Baby steps help moms-to-be

“May the Lord bless you and keep you…make his face to shine upon you…and give you peace,” said Donna Wells.

The prayers ended with a hug and more words of encouragement for the women and their families.

It was a spiritual gift given alongside the bags of items distributed at Destiny Church’s second annual Orange County Community Baby Shower.

Pastor Johnny Asevedo said the number of women served and community support grew from last year’s event.

“Last year we had 22 moms signed up and this year there are 30, and we doubled the number of community partners who helped,” Asevedo said.

Fourteen Orange businesses and organizations chipped in to make the shower a success, helping caregivers gather items they will need before baby arrives.

“The partners were given a list of needs, and they just ran with it,” helping provide formula, diapers, bottles, blankets, clothing toys and more, Asevedo said. “That’s what I love about Orange – we never feel like we’re doing it alone. This community always jumps in to help.”

It was a need Asevedo saw within the community leading up to last year’s community shower – one which has only grown as the economy and job market has gotten tougher in the past year, he feels.

“More than half of these moms had no idea how they were going to be able to get these things and provide for their baby,” he added.

And helping the community in difficult times – whether it be with food and clothing from their pantry or preparing for the birth of a child – is at the heart of Destiny Church’s mission.

“People need more than an invitation to Sunday service. There are needs in our city and organizations who want to help but don’t know how,” Asevedo said.

For organizations that offer counseling and assistance to mothers and their children, like Wells of Agape; Birthright of Orange; and even the Red Cross, the church’s community baby shower is a way to come together and put items in the hands of women who need them the most.

Donna Wells’ organization, Wells of Agape, was at the first shower and was excited to join in the event again.

"We loved doing this last year,” she said, and it helps get their services on the radar of those who may need future assistance.

Augusta’s Angels, which helps underserved children, particularly those in crisis due to separation from their parents by death or incarceration, took part in the event for the first time Saturday.

Founder Thira Simon heard about the shower on social media.

“We just got a big donation from Walmart, so we were like, ‘Yeah, we’re in, we’ll be there,’” she said.

In addition to the organizations’ stations, the event was staffed by nearly two dozen church members, who worked tables filled with baby supplies and assisted families as they arrived.

Many, like Nicole McKinney, who helped organize Saturday’s shower volunteered last year, but others were new to the event, including Danielle and Devon McDermott and their daughter Melodie.

Danielle manned the first gift station, which included baskets filled with a stuffed toy, a book and other small items.

“Since it was so close to Easter, I thought it would be cute to go with an Easter theme with the baskets and stuffed bunnies and chicks,” she said.

The McDermott’s relocated to Orange from New Mexico last year and said finding a faith family in Destiny Church “has been such a blessing” in making the adjustment to their new home.

“When we found this church, everything just fell into place. We like the family environment here,” she said. “God guided us to where we needed to be.”

Saturday, where she needed to be was among church family helping fill the needs of other young families.

Upon arrival, the moms-to-be were welcomed into the sanctuary and handed a scroll bearing their name. Inside were hand-written messages offering blessings, words of encouragement and congratulations.

Church volunteers paired up with each participant as they went station-to-station collecting baby items, their bags quickly filling in size and weight as they circulated the room.

It was a physical load volunteers were happy to help carry while helping lighten the mental load of the soon-to-be moms.

For some, like Deja Hudson, that weight included the uncertainty of being a first-time mother.

For others, it was the anxiety of how to provide for a new baby while struggling to care for the children they have.

Marrhonda Locks will give birth to twins this fall, at least one of whom she knows is a boy. With her Saturday was her toddler D.J. Kenebrew, born in 2021, and infant Dessi Kenebrew, who came just 13 months later.

When volunteers asked what color outfits or blankets Locks preferred, she told them, “I’ll be fine with whatever you can give.” Locks was simply glad to have the assistance preparing for her new arrivals.

“When my grandmother told me about this (baby shower), I cried. This helps a lot,” she said.

The help was also appreciated by Apryl Young and Keith Vallair, who are expecting their first baby in December. 

Charting the unknown territory of becoming a parent and providing for a child isn’t an anxiety Young alone is experiencing – Vallair feels it, too.

Before the couple left, Asevedo laid a hand upon Vallair’s shoulders, praying “for blessings over him, clear direction for what you have planned in his life and that any anxiety over this will go away.”

Those prayers were the intangible gifts offered at Saturday’s shower; though Asevedo advised volunteers before doors opened to “be gentle with these families. Some of these people may have never been prayed over before.”

That was the case with a family at the first baby shower.

“Last year a couple came and they did not believe. They said, ‘The last place we thought we’d ever get help was at a church,’” Asevedo recounted. “We serve in love, and we’re here to display family to those in need.”

At Destiny Church, that version of family is one that meets people where they are, that helps without judgment or requiring that something be given in return, including a reciprocity of faith.

For Asevedo, it’s not just about talking the talk but walking the walk of Jesus’s words – “Am I not my brother’s keeper?”

Helping those in need is the only gift church members get in kind at events like Saturday’s baby shower.

To serve others “is a blessing,” said Marissa Asevedo, a church member and the pastor’s sister-in-law.  “We’re all about families and just being the hands and feet of Jesus.”

kbrent@beaumontenterprise.com

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