CHIANG MAI, Thailand — Pregnant and 17. Olive was depressed and scared. Being a teenage mom wasn’t what she envisioned for her life. But maybe being a teenage mother didn’t have to be the trajectory of her life. It could all be over with a trip to a clinic, and no one would know. Except her sister and family knew. And they wanted her to keep the baby. 

Olive’s 14-year-old sister, Violet, was also pregnant and already connected with Christians from a pregnancy center in Chiang Mai that was founded by International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries.  

Missionary Beth Hipps said the goal of the ELM Pregnancy Center is to equip and empower Thai women to choose life by affirming the sanctity of life and providing care and resources. This includes educating women on their three options — pregnancy, adoption and abortion, with the hope and prayer that the women choose life. The gospel is central to the mission of ELM, which had its first client in 2019. 

The pregnancy center, which currently has two locations and 30 women serving, utilizes volunteer care teams to serve women. Two are paired together to walk alongside the mother during her pregnancy. They continue to support her as long as she wants, through age 2 of the baby. The care teams visit the women in their homes and often visit the mother and baby in the hospital, sometimes sitting in the waiting room during labor and delivery.

Sometimes providing care for pregnant women looks like encouragement and information on what to expect before and during labor and delivery. Care also includes sharing the gospel and connecting women with a local church, in hopes the women will follow Christ. Other times, it’s physical help, like giving a care kit or providing a crib. 

For women who do not choose life, Hipps and the other volunteers offer to meet with them after the abortion and walk with them through any emotional trauma. 

Abortion was once illegal in Thailand, though women still found ways. In 2021, it became legal up to 12 weeks and in 2022, up to 20 weeks. 

A flowering hope 

Hipps and a Thai care team member visited Violet in the hospital the day after she gave birth to her daughter, Daphne, to pray with her and talk about the responsibility of parenting. Violet shared that her sister was also pregnant and considering an abortion. Could they help her too?  

Hipps formed a care team to serve both sisters since they lived together. 

Olive decided not to abort her baby. The care team offered to help her with an adoption plan. However, she decided to keep her baby, naming her Marigold.  

The sisters’ family is supportive of their decision and is helping the girls with their daughters. The sisters live with their mother and grandmother, who also had babies in their teenage years.

Hipps marveled at how quickly Olive’s hesitancy, fear and disinterest in becoming a mom turned to a wholehearted embracing of her baby and motherhood. She decided she wanted to stay home and not go back to work in order to care for Marigold. She also watches her niece while her sister works.  

The care team continued to meet with the sisters, providing postpartum help with things like breastfeeding, parenting and nutrition, as well as spiritual nourishment like prayer, Bible teaching and encouragement. They met physical needs of the sisters by bringing food with them on their visits and by helping after a devastating flood.  

On their visits, the care team asks if they can share stories from the Bible. Olive and Violet’s grandmother used to, in Hipps’ words, “create a ruckus” when the care team shared Bible stories. The noise level made it difficult to be heard, but the care team continued. After time though, the grandmother hushed others in the household so she could hear the stories. 

Olive was eager to learn Bible stories. She and her boyfriend Jay began participating in discipleship training led by ELM staff to learn more about God. She told her family about what the Bible says about heaven and that their names “needed to be written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.”  

Answered prayers 

The IMB’s prayer office shared prayer requests about Olive and Violet, and for 18 months, Southern Baptists faithfully prayed for Olive’s journey toward motherhood and greater understanding of who God is. 

This past Christmas, Olive and Jay attended church for the first time, and this spring, nearly two years after Olive began meeting with her care team, she chose to commit her life to Christ.  

The care team continues to disciple Olive and Jay. They were recently discipled on how to have confidence in God in the salvation they have in Jesus. 

Olive encouraged a friend, who is also pregnant, to reach out to the pregnancy center and attend church with her. 

“This is what we want the missionary task to look like — local believers sharing and carrying on the work,” Hipps said.  

Most of the women who volunteer at ELM are Thai, so if the Western missionaries all leave, the work will continue. The pregnancy center currently has seven care teams in two cities in Thailand. A third branch is now active with two clients. One woman who was helped by a care team in Bangkok saw the great value in it and wants to join a care team in the future. 

Olive’s and Violet’s babies were saved, and Olive’s eternity was also saved. Hipps said the team is praying Violet will follow in her sister’s footsteps. 

*Some names changed for security.