Missionary Profile

By Jami Becher

Name:  
Richard & Jeanette Willyard

Assignment:   
Mission Service Corps
Missionaries, New Albany, Indiana
Bringing blessings to new moms

How do you measure success? For Mission Service Corps missionaries Richard and Jeanette Willyard success is measured in babies saved and mothers changed.

The Willyards manage Blessings Boutique for the Choices for Women Resource Center, a North American Mission Board–sponsored Pregnancy Care Center in New Albany, Indiana, where 150 clients come each month to find love and resources during an unplanned pregnancy. “It’s so important to help save babies,” Jeanette says. “We’re here to educate moms and be someone they can go to for support.”

Jeanette, who worked in the retail industry for 35 years, wanted to create a ministry where mothers could shop for their babies that felt like a first class department store. “Many of these girls feel like leftover people,” she says. “I didn’t want them to come to Blessings Boutique and feel as if the Lord were giving them leftovers. I want them to understand they’re valuable to Christ, and He wants to give them His best.”

Every article of clothing donated to the boutique is washed, ironed, and beautifully displayed. The Willyards also believe mommies deserve new things for their babies, so they work with local stores to provide a brand new car seat and pac-n-play for each child. Operation Blessing, a ministry of their association, provides diapers for the boutique and money from the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund supplies baby food and formula.

“Jeanette and Richard are irreplaceable,” says Rose Condra, director of Choices. “You couldn’t pay someone to serve with that kind of excellence. They treat all of the mothers like their daughters and all the kids like their grandbabies.” 

Why do they serve? Simple. It’s what Jesus meant for them to do. Of the 53 years they’ve been married Richard and Jeanette have spent 50 serving the Lord in New Albany. “We get up every morning and feel like we have a purpose,” Jeanette says. “I suppose we could stay home and work in our flower garden, but we’d miss a blessing if we did.” OM

Action Item

January 18, 2009 is Sanctity for Human Life Sunday. Invite a volunteer from your local pregnancy care center to set up a booth in the foyer of your church or have them give their testimony about why they serve. If there isn’t a center in your community, talk to your association or state convention about starting one.