What Happened When One Mom in Charlotte Named Her Need
We asked Cassandra to tell us about Love Life, the ministry she has volunteered with in Charlotte, North Carolina, for seven and a half years.
“Love Life exists to help moms in unplanned pregnancies. But the goal is to get the churches to be the ones that the moms go to. So, really, Love Life envisions a day where they don’t need to exist.”
Love Life is a ministry that names its own ambition to become unnecessary, because the work was always meant to belong to the local church. Until the church takes it back, volunteers will continue to show up.
“We’re the last stand for the moms and dads going in,” she said. “We’re just trying to offer them help and free ultrasounds, to see their baby before they think about doing this, and to know that they have so many other options.”
Not every woman she meets there is from Charlotte, or anywhere close to it. “We have all these moms coming from Tennessee, from Florida, Alabama, Georgia. A lot from Georgia.”
Her line to the moms and dads on that sidewalk is the shortest sermon we have heard all year. “Abortion’s gonna fail you, but Jesus will never fail you. When you trust in Him, He will take care of you, because He takes care of His people.”
That last sentence is a promise the church has to keep on somebody’s behalf.
Which brings us to Mama T.
Three years later, a $260 electric bill
Three years ago, a mom they call Mama T chose life for her twin girls. Today, she and her fiancé were both out of work, and the bills were piling up. They were doing what they could, reaching out to family for help, but there were simply too many bills.
The electric bill came due at $260 and change.
It is too small to look like a crisis from the outside, and it is exactly the size of the thing that takes a household down when both paychecks stop at the same time, and there are two little girls in the house.
So the need was posted on Aid The Way. Within six days, it was met.
Mama T has since been hired and will start her new job soon. “She’s just over the moon grateful for all the help,” Cassandra said. “It’s powerful for her to know that there’s help if she needs it, and she doesn’t have to do it alone. And it’s so amazing because it builds her faith, too. Because she knows Christians are helping take care of her. She knows God cares for her.”
“You don’t have to carry it alone”
But there was another part of the conversation that stayed with me. Cassandra described the weight mentors can sometimes feel when they want so badly to help the women they serve.
“You feel a lot of responsibility, and it can be very stressful to take on,” she said. “When you want to see a mom succeed, you want to help. You want to do everything you can, but you can’t do it all. A lot of times we, the mentors, feel stretched thin.”
She shared about another Love Life mentor who regularly helps her mentees with financial needs. “She doesn’t have to. She volunteers. And it’s hard because she’s trying to make ends meet for herself while also helping her mentees with things like a washing machine and other needs.”
That is the heart of a person who sees a need and wants to help. But it also reveals something important: even the people who are serving others need a community around them. We were never meant to carry every need by ourselves.
After seeing Mama T’s need met through Aid The Way, Cassandra is now excited to share the platform with the other mentors she serves alongside. When a need comes up, she can point them toward a place where they can connect that need with believers who are ready to help.
“You don’t have to carry this alone. There are people who want to help.”
She put it another way: “I think of how God has given the body of Christ different roles, and he’s given us all gifts. So we’re able to do what we were made to do. And we don’t have to worry about taking on other roles.”
That is the picture of the body of Christ we see in Acts 2: believers sharing what they have so that people within their community are cared for.
What it looks like in your church or ministry
Aid The Way was created to help make that kind of community possible today. A church or faith-based ministry designates a trained Community Advocate, someone already trusted to handle sensitive conversations. That advocate can post real, vetted needs while protecting the individual’s dignity and confidentiality. Then other believers can see those needs and respond with their time, talent or treasure. One hundred percent of every gift goes to the actual need, because our overhead is covered by a separate tier of supporters called Waymakers.
A utility bill. A baby shower registry. A medical expense. A washing machine. Sometimes it’s a financial need. Sometimes it’s something practical. Sometimes it’s simply a need that has fallen through the cracks. “There are things that other places can’t provide. Aid The Way is a free platform where you can have other believers help. Everybody should be using it. Every church, every ministry.”
And the person who receives the 9 p.m. text about an urgent need doesn’t have to figure it out alone. There is a wider body of believers ready to help when they can see the need.
That is what happened for Mama T. And it is what we hope will happen in communities everywhere. Because when the church can see the needs within its own body, it has an opportunity to do what it was created to do: care for one another.
As our conversation came to a close, Cassandra shared what seeing Mama T’s need met has meant for her personally: “Seeing the church show up, and God move this way when this need was met builds my faith. And I get to talk with my kids about all these things. I get to show them, this is God showing up. God’s using each of us and Aid The Way to meet the needs of people. Look, don’t miss it. God is moving. God’s providing, and He takes care of His people.”
Want to bring this kind of connection to your church or ministry? Learn more at aidtheway.org.
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