SATURDAY, July 16th, was Church of the Highlands annual Serve Day. It’s the one day of the year where our pastor asks everyone in the church to pick a project and serve the community. There are hundreds of projects to pick from and it always proves to provide amazing testimonies.
This year, Aaron and I chose to go to the UAB Women’s and Children’s Center. We served the families who had babies in the NICU. Most of babies had been born so early that the families weren’t able to have a baby shower or get the necessary baby items, so Church of the Highlands partnered with a ministry in the hospital and we threw them a baby shower, with food + gifts.
We got there at 9:30am to help get things together for the families who were invited to attend. One room was full of lunch, dessert + drinks and the other was set up like a little store where families could walk around and pick up the items they needed for their babies.
There were so many Serve people there that they put us on rotation. Aaron and I started in the lobby where we saw families come in and we continually prayed over the whole event. About an hour later, we went into the “store” and asked if anyone wanted a break. There were a couple girls who were handing out bundles of diapers that raised their hands so we took over their job.
When the event had died down, we walked around the “store” and filled 50+ more bags of goodies and then walked (with a nurse) on the floor where the babies were and left bags for the families who weren’t able to make it to the shower.
It was so humbling to see those little kiddos in the incubators, fighting so hard for their life. Many of them were 20-30something weeks old, and I was overwhelmed with the strength these mothers were forced to have. I found myself praying throughout the day that God would let Rylie go full-term and we wouldn’t have to endure what these families were having to go through.
It was such an honor to be able to serve these families who have gone through so much! You could see how blessed they were by this event, and that meant so much to us.
{photo + post by Church of the Highlands Instagram account}
“We’re here being the hands and feet of Jesus. We’re here to listen and to talk to these families, to get to know them, and to let them know that they’re not on this journey alone.”
One of our SERVE teams put together an incredible baby shower today for over 100 families with babies in the UAB NICU, the largest neonatal intensive care unit in the state. The Footprints Ministry Small Group team is celebrating life, providing food and gifts, and spending the day loving on and praying over the parents and tiny ones in the NICU. Such an amazing opportunity to show God’s love to these families when they need to be reminded of it most.