About the Hannah Medical Center of South Arkansas
The Hannah Medical Center is a nonprofit pregnancy resource ministry located in El Dorado, Arkansas with additional branches in Camden & Magnolia.
In early 1999 a group of caring citizens from many different churches got together and discussed ways to deal with the growing problem of teenage sexual activity, pregnancies, and abortions of unplanned pregnancies (regardless of age). From that initial meeting The South Arkansas Caring Pregnancy Center (SACPC) was born.
SACPC was incorporated in the fall of 1999 and opened the doors in May of 2000. Jeanie Munzberger was the founding director with drive, initiative and experience. She put together a team of pastors, doctors, lawyers and other concerned citizens both Catholic and Protestant who had the same passion she did for women and teens in crisis. This team set out the parameters of serving our tri-county area.
Jeanie served as the first director until her husband transferred. Then Linda Fitts was brought on board. SACPC opened with 7 volunteers, a donated office space and many material items for client use. In June of 2001, God called Linda to another position and two new directors were called to job share the Executive Directors position. Both Terri and Debora had young children and prioritized motherhood over full time employment. God is so good though, through the job share, they brought all the skills necessary to the table. Terri Hegi served as E.D. client services and Debora L. Griffin as E.D. of administration. Together they were an awesome team. The directors quickly realized that SACPC was at risk of becoming an enabling agency instead of a crisis ministry. They were seeing only poverty driven needs - women who had children but lacked the ability to support those children, rather than pregnant women who were making life altering decisions about the pregnancy.
As Terri and Debora prayed about how to best resolve this issue and still minister to the poverty need, God intervened. He helped them envision His desire for how the SACPC could do both. The directors instituted a three prong approach. Prevention Ministries would serve the need to teach teenagers biblical sexual integrity (saving sex for marriage). Intervention Ministries would draw in the client in an unplanned pregnancy and support, encourage and educate her through her decision making process. The Redemption Ministries would mentor that woman through whichever decision she choose (and there are only three choices for an unplanned pregnancy – parenthood, adoption, abortion). Once these programs were in place God inspired the directors to focus on how they could best serve those in the Intervention Ministries, enabling them to choose life for their child.
The first question a client has is “Am I pregnant?”. The center was using lab quality tests and Dr. Ratcliff was assisting with ultrasounds, but it quickly became apparent that if women were not receiving an ultrasound the first time they came for a pregnancy test, they were not returning. Again God intervened and gave the directors a clear direction – get an ultrasound, convert to a limited medical clinic, hire an R.N., change your name, open a location in each county. WOW! Talk about a tall order.
God is good all the time! He not only showed the directors what He wanted for the ministry, He gave them the heart of obedience, provided new staff, locations and an ultrasound machine. Terri Hegi resigned her directorship so that monies would be available for a nurse manager, Liberty Baptist Association paid for a renovation in Camden to provide facilities there and a defunct church in Magnolia donated a facilities for Columbia County.
In February of 2004 the South Arkansas Caring Pregnancy Center fully converted to a limited medical facility with an R.N. on staff, a new office, new name (The Hannah Medical Center) and a brand new ultrasound machine. Boy, when God provides He does it in a big way. By early summer a place had been renovated (by God again!) for a location in Camden and in the fall Magnolia opened a physical location. Please read those additional stories to see how God worked to bring about those ministries.
The Hannah Medical Center now serves almost 300 women and children a year in our tri-county area. Women who choose life for their pregnancies are provided with opportunities to earn “stuff” for their families. The Sexual Integrity Program is made available to 5000 + students in 6-8 grade and some 9-12 graders in all three counties. Our post-abortive SaveOne groups minister to the heart of women who made abortion choices anywhere from 15-20 years ago to just last month.
Thank you for your support of this ministry. Without God none of it would have happened and God uses His people (you) to bring about His work. Thank you.
See our Future Growth Plans to find out what God has in store next!
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