Why the LifeHouse Crisis Maternity Home is important for Southeast Missouri

A few months ago, my pastor spoke about the importance of the broader Christian Church putting its faith into action to help young women facing crisis pregnancies. Espousing pro-life views is great, but it's vital for the Church to be the Church, putting Mathew Chapter 25 into practice.

Many individuals and local churches are doing just that in our community, supporting the work of pregnancy resource centers, such as Options for Women and Birthright. Both are excellent organizations. But in this column, I'd like to highlight another exciting project in downtown Cape Girardeau that's on the cusp of making a huge impact.

Construction is now underway on the LifeHouse Crisis Maternity Home near the intersection of Main Street and Park Drive. Catholic Charities of Southern Missouri is the not-for-profit behind the home, but the project is supported by many people of various religious affiliations.

The idea behind the home is to assist pregnant homeless women with a safe place to stay, providing compassionate care for the women and their children. The organization also provides educational modules that will help the women to attain the skills needed for gainful employment.

The women can begin the program at any time during their pregnancy and reside in the facility for a year after giving birth. There are services available after they leave the facility as well.

This particular project was inspired by LifeHouse Crisis Maternity Home in Springfield, Missouri, that opened in 2013. As of January, the facility has seen 118 babies born to women staying at the home.

When you look at the makeup of those being served at the Springfield facility, you get a much clearer understanding of the challenge:

• More than 60% are chronically homeless
• Many have been in abusive situations
• More than 70% have a history of addiction with many using drugs while pregnant before they arrived at the home.

With numbers like this, along with the high poverty rate in many parts of the state, it's not hard to believe that Missouri's maternal mortality rate has been one of the worst in the nation -- 44th as of 2019.

Gunnar Knudtson receives his royal garb as the king of the ball at the 2022 Mari Gras Ball for Life at the Drury Conference Center. Southeast Missourian file

Gunnar Knudtson receives his royal garb as the king of the ball at the 2022 Mari Gras Ball for Life at the Drury Conference Center. Southeast Missourian file

The Southeast Missourian first wrote about the Cape Girardeau project in February 2021 when the committee announced a $6 million campaign, which was to fund the building and two years of operations. Since then, thanks to rising inflation and supply chain issues, the home's costs have risen to about $7 million. Rick Cuba, a local financial advisor who previously served on the LifeHouse board, said $7 million for the facility has been raised. The organization is now fundraising for the first two years of operations.

This weekend the community will have another opportunity to support the mission. The second annual Mardi Gras Ball for Life will be held at the Drury Conference Center. In addition to attending the event, those wishing to support the LifeHouse project can vote for king candidates. Three men from the community compete to see who can garner the most votes. Each vote is $20. I've agreed to join this year's lineup along with Tyler Cuba and Chris Janet. Ultimately, it's not about who wins. It's about supporting the mission of LifeHouse and the women they will help. If you would like to support it, visit www.ccsomo.org/2023-mardi-gras-ball.html.

The LifeHouse home has strong ecumenical support from people of all faiths. While there is no proselytizing at the facility, those benefiting from the project will certainly feel the impact of God's goodness through the ministry. What an opportunity to help young women in some of the most challenging situations find hope for a better tomorrow!

Lucas Presson is assistant publisher of the Southeast Missourian.