CONNECT

The next step in our "Game Plan" for the Mid-South Love Home is to CONNECT.  After the young women have been REACHED, it will be time to CONNECT them!  Our initial focus will be to CONNECT them to our family.  This ministry is designed in a "family-style" environment for a reason.  We want these young women to feel a part of our family.  We want them to know what family looks like.  They will have separate living quarters and will even have their own living room area, but most of the house will be accessible to them.  We want them downstairs in the den with us.  We will prepare and have meals together in the kitchen.  We want these girls to treat this house like their own home!  We want to be family to them!

Next, we will CONNECT these women to a mentor.  I have built a relationship with a ministry called One by One.  Click on their name and visit their website!  It is an amazing ministry who focuses on mentoring pregnant women.  They use the relationships they build to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and to help these women know how to be all God wants them to be!  We will also CONNECT these women to church groups, Bible Studies, and other Godly women who can pour into their lives!  I desire to have women who will take the girls for like one day a month...or one afternoon or evening a month...and spend time with them teaching them something!  You may have a craft or special skill or just something you are good at that would be helpful for these women to learn.  They will need to learn to cook and clean.  They may have an interest in jewelry making, sewing, knitting, gardening, scrapbooking, painting, woodworking, and on and on and on!  I want to CONNECT them with ladies who will teach them and build a relationship with them.  I know I do not have anywhere near everything these women need.  I want a whole lot of Godly women pouring into their lives!

We will CONNECT these women to a counselor and a life-coach.  Each woman will come with her own set of experiences and her own story.  We desire to have Godly counselors to listen and share with these girls.  We also will have a life-coach for each woman.  A major part of our ministry will be to help each individual woman write a future story.  What are her goals?  What does she want to be?  Where does she see herself 5 years down the road?  etc.  Each future story will have goals and each goal will have practical steps to take in order to accomplish that goal.  A life coach will help guide the women as they look with hope to the future and begin to make plans for it!

We may also need to CONNECT these women to services that are provided for them through the government or local ministries and organizations.  Ultimately, our plan is for these women to be on the road to independent living when they leave our home.  If they qualify for WIC or other services, we will CONNECT them to those programs!  If you know of ministries that provide things these women will need, especially after they leave us, please let me know!  We do not want to "reinvent the wheel".  There are so many ministries out there and we want to come alongside them and use their services to meet the needs of the ones God has placed in our care.  More than ever, the saying, "It takes a village..." will be true of us!  We need the entire body of Christ to help us mentor and shepherd these women!

Please let me know if you would be interested in helping with any of the aspects of CONNECTING that I have talked about!  I need to know you are available and willing!!!