year. Davin has a heart for the women and babies of Memphis since she grew up in the greater Memphis area. She has longed to come back to this area and looks forward to the opportunity to serve her community through the Morning Center’s outreach.

Davin began work with the Morning Center on a part-time basis in mid-April. As the Morning Center’s client load increases and the Lord provides funding, she will gradually move into a full-time midwife position. Davin is married to Charles, and I cannot imagine a couple better suited for ministry in the inner city. Charles is in the National Guard and is working on his criminal justice degree with hopes of securing a law enforcement position when he graduates.

Davin brings a lot of energy and excitement to the team, and she’s going to be fantastic with the mothers she will serve in Memphis.

Since our last report, some of the technical details of serving our first mother and baby have fallen into place.

The Morning Center’s mobile care unit, a brand new 2013 Toyota Sienna CE, has been delivered. As I write this article, we are anticipating the Morning Center’s wrap with our logo and contact information placed on the van. Once the van is wrapped, it will be ready to serve as our first missionary vehicle to inner-city Memphis. It will carry an ultrasound machine, medical supplies, and most importantly, our missionary staff to the women of Memphis.

Last year, someone who believes in the vision of the Morning Center donated a state-of-the-art ultrasound machine. This machine will serve as the window into the womb and will allow the women who visit the Memphis Morning Center to see the beautiful handiwork that God has knit together within them. An ultrasound machine is vital in sharing truth and hope with these women. The Morning Center project is committed to encouraging mothers to make a life-affirming decision.

We will go the extra mile with the mothers that we serve by providing free, high quality prenatal through postnatal care (including deliveries) in Jesus’ name. In addition to using our ultrasound machine to show mothers their babies, our medical staff will also run diagnostics on the baby’s development and condition to ensure any potential complications are discovered and addressed early in the pregnancy, providing the best possible outcomes and hopefully reducing the staggeringly high infant mortality rate in Memphis—arguably the highest in the nation. We are thankful to God for these tools and look forward to reporting stories of how God used them in the loving hands of our staff.

As we keep our eyes focused on the opening of our Memphis Morning Center mobile care unit, it is important to remember why we started out on this journey over a year ago. It is easy to get distracted and discouraged by every little bump along the way, or by the fact that our timelines don’t always match God’s timeline.

I was recently rereading an email sent to us by a Morning Center supporter in Memphis and thought it would be good to share it with you as I ask you for your continued prayers and support. It is a good reminder of the need for the Morning Center in this city where the darkness of abortion has laid hold of the lives of so many women and girls.

“… I have spent the last TWO days getting an abortion-minded girl maternity care. I counseled her, and then a week later she needed a doctor immediately … she had called Planned Parenthood and of course they said they could not help her. She went to the ER and that is when I came in again … a doctor was mean to her and only confirmed her pregnancy. I have been thinking and praying about this … and believe that the Morning Center needs to be here …

“The emergency room told me they had seen five 19-year-olds the same day I was there with this young lady. Girls have nowhere to go here if they do not have insurance, money or are not under the care of a medical doctor. As a pro-lifer who has seen girls who decide to keep their baby … it is not very easy to take this next step when they do not have any money. I sure have been wishing that the Morning Center was already here!”

We are thankful that God hears the cries of these women in need and is using us to begin providing needed maternity care. However, our mission does not stop here. There are three more areas where your prayers and support are greatly needed.

First, the Morning Center needs to secure an overseeing obstetrician in Memphis, preferably full-time, who will be able to perform deliveries, provide required medical oversight for our certified nurse midwives, and write prescriptions. As we remember that our care for these women is motivated by Jesus’ love and care for them, it is important that we walk beside them through every step of their pregnancy and delivery. Our commitment to them will show the love of Jesus tangibly, and our God will be honored at the birth of every Morning Center baby.

Second, we continue to need the financial support of people like you who are prompted by the Holy Spirit to give as you can. Whether you are able to give once every now and then or on a monthly basis, we thank God regularly for your commitment to life in Memphis. In April we were blessed to have our 100th automated monthly donor join our supporter team. Praise God for this new milestone! These 100 committed families are collectively giving more than $2,200 per month. While that is an average of $22 per household per month, many give $10-$15 monthly donations. Setting up electronic, recurring gifts helps the Morning Center’s Board plan accordingly and provides stability to the ministry.

Third, we appreciate your prayers and input as we move forward and expand the Morning Center’s reach to pregnant mothers, both in Memphis and in other locations.

May the Lord continue to have favor on our work in Memphis and may He show us what to do and where to go next. Thank you for your prayers and support.