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At a prayer meeting last year at Missionary Baptist Church in Carlisle, Iowa, Kenny McCaughey asked fellow members to petition God on behalf of his wife, Bobbi, that fertility therapy would be effective. Upon learning that the prayers for his wife to conceive had been answered sevenfold, McCaughey turned to pastor Robert J. Brown with questions on how he could handle such a brood. Brown prayed that God would be glorified by whatever happened.

Since that time, life has not been the same for the McCaugheys, Brown, or Missionary Baptist Church. The birth of the world's first surviving septuplets on November 19, 1997, changed the dynamics of the church immensely. Besides living through periods of intense media scrutiny, the 100-member congregation has rallied to become a model of what the church is designed to be: a support in time of need, even if the circumstances are overwhelming.

"When Bobbi and Kenny found out they were expecting seven, we said, 'You don't have to do this by yourselves,' " says Brown, 49. "The response from families in the church has been to commit ourselves to do anything we can do, no matter how long the haul may be."

Preparation began long before Kenneth, Alexis, Natalie, Kelsey, Brandon, Nathan, and Joel came into the world. Church members began bringing meals three times a week when a doctor ordered bed rest for Bobbi McCaughey in her ninth week of pregnancy—21 weeks before delivery. There have been 70 volunteers from their church to aid in caring for the septuplets—and their two-year-old sister, Mikayla—as well as in cleaning the home and preparing meals. Many on-site helpers take one shift a week, ranging from four hours in the morning to eight hours overnight.

Such devotion is not a new phenomenon at Missionary Baptist Church. "Their giving attitude did not start with Bobbi's pregnancy," says her father, Robert Hepworth. "It's a natural extension of what had been going on before. They are very giving to anyone who has need." Hepworth and his wife, Peggy, both 53, attend the church, as does Kenny McCaughey's father, Kenneth George, 53, and his stepmother, Val, 42.

"It's not unusual for people in this church to help people in need," Val McCaughey says. "Of course, there's never been a need like this before."

Indeed. Bobbi McCaughey prepares 45 bottles of formula herself every day, but the task of feeding, bathing, and changing diapers for seven babies around the clock—while trying to attend to other household chores—is beyond any one person. Although the McCaugheys have many relatives in the area, it has been their extended family—the church—that has seen them through.

Even if the McCaugheys feel a bit awkward relying on the assistance of others to raise their family, they know it is part of God's plan. "The help has been simply outstanding," Bobbi McCaughey says. "If it was just me, the laundry wouldn't get done and the meals wouldn't be made."

The church in Carlisle, a town of 3,400 people 10 miles southeast of Des Moines, has been at the center of the lives of Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey both before and after the birth of the septuplets. Before the big event, they had been active at Missionary Baptist Church, which is affiliated with the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, by working in the children's ministry and singing in the choir. Both Kenny, 28, and Bobbi, 30, attended Bible college before he became a billing clerk at the local Chevrolet dealership and she became a seamstress.

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October 5 1998, Vol. 42, No. 11