When the new Sav-A-Life pregnancy facility opens next spring in Birmingham, the city’s Planned Parenthood operation will find itself in the center of a triangle of Sav-A-Life facilities in the Birmingham metro area of Jefferson County.
And that’s exactly where Lisa Hogan, executive director for the Birmingham-area Sav-A-Life, Inc., wants to be.
“We want to intercept young women planning to end a pregnancy when they don’t see another option,” she shared during today’s (Dec. 2) partnership celebration and dedication service at Birmingham Metro Baptist Association. “We love them right where they are and provide what they need to bring the baby into this world.
“It gives me chills to think this is real now,” she said. “The staff is thrilled.”
Sav-A-Life currently operates in Vestavia and Fultondale and the new location will be attached to the BMBA office in east Birmingham.
‘God had a plan’
Chris Crain, BMBA executive director, and Michael Ethridge, BMBA director of operations, shared the miraculous journey from an estate gift of $210,000 that increased over time to a donated building allowing for other ministries and nonprofits to share the space to the construction now underway for the new Sav-A-Life facility.
Ethridge said watching what all is happening within the walls — which translates to lives being changed outside the walls — has taught him to stop calculating timelines and worrying about out how things will get done.
“When God provides a resource, He already has a plan for it, whether He has told you yet or not,” Ethridge said.
And about the same time the plans were coming together for the new Sav-A-Life facility, officials at the North American Mission Board announced they were interested in investing in the unborn, Ethridge added, noting NAMB’s and IMB’s Send Relief compassion ministry provided $50,000 toward the project.
Kingdom partners
Bryant Wright, president of Send Relief, shared with the group gathered for the celebration that the BMBA Sav-A-Life project is Send Relief’s first investment in a crisis pregnancy center.
“We are excited to partner,” he said. “Children and families are one of the five major focus areas of Send Relief and we see an extra need for Christ-centered pregnancy centers.”
Also partnering with BMBA is the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions.
SBOM executive director Rick Lance read from 1 Corinthians 3:9 — “For we are laborers together with God …” — and shared how the Sav-A-Life project is an example of true partnership between an association, state convention and national entity.
“God can bring us all together for the same mission … for Kingdom-impact purposes,” he said. “We are laborers together with God … it’s how all the moving parts come together.”
The prayer of dedication was led by Alabama Baptist State Convention president Buddy Champion following a scripture reading of Psalm 139:13–18 — “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb … I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
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