For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
Ever wonder what your dollar truly does when you donate to Next Step? Here’s some beautiful news.
Next Step is completely and 100% donation run. There is no Next Step if there is no you. So what does that mean?
It means every time you send in monetary or material donations you enable someone in need – who otherwise would go without – to be helped. Simple as that.
Over the last few months as I have settled into this wonderful, chaotic, ever-changing, emotionally charged and spiritually nourishing “job” I have spent a lot of time looking at your names. Praying for your families, and thinking of ways to make sure you know you matter. To me. To Next Step. To our clients and their children.
To that person who sends in a $20 check each and every month – you provide on average a pack of 30 diapers, a pack of baby wipes with a bit leftover for a big bottle of Johnson’s Baby Shampoo. To the single mom who is between paychecks – that matters.
To our Angels who give monthly – your giving makes sure we have a few kinds of formula available each week to that struggling family. The average 12.5 ounce can of powdered Enfamil costs $15-17. That’s money that family may not always have. Your gift matters.
For the partner who gifts us with a $250 check – well you just paid the Snohomish PUD bill that keeps the staff and clients warm and dry and the Comcast Business fee to run our database as well. That matters.
For the family who sends in $50 a month as part of their commitment to our purpose – you provide a bouncy chair, a baby bath and some stuffies to a women helping to raise the child of her 17 year old daughter. That matters.
For the several families who gave us $100 gifts this year – it adds up my friends – you just provided the yearly Ultrasound Machine maintenance and repair ($828.75 a year) so that this wondrous technology is in good working order when that very young woman comes in uncertain and determined not to cry as the reality of the very real heartbeat of her baby on the monitor fills the room.
The list goes on and on. Running this center costs money. Providing a livelihood for myself and our tiny band of dedicated staff costs money. Keeping the building safe, warm, and lit costs money. Being able to buy office supplies to print resources and handouts for our families’ costs money. Being able to keep our doors open when all others are closed – costs money.
And you provide.
In 2019 Next Step served more than 2,470 clients. We had 250 patients come to us asking for confirmatory pregnancy tests. We were able to offer 150 patients an OB ultra sound to see their child and we were able to provide more than 2,250 clients with material goods such as diapers, formula, wipes, clothes, baby accessories, maternity items, food and cereal, books and toys, bath kits, blankets and more. That’s a lot of families in our community who were helped by you.
In the first few months of 2020 you have already provided for almost over 400 families! 70 of those were for pregnancy tests with 24 of them obtaining an ultrasound. 6 of those who obtained an ultrasound came in and marked abortion-minded or abortion-vulnerable.
6 lives potentially saved. Because of you. And that was just since January 1.
You matter. What you are able to share and donate matters. We could not do this without you. We ‘live and move and have our being’ here doing His work. And so do you.
Thank you.
For in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28)
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