What We're Dreaming...

 photo credit: Joanna Howard

From Tara Livesay...

"As we dream and hope for the future as a ministry, one of the things that has become very clear in our Women's program is the increased need for support and discipleship in the lives of our youngest moms. 

Out of a desire to better reach and serve struggling and unprepared young mothers, we will be opening a home for them. We're moving forward with plans and preparations for a two-year residential program for teenage mothers. 

The home will provide a place of safety and security where a new mother will live and learn in a protected environment. We desire to give each young woman an opportunity to grow in maturity, as well as the space and time needed for spiritual growth. Each new mom will be involved in a structured program that allows them a chance to learn and improve their parenting skills, learn about bonding, work on conflict resolution, and personal development. Much of this healing and learning will happen in a group setting. Some of it will take place through one-on-one counseling and mentoring relationships. Over time the young women will also learn a skill, such as sewing or jewelry making, that will help them provide for themselves and their child into the future.  

We are excited too see what God will do in the lives of these capable and tenacious young women.  We pray that by helping them build a strong foundation early in their parenting years we will impact not only their lives but the lives of their children. 

This program will not succeed without the faithful prayers of all of you who choose to stand with us as we attempt to break the chains created by poverty and systems of oppression. We need your partnership and humbly ask for your prayers."

photo credit: Joanna Howard

Meet our girls and read their stories.  If you're a lover of stories where God reaches down, snatches up a hopeless situation, and thoroughly redeems it; get someone to watch your kids, grab a tissue, and fall in love with what God is doing in these women's lives.

-- HOW YOU CAN BE A PART OF WHAT HEARTLINE IS DREAMING --

We have a house for these young moms and their babies.  It's a short walk from the women's center where we care for moms and pregnant women.

Right now the teen moms are sleeping on the porch with their babies eagerly awaiting this house to become a home.

The house is being painted.  Construction projects are underway.  Soon it will be move-in ready.

Imagine this room with a few beds for the moms.  Dressers.  Fun bed sheets.  Soft pillows.

Imagine this bathroom...well, first let's imagine it clean.  One day it will be.  But then let's imagine a fun shower curtain, towels, and bath rugs.

Imagine a giant dining room table.  Chalkboards on the walls.  A multi-purpose room where our girls are educated, eat together like family, and let their babies crawl around on the floor, playing at their mother's feet.

Imagine hearing the sounds of literacy classes, truth being proclaimed, laughter, and baby noises.

Imagine an office area where one-on-one tutoring and counseling takes place.

Imagine a sitting area on the front porch where family and friends can visit.  Where moms and babies can hang out together.  Where the flames of community and family are stoked.

Now imagine yourself getting involved.  Grabbing a group of your friends, the ladies from your church, your Sunday School class, and adopting one of these rooms. Imagine yourself scheduling a shopping day, meeting your friends at Target (getting a Starbucks...please do, for all of us here who can't), and then roaming the aisles, checking sassy items off your list.  As you shop, it will be hard not to get excited about what God is doing through this new home and how He has graciously included all of us in what He's up to.

For detailed shopping lists for each room you can check out this post.

These girls are young.  They come from backgrounds that you and I will never fully understand.  They are silly.  They wear inappropriate clothes, act like teenagers, fight over flip flops, and yet God is graciously writing a beautiful story with their lives.  What the enemy meant for evil, God...well...He has other plans.

We look forward to having Tara and her family back in Haiti and seeing this teen mom home blossom.  Tara was a teen mom.  She has great things to say about teen moms and how the body of Christ can lovingly respond.  Thinking of Tara's life and seeing these young Haitian moms that Tara will be serving, teaching, and mentoring is an incredible reminder for all of us.  God is using Tara's past to impact the future of these teen moms in Haiti.  Only God can write a story that remarkable.  I don't know about you, but it's always good for me to remember that no matter what has happened in our pasts, God is in the businesses of working everything for good.  No situation is too far gone.  No circumstance is outside of His power to restore and heal. Do you believe that?  If you've forgotten, go read about Tara's life.  Read about these girl's lives, look at their children's faces, and think of all that God is doing and will do.

Please pray for these girls and for their babies.  There will be a lot of beauty in this house, but let's get real...these are teenagers...with babies. This house has the potential to also be filled with  a lot of drama. God has big wounds to heal in each young woman who will live here. 

If you'd like to give to this new project, but don't want to adopt a room, feel free to simply give money.  Every donation, no matter how big or small, will be a blessing to these girls and this project.  On the sidebar of this blog (and the sidebar of the teen mom blog) you will find a chip-in meter.  You will be mailed a tax receipt for every donation you make through the chip-in meter.  If you'd like to mail your donation you can do so to the following address:  

P.O. Box 898

Sunnyside, Washington 98944  

 

Once we have "flipped" these rooms with the items you have purchased, we will repost pictures.

Links:

Meet our teen moms and read their stories

Room by room shopping list

Photos of the teen moms and their babies

Livesay Blog (Tara will be heading up the teen mom home)
Tara's post about teen moms
Brief overview of Heartline's programs for women