ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
With the recent grand opening of its Limited Medical Clinic, Liberal’s Grace Place Pregnancy Care Center is seeing growth in its size, enabling the center to help a growing number of clients, and along with that increase, the facility is seeing higher figures in workers providing health.
Project Manager Maria Froese was hired in October 2024, and Clinic Manager Gwen Rawlins was hired in March, as progress was being made to the Limited Medical Clinic open.
Originally from Sublette, Froese went to school in Garden City, and she said she feels working at a pregnancy center like Grace Place was always something in the works for her.
“I got involved with pregnancy centers, and now, I’m here,” she said. “I feel God called me to help here. It’s been good.”
For Rawlins, school was in her plans later in life, and she has been a nurse for 16 years. Her work in that field, though, has been in other areas of nursing, and like Froese, she felt called to Grace Place.
“It’s really funny it came about,” Rawlins said. “I’ve been here since March. I’m really enjoying it. There’s been a lot of change since March. We’ve got a lot going on.”
Froese said before she attended a baby shower at her church years ago, she knew very little about pregnancy centers.
“When they talked about all the stuff they did, it was just a ministry I fell in love with,” she said. “I love the idea of them helping moms with children.”
Rawlins said she was looking for a faith-based job she could merge with her nursing skills.
“I am able to share my faith as a nurse and to have the foundation of my work be strictly faith and not this area of nursing or that,” she said.
Rawlins said she initially found out about the job at Grace Place through the center’s newsletter.
“I saw the position was open,” she said. “It piqued my interest. I put it aside. It was over the holidays. I picked it back up. I found the newsletter, and I called the number.”
Answering the phone was Grace Place Director Cindi Lyddon, and the two talked about the job prior to meeting in person. After that, Rawlins said everything seemed to fall into place.
“I feel the Lord opened that door, and I do also love the thought of being able to help moms and families and youth in need,” Rawlins said.
In her job, Froese said she does a little of everything.
“I work with clients when they come in,” she said. “We do classes with them. We do the advocacy. I do some of the paperwork, the advertising, the marketing.”
With the Limited Medical Clinic now open, Rawlins, along with registered nurses Mirella Buchman and Tina Froese, provide ultrasounds for pregnant mothers, and since coming on board, Rawlins said center workers have been quite busy.
“I’ve had my hands in a lot of things in the background,” she said.
Rawlins said in her initial time with Grace Place, she saw contractor plans for the Limited Medical Clinic, and she worked with Lyddon, Froese and former Client Services Director Letty Hernandez as they visited with people and got things in order for the new building such as working with contractors for carpeting, doors, keys and supplies for the clinic.
“I’ve learned a lot, and that was really neat,” Rawlins said.
Grace Place officials too have networked with Carenet Health as the clinic became a reality, and Rawlins said that company has been a huge help.
“We have regular meetings with them looking at the legal aspects of different things we needed to know,” she said.
Rawlins said the Limited Medical Clinic likewise provides limited ultrasounds.
“We don’t provide care as you would think of in a doctor’s office,” she said. “These limited ultrasounds are limited to certain cases, and we’ve gone through an accredited nursing course that is specific to limited ultrasounds. We just have a piece of that pie we do, and we have to be very cautious to stay within that.”
Now that the Limited Medical Clinic has had its grand opening, Rawlins said Grace Place officials are looking forward to use the building for its intended use.
“We’re letting God use it as He sees fit, and we will pray each day that we serve patients well,” she said.
In her year with Grace Place, Froese said she has also seen dramatic changes.
“We went from recording everything on paper to digital,” she said. “We’ve made a lot of changes.”
Both Froese and Rawlins love working at Grace Place.
“I wake up excited to come to work and grateful I have this job,” Rawlins said. “I can’t say I always felt that way in the past. I enjoyed caring for people, but the work was very daunting at times. I don’t feel like any of this is daunting.”
“The relationships you make with the clients in the community and the churches, it’s been very beautiful,” Froese said.
Rawlins said having the Limited Medical Clinic is very important for Grace Place.
“It will be a resource for those seeking understanding,” she said. “It will be used as a tool for that.”
Rawlins said she feels the clinic is just the beginning of what Grace Place can provide in the future.
“We hope it can open lots of doors,” she said. “There’s a youth relationship program. We’re looking at a fatherhood program to come.”
Froese said the growth already seen at the center will continue in the future.
“There’s a lot of different generations, and it doesn’t matter where someone comes from, what their socioeconomic, where there at in life,” she said. “We’re here for them. We want to love them, and we want to show them God’s love in whatever way we can.”
