Gabriel Project: 25 years of offering ‘hand up, not handout’ to women in crisis pregnancy

Savanna McPherson, right, smiles with Linda Kile, executive director and president of Great Lakes Gabriel Project, at Garfield Park in Indianapolis on Oct. 5. McPherson credits the organization and parish-based Gabriel Project volunteers with saving her now-21-year-old son from abortion and serving as “the wind under” her wings for two decades. (Photo by Natalie Hoefer)

By Natalie Hoefer

Savanna McPherson was a “young—very young” woman in an unplanned pregnancy when she visited an abortion center on the east side of Indianapolis more than 20 years ago.

“I was already a single mother of one,” she says. “I wasn’t sure if I could handle having another child. I didn’t want an abortion, but I felt like my back was against the wall.”

Outside of the abortion center, she spoke with a pro-life sidewalk counselor who told her about an organization called Gabriel Project designed to help women in a crisis pregnancy just like hers.

McPherson credits the organization not only with saving the life of her son, Lance, now 21, but with the very success of her life today.

“They take care of people, of families, of hearts,” she says. “The love and support from this program is one of the biggest reasons why I stand strong today.”

This year, Gabriel Project celebrates its 25th anniversary of helping women in a crisis pregnancy in central and southern Indiana. In that time, more than 15,000 women have benefited from the material, emotional and spiritual support of the 11 parishes and volunteers committed to the ministry.

“It’s as much a ministry of accompaniment as it is resources,” says Linda Kile, executive director and president for Great Lakes Gabriel Project, a non-profit created in 2004 to assist local parish Gabriel Projects (see related article on page 9). “We’re about relationships. We want to empower a woman as much as possible and give her a hand up, not a handout.”

The blessings of the ministry began in 1999 at St. Bartholomew Parish in Columbus with one Hispanic woman in need of help—and a group of parishioners’ lesson in trust.

A message ‘like the archangel Gabriel’

In May 1999, a member of the Columbus faith community sought to find the most effective parish-based pro-life program. In the process, he learned about Gabriel Project, a ministry founded in Houston in 1973 after the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion.

He shared the information with a small group of parishioners. They liked the concept of the ministry but decided to study Gabriel Project groups in other states for six months before starting the ministry at St. Bartholomew.

But six months was not God’s timeline. Just two months into their research, a young, unwed Hispanic woman in a crisis pregnancy sought help from the parish.

Eileen Hartman, a member of the group who later became Great Lakes Gabriel Project’s first executive director, shared the rest of the story in an April 12, 2002, article in The Criterion:

“After we went through this process with her and her baby was born, we finally realized that the whole message of the Gabriel Project is that, like the archangel Gabriel, we bring a message to women that they need not be afraid because God loves them and will help them with their pregnancy.

“We also realized that we couldn’t teach women that lesson until we learned it ourselves, and that’s what God was doing. He was teaching us that lesson and showing us that we didn’t need a grand plan. We needed him.”

Gabriel Project at St. Bartholomew helped 18 women in its first year. People in other parishes heard about the ministry and reached out for help in launching their own Gabriel Project. Today,

11 parishes in central and southern Indiana offer the ministry.

The keyword above is “parishes.”

‘It’s a parish thing’

“When a Gabriel Project launches, the whole parish becomes a Gabriel Project, not just the pro-life committee,” says Kile.

Parish fundraisers, diaper drives and donated items help a ministry provide moms with gift baskets, layettes, baby showers and more.

But Gabriel Project is also “a parish thing because [trained volunteers] can reach out to other parishioners who might be able to help the mom in their own special way, like a car mechanic or handyman, or someone who can teach how to set and manage a budget,” says Kile. “You’re drawing on the resources of the entire faith community.”

Most often, moms in need in central and southern Indiana are put in touch with the nearest parish project through Great Lakes Gabriel Project’s toll-free hotline, with help available in English and Spanish.

“Poverty and financial concerns are what bring most moms to us,” Kile explains. “Especially a woman living paycheck to paycheck or not relying on the father, and especially if she already has kids. Often the relationship with the father is gone. She’s scared, terrified and doesn’t see a vision for herself for how she can provide for a child or another child.”

That includes women like a mother helped by SS. Francis and Clare of Assisi Parish in Greenwood “who was kicked out in the middle of the night, along with her twin babies, by the father of their children,” says parish Gabriel Project coordinator Donna Kelker.

Or like the mom “who didn’t really have anything but the clothes on her back,” says Kelly Elkins, Gabriel Project coordinator for St. Ann, St. Joseph and St. Mary parishes in Jennings County Still, the trained volunteers, called Angels, are the faces—and hearts—of Gabriel Project for the moms.

Practically speaking, Angels meet with the mom to assess her needs. They remain in touch with her before, during and after the birth of her baby, making sure she’s connected to resources she needs. Some help provide transportation to doctor offices and other necessary appointments.

Those are the general duties. But it’s the Angels’ compassion, encouragement and love that become, as McPherson says, “the wind under your wings.”

‘A relationship that gives a bigger picture’

McPherson, a single mother of six children ages 8-23, tears up when she talks about the impact Gabriel Project and various Angels have had on her and her children’s lives.

“There’s been several times where I got help that prevented what would’ve been a major setback,” she says, from help during a child’s dental emergency to finding a reliable car mechanic so she could go to work.

The emotional support has been just as impactful from each of McPherson’s Angels in the last 20 years. But she particularly cites her first Angel, Kathy Stadler, who now lives in Colorado.

“The encouragement and support and positivity and prayers and love—,” says McPherson, pausing to hold back tears. “I really felt loved by Kathy. I really felt like I wasn’t alone.

“But all my Angels were super. They were like, ‘You’ve got this, keep going!’ When you don’t have that in your personal life, that’s everything. I literally have no support outside Gabriel Project.”

Elkins has found that many moms the Jennings County Angels encounter are lonely.

“They want to make life better for themselves and their children, so they leave old friends and bad environments behind,” she says.

“They can get in a cycle where they think things will never get better. We provide a relationship that gives a bigger picture and can lead them to Christ and put them on a more positive road.

“We help them set goals, help them know that they aren’t alone and just try to encourage them to just be the best mom they can be and let them know God has them where he wants them.”

While some women prefer not to talk about God, “some really do appreciate the outreach and the prayers,” says Elkins. “We can be sometimes the voice of peace, of reason, of hope for these women.”

McPherson is proof of the difference such support can make.

“Linda [Kile] recommended a budgeting class to me, and that’s turned into working with a career coach,” she says. “I work, but just to make ends meet. Now it’s time to look at a career path so I can earn more.”

McPherson credits Gabriel Project with her children’s success, too. Based on an Angel’s suggestion, she sent her three oldest children to Providence Cristo Rey, a Catholic college and career preparatory high school in Indianapolis serving families with limited means.

“Their experience there helped them gain a good work ethic and gave them direction, and now all of them are in college,” says McPherson. “They’re happy and going after what they love, and that always makes you happy as a parent.”

‘We’re the hands and feet of Christ’

McPherson’s story is an example of the long-term effects parish Gabriel Projects and Angels can have.

But most needs are more immediate—especially now. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022 and the 2023 enactment of a law restricting most abortions in Indiana, the need to help women in a crisis pregnancy is at a critical level.

Even now, SS. Francis and Clare of Assisi Gabriel Project is helping 10 to 20 women at any given time, says Kelker. And just a year since its launch, Elkins says the three Jennings County parishes’ group has already helped 12 women.

“We’re going to be seeing moms in unplanned pregnancies who don’t know what to do,” says Kile. “Some of them will need extra handholding.

“These moms need the services of a parish-based Gabriel Project. We need to grow the number of Gabriel Project parishes we have throughout the archdiocese.

“And we need more people willing to step up and walk this journey with them, because that’s what we do—we’re the hands and feet of Christ.”
 

(For information on Gabriel Project, go to goangels.org, call 317-213-4778 or e-mail linda@goangels.org.) †

 

Related story: Non-profit helps parish Gabriel Projects, set to re-open pregnancy care center in 2025