Baby Bottles Ready to Go!

Many churches like to incorporate a Heart for Change Baby Bottle Campaign into their Mother's Day and Father's Day celebrations. A Baby Bottle Campaign is a great way to involve your church in supporting local missions as well as highlighting the amazing role of Mother's and Father's in the life of a child. It's easy to do and anyone of any age can participate. Here is how it works:

1. Pregnancy Care Center supplies your church with all the baby bottles you need. (Average is one per adult). You can pick them up at one of our centers or we can deliver them to your church. The members of your congregation then take between 3-6 weeks to fill their baby bottle with spare change, cash and/or checks. At the conclusion of the campaign, the PCC will pick up the bottles, empty the change and communicate how much was collected back to your church.

2. Each bottle contains an insert that explains the purpose of the bottles and how the money raised will benefit the Pregnancy Care Center ministry. It also contains the due date of when the bottles should be returned to the church. In addition, we have bulletin inserts and announcements we can email to your church secretary to help with your promotion efforts.

3. Pregnancy Care Center staff members are always available to come to your church to share about the ministry whether in Sunday School classes or during a church service.

To sign up for a baby bottle campaign at your church or to schedule a speaker, give us a call (toll free) at 866-510-5067. We have lots of bottles ready and waiting to go to your church. Call today!

The Elevator Speech

The Pregnancy Care Centers of South Central Indiana is really quite a large work encompassing many areas of ministry. Have you ever found yourself struggling to give someone a brief overview of what the PCC is all about or summarize what it is the PCC does? Below is a great tool you can use when talking to others about the work of Pregnancy Care Centers. Often referred to as an elevator speech, it is short and easy to communicate as if you were stuck in an elevator with someone with only that awkward silence. Feel free to use this overview when talking to your friends, family or those you might share an elevator ride about the amazing work of the PCC.

Overview

THE MISSION of the Pregnancy Care Center is to compassionately engage, educate and inspire our communities with the truth regarding sexual integrity and the value of human life.


We do this through Education, Intervention, and Healing programs.


• The school based Choose to Wait EDUCATION program helps students explore the consequences of sexual decision making and empowers them to choose the best, healthiest life-style of abstinence until marriage.

IMPORTANCE? Seventy-nine percent of participants indicate their intentions to remain or become sexually abstinent until marriage.

The faith-based My Best for You and Transformed programs are presented in area churches to students and their parents, opening the lines of communication and equipping them to live out God’s best as it relates to our sexuality and relationships.

IMPORTANCE? Eighty percent of teens say it would be much easier to delay sexual activity and avoid teen pregnancy if they were able to have more open, honest conversations about these topics with their parents.

• Our in-center INTERVENTION services offer pregnancy tests, first trimester ultrasounds, peer counseling for women and men on all pregnancy options, spiritual counseling, and material assistance with baby items.

IMPORTANCE? Those facing crisis/unplanned pregnancies need a place where they can receive factual information about fetal development and the risks of abortion. By revealing life within the womb via ultrasound, many abortion minded clients choose life for their unborn child.

• Our HEALING programs provide support groups, one-on-one peer counseling and Bible Studies to help women and men who have been wounded by abortion to find healing.

IMPORTANCE? About 1/3 of American women will have an abortion by age 45. Sixty-five percent identify themselves as Christian. As a result, there are many women and men in our churches who need to hear the truth that their sin of abortion is not too big for God to forgive.

Spring Volunteer Traning

The Pregnancy Care Center relies greatly on the many volunteers who love and support this ministry. Earlier this month the Spring Volunteer Training concluded with 19 new volunteers ready to get plugged into the work that is being done through the PCC. Those in attendance came from all areas of the six counties in which we serve, with different areas of interest including Abstinence Education, Post Abortion Healing and Client Services.

Each year the PCC takes part in 3 different Volunteer Training sessions to train and equip our volunteers. The men and women that come ultimately serve as peer counselors, receptionists, medical service volunteers and/or educators in the Transformed, Choose to Wait and My Best For You programs.

The 18 hour training takes a closer look at each of these areas of ministry within the Pregnancy Care Center as well as the history of the PCC and the biblical basis of the sanctity of life. It also focuses on the clients we serve and how to best serve them. One attendee said “The training was great! It revealed to me the great opportunity that I could have to impact the lives of others for the cause of Christ.”

We are grateful for these opportunities to meet and work with men and women who also have a passion to uphold the value of life.

Ray Turner...Always Going Above and Beyond

For the past 6 ½ years Ray Turner has been dedicated to serving as a handy man around the Bartholomew County Center. After coming to a banquet years ago he decided he wanted to get involved and help the Pregnancy Care Centers. He then took part in the Volunteer Training and decided he could best be used as a handy man since he is gifted in that area. Judy Snow, Bartholomew County Center Director, says “Ray does a little bit of everything. He changes our furnace filters, replaced our back door and installed a door between the waiting room and counseling rooms. He paints, organizes and repairs the sheds, mounts pictures on the wall and when all our racks for maternity cloths ripped off the wall one day, Ray repaired them and put them back up.”

He is also known for making necessary repairs to items that have been donated that might be missing a few pieces. Ray repairs them so they can be given to clients instead of just thrown away and says they “would be a shame not to use because of a few missing pieces.” Ray is a blessing to the PCC ministry. He always has a smile and is praising the Lord. We are so thankful for all our volunteers like Ray!

iDonate…The Easy Way to Give

Did you know there is a new and easy way to creatively donate to the PCC? That’s right; you can donate noncash items through a group called iDonate. This is a great way to give towards the work of the Pregnancy Care Center that doesn’t involve your cash. Noncash items can be anything from cars and boats to jewelry and real estate. According to the IRS, an estimated $52 billion of noncash items are donated each year.

iDonate works with nonprofits to allow donors to give in different ways while continuing to support the work of charities they personally choose. They assist in arranging all the details of your donation and strive to make the process as easy as possible. To find out more go to our website at www.affirminglifeonline.org and click on the Give in New Ways box. This will give you step by step directions on how to donate your noncash items and answer frequently asked questions.