Our Story.

In 2011, Rachel Tucker received a call from a young lady she had ministered to years earlier at the Imperial Courts Housing Project. "Theresa" had been at home with her boyfriend and two children when her boyfriend became angry and put a loaded gun to her head. He forced her to her knees, and she begged him not to kill her in front of her kids. He pulled the trigger anyway, but the gun jammed. The police arrested the boyfriend, but Theresa was emotionally shattered and called Rachel for help.

In that moment, the Lord spoke to Rachel: "This is happening all around you, but you don't know them." How many young mothers, beaten, raped, or abandoned, have a Christian's phone number to call?

Rachel received a divine commission to seek out young mothers, protect the vulnerable, and minister the healing power of Jesus.

While not all the moms who come to Cherish have such dramatic histories, a high percentage have experienced violence and received the overwhelming message that they are invisible and unvalued.

Central to this ministry is the word "cherish": loving, adoring, honoring, and valuing. We prioritize loving and honoring them even before these young moms become financially responsible, continue their education, become better mothers, or come to the Lord. We Cherish them.

Another central theme to Cherish is spiritual mentorship, the charge to strategically impart to the next generation whatever the Lord has entrusted to you. Rachel met Naomi Beard as a young woman at The Church on the Way, and Naomi mentored her for 18 years until Naomi's sudden death. Naomi had a gift, to not only accurately see who a person was, but prophetically who they could be. She lived a life of dramatic surrender, and prioritized ministering to the Lord through a lifestyle of worship. In 2011, Naomi called Rachel to say that the teen mom ministry that was on her heart was from the Lord, and that Rachel needed to act on it. It was just the confirmation that Rachel needed, and Cherish was birthed.