By Theresa White

HER HEAD bowed down, the 16 year old in the Crisis Pregnancy Centre counselling room poured out her life story in a flood. Then, abruptly, she stopped talking.

Lifting her eyes to meet her peer counsellor’s kind face, she said, “I’m taking up too much of your time. I’m sure you have way more important things to do than listen to a nobody like me go off about my life.”

“No, actually,” the counsellor gently responded. “I can’t think of a single thing I’d rather be doing. There’s nothing more important to me right now.”

 The young woman blinked back tears. “No one has said that kind of thing to me before. No one ever told me I was worth their time.”

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 That typical exchange of heartfelt words explains the power of pregnancy care ministry.

At Crisis Pregnancy Centres, gifts of unhurried time and undivided presence constitute a seismic change in the way to ‘do church’ in the 21st century. The 14 centres in our province serve and care for the needs of hundreds of distressed pregnant women each year.

Caring volunteers – the heart and soul of pregnancy care ministry – dispense hope and unconditional love, and receive far more blessing in return.

Beyond ‘Suzanne’s’ pink hair, face piercings and leg tattoos, a peer counsellor sees deeper . . . to the lost child who has forgotten what love feels like.

“Is it okay if I stay just a little longer? When I’m here, I don’t feel like I’m just a piece of junk.”

Another counsellor’s heart warms toward ‘Emmy,’ who lives in her car. Eight months pregnant, she hasn’t showered or changed clothes for a week.

“I'm so glad I found you. I don’t know where else I could have gone,” she said.

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They cry with ‘Rosie,’ who still has nightmares about an abortion she had years back. “It was,” she admits, “a desperate but failed attempt to get my life back on track.”

Now she is ready to begin the long road back to valuing herself. She confesses, “If there had been a place like this to help back then, my whole life would be turning out differently. Maybe I can still make a new start.”

Counsellors are often incensed, but more often saddened, at the cop-out excuses of biological fathers. Not uncommon is a – sometimes church-going – businessman who put relentless pressure on his young girlfriend to abort a child against her wishes to carry to term.

“If it’s murder,” he desperately asserts, with a powerful tone and body language, “then I'll take the judgment!”

The counsellor who meets with ‘Mary’ hopes to touch a compassionate chord. Mary is a college student determined to let nothing, including an untimely pregnancy, interfere with her summer plans.

Volunteers and staff gather to share the joy when ‘Betty’ comes in to show off her days-old baby daughter.

Remembering how perilously close she came to keeping her abortion appointment, she dances in the foyer in joy and sings, “You were right! You were right!”

 Counsellors celebrate again when ‘Denise’ calls back after her first appointment to announce, “My boyfriend read the information you gave me and changed his mind!  We're keeping the baby!”  

Hearts refill at all the happy noises. At the sound of a young woman, a new Christian, inviting another new mom to church. At the pregnant client-friends who drop in unannounced, knowing the Centre is place where they will always find a warm welcome.

A place of treasure. A place of peace.

Theresa White is executive director of the Okanagan Valley Pregnancy Care Centre, one of 14 Crisis Pregnancy Centres in British Columbia.

May 2008