Lighthouse Pregancy Resource Banquet

I wanted to write today about the gracious people Deb and I have recently met and who invited us to speak at the Lighthouse Pregnancy Resource Banquet last night at Lange Hall in Westcliffe , our home town.
The board members and some of the volunteers we have met through the center and our church, cowboychurchwestcliffe.org, and Fred who writes for one of the local newspapers ,sangredecristosentinel.com have welcomed us with open arms and invited us to the yearly banquet. It would be the first time Deb or I had spoken about why riding the CT trail to benefit the Lighthouse is important to us.

I give presentations quite often in my line of work but I realized speaking about my own life to what I considered a large crowd of eighty plus people was a different thing - but it held more weight and importance in my mind and I am sure Deb's because both of us when young could easily have slid over into the seat of any women seeking help or support at the Lighthouse Center. 

I became a teenage mom at seventeen and life changed forever. It wasn't easy but I chose to have my son and faced the challenges that come with being so young and having such responsibility.  I think I succeeded raising him mostly because of fear and of course God's grace which I did not recognize at that time. It was always in the back of my mind that if I didn't take good care of him I could lose him. He is forty this year and maybe if you asked him he might say someone should have back then, he did a long stint as a little guy of eating Malt-O-Meal with powered milk which is all I could afford at one time. I am pretty sure he has never eaten it again but I would gladly have a bowl today and remember it sustained us when nothing else was available.

This is just one of the reasons I see Lighthouse as such a beacon in the night per se for young girls or women who need support, a hand up for a little while, some advice or a hug from one of the non-judgmental volunteers. Maybe some formula or cereal for their child, maybe a car seat or some clothes. 
From what I have seen at the Lighthouse hope and love abound- it is there simply for the asking.  I know God blesses people with the kind of giving heart that the people of Lighthouse and the community who supports Lighthouse has for others when they are in need.

What I would have given to run across a Lighthouse Center in 1976....