When Keena (Yommer) Shaffer ’10 began to realize how many women and girls around her were broken and hurting, she felt God calling her to a pastoral counseling ministry. But since her graduation from Valley Forge Christian College, Keena has gone one step further than just getting her degree. On May 3, 2012, her dream to open a pregnancy center in her town is finally coming true.

After a summer internship at Care Net Pregnancy Center in Frederick, Md., God’s call on Keena in the pastoral counseling field was confirmed. “I saw women come through the door broken, with desperation in their eyes,” Keena said. “From that point on, I felt a passion to help women and girls who were lost and were looking for love in all the wrong places.”

In January 2011, the director of Life’s Choices Pregnancy and Resource Center in Kutztown, Pa., came to speak at Keena’s church, sharing her vision of a pregnancy center in nearby Hamburg. Keena’s heart was stirred, and since that time the two women have been working together to make the vision a reality.

As the director of Client Services at Life’s Choices Pregnancy and Resource Center in Hamburg, Keena will serve each girl who comes in, giving away pregnancy tests, assessing where they are spiritually, and directing them to their options.

In the near future, the center will offer relationship mentoring, along with parenting, childbirth, and abortion healing classes. Second Chance Boutique, a used clothing store for women and children, will open in the same building, which will help fund the center. When women attend classes, they can earn “Baby Bucks” that can be used in the store.

The amount of teenage pregnancies and single mothers in this area makes Hamburg an ideal place for a center like this. Even though the job will be tough at times, Keena says, “My heart is to see these girls and women find God and find His love.”

Forecasted to open in the fall of 2012, Life’s Choices was offered a building right in the middle of Hamburg for six months of free rent, which allowed them to open much earlier than they had expected. Along with special fundraisers, financial support will also come from churches, individuals, and businesses.

Keena and her husband, Josh, attend The Bridge Church in Hamburg, where Josh leads worship and the couple serve as the Young Adults pastors.