In our October blog, we announced expansion plans for the Redeeming Life Maternity Home into the Northern Illinois District/Chicagoland area. We asked our readers to join us in a month long prayer vigil. As part of our prayer, we specifically asked the Lord to guide and direct the expansion leadership team and to identify “… the home You have already chosen and provide all that is needed to serve those who will live there”.
Many who gathered with us for the October prayer vigil continue to lift up Redeeming Life Maternity Home and the work of the ministry done not only in our current home in Sanford, Florida but in the expansion project into the Chicagoland area. It is because of the prayers and loving support offered that the Lord has moved mightily on our behalf.
The location of the newest Redeeming Life Maternity Home was recently identified in Carpentersville, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. Faith Lutheran Church, a small congregation with a huge heart for mothers and babies, has generously agreed to sell their 4 bedroom/3 bathroom parsonage to Redeeming Life to help facilitate the opening of the maternity home. Once the purchase of the home is secured, work will begin to renovate and update the existing structure to produce the exact model needed for the maternity home ministry.
Identifying the location of the maternity home was but one of many blessings the Lord was to bestow on the maternity home project. Beyond a physical address for the project, the new maternity home would need a local Lutheran congregation to provide spiritual support to the residents. Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church of East Dundee, Illinois was chosen to fill this position. Lead by Pastor Bill Yonker, Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church will provide the residents with the opportunity to learn about Jesus during Bible Study and Worship Services. It is by attending the services at Immanuel, and building relationships with the congregants, the residents will learn first-hand how much the Lord loves them and accepts them as His dear children.
With both the physical location and the host congregation identified, the next step is to raise the funding needed to bring the vision to fruition. As the news of the maternity home expansion began to reach the ears of the churches in the Northern Illinois District, many stepped up to help. Each gave according to the amount the Lord laid on their heart. Each gave knowing that giving a gift to Redeeming Life meant that we were one step closer to providing an alternative to abortion to pregnant women in crisis.
Then the UNEXPECTED happened! An anonymous donor reached out to Redeeming Life with the following challenge. The donor agreed to match dollar-for dollar (up to $20,000) any
funds raised for the Illinois Expansion Project through April 30, 2021. This means that any gift given during this time, no matter how big or how small, will be matched by the donor, doubling its impact.
As the Lord continues to bless the maternity home expansion into the Chicagoland area, we would ask you to prayerfully consider what role the Lord would have you play in it.
Prayer: We attribute the success we have had in the project so far to the prayers and loving support of the faithful who have partnered together with us. We would ask that you include Redeeming Life, the mothers, and the unborn babies that will live in the new maternity home.
Partner: Would you consider a monthly or one-time gift to help open and maintain the new Illinois Maternity Home? To donate, click: https://www.rlom.org/expansion
Promote: When you tell your friends about what the Lord is doing through the Redeeming Life Maternity Home, it helps the ministry expand its reach to serve and gather more resources.
To read more about the ongoing expansion efforts into the Northern Illinois District/Chicagoland area, visit: https://www.rlom.org/expansion