MATERNITY HOME PROGRAM IN EAST DUNDEE, ILLINOIS
Redeeming Life operates a maternity home in partnership with the Northern Illinois District in East Dundee, Illinois, serving single pregnant women in crisis in the Chicago metropolitan area and throughout the United States.
Important Information about the Home
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Housing and Programming is available for pregnant women whether they choose to parent or share their baby through the gift of adoption
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Residents live in a family-style community and gain skills in infant care, job readiness, financial literacy, and more
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All programming is focused on helping residents to live full and independent lives
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The home welcomes up to four women at a time and features a live-in residential manager
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Daily family-style meals and weekly worship will foster a strong community
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Residents will find help securing pre and post-natal healthcare as well as behavioral health support
Looking for information about living at our East Dundee maternity home? Visit our East Dundee maternity home page.
MEET THE HOST CHURCH FAMILY
Immanuel Lutheran is under the leadership of Pastor Bill Yonker and is a thriving congregation with many opportunities for our residents to learn about Jesus and serve Him. Immanuel’s role is that of spiritual support by providing opportunities for worship and Bible study and to simply love and accept the residents as God’s children, dearly loved by Christ.
The host congregation has no operational role in the home. Under the supervision of Sheryl DeWitt, Executive Director, Redeeming Life Outreach Ministries Inc., the home is operated by local staff. Financial support will come from the congregations and individuals who have a heart for preserving life through the mission and ministry of Redeeming Life’s maternity home ministry. We encourage and invite every congregation to support this positive, pro-life ministry.
Read more about the history of this expansion project and how this partnership began.
A CALL FOR ADVOCATES IN ILLINOIS.
In order to serve vulnerable pregnant women in Chicagoland, we need local advocates all over Illinois. Advocates are passionate about maternity home ministry and help spread the word about Redeeming Life's East Dundee maternity home in their churches, organizations and neighborhoods to reach pro-life supporters and ask for support.
Focus & Time Commitment: Advocates are willing to attend 3 or 4 virtual meetings each year, keep their congregation informed and engaged with the maternity home, and help garner financial support for the ministry. We have videos and materials to help local advocates build awareness, generate excitement, and share updates about this expansion project.
Please watch a 15-min presentation on Redeeming Life's Advocate Program to learn more. If you're ready to become an Advocate or have questions about the program, please download a flyer and complete the interest form here.
Advocate Resources
Brochures & Collateral
Videos
Fundraising Campaigns
Join us in prayer and ask God to continue to send women who need help and resources to serve them. We continue to lift this home to the Lord and seek His blessing and guidance.
Help the ministry expand its reach to serve and gather more resources. Recruit individual advocates who will champion the maternity home in their local spiritual community.
Will you consider partnering and fundraising within your church to help support this maternity home in Northern Illinois? Please help us obtain donations to support annual operating costs.
PRAY ABOUT EVERYTHING!
Please join us in prayer for the Northern Illinois maternity home, the ministry, staff and volunteers, and the moms and babies who will be served there!
Dear Lord Jesus, you gave everything, even your life, that I might live. I Pray that you might use me to touch the lives of the most vulnerable, especially the unborn and their mothers. I ask you to bless those who minister to them. Bless the efforts of Redeeming Life and the Northern Illinois District, its staff, Board of Directors, and volunteers as they operate the maternity home in East Dundee, Illinois. Send your Spirit to build up and strengthen them so that their efforts are not in vain. Guide and direct them and provide all that is needed to serve those who will live there. AMEN
SPREAD THE WORD.
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Share news and updates about Redeeming Life's maternity home in Northern Illinois and the NID! Download brochures and collateral from the links below.
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Like and share our stories on Facebook
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Connect us to a local pregnancy center for client referrals
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Promote us within your church, pastoral team, small groups and LWML society
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Invite us to participate in your life affirming events
Brochures & Collateral Material
OFFER FINANCIAL SUPPORT.
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Ask for a special offering in church, chapel or Sunday School or ask your members to donate online
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Host a virtual and/or local baby bottle campaign fundraiser or an Angel Tree Fundraiser
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Collect gift cards to provide food, personal hygiene items, diapers, baby supplies, and transportation to our residents
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Include us in your missions budget
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Alert us to grants available in your church or district
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Designate your Thrivent Choice Dollars to Redeeming Life
To give to the East Dundee maternity home, donate here or mail a gift marked for "Illinois" to:
Redeeming Life Outreach Ministries
P.O. Box 1496
Sanford, FL 32772-1496
THE HISTORY OF THE EAST DUNDEE MATERNITY HOME
In early 2020, Redeeming Life was asked to expand its vision and open a new maternity home in the Chicagoland area.
The Life Task Force and Maternity Home Steering Committee of the Northern Illinois District (NID) along with LCEF asked to partner with Redeeming Life about opening a maternity home in the Chicagoland area. The enthusiasm and vision of our brothers and sisters in the NID made this an ideal location to consider for our first expansion home. In order to help more at-risk women and babies, Redeeming Life expanded its vision to have a maternity home in every district of the LCMS, and Chicagoland was the place to begin.
The maternity home expansion project began moving quickly with a few unexpected surprises along the way.
Early in the initial plans, the NID team received word that a home was being donated to use for this project. With the solid infrastructure of Redeeming Life's maternity home program and time-tested policies and procedures, we would be open quickly. The donated property did not materialize, but the partnership between the two ministries did not waiver. Redeeming Life and the NID began actively working on expansion plans to open a second maternity home in the Chicagoland area, creating partnership opportunities for congregations in the NID to preserve life through a much-needed maternity home program.
As of December 2020, we had heard from 10 NID church families who "raised their hands" as potential partners for the new maternity home.
We prayed and asked, and God provided! By December, the RLOM Expansion Committee began working through the decision-making process to select a host congregation from ten great families. In reality, each of the congregations has its own unique attributes and would make a great host church family. We were overwhelmed and humbled by the all of the wonderful Pastors and congregations that have come forward and expressed their desire to become part of this expansion project.
By February 2021, we knew that God was leading us to partner with Immanuel Lutheran Church in East Dundee.
Immanuel Lutheran is a thriving congregation with many opportunities for residents to learn about Jesus and serve Him. Under the spiritual care of Pastor Bill Yonker, we believe that Immanuel will make a lovely and welcoming church family. Immanuel will provide spiritual support through worship, Bible Study and instruction classes to residents, and will love and accept the residents as dearly loved children of God.
In March of 2021, the parsonage located on the property of Faith Lutheran Church was selected for the home.
In March of 2021, we selected the parsonage on the property of Faith Lutheran Church that we believed would become a lovely and suitable maternity home once renovations and updates were completed. The projected cost of the renovation was estimated at $100,000.
By October 2021, we had spent over seven months trying to overcome a variety of zoning issues which precluded us from purchasing the parsonage.
A capable team of professionals and experts rolled up their sleeves and spent hundreds of manhours trying to make things work. In the end, the terms were not acceptable for the long-term operation of a home in that location.
After much prayer and many hours of discussion, we made the hard decision to pursue a different location. Very soon after making the decision to seek another location, a new opportunity presented itself in East Dundee, closer to our host congregation.
In April 2022, we had approval to purchase a portion of a property in East Dundee, Illinois to serve as the maternity home location!
The saints at Immanuel Lutheran Church in East Dundee approved an offer to purchase a portion of their 16-acre piece of property just east of their school. We entered into a formal contract with Immanuel in order to apply for the various permits and permits needed to renovate and operate on the property.
Remodeling started in summer 2023, and the home opened in early 2024.
The East Dundee maternity home had extensive remodeling in Summer 2023 to transform the solid ranch-style house into a modern, 5 bedroom home for 4 moms and their babies and a residential manager. The updated floor plan utilizes space for a large kitchen and central dining area plus a welcoming communal living room. Resident bedrooms share two redesigned bathrooms and provide private sleeping quarters for each mom and her child.
The maternity home became fully operational in 2024 to receive its first residents.
THANKS TO OUR PARTNERS.
The success of this expansion project and the progress made this far would not be possible if it wasn't for our wonderful friends and the gift of their time and talents. We thank every individual involved from the NID Life Task Force, the Maternity Home Expansion Committee, LCEF, and the entire staff of Redeeming Life Outreach Ministries.
GIVE WITH CONFIDENCE.
Redeeming Life Outreach Ministries is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a Recognized Service Organization (RSO) of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.
We have achieved the Platinum Candid Seal of Transparency. A Candid Seal of Transparency indicates that a nonprofit has provided key information in its Nonprofit Profile. By providing up-to-date information, nonprofits allow potential donors and funders to make educated decisions about the work they do to make the world a better place.
To give to this East Dundee maternity home, donate here or mail a gift marked for "Illinois" to:
Redeeming Life Outreach Ministries
P.O. Box 1496
Sanford, FL 32772-1496