By Grace Thornton
Correspondent, The Alabama Baptist
For Diane Pruitt, her ministry’s purpose can be summed up in one baby who’s still alive — and the mother who got her life on the right track.
“The mother made the comment that ‘if it hadn’t been for the Alpha center, my baby would’ve been in somebody else’s trashcan,’” Pruitt recalled. “She said she had no idea how to take care of her baby.”
And that’s why Pruitt, who serves as executive director of the Alpha Women’s Resource Center (AWRC) in Jackson, works hard alongside other staff and volunteers to promote a culture of life, not just before the baby is born, but also after.
Outreach of churches
“We want to help our clients become good parents and give them a total physical, mental and spiritual foundation through the services we provide,” she said.
The center’s staff views its work as a local missions outreach of area churches.
“We have a two-fold purpose — the first is to share the gospel,” Pruitt said. “The second is to provide the men and women we serve with resources.”
Those services run the gamut from pregnancy tests to parenting programs to the responsibility of the father in raising the child, she said.
“When you come here, you’ll be speaking with someone who is going to build a relationship with you,” Pruitt said. “We come alongside them on an individual, case-by-case basis to encourage them and offer programs that can help them.”
For women facing an unplanned pregnancy, staff members are able to educate them on the risks and specifics of an abortion procedure and help them make the right decision, Pruitt said.
In a recent study, 64 percent of American women said they felt pressured by others to choose abortion, and in 2014 more than 8,000 abortions were performed in Alabama.
“Five counties surround us and none of them have a pregnancy resource center,” Pruitt said. “We have a huge field that we’re able to go out in [to] educate people and share the gospel.”
Mobile ultrasound
And they’re hoping to soon be able to actually go out into it even more with a mobile ultrasound unit, she said.
“It will help us get to more people who have transportation issues,” Pruitt said. “It’s been a huge undertaking and a huge challenge, but God has already provided two thirds of the resources we need to be able to purchase that unit.”
Another way the center is reaching out into the surrounding counties is through teaching an abstinence program in area high schools.
“We see close to 2,000 students a year in the schools,” Pruitt said.
The ministry of AWRC has grown so much since a doctor and his wife from First Baptist Church, Jackson, started it almost 25 years ago, she said. “It was just the two of them, and now we have a six-member staff and about 20 volunteers.”
First, Jackson, where Pruitt is a member, is still heavily involved in AWRC’s ministry, as are more than 30 other area churches who support the center on a regular basis.
The majority of the center’s supporters are Baptist, including Clarke, Washington and Choctaw Baptist associations, which contribute to AWRC on a monthly basis.
Loren Robinson, director of missions for Clarke Association, said, “The main thing is they are a very evangelistic ministry. With every client that comes in, they share the gospel at the point of need, and they are very effective in ministering to the clients whether it’s a young girl who’s wondering if she’s pregnant or a young family looking for resources on how to be parents.”
‘Very effective’
They have the best training tools for their volunteers that Robinson has ever seen, he said.
“They’re the only ministry of that sort in our area — how could we not partner with them? They’re very effective in what they do,” Robinson said.
Ways you can help
Wondering if there’s a way you or your church can help out with Alpha Women’s Resource Center’s (AWRC) ministry?
There are a variety of ways you can, according to AWRC, including volunteering as a client advocate, a fatherhood mentor, an abstinence presenter or a baby store organizer.
The center also needs help with fundraisers, such as Walk for Life in the spring or the Alpha Banquet in the fall.
For more ideas, call 251-246-7750 or visit alpha-wrc.com, or to view the center’s client-oriented website, visit pregnancytesthelp.com. (TAB)
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