SAUK CITY — There is a new ministry brewing within the parent nonprofit organization 6:8 Making Service Personal of Sauk Prairie, which for over 12 years has been bringing hope and help to people in financial need in that community and beyond.
In April, a new employee, Rebecca Kirch, joined the 6:8 organization and is now working out the goals and implementation of the new program/ministry “People Reaching Others for Life.”
According to Kirch, “The purpose of People Reaching Others for Life is to build life-affirming relationships by connecting individuals through their unique experiences of family life.”
In an effort to improve community health, integrate social interactions within the community, foster empathic connections, and uphold the dignity of all life, People Reaching Others for Life will provide a supportive network for people who experience the joys and struggles of family life particularly in the areas of pregnancy, adoption, foster care, and infertility support, Kirch said.
The program will consist of small group support meetings, speakers, informational resource sharing, outings, classes, celebrations, advocacy, awareness, de-stigmatization, encouragement, and healthy living, she explained.
No stranger to 6:8
Kirch explained that at the beginning of 2022, 6:8 staff felt called to explore a new program that would meet the needs of women, children, and families in a more specific way than their parent programming was able to do.
6:8 Making Service Personal was started by John and Sarah Ramthun in 2010 as a Christian organization, inspired by the life and love of Jesus Christ.
On the 6:8 website, MakingServicePersonal.org it says, “We believe it is most important to invest in people. We prioritize relationships and believe this is the starting point for service, for charity, for transformation.”
The non-profit has expanded into many areas of providing for those in need over the years and emphasizes the motto “What we do is not nearly as important as who we are and how much we give is not nearly as important as how much love is in the giving.”
In 2022, 6:8 had over 500 volunteers serving in various programs and they logged over 21,000 hours of service.
Kirch began volunteering with 6:8 in 2015 and over the years helped sporadically with Learning for Life classes and child care and participated in the Sauk Prairie Against Hunger pack event.
She was no stranger to 6:8 when she was asked to come on board by 6:8 to, in part, research what type of program may be needed to address those needs of family life.
Her research led her to meet with various organizations to see what services were already offered so as not to duplicate or replace efforts already working.
Some of the organizations/individuals she met with included: parishioners from Divine Mercy Parish in Sauk City, Babies and Beyond of WI, Sauk Prairie Healthcare, St. Vincent de Paul (Sauk Prairie and Madison), CareNet, Access Community Health Nurse, Good Neighbor Clinic of Sauk Prairie, St. John Lutheran Church, and more.
Those meetings revealed helpful information including a few highlights: With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, there is a concern about how women, children, and families will be supported; at any given time there are approximately 7,000 children in foster care in the state of Wisconsin; about one in five women in the United States are infertile; and approximately one in five adults in the Sauk Prairie Healthcare area community survey respondents rated their mental health as “fair” or “poor” according to the Community Health Needs Assessment 2022-2024.
With these findings and more, Kirch recognized “there is hope and an opportunity” for relationship-building, awareness, and education for these challenges.
Kirch took her proposal for People Reaching Others for Life to the 6:8 Board of Directors and with approval moved forward with the program which is slated to launch in January 2023.
Kirch said she is praying for God’s guidance and for His will to be done in developing this program.
Challenging experiences, building relationships
A few key milestones in Kirch’s background undoubtedly made the new job at 6:8 a good fit for her, she explained in a detailed written statement.
In college, she studied psychology, but as she approached graduation, she didn’t have a clear career path in mind.
Looking for advice she connected with a Religious Sister from the Sinsinawa Dominicans who directed her to the campus ministry’s “Busy People Retreats.”
The Sister suggested Kirch consider volunteer work and soon she found herself in AmeriCorps in Phoenix, Ariz.
In short, she was serving and mentoring pregnant and parenting women through an organization called Maggie’s Place.
“I had some of the most beautiful and challenging experiences of my life so far, and I really fell in love with the mission of serving pregnant women,” Kirch stated.
After coming back to Madison, Kirch then worked for a little over a year with CareNet’s maternity home, The Elizabeth House, again connecting with moms in time of need at the home.
Since 2016, Kirch was working in a health insurance agency and although she enjoyed her job, which eventually had her working in the organizational development department, she was missing working side by side with others for a cause she was passionate about.
“I was both eager and hesitant about taking the job with 6:8, but I’m really glad I did. Each day brings unexpected blessings and the opportunity to interact with volunteers, people in our community, and another really collaborative team of co-workers,” she concluded.
Kirch is currently recruiting for the People Reaching Others for Life Core Team first and will build on that base.
In keeping with the 6:8 mission of transforming communities by making service personal, People Reaching Others for Life will focus less on the program and more on forming relationships.
Reciprocity is built into this program, Kirch said.
She added that there will be people giving and receiving. Everyone is important in this mission.
The important thing is to get the discussion started and to find people who have been through whatever life challenges they have — pregnancy, adoption, foster care, infertility, etc. and to share advice and hope with others. It will be important that everyone is benefitting from the relationships built.
Kirch explained that in her work with Maggie’s Place and the Elizabeth House, she has been able to reflect and experience the promise of God’s Word in the Gospel of Matthew and she has a feeling she may continue to experience it through People Reaching Others for Life at 6:8 as well.
This scripture verse sums it up, she said: “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms on account of My name, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”— Matthew 19:29
Anyone interested in volunteering or becoming part of the program is encouraged to contact Rebecca Kirch at [email protected]