Crisis to Comfort: The Impact of Crossroads & Generous Hearts
She sat across from me on the leather couch. My eyes saw someone who was amazingly calm, given her circumstances. Homeless, with several children, her car just totaled by fire, and she was also several months pregnant…quite unexpectedly.
What I desperately wished I could do was hand her two sets of keys—one for a house and one for a car. That was not within my power. But what I could do was meet her urgent need at that moment—a pair of pants.
“I can’t button my jeans,” she grinned ruefully. “I have a place to stay right now, but I don’t have any clothes that fit me!”
That was easy. I opened the cabinet where we store some donated maternity clothes. She walked out with two outfits, information about our Bridges program, and some happy tears.
This is just one small example of how the donations pouring into Crossroads each day make a difference. Our donors are Christ’s feet, bringing thousands of diapers to our five centers each year. They are Christ’s hands, dropping off clothing for our boutiques. They are Christ’s ears, listening to the special needs of our clients and responding with gift cards. They are Christ’s lips, sending up prayers on our behalf.
They are Christ’s heart, sharing their hard-earned dollars with Crossroads. These funds provide the ultrasound equipment that introduces mothers to the little lives growing within them. They also offer baby equipment and parenting classes free for those who choose to keep and raise babies they hadn’t expected to bring into the world.
I wish every donor could spend a week at one of our centers to see the fruit of their commitment to Crossroads. Allow me, for a moment, to be your eyes:
See the young mother with two toddlers who wear the same size diapers. She can earn enough points through the Bridges program for the weekly 150-count box of diapers she needs. Just as the money that she saves helps feed her family of six, so the Bible study time with her Crossroads advocate feeds her soul.
Watch the young couple in the Bridges program who have never been around a baby. With the help of videos on infant care, coaching from an amazing volunteer advocate, and practice with “the Crossroads baby,” they learn how to feed, diaper, dress, swaddle, and bathe an infant. They also learned how to support a newborn’s head and neck, something that is often completely new information to them.
Notice the relief on the face of an anxious mom who unexpectedly finds herself in need of preemie clothes right before she is to give birth. She leaves Crossroads with a bag of pint-size sleepers provided by a donor known as fondly as “The Boutique Angel.”
Observe the anxiety of the patient on the table in the medical room who says there is no possible way she can afford another baby. See her burst into joyful tears and watch love rush into her eyes as she catches a glimpse of her tiny child “waving” hello from the ultrasound screen. Moments like these are made possible by a donor willing to put up the initial funds for a matching campaign to purchase sonography equipment.
Watch the quarters, dimes and pennies pour from baby bottles filled by donors into the coin counter at the bank. See them add up to tens of thousands of dollars each year that fund five pregnancy centers in four counties. Here, medically underserved (and sometimes desperate) women can get a free pregnancy test and a free ultrasound, months before they can get an appointment with a physician.
Many nonprofits providing vital services to American communities are seeing their state and federal funding slashed to the point that they must consider the possibility of closing their doors. Not so at Crossroads, where client services are dependent not on government money, but on the love, compassion, and generosity of God’s people.
Some days, we have just the right pair of maternity pants on hand. Some days, we save lives. Every day, we are humbly and enormously grateful for the donors who make it all possible.