The concept of Light House Station, you know, it's a lighthouse because
we want to be able to shine the light of Christ into the life of these girls and just really love on them,
But the concept of the station is there too because your station is not your destination.
When you take a train, or you take a bus, or you take an airplane,
you get to the station, and that's not your destination, that's not where you want to stay.
You know, the station is where you decide where to go next and how to get there.
So maybe you're going to take a connection, or you're going to take a taxi from there or whatever,
and it's about laying a plan and the station is where that plan happens.
So that's really important to us.
So, we can provide assistance for any young woman who is in an unplanned or crisis pregnancy situation,
regardless of her background. But she does need to be over 18,
because we're not licensed to take minors. She does need to be clean from any substance - thirty days sober.
She needs to be at a place mentally where she can handle the decisions that she needs to make.
And she needs to have no other children in her custody.
Food, shelter, and security essentially are the three basic things.
You get those established, that's our first priority,
once those things are established, it's like, okay, let's start talking about your future.
I really want the girls to be able to formulate a plan that's going to work for them.
So whether that's parenting in a traditional sense, or whether that's marriage,
or whether that's adoption or alternate parenting, you know, we want them to feel empowered to take control of that.
After I had graduated with my seminary degree, I was looking for a job,
and unfortunately, I didn't find work, but what I did find is a need.
And we ran into the need over and over and over again. The need for maternity housing.
We've gotten involved with mission work starting in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina,
and since then places as far away as Haiti. But also a big involvement with local missions with the youth group as well.
Just this idea of going out and helping and doing things... Over time, I think, we realized that missions work is where we're gonna be.
So then we purchased this house four years ago - four years in May - and it's been kind of a ride since then!
So the way Light House Station operates is multiple levels of staffing,
but I'm going to start in the middle, because the middle is the most important part, and that is the house parents.
The entire model is built around having two people, a husband and wife, who are a strong example of
how to live a Christ-centered life,
and they're essentially going to be the ones who are running the house, day-to-day,
helping, teaching, directing, answering questions,
being there for the middle of the night, you know, "I need someone to talk to"...
In every sense of the word "parents," but they're the people that the young women are going to interact with the most,
and it's essentially a full-time ministry placement that they're in the house, and that's probably the most important job.
We also will have, I guess the best term for it would be RAs,
which are temporary house parents, because of house parents are going to need some time for themselves as well.
And of course the heart of most nonprofit organizations is the volunteers. So we're gonna have volunteer positions
to come alongside the girls. We'll need birthing coaches,
class instructors, so that we can offer classes to the girls on things like budgeting, canning,
food preparation, cooking, baby care classes, lamaze classes, all of those kinds of things
that go into what they're going to be learning and going through the program.
What we need the most right now is people to connect with us.
And you can go on facebook.com/lighthousestationwarsaw
and also our website. On the website there is a list that we are maintaining of things that we need.
So kind of a wish list, whether it be diapers, baby clothes, or maternity clothes, or a washer and dryer,
On there you can donate financially to us through our website, and there's a list of upcoming events.
Probably the most important thing through all this is
if someone's watching this right now and they're like, I don't know, can I help? Is there something I can do?
There absolutely is. And that is to pray.
To pray for us, to pray for the staff that we're seeking out and the volunteers that are coming alongside us,
and to pray for the girls, and this is kind of an ongoing thing, because once we're open those girls are going to need prayer.
And right after prayer is talking with people.
The important thing is that people know, because I don't want there to be a young woman who's sitting there
And is like "I don't know what to do." And she's in that dark moment in time
where she's not even sure what she's gonna be able to do with herself much less this baby she just found out she's going to have.
I want this to be well enough known that a friend or a family member or somebody from church
or something can be like, "Hey, I heard about this place. Let me connect you with this place."
That's what I want to have. So I think our two biggest needs are prayer and just people talking about it.
You know I want these girls to know that this stage does not have to define the rest of their life.
You know, one pregnancy doesn't end it. You have options and you can chose life.
And there's people that want to help you, to support you, and not to judge you, like, this house is a judgment-free zone
We really just want to love on these girls.
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