11/20/2021
THANK YOU FOR TOUCHING OUR LIFE, ELAINE!
Today is a very mixed day of sadness and thanksgiving for me and Cheryl. We find ourselves saying the final “Good-bye” to a very special friend…Elaine Ham. To say that Elaine made an overwhelming and lasting impact in the Pro-Life movement and efforts in America is a vast understatement! And today, with both sadness and joy is her final memorial service as she completed a life well-lived, and a service well done.
Here's the rest of the story.
Several years ago, we moved to Brandon, Fla. Where I became the new pastor for Bell Shoals Baptist Church. Quickly we were befriended by Tom and Elaine Ham. Tom was in the equipment rental business and Elaine was working with the DeBartolo Corporation, which ran mall operations across the nation. Elaine would be the FIRST person in the Management Training Program that had not gotten a bachelor’s degree! That says everything about Elaine’s “get-it-done” approach to attacking life at full-throttle. She would go on to become the mall manager at their mall in Crystal River, Fla.
I asked her to head the Finance Team of the church for several years and she and Tom were constant supporters to leadership, growth and the church’s mission. They would both serve the church for 10 years.
Elaine had a heart for women who found themselves in difficult, and often unwanted, situations. That led her to become Director of Development and then, Center Director, at the Piedmont Women’s Center in Greenville, SC. While there, Elaine launched out and began PLANS FOR YOU, INC (http://www.plansforyou.com) which started as a pregnancy center training ministry. Tom soon joined her in the effort. We can remember Elaine sharing the vision that developed about using Baby Bottles to help raise funds for pregnancy centers, challenging people of all ages to contribute their “loose change” and baby bottles for LIFE. Any church, pregnancy center or interested group could become a part of this remarkable effort. I always appreciated the fact that only bottles made in the U.S. were used, so simultaneously, they helped U.S. jobs and its economy. In addition, they were committed to not using bottles made in China because of China’s one child policy. Through the years, The Baby Boomerang efforts have raised a staggering amount for the support and protection of LIFE…an estimated $125,000,000!!!
When I was called to become the Founding President of the Southern Baptist North American Mission Board in 1997, I called Elaine to join our team in 2004 to become the liaison nation-wide for Pregnancy Resource Centers which were connected/affiliated with Baptist Churches. When she accepted, her husband Tom, took the helm of Plans for You, while Elaine focused on connecting Baptist resources and help to centers across the nation.
Sadly, a few years ago, Elaine’s health began to deteriorate. As it continued to decline, Tom did an amazing job of becoming the primary care-giver as well as keeping Plans for You moving forward. Today’s final memorial service is a loving farewell to a wonderful lady, with a heart for protecting life and an unwillingness to sit on the sidelines. Elaine lived life “All In” and we will greatly miss her. “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
Please take a moment to pray today with thanksgiving for Elaine and her life, and for her husband Tom, son, Jeff and the extended family.
