The Birth of Children and Vocation
A Joy for Serving Others Meets The Need for Women’s Healthcare
A Vocation Birthed out of Need.
Tara's birth with Genesis (2002) was normal according to the standards of the American health-care system: The birth was induced, the birthing room was full of people and bright lights, and she had no advocate to attend to her needs and help her make informed decisions through the process.
Like she always does, Tara turned this difficult experience into an opportunity to serve others. In reflecting on the inadequate care of her first birth, she also reflected on the poor that she had met around the world and how much they, too, lacked education and advocacy. Alongside some of her best friends, Heather Munoz and Celesta Bargatze, Tara turned to prayer. They asked God how they could be a part of a solution to this worldwide lack of humanizing healthcare for women.
The three women devoted themselves to prayer and Tara began learning more and more about childbirth. Celesta, who was pre-med, and Heather (an RN) worked together with Tara to prepare educational materials and seminars to facilitate in the third world. The more they researched, the stronger the spirit pressed on them to do something.
As they prayed together, God continued to direct them down the path he was leading them to take. Tara, Heather, and Celesta learned all that they could about childbirth. The more they researched, the stronger the spirit pressed on them to do something. The more they learned and prayed, the more their spirit strengthened. Their calling would be powerfully confirmed in 2005.
A Commissioning Moment
Ahead of a trip to East Africa in 2005, the three ladies shared their findings with a group of young women participating in G.O.D.’s annual Summer Internship program that takes college-aged students on international missions. As they shared about female genital mutilation (FGM) horrific practice done to girls worldwide, God's spirit descended on the room of women. Gregg came into the room and reminded the women that prayers and cries were not enough; they had to respond to his promptings and move into action. Tara describes it as their commissioning moment. She writes, "God doesn't move us with compassion that powerfully to just leave us in our grief. He does it because he wants to do something about it. Compassion means to 'suffer with' those who suffer." But God will show you WHAT and how you can respond to the suffering." Tara, Heather, Celesta, and many others in that room with them were never the same from that day forward.
Greatest Joy Meets Greatest Need
Tara's passion was ignited even further. She could not learn enough about birth. Now pregnant with her second child, Justice, Tara's second birth sat in significant contrast to her first. Education made all the difference. Loving her neighbor as herself, Tara began teaching childbirth education to her friends--always well-prepared and enthusiastic, as she shared life-saving truth. She also began attending her friends' births and getting trained as a doula. Tara did all of this while raising two small children, caring for Gregg and a growing community of faith, with frequent band-related and mission-based travel. Gregg and Tara both recognized that her newfound passion was something God was stirring in her. She found what Fredrich Buchner would call vocation: "where your greatest joy meets the world's greatest need."
