Listen to Roxanne and Jacob talk about a tapestry of answered prayer. Listen to how the CPC of Lenawee has been encouraged by being faithful and is being called to be faithful.
Summary:
This is Jacob Barr, and in our Pro-Life Team Podcast, I had the opportunity to speak with Roxanne Meeks from the Care Pregnancy Center of Lenawee in Adrian, Michigan. Roxanne shared the inspiring journey of their clinic, emphasizing how faith and prayer played pivotal roles in its development and expansion. She recounted the clinic’s history, starting as a crisis pregnancy center in 1984 and evolving into a comprehensive resource for the community. In 2016, facing leadership changes and the need for more space, they paused their expansion plans to seek God’s direction. Remarkably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were able to purchase a Victorian home adjacent to their property, furthering their mission.
This acquisition was seen as a direct answer to prayers, including those from a long-time supporter who had been praying for decades for this specific property. Roxanne emphasized the importance of faith, especially during challenging times, and how the community and team members rallied around their cause. She spoke about the expansion as not just saving babies but also raising children, highlighting their new facilities’ role in the community. Roxanne’s narrative was a testament to the power of steadfast faith, the importance of community support, and the belief in a higher purpose guiding their actions.
Hashtags that resonate with the content of this podcast include:
#ProLifeTeamPodcast, #RoxanneMeeks, #CarePregnancyCenter, #FaithInAction, #CommunitySupport, #PrayerfulGuidance, #GodsPlanForLife, #NonprofitLeadership, #PregnancyResourceCenter, #SpiritualJourney, #MissionDriven, #VictorianHomeExpansion, #AdrianMichigan, #LifeAffirmingMission, #HopeAndHealing, #ChristianOutreach, #BuildingForTheFuture, #CrisisPregnancyCenter, #FamilyResourceCenter, #PregnancyCare.
Transcript:
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Jacob Barr :
Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast i’m Jacob Barr i’m here with the Roxanne Meeks, and we’re going to be talking about how God’s fingerprints are weaved into the tapestry of her Clinics story. So hold on and we’ll get started soon. Welcome Roxanne i’m so glad to have you here. Would you introduce yourself as if you were talking to a group of executive directors of other Prancy clinics?
Roxanne Meeks :
Absolutely absolutely. Well, my name is Roxanne Meeks with the Care Pregnancy Center of Lenawee here in Adrian, michigan southeastern Michigan. And I’m encouraged just to be able to be speaking to a group of Co laborers and with Christ for the purposes of elevating God’s plan for life.
Jacob Barr :
Awesome so and i know a little bit about your story, but I want you to sort of start at the beginning when it comes to the story of how well of the building or wherever the start might be go ahead and yeah, tell us how this all came to be when it came to the beginning parts or threads of this story.
Roxanne Meeks :
Ok well, the beginning parts or threads, I’m going to probably share with at the end because that’s really amazing about how God is actually we can see him always in hindsight, it seems like better than going before us and in hindsight we see how he’s been developing that beautiful tapestry for his glory. And so our pregnancy center was founded in 1984 here in Adrian, michigan, again originally as the crisis pregnancy center. We as many other centers have evolved into the Care Pregnancy center and now the Care, Pregnancy and Family Resource Center of Lenawee in 2016 The board at that time, and I was actually on the board determined that we needed to expand we needed more space on the property that we’re on and so we had started 1000000$ campaign back in 2016 and we got about nine months into that campaign and our executive Director resigned. We had three board members term out and we really felt like where we were with our leadership team, we needed to take a pause. We needed to just pause and what we said was dissect, discern and prayerfully discover what God’s plan was for our ministry here in Lenawee County. And for many of us, it was hard to take that pause because we were already envisioning what this building was going to look like and how it was going to be laid out and how it would be used. So as we took that pause and continue to pray right in the midst of COVID last year in August, God opened a door for us to purchase a beautiful purple Victorian home adjacent to our property and our building actually our property goes from block to block on a very popular street in our town and that house also goes from block to block. And so with missing 2 houses which who knows what God may do sometimes we have half this entire block that we will be developing. So with the name Care, Pregnancy and Family Resource Center, this building that we’re in currently really will be designed specifically for our medical clinic. So we will be able to purpose it explicitly for our medical women’s care, our pregnancy testing and ultrasounds and abortion post abortion healing and pregnancy options counseling. And then in November of this last year, we broke ground to connect the two properties together we called that our pathway to parenthood. So as we are looking at developing our campus, we know it’s not just about saving the baby here in the clinic, but it’s now about raising the child in our beautiful Victorian home. And the purchase of that home in and of itself begins really the God story on how the Lord opened those doors.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, so please share the share the story about the purchase or the discovery of the that was available. Let’s let’s I would love to hear, have people hear that story.
Roxanne Meeks :
Yeah, yeah. So what actually happened was we had a neighbor here in our right across the road from us who was storing our baby bottles. And so they were storing our baby bottles in their basement and that was directly across the street from us and another beautiful Victorian home. And they called me and let me know that we needed to move our baby bottles and that they would be relocating and so I asked them what they were going to be doing with their home. She said they would be putting on the market. I asked her would she please let us know we may know of somebody that was interested so that being ourselves so they did let us know. And I went through the house on one occasion and just didn’t get a real good feel it wasn’t the aha that you get in that yes and go forward that you get when you know that you know that God’s leading you. So I had a realtor come with me and he walked through the home with me and he sensed it to that it just wasn’t resonating in my heart the way that it should. And so he just began to ask me some questions and I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit led him i mean, you know God tells us that in many counselors there is wisdom and he will speak to us in many ways. And so Jamie began to ask me some questions and he was not only a realtor, he was a ministry partner so he and his wife are donors they participate in their children doing activities for us and already knew and loved the ministry so he just began to ask me some questions and got around to, if you could pick any house in this neighborhood, which one would it be? And I said, well, probably that big purple one, not my favorite color, but it’s directly adjacent to our parking lot and, you know, would save us from walking across this busy street i said probably that one. And he challenged me, Well, would you be interested in maybe asking them if they would sell it? And I said, well, you know, I never thought of that but yeah, we could do that. And so we came across the street and he started to go to his car and I said, well, Jimmy, you know, do you mind just taking a quick look around the building with me and let me know what you think they might want for it? And he says, sure, you know, I’m happy to so he took off ahead of me and got not too far and he turned around he says, well, Roxanne, this house is for sale. And I said, I said wait a minute i said wait a minute. I go out that driveway every day jamie, that house is not for sale. He says, I’m telling you, there’s a poor sale sign here i said then somebody just moved it there, you know, thinking maybe somebody had moved it from another house i never saw it. We’ll come to find out really the sign had just been placed there that day and it hadn’t even been on the market yet. And so Jamie was able to we waited until Monday and he was able to contact the realtor. And the first time we went through the house, we knew it was just perfect for what we needed.
Jacob Barr :
Wow, that’s such an amazing story and then to be able to avoid having a busy, you know, not necessarily a busy, but a road in between your two properties is such a relief when it comes to travel and safety and just making things closer, that’s so amazing, yeah.
Roxanne Meeks :
Yeah, it has been and the next piece of that and so he walked the journey of, you know even real estate was really moving pretty quickly even then. And you know we moved at the pace of grace we always call it the pace of grace it had been difficult to wait and then once the Lord said go though it was, it was like we you know we’re moving now. And so we were even able our we put in a ten thousand dollar less than list price offer and they accepted it right away and things have been moving quickly since that time.
Jacob Barr :
So oh, that’s awesome. It’s so exciting.
Roxanne Meeks :
It is exciting and then the other beautiful part of it is there’s one of our past. She was actually one of the found she wasn’t one of the founders, but she was with the founders of the ministry when they started in 1984 She has loved and been a part of the ministry in some capacity for years. She was on our board she was an executive director and just wonderful prayer partner and supporter. And she stopped in one day and we were talking and I deliberately just took her into the back of our building to have our conversation and opened the blinds to let her know that we had recently purchased that home and she just started to weep. And you know that just she was overcome And she says, I have been praying for that home since we moved here. And so when they have purchased this property, when she came here the first time she came here, she saw that home and she felt at that time that Lord blessed CPC with that property, in that home. So over the years, and it’s actually been decades, she’s been praying that would become a part of our ministry. And it had never been made known to any of us with some one of those things that she had hidden in her heart and just prayed for and just was very moved when she learned that we had been able to acquire that.
Jacob Barr :
Oh my goodness, that’s a that’s such an amazing part of that story so how many you said decades that she had been praying for this property?
Roxanne Meeks :
Yes, yeah.
Jacob Barr :
Oh my goodness.
Roxanne Meeks :
Yeah, that’s amazing. It really is and just so fitting for now and really we can see that the plan that’s here again, you know we could have expanded this building, but it’s going to make a very unique separation between what is our clinic, our abortion minded, abortion vulnerable, afraid individuals that can come to a safe, more really medical building. And then our families and our community can be served through that family Resource Center opening up opportunities for demonstrations and group classes and community forums and so we’re really looking forward to that. We are planning a soft opening for our first phase in March of this year.
Jacob Barr :
Oh, OK so that’s around the corners in the middle of getting that place ready for parenting, I guess.
Roxanne Meeks :
Yeah, yeah we just developed the North End of the building so that we have more room to be able to just invite people and we still say after as many years as we’ve been in the community, we’re one of the best kept secrets in the community and we are just determined that that’s not going to happen any longer, that we are going to be one of the loudest voices of, you know, to elevate God’s plan for life, sexuality and the family in our community.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, that’s such a good desire to have people be aware of the services and the help that’s available on that property that they can they can refer someone to come there or they can come them come there themselves. But that awareness is such an important part of them being able to reach out and get help that’s beautiful.
Roxanne Meeks :
Yeah, yeah.
Jacob Barr :
So wow, though, that’s that is amazing what were some of the responses of your team when they saw all these pieces coming together and like God’s handiwork over decades and you know, it was made clear. What were some of the responses from people that were observing or part of this experience?
Roxanne Meeks :
I would say the early stages were just that we celebrate his provision and we’ve said as we’ve, you know sat and waited, we continue to lift with Thanksgiving what we had to him knowing that he would bring the multiplication and so it was just, you know, and especially with Tammy’s story of how she had been praying and Jamie just coming alongside us and just kind of looking around, you know, we know God owns a I want a thousand hills and when Jamie said, you know, what house would you choose well, I’ll take that one but you know, no idea that God would just lead us right into that so we have just celebrated and had more fun and in hearing the story of again how we believe God has woven, you know that tapestry for his glory and the good of people in our community. And I will say too that it helped us a lot with the sticker shock that we received when we started getting pricing. We partnered with Kriegoff Lenaway here in our community and CLS Design to help us design and engineer the campus and make sure that we really had a good solid foundation that it would remain in our community for decades to come and support our community well so we had a little bit of sticker shock and you know with the construction cost being a little bit elevated and so forth, But we already had that confirmation of seeing God’s hand in it that we know the provision will come that we were just assured of that. So our board, I mean it was just, you know, unanimous that yeah, we just move forward and we trust God in the steps you know we trusted him in the waiting and we will trust him in the steps.
Jacob Barr :
Wow, that is so rich but yeah, the yeah, the just knowing, having confidence that God opened this door, that he’s going to help you walk through it. Is that is that is that is there’s a lot of faith not just with seeing what happened but seeing what’s happening or is going to happen all that faith if the faith gets exercised the entire time that’s so good. When you when as you know today as you think about this journey what how what are your emotions or what are your thoughts when you when you look back and how do you i mean, it sounds like you’ve got, you know, you’ve got reasons for having faith going forward because of what God has done through this story but how would you describe your emotions or your or your thoughts or how does this penetrate your daily, you know, how does this penetrate your mind when it comes to how God is speaking to you today?
Roxanne Meeks :
Well, I have to again, I have to say that it. Well, when I took the position of the executive director, I felt like God very confidently spoke to me that you can’t serve both God and money, seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you and so I felt like he assuredly told me that he also led me to the story of the fishes and the loaves and said with Thanksgiving continue to lift that which I have given you and I will bring the multiplication. And there was an assuredness of that. And then even as we were entering probably in December, before that March, when, you know, COVID hit and all those days just kind of blend together but the Lord had spoken to me clearly and I don’t hear him audibly i believe some people do, but he was, you know, he spoke very clearly though to me as I was walking through our boutique one day back to my office was that you must be able to stand with your shield of faith in the face of the evadversity. Fiery darts will come but we will remain victorious and I mean it stopped me in my tracks and so then when COVID hit and beginning to walk through that you know for all of us we had to walk that path of faith you know exercising our faith muscles from moment to moment. And so I feel like that was the beginning of really knowing that though adversity was coming again God will bring to good what Satan means for evil and just yet to have been blessed them with the acquisition of this home getting those confirmations that God is in it. When the days are scary or the funding is not coming in or you’re feeling like you’re not getting enough done or the numbers aren’t high enough when all those things can come into your head that feels sometimes like that a ball of confusion or a you know, just a all mixed up skein of yarn, whatever. That I really feel like. I can picture the father’s hand with the needle. And that string of thread through hit the eye of the needle and I felt like he whispered to me, I am building a beautiful tapestry you do not yet see with everything that may seem like confusion to you. So again you know it’s just those God whispers and you know the amazing work that we see him do. You know with our clients and our volunteers and those are the treasures that you just hold in your heart that when the moments come, the days come and sometimes the weeks come that are hard hit his sweet whisper and his promises are sure.
Jacob Barr :
That’s so beautiful how like, yeah, the tapestry is such a good illustration too, because if you look at a small segment, you really don’t get a grasp or like the whole piece. But yet you know, but God is, you know, taking us into these somewhat feeling chaotic experiences but he’s weaving this beautiful story that you know, if you can see the whole thing, it’s amazing but yet, if you focus in, you don’t really quite understand where it’s going at all. And so, but.
Roxanne Meeks :
Exactly, exactly so.
Jacob Barr :
With your experience of, you know, God leading you to, you know, promoting the idea of having a shield as dart for coming, did you feel like you had a team of people putting up Shields around, you know, as a group or a team? Or did you feel somewhat alone and having your shield?
Roxanne Meeks :
Well, early on we were pretty alone because again, when COVID first hit, we never closed our center, but there were only two of us that stayed so it was just my client Services Director and I and you know that were here people were praying we knew people were praying people would come and knock on our window i mean once you figured out it wasn’t going to last just two weeks and you started entering into it, you know people really begin to rally and send notes and let us know they were praying and like I said tap on our window and wave and we pressed in just as the team of two here on this campus we pressed in and I mean you know so our motto was stop dropping pray. You know we started every day with devotional and you know throughout the day I’m praying and I got to say too that care net we’re affiliate members of care Net and they started prayer too they started prayer and Andy Merritt whose own life now was taken by COVID he was one that pastored us you know he they had opportunities for us to come into conferences webcast where we would pray and he gave a very inspirational message and so yeah and our team was working from home so we stayed connected in a different way. So there were definitely days that it’s very personal that shield has to be first very personal. But it was something that was so solid in me i feel that I could help impart it to my team. So when there was fear, you know that I could share that God whisper with them and it was just so solid in me that I was able to help share that too.
Jacob Barr :
Well it just sounds, it sounds encouraging to your whole team and your future team. As you know as they hear the story of how these of how this came together. I feel like those who join your team in the near future or down the road can be encouraged that God is working here and that and that they are being called into God’s You know, this journey that’s being led by God’s by God’s you know, still quiet voice as he whispers in people’s ears on where to go and what to do.
Roxanne Meeks :
Yeah, yeah. Amen amen. And we’ve already seen that we have had a few volunteers that have come on and we really reiterate that when people come into the ministry that it really is a calling and it’s a high and holy calling god loves life. And you know, no matter what aspect you’re serving in the ministry, you’re serving for His glory and the good of others and God will honor that and he will continue to use them and we’ve all heard, you know that he equips the called and so many people all of us, I mean even no matter how long I’ve been here. You know you don’t always feel equipped to face the challenges that you’re faced with you know, day in and day out but we trust him.
Jacob Barr :
Well, that’s good. What would you like to say anything else to the executive director listening to this bit like, what else might you want to say that before we wrap things up what would you like her to hear or him to hear, to be encouraged or to an idea or a thought that would be helpful to, you know, to someone in your shoes what would you like to say if you were talking to someone else in the same sort of position that you, that you find yourself in when it comes to running a clinic i.
Roxanne Meeks :
Think it’s would be stay the course and be steadfast. Continue as it as the Bible encourages us to come along one side one another as iron sharpens iron. And just really trust God i mean, more than anything trust God and input our hope in Him that our roots would continue to grow deep into Jesus Christ that is where our ministries have been founded and grounded from. So as much as we can feel some days that we have this on our shoulders, it is not on our shoulders it’s in the palm of His hand. And as we continue to rest in Him, as we continue to abide in the vine, as we continue to trust Him and just allow ourselves to be led by His spirit, trusting Him, working in ourselves and trusting him working in others. I think that there’s you know the trust in him working in others and you know Romans tells us that he is completing the work that he has begun and that he will bring all things to good to those who love him and we do love him everyone that’s in this ministry has such a mercy heart and that sacrificial love to be able to pour out onto others, but to be still to rest in him, to be refreshed in him, to that place of overflowing so that really it is a flow system of receiving for ourselves and then allowing him to flow from us not that we’re pouring out, but that he is flowing from.
Jacob Barr :
Well, that’s good. Would you, would you say a prayer at Thanksgiving as we close out this podcast?
Roxanne Meeks :
Yeah, absolutely thank you. Well, Heavenly Father, we just come before you and we just thank you, Father, for the awesome opportunity Lord to Co labor with you in this ministry for life. I thank you for Jacob, and I thank you for the way that he just helps us, Lord, to be honoring toward you and to be just examples to one another on how you are working in US and through us and how you are going before us on every occasion. And so I thank you not only for today, but I thank you for the days that have gone by and the interviews that we have been able to see Lord God that are those God’s stories, those God dustings, those beautiful pictures that are being developed by your hand lord God. Though we not yet see Father God we know that you are developing a beautiful tapestry before us. I just thank you, Father, for your love for life lord God, I thank you that each and every one of us truly are designed by your creation with a purpose and a plan. And as we are advocates for those children in the womb, Lord God that the Ultimate Advocate Jesus Christ is before you, Lord God and helping us, Lord, in our journey. So I thank you again for this day for this time to spend together i ask you to bless each and everyone that everything that they put their hands to, Lord God doing unto the Lord will prosper for your glory and the good of the ministries we serve in Jesus name, I pray amen.
Jacob Barr :
Amen.