Jennifer Chapman slid the transducer over the abdomen of the woman lying on the table next to her. As she worked to find the heartbeat and measure the dimensions of the tiny baby living in her womb, she struck up a conversation. “My birth mother was a teen mom, too,” she said in her sweet southern accent. “I am so glad she chose life, or I wouldn’t be here giving you this ultrasound.”
You might wonder how a nurse who was born in Oklahoma and lived most of her life in Dallas, Texas, opened a pregnancy care center in Boonville, New York, a small town with a population of less than five thousand known as “The Snow Capital of the East.” Jennifer’s story is both inspiring and intriguing.
Her story begins with a frightened teenage mom giving birth to an infant girl who she was never able to hold. The teen’s mother insisted her baby be whisked away and given up for adoption immediately, and she swore the young mother and everyone who knew about the birth to secrecy.
Jennifer, the newborn infant, was placed in the arms of a couple who had struggled with infertility, blessing them with the family they had dreamed about and prayed for.
Jennifer grew up in a Christian home and was involved in a church from a young age. She grew up aware of the fact she was adopted, and she always wondered about her birth mom. As she grew older, Jennifer became aware that if her mother had made a different choice, she would never have been born. This realization kindled a passion within her heart which would influence her future work.
Even though Jennifer grew up immersed in church activities, it wasn’t until she was eighteen that she fully understood the Gospel message and how she needed tosurrender her life to the Lord. She remembers crying out to God from her bed, and she believes that was the point of her life when she was truly saved. It crossed her mind that she should be baptized, but she was embarrassed because she was older.
Over the next twenty years, Jennifer often thought about getting baptized, but never followed through with it. As she was preparing to leave for a mission trip to Guatemala, Jennifer felt God stirring in her heart, and she could not ignore what God was leading her to do. She went forward and was baptized in front of a packed church of around 4,000 people. “I felt so light after,” Jennifer said, “I didn’t realize I had been carrying the burden of disobedience.”
Jennifer became a nurse. After working as a nurse for three years, she hit it off with someone she met on a blind date, and they were married a year later. There was just one thing. Before they married, her fiancé revealed to her that he felt God was calling him to move back to the land of his ancestors—New York State.
“No way,” Jennifer said, but she still married Louis.
Life went on. Louis became a police officer, and Jennifer worked as a nurse. They had two children and were involved in a mega-church in the Dallas area. When the children reached school age, Jennifer resigned from nursing and planned to homeschool them. Their lives were full, and Jennifer felt blessed. But Jennifer felt the Holy Spirit nudging her, reminding her of her husband’s calling to New York. Finally, she couldn’t fight it anymore. She surrendered her will and agreed to be obedient to the Lord.
The Chapmans weren’t sure where in New York they were supposed to go, so in the fall of 2019, they visited the state and drove around looking for land. They didn’t find anything at first, but then Jennifer found a parcel of land that was exactly what she had envisioned. The land was adjacent to a cemetery which had a sign that read, “Prussian Settlement Cemetery.” This confirmed to the family they were in the right place since her husband had Prussian ancestry. They put a down payment on a manufactured home and prepared to move.
Then Covid broke out, making everything more difficult. In May 2020, at the height of the pandemic, they packed up their belongings and drove off without a chance to say goodbye to many of their friends and family members since churches and organizations were closed at that time. Jennifer was distressed that she couldn’t say goodbye to her grandparents who were in an assisted living facility.
“Saying goodbye to my mother was the hardest,” Jennifer recalled. “I remember sitting on the staircase in my house with her and crying, wondering if this would be the last time I would see her.” Sadly, Jennifer’s fear became a reality when her mother passed away unexpectedly eleven months later, just a couple months before she planned to move to New York to join Jennifer and her family.
The Chapmans arrived in New York knowing they were sent as missionaries but had no clear direction as to what exactly they were to do. They partnered with a church in Boonville, the closest town, and ran a summer lunch program. During a two-month period, they gave away 2,770 lunches and almost 100 Bibles.
Moving and putting a down payment on their home depleted their money, so Louis needed to go back to work. He was unable to get a job as a police officer since he was too old according to New York’s regulations, so he had to work multiple jobs to pay the bills.
As Jennifer was mowing the lawn one day, her mind was swirling with thoughts of a conversation with her pastor about sharing her testimony on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, and she was praying about whether she should go back to work as a nurse. “That could solve our money problems,” she thought.
“Clear as day, I heard God say, ‘Open a pregnancy center,’” Jennifer said. This was an idea Jennifer had never considered, and she didn’t know where to start. She asked her pastor where the closest pregnancy center was. They told her there was a Care Net (now Willow Network) pregnancy center in Rome, about a half hour away. She contacted them and began volunteering.
After she had been volunteering for about a month, the President of Care Net of Central New York came to the Rome Center. “Have you ever thought about opening a center in Boonville?” Jennifer asked him.
“Yes,” he answered, “but we don’t have a location or anyone to run a center in Boonville.”
“I could run it,” Jennifer said, “and my church said they would allow us to use their facility.”
Within a few months, Jennifer was officially brought on as Care Net staff, and the Boonville center was opened. Jennifer began working on getting her nursing license in New York so she would be able to give ultrasounds to their clients. The process took around eight months. However, they did not have an ultrasound machine. Jennifer started praying and raising money for one.
Meanwhile, Jennifer’s husband enrolled in Liberty University’s online program. While still working multiple jobs to support their family, he completed his Bachelor of Science and Evangelism in May of 2021 and began working on his master’s degree in Pastoral Counseling and Community Chaplaincy. He began pastoring at Hawkinsville Church in 2022 and was recently hired as a senior pastor of New Beginnings Community Church in Rome.
Since opening in February 2021, the pregnancy center in Boonville has continually grown. In March of 2024, the Board of Directors agreed to rent a storefront location on Main Street. Shortly after moving to the new location, Jennifer was granted her desire for an ultrasound machine. Another center closed, and their ultrasound machine was donated to the Boonville location. “In our first year of operation, we had 44 visits,” Jennifer said, “And this past year, we had 627.”
“Moving here has been the best but hardest decision we have ever made,” Jennifer said. She explained that they went through hard times of adjusting to living in a snow belt, being far away from friends and family, and not knowing where their next meal would come from, but God always provided. “We clung to Matthew 6:34— ‘Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own’” (NIV). Jennifer would find a bag of groceries on her front porch or a check in her mailbox just when they needed it. “We have grown in our faith and feel closer to God more than any other time in our lives.”
“Four and a half years ago, when we followed God’s calling to move to New York, I would never have believed what God had in store for us. I never dreamed Louis would be a senior pastor and I would be running a pregnancy center.” Besides running a pregnancy center, Jennifer homeschools her two children and is involved in community theater, and she and Louis are volunteers with their local fire department where Louis was recently installed as chaplain.
Jennifer’s favorite quote, which is based on Isaiah 58:11, sums up their experience: “Where God guides, He provides.”