LifeBeat Family Resource Center gave its first tour on board its newly acquired mobile pregnancy clinic, recently named Hope, on February 11 at Second Baptist Church in Union City, TN.
As many as 50 people were eager to see the features and layout of the clinic and hear more about how it will serve different areas in Lake and Obion Counties.
The clinic has been outfitted with tinted windows and privacy shades, multiple monitors, soft lighting, surround sound, and an exam area, where trained nurses can administer free pregnancy tests and sonographers can perform free 3D and 4D ultrasounds. LifeBeat aims to widen its reach to vulnerable women experiencing unplanned pregnancies and to speak the truth to them.
Prior to the mobile clinic tour, LifeBeat Director, Dee Keeling, was on the agenda for the Women’s Missionary Union (WMU) meeting at the church, where she took the time to talk about the mobile unit and how it came to be. She also shared the center's challenge of finding accessible places to park the mobile clinic to serve the communities. While Keeling has petitioned for an additional parking lot in Union City, the Second Baptist Church parking lot is, so far, the only location that has been approved. She says that visibility is an important factor in reaching more vulnerable girls.
Janice Wheatley, LifeBeat’s Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer, said that because the church parking lot was in a prime location, the tour was made more widely available to the public. She also said the public was very receptive to the clinic's purpose. “A lot of people really wanted to see it. They really thought it was a good service to go where the girls are," she stated.
One woman, in particular, shared her abortion story with Wheatly. She said, “We had a young girl who had gotten pregnant at 17, and she would have given anything if this service had been available to her. She now wants to get involved with LifeBeat.”
Keeling said while three women are currently in training for counseling, two more people from the mobile clinic tour have expressed interest in volunteering. She hopes to run the mobile clinic five days a week, but to set a firm schedule, the center needs more volunteers, another ultrasound tech, and parking lots in either Troy or Union City and Ridgely.
If you would like to volunteer your time, services, or parking space to help assist LifeBeat Family Resource Center’s mobile clinic, please call Dee Keeling at (731) 253-7222.
