Vision Accomplished
It was 1997. My first year here as Director. It was early summer, this lady walks in distraught and inconsolable. She wanted to commit suicide. She had aborted her baby and this was the month the baby was due. We counseled with her, called the authorities, and as I tried to detain her with conversation in that long hallway there at our site on Union Road, she relayed her desperation, if only someone had told me what I was getting ready to do.
That was the birthing of the vision God gave me for the Place of Refuge. We were meeting people at their point of crisis, and making a difference. However, we needed a more holistic approach to taking care of individuals like this one. We needed a no excuses place, where needs of adolescent parenting, adoption, STD (now STI) testing and professional counseling could take place.
I searched the scriptures and had always been intrigued in my former 19 years as a pastor with the Old Testament Cities of Refuge. I found the passage in Joshua 20:1-9 and realized that was us. A place of refuge for those who had unintentionally harmed someone to run to. It would be a safe, non condemning, oasis of grace.
It was a journey, but 20 years later, we have that debt free facility, with adolescent parenting, STI testing, Lifeline Adoption and soon professional counseling. We have a Director in Julie Gottfried, a Board of Directors with Gary Beauchamp chair and members, Darlene Mitchell, Buddy Turner and Michelle Wilson.
With their own Mission Statement, their own budget, their own facility and now staffed, it’s time for me to let go and let God. I can’t wait to see where God takes “the house that God built”, (per Loren Fairfield) and the good God can do through those who love him and are the called according to his purpose. Keep them in your prayise.
