Tiffany Seifman’s ministry to expectant mothers and their families began with a single encounter with a close friend. That experience eventually led to her current role as Executive Director of Pathway to Hope, an organization that offers hope to those facing an unexpected pregnancy. When talking about this journey, Tiffany says: “I have been working with pregnancy centers for over 13 years. I started out about 18 years ago working with a dear friend who is still a dear friend today. She found herself in an unexpected pregnancy. She was a single mom of three girls, and she came to me and asked if I would help her. I didn’t know what that looked like; I didn’t know what to do. And God met both of us at that time. He quickly showed me that the way to reach an unborn child is through the heart of the mother.”
She continues: “so what it meant is, when she was on bedrest, coming over and helping put away her laundry for her three girls. My husband became involved as well, mowing her lawn in the summer, plowing her driveway in the winter. We quickly learned that the way to advocate for life was for women to come alongside them to support them. After we were working with her, God brought three more moms into our life who were single mothers and found themselves in an unexpected pregnancy. I don’t believe that God does anything by accident. It was very clear through those circumstances that he was drawing me into a passion to work with women in some capacity to come alongside them and support them.”
Later God put into Tiffany’s heart to work as a volunteer in a pregnancy center. With a degree in communications and management experience, it wasn’t long before she moved into the role of Director of Operations, followed by Executive Director. She worked for that organization for ten years, followed by two other centers, including Pathway to Hope, where she currently serves. She comments, “God has taken me full circle, if you will, from not knowing how to come alongside women in an unexpected pregnancy, to using my background and skill sets to show me that it’s not only meeting with them face to face or serving them in some capacity, but it is also doing it in a leadership role as well. As staff members, there’s no job that is too small. We all have a part to play in helping advocate for women and for men, because we serve men as well at our pregnancy center.”
When asked about her understanding of her work as a calling, Tiffany says, “It was clear to me when I was in my early twenties that God wanted me to do something in some capacity for pre-born children, but I also had a passion for the life circumstances, the traumas that women would go through. I didn’t know how to integrate that with a communications degree. Back then, there were not degrees for working at a pregnancy center, so God was my trainer. God was my educator. As He shows me practically what it looks like to minister to women and to minister to their children, it is also an intentional part that I come along side women and show them the love of Christ, in addition to the material support that we offer to them. We show them that Christ does not judge them, and we do not judge them. (In order to share the gospel) I do partner with pregnancy centers that don’t need any type of government funding that will not allow them to share the gospel. God has convicted me to be very careful and discerning about who I partner with and who I say yes to in these leadership roles.”
Another way that Tiffany is showing the love of Christ is by building relationships with an organization that many would consider an enemy. She says, “the pregnancy center that I’m currently at is 40 yards from a Planned Parenthood. When I first interviewed for the position that I have now as executive director, I was so excited when I I saw Planned Parenthood. I know it seems almost irrational to have that kind of excitement. Here’s why. Because I don’t view Planned Parenthood as the enemy. And in fact, as a staff, we have taken the posture that none of us view Planned Parenthood as the enemy. In fact, we have built relationships with their staff. We’ve walked over and brought them coffee and donuts to build that relationship. We’ve shown them by example that Christ is in us, and our faith is driving us to show them love: We are here for the clients that they serve. We can have different missions, but we are still about people. So when there’s a client that comes to this particular Planned Parenthood, and that client cannot afford a pregnancy test or ultrasound, they have referred clients to our center. So there’s a beautiful testimony that I believe God has done within our community, showing that we love Christ, we love people, and we are about building relationships even when our missions are entirely different.”
Tiffany and her husband live in the greater Cincinnati area. She is the Executive Director of Pathway to Hope in Hamilton, Ohio.
