Faith Maternity Care (FMC) exists to serve women who choose to carry their babies to full-term, by providing a home for expectant mothers, along with community client services for moms who already have a place to call home. Fulton's Court Street was abuzz last Saturday with a joy-filled event at The Brick District Playhouse. St. Mark's Episcopal Church of Portland, MO hosted their inaugural A Celebration of JOY event. Approximately ninety people registered for the full-day event that focused on joy, with monetary and gift donations collected to benefit FMC. Faith Maternity's new outreach coordinator Rebecca Luntsford, along with executive director Shelley Knight, were greeted with brightly colored streamers and given fabulous swag bags. The swag bags contained our very own FMC sports bottle, a limited-edition event t-shirt, and other goodies. Shelley and Rebecca received warm hugs from Reverend Jessica, Melissa Leisinger, and Michala Dillon. The day was filled with sessions of worship, a savory lunch, and encouraging messages from guest speakers. Reverend Jessica shared three ways to experience joy, including some breathing prayer practices.
The joyful event was an amazing outpouring of love and care for our mothers, to help with the needs of their babies. FMC leaders, our mothers, and our babies are extremely grateful for the $255 financial donation, along with the baby and household gifts that filled our sport utility vehicle! We received more than 125 hand towels and washcloths, much needed food storage containers, crib sheets, sixteen sleepers, more than a dozen pair of joggers, and packages of baby wipes. We were blessed with enough diapers for 1,749 diaper changes! The gifts from the event reflect the heart and generosity of the community, to bless mothers and their babies with much needed supplies. We currently have little boys in the home now, who are outgrowing their jammies and outfits as they approach the toddler stage, and we had only a few packages of diapers in sizes 3 and 4 on our boutique shelf. Our moms strive to achieve educational goals to earn Baby Bucks, to purchase baby items and other essentials from our boutique, in our Earn While You Learn program.
Faith finds a way through individual donors, civic organizations, and fun church events like the one hosted by St. Mark's Episcopal Church. If you would like to volunteer or host an event to benefit Faith Maternity Care moms, please contact us. We are prayerfully seeking partners in our cause to equip and empower women who are choosing a new life for themselves and their babies. Shelley would love to chat with you and may be reached at 573.544.5408 or [email protected].
Contributors: Jennifer Books is the Faith Maternity Care board president, and Shelley Knight is the executive director.