Alongside our health centre ministry partnership, we also worked with a pregnancy centre during our time in Indonesia. The women who stay here have been disowned by their family over the nature of the pregnancy, whether that be out of wedlock, abuse or mental illness. The centre provides a safe haven for these women at the most vulnerable time of their lives and provides real community where judgement has been overshadowed by love. An in-house doctor and midwife take care of the women once they’re in labour, and the women can stay pre and post birth for as long as needed. The centre runs mainly on donations and voluntary help, and we came to support a social project called ‘Feed the Child’ who have just started to work with the centre. ‘Feed the child’ aims to reduce stunted growth in infants by providing education and knowledge surrounding nutrition and child development, the key recipients being pregnant women and breast-feeding mothers. Providing essential teaching at this stage of a child’s life will drastically reduce the main causes of early stunting, which is definitely the goal for the project – as Indonesia has one of the highest percentages of stunted growth in children worldwide. The project is in its infancy, and we feel so blessed to be able to work alongside them and support them in getting off the ground here at the pregnancy centre!
On our first visit, we prayed for all of the expecting mothers, ranging between 20 to 39 years old, and a 6 month old baby and her mother too who are still residing at the centre. I prayed for the momma and baby Nala, after the mother asked if I could pray for a safe life for her little one without a father figure around. Whilst the little one outstretched her hands to me, I prayed for her to one day know her Father in heaven and have a relationship with the one who will give her eternal life, support and guidance until the end of time. Even though Nala’s mother is Muslim, she had so much gratitude.
To help with the ‘Feed the child’ campaign, we decided to support the centre with a renovation of their garden! 
This is truly the best way to provide much needed nourishment for the babies here, to help the centre become self sufficient with their food source so they don’t need to wait for the next donation to come in, whenever that will be. A sustainable and consistent source of food is the best start we can give them, so we got to work. We set out to buy plant pots, soil, shovels, fertiliser and most importantly the seeds! Over the next few weeks we helped out with the potting and planting, and within a week we really saw the fruit of our labour – shoots were sprouting! We prayed over the plant pots so that must have done the trick 🙂
On our last day visiting the centre and the women, we cooked up a feast of noodles for everyone! We played with the children and spent time talking to those we had the privilege of getting to know over the month. To leave behind a legacy of self-sustaining nourishment to improve the health of these babies once they arrive feels so encouraging and impactful, and I wish we could be here longer to see the fruits of everyone’s amazing efforts…
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