Open or Closed?
The most frequent question I am asked every day is “Are you still open?”
Is the Center still open? Yes, we are still open Monday – Thursday 9 am to 4 pm and on Friday 9 am – 12 noon. We are still seeing clients for pregnancy verifications and ultrasounds by appointment only. We have suspended all parenting classes and Guys Night Only until the restrictions have been lifted. We are also providing emergency material assistance to anyone who calls the center. We have provided diapers, baby wipes and formula to over 20 clients in the last week.
Are you using volunteers?
No, we are not allowing any volunteers to serve at this time. We want to ensure their health and safety, and limit the number of people in the building. We hope to bring our volunteers back as soon as it is deemed safe to return to normal activities. All our volunteers will be notified when they can return and will be welcomed back when they are confident to resume their normal activities.
Who is serving the clients?
The Marine Corp’s motto is that they are riflemen first. At the BPC, our staff are all advocates first, and then our other duties are completed. Therefore we are all on the front lines, meeting the need of our clients, regardless of our job title. In order to maintain the guidelines given by the State, we have limited the staff to have only 5 staff members in the building during each shift. We always have one receptionist, one Admin Staff, one Registered Nurse and one other staff member (Erin, Julie, Dorian, Leigh Ann). This ensures we can always serve every client. We have limited our appointments so that we do not have more than two clients in the building at any time. God has been sending those clients that most need to be seen and we are seeing amazing things happen in the lives our clients.
How has this impacted the Center financially?
Because our center is funded entirely by individuals and churches, we expect to see a significant decrease in donations. Therefore we have had to make some difficult decisions regarding staff hours (cut all staff hours by 20%) and operational expenses. We will operate very lean for the next 45-90 days. We are praying for God’s miraculous provisions during this difficult time for our community.
How can we pray for the Center?
Pray for our volunteers to stay healthy and find this time off to be refreshing and strengthening for their souls. Pray for our staff to remain healthy and not fear. Allow us to be effective in serving our clients. Pray for our clients to come, to see Jesus in us, to see hope in their future and to know Jesus as their Lord. Pray for our Board members, that we would be wise in the difficult decisions we need to make and that we would be examples of faith and not fear. Pray for our finances, that God would provide the funds we need for today and for the months to come. Finally, pray we will be prepared to be very busy. Once the “stay at home” order is lifted, we expect to see a lot of clients for pregnancy tests!