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Dwell is launching a new ministry–Embrace Grace–to help young women who find themselves in an unexpected pregnancy. The ministry aims to come alongside these women, offering emotional, practical, and spiritual support.
Embrace Grace is a national organization that trains local churches like Dwell to effectively meet these ladies’ needs, doing it in the name of Christ. Local churches offer an 11 week support program that shares the gospel and, if they receive Christ, their new identities in him. Embrace Grace volunteers also host a baby shower and other events to encourage the women they serve.
The Dwell Embrace Grace group plans to start one of these 11 week groups May 10th. If you know a woman who might benefit from it, you can email embracegrace@dwellcc.org.
Dwell members Julie Geiger and Lauren Cheek are leading the program at Dwell. Julie says she first heard about Embrace Grace while watching a documentary that said 40% of women having an abortion are in a church. The documentary said that women often do not feel their church is a safe place to share this burden of unplanned pregnancy and feel their only option is to quietly get an abortion, rather than face shame or rejection at the hands of their church, family and friends.
As she looked into the Embrace Grace program, Julie says she looked at the resources in Columbus, and found very few Bible-based support groups for single pregnant women. “I got really excited as I thought about how Dwell is uniquely qualified to help these young women to meet God and experience his love and acceptance.”
Julie shared her interest with Lauren, who says she was eager to help because she experienced an unplanned pregnancy in college. “It was during this really difficult time that God really moved in my life, largely through the love I received from individuals in this church. It completely changed the course of my life and I am so grateful.”
Lauren says she wants this loving care to be the norm for girls with unplanned pregnancies who turn to God’s people for help, not an anomaly. “I think the first step is an experience of Christ’s radical love and grace through God’s people. We (Dwell) get the opportunity to be that experience through this support group.”
There are a few ways you can support this new Dwell ministry. Julie says they will need a committed group of prayer warriors, someone to organize donations of gently-used baby items, and possibly a babysitter for their meetings. They will also need people with skills for the special encouragement events, such as photographers and hair stylists.
You can contact Julie and Lauren at embracegrace@dwellcc.org. And consider sharing this information with any single ladies you know facing an unexpected pregnancy.