Delivering hope
to deep valleys
Holcomb Ministries provides intentional support to families facing
the emotional, financial, and logistical challenges of a NICU stay.
NICU families — let us support you.
Want to give to our mission?
Join us in serving families.
Financial
assistance
We provide gas gift cards for families experiencing the burden of the back and forth. We provide parking stipends for families who do not get reimbursed. We donate therapy equipment to hospitals and NICU grads. We help families pay for a place to stay near the hospital if in need.
Blessing
Bags
We donate gift bags stuffed with help and hope, nationally distributed as means of “sitting with” families at their babies’ bedsides—containing toiletries for the unexpected hospital stay, snacks, electrolyte drinks for the nursing/pumping mama, a swaddle to use instead of a hospital blanket, prayer prints, a parent devotional, a book to read over the baby, and more.
FAMILY Counseling
We connect families with local Christian counselors who specialize in birth trauma and EMDR. We have personal experience with the benefits of receiving biblical counseling & are passionate about sharing that with others. We provide stipends to pay for portions of counseling sessions that insurance does not cover.
About us
What We Do
“Holcomb” means deep valley. Our ministry provides intentional support to families facing the emotional, financial, and logistical challenges of a NICU stay. We long to meet families’ practical needs and point them to the hope of Christ’s nearness. After 160 days as NICU parents in Birmingham, AL, Paul and Catherine Barber know the isolation, anxiety, and exhaustion that caregivers endure.
We believe that no family should be left to navigate a hospital journey alone.
Now on the other side, together the Barbers started Holcomb Ministries to accompany moms, dads, and caretakers navigating their own deep valley. Whether a family has been in the NICU for a few hours or for months, as every baby’s situation is so different, we long to care for each individual family’s unique needs. We know God is with them every step of the way.
We encourage everyone to love their neighbor in the NICU through Holcomb Ministries.
About the barbers
Our story
Paul and Catherine once clenched tightly to their own plans and expectations, but with the unexpected birth of their second daughter at 22 weeks and 3 days, came the realization that God ordains our days and is sovereign over each of our life’s journeys. Upon finding out they were in preterm labor, they prayed the verses of Psalm 23 that God would be glorified through her life, not knowing whether they would have an hour, a day, a week, a month, or a lifetime with their child. The Lord went before them every moment of their 160-day journey filled with uncertainty. Now on the other side, they’re passionate about sharing with families that God is with them through every step of their valley.
It wasn’t until after their NICU journey that they realized their daughter’s middle name Holcomb meant “deep valley” (hol: ‘deep’; comb: ‘valley’). Now, with their three kids and community, it’s the overflow of their hearts to serve and love families who have been in their shoes.
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Psalm 23
Read our
Holcomb Journal
“...the beautiful relationships given to us repeatedly in Scripture between God and man are those of a father to his children and a shepherd to his sheep.”