Mrs. Cindy's story!

My name is Cindy Smith!  I am a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, aunt, and pastor's wife.  The most honorable of all the titles I have is "Mom."  I have always taken the responsibility serious and do to this day.  One of the opportunities I have been afforded, is teaching abstinence in middle schools and high schools.  Trust me this is not something I saw myself doing at the age of "50."  I feel I have been given an awesome platform because of the openness I have had with my own daughter and her friends.  When I was a teenager talking about sex was taboo.  You did not talk about it or ask questions.  In fact, if you were in the presence of adults and they talked about sex they would spell the word, in order to keep you from knowing what they were saying!  It wasn't like we couldn't spell!!!!!! In my opinion, it was a hidden topic, which made us more curious. Growing up in the '70's were a lot different than today!  One thing for sure, we had the best music and clothes. As I grew older, I made a decision. When I grew up and got married and had children, I knew I would be as open and honest with my child, concerning these issues as much as possible.  

When my husband became a pastor in 2002, we made a commitment to be involved in the local Sav-A-Life Centers in our area.  Eventually, I became a volunteer counselor.  After being at the center a few years, an opportunity came to me, to be trained to be an Abstinence Counselor.  I went through training and became certified to go into the middle schools and high schools in our area.  One of the days when I was working as a counselor at the center, I had a client who came in that was 16 years-of-age.  She thought she was pregnant and she had already had numerous sexual partners and had contracted an STD (Sexually Transmitted Disease).  The particular STD she had contracted, I was not familiar with.  I decided on that day, to educate myself about STDs.  This is how I initially became involved in the abstinence program.  My job as a presenter was to teach in the schools on STDs.  When I was a teenager, there were two known STDs; today there are over 25 known STDs.  Every year there are 19 million new cases of STDs, with nearly half occurring in young people between the ages of 15-24!  It's an astonishing fact, because parents are uneducated, therefore the youth of America are uneducated.  Chlamydia is one of the most common, fastest growing STDs. I have made a commitment to educate the youth in our city and to be open and honest with the facts.  Our message is to value who you are and know that you are worth waiting for.  When we as teens, young women and adult women, can see ourselves as valuable, we can make the commitment, not only to ourselves, to remain pure, but to God.  God has the man just for you and it's up to you to decide "YOU ARE WORTH WAITING FOR."  

Be blessed! 

Cindy Smith