By Lloyd Mackey

The finale of the October 29 pro-life fund-raising banquet, Beginning to Shine, was an audience sing-along of ÔThis Little Light of Mine.Õ

Just under a year later was another benchmark for the group, as the Okanagan Valley Pregnancy Care Centre (OVPCC) moved into its permanent home.

Theresa White, the spearhead for the centre, saw the move as symbolic on two counts. One was the location; on downtown Pandosy Avenue, named for the legendary Catholic priest considered a founder of Kelowna.

To White, in a spiritual sense, the values and pro-life spirit of the apparently kindly Charles Pandosy bode well. It was, after all, a centre intended – in a compassionate and caring way – to bring counsel and wisdom to young women who sought resources they needed to make life-sustaining decisions.

It was also not insignificant that the premises they chose to house the centre had formerly been the classroom  for a small Bible college. Thus, the space would continue to be a place for young people to grow and learn.

For White and her husband, Lorne, the opportunity to provide care for young pregnant women has some poignant touchstones, stretching back well over a decade, when one of their teen daughters was pregnant and unsure what to do.

“We really felt alone. The church was not equipped to handle these circumstances, and neither were there other Christian or community resources that we might have expected to have been available.”

They worked their way through the issue together, by God’s grace. And looking back, White recalls: “Today, we have a wonderful 15 year old grandson who is a joy to us.” In due course, their daughter married a fine man and they had two more children together.

The Whites’ story of community involvement in the Okanagan Valley is a witness to their blending of faith and reality.

They were both journalists in Ottawa and Cornwall when they were getting to know each other. At the time, they were not Christians; but they were committed to effective print communication and journalism – which eventually led them to settle in Kelowna.

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After a few years of community newspaper work, and while raising their five children, they worked a few years in the 80s to develop a Christian newspaper for the Okanagan Valley. That newspaper was, in effect, the forerunner of Okanagan Outlook.

After that first paper was put to rest, Lorne returned to community newspaper writing. Today, his sports photography for the Kelowna Courier makes him a bit of a household name around the community.

Notes Theresa, reflectively: “Some of the sports figures whose action he shoots are the grandchildren of those he photographed when we first moved to Kelowna.”

For her part, Theresa continued in journalism and press relations work for the next several years, until the opportunity presented itself for her to lead a network of pregnancy care centres across the country. After heading that group, known as Canadian Association of Pregnancy Services Support (CAPSS), she sensed a prompting to apply her experience to developing a local Kelowna centre.

Now, a typical day will include counselling expectant mothers and training others to do the same. At the OVPCC, close to 50 people have been carefully trained and, at any given time, up to half of them are available for volunteer work.

The sensitive nature of the training is vital. “We are careful to emphasize that there be accurate information, no manipulation, no graphic images – and that all service is free and confidential,” White points out.

CAPSS developed a code of counselling ethics in the process of meeting criticism for methods that were considered – not always fairly, she maintains – to be overly-manipulative or graphic. The code is on the centre’s website, at ovpcc.com.

Despite reliance on volunteer counselling, the costs of running the centre are considerable. Earlier this year, a banquet – which aimed at producing a specific amount – brought in close to twice the hoped-for figure. An anonymous Kelowna business matched that figure. White says the centre’s leadership was most encouraged; the money raised was a sign of the amount of community support for the group.

As she looks back at what has happened since that Mothers’ Day when the centre was first opened, she is grateful – not only to her fellow counsellors and others in the community, but to the God who, in her view, gives life and nurtures it in even the most challenging of circumstances.

December 2007