Friday feature: Jerusalem, Samaria . . .

This week we presented our rationale for partnering with pro-life ministry overseas, but on Saturday our prayer partners will focus on pregnancy center ministries in our home state. Basically we're featuring Margaret Horvath, who heads up both a PCC and a statewide alliance of PCCs.

Margaret is the executive director of Heartbeat of Monroe, "a faith-based, non-profit, life affirming, pregnancy care and resource center serving the Monroe County Area since 1973." Alliance for Life of Michigan is a loose-knit coalition of PCCs that "works to promote, nurture, unite and expand" life-affirming organizations throughout the state.

Heartbeat of Monroe is one of 34 Michigan centers listed on our website as either an associate or one with which we have a close working relationship. We didn't help start Heartbeat, but Margaret has attended our Summits; we were instrumental in the establishment of the Alliance.

According to Optionline.org, there are at least 46 organizations offering alternatives to abortion within a 100 mile radius of Grand Rapids, our Jerusalem. The Pregnancy Decision Line lists 49 such services in the state, although their list doesn't include every PCC.

That's probably 49 more than are available in entire countries of the developing world. It's helpful to keep that perspective in mind, as a reason to go to "the uttermost parts of the world."

Prayer request: For Tom, Ray, and John as they wing their way to the Philippines today for two weeks of training and consultation with pro-life ministries.

Tuesday prayer: For pro-life ministries overseas

I've been "chatting" via Facebook with a friend in Kenya this morning. He opened the conversation thanking me for my posts, and said he enjoys emailing them to others. He wishes he could share them with even more people, but faces some limitations that are almost unimaginable to Americans.

In my musing yesterday I listed four challenges that overseas pro-life ministry must overcome in comparison to what we face. Here's a fifth: lack of electricity. 

Most people in places like Kenya don't have consistent, available electric power. Many also lack computers, cell phones, and Internet access. If they able to download pro-life resources, they might lack laser printers and paper, or the money to have copies made.

I asked what communication methods are available to him and he replied, "holding workshops."

When you think about it, that isn't a bad method. It's similar to the way the Gospel spread in the 1st century. Even here in the States, where everybody has multiple means of communication, one-on-one conversation is still the best way to share compassion and attempt to persuade. 

Please pray for Stephen, and others like him, who urgently desire to spread the message about the sanctity of human life and the dangers of abortion, but lack even the most basic resources that we take for granted.

Monday musing: The case for pro-life missions overseas

Corrected 2/19/13: This week Tom Lothamer, president of Life Matters Worldwide, will fly to the Philippines with Ray Paget, our former executive director, and John McCastle, a new board member and the president of Ultrasounds for Life.

They'll be meeting with our partners in pro-life ministry, including Melisa Serata (who does abstinence education in schools) and Dr. Mae Corvera (who leads LIFT ministries at her church and others in Manila).

The trip will be costly -- both in terms of time and money. Some might wonder, why not concentrate on needs here in the U.S. Aren't they pressing enough? Why be "worldwide"?

Indeed the need for pro-life ministry in the U.S. is great, and we must continue to develop and promote alternatives to abortion and euthanasia. Many resources are already devoted to this cause.

In fact, Kurt Dillinger of LIFE International has said that something like 90 percent of U.S. pro-life dollars are spent in this country while 90 percent of the world's abortions occur elsewhere.

That's a sobering thought. Even more difficult to swallow is the responsibility America bears, because we have exported abortion to the world.

The Guttmacher Institute is pro-abortion and connected
with International Planned Parenthood Federation.

How is that possible? Consider two countries: Romania and South Africa. They both achieved new levels of democratic freedoms in the 1990s, and both looked to the U.S. for a model to follow. What did they see? Among other things, legalized abortion on demand. Sadly, as they threw off an old bondage they replaced it with a new one. Today Romania has one of the world's highest rates of abortion.

Life Matters Worldwide has been to both countries to help missionaries and nationals respond to the crises created by sexual immorality and its consequences: abortion and sexually transmitted diseases. In Romania, we helped establish the Clinica ProVita group of pregnancy care centers; in South Africa we trained church members to offer LIFT services to people dying of AIDS.

If you think passing pro-life laws is an uphill battle in the U.S., consider that the task of pro-life ministry in other countries is even more Sisyphean. Depending on the administration in power, the U.S. often ties foreign aid to a recipient country's liberalization of abortion laws. We Christians, therefore, owe an even greater debt to Christians in other countries to help them fight abortion.

Pro-lifers in other countries face added challenges, such as:

• A lack of biblical teaching on the sanctity of human life, even in churches
• A lack of understanding about human development and what abortion does to the unborn
• A lack of respect for women
• A lack of resources*

Life Matters Worldwide is positioned to help people overseas overcome the first three hurdles, but the last is most difficult. We want to avoid making Third World ministries dependent on the so-called First World for support. Nevertheless, many people in other parts of the world who have a great desire to do pro-life ministry must spend a good share of their day simply surviving.

I think of Bentina Alusi who runs the Kibera Community Counselling and Pregnancy Crisis Centre in the world's largest slum (outside Nairobi, Kenya). By our standards she has very little but, like the poor woman of Luke 21:1-4, she gives all she has.

At one point soon after the center opened in 2009, Bentina was counseling with 15 girls a day, two days a week. Missionaries reported that the church that her husband pastors grew because of her ministry through the center. From a small seed comes great harvest! Similar results have been had through PCC ministry in Lima, Peru.

Volunteering at a pregnancy center or AIDS hospice is a luxury that few in developing nations can afford, therefore ministries in these parts of the world are well served if we help them devise strategies for sustaining pro-life work. A few years ago, for instance, we were blessed to be able to give one center in South Asia a grant toward the establishment of a pharmacy to generate income.

God has given Life Matters both the desire and the opportunity to join with others in pro-life ministry overseas. So far He's also supplied resources to enable us to help in small but significant ways. Please pray for Tom, Ray, and John as they make this trip, for Mae and Melisa as they organize the visit, and for the people in the Philippines who will be trained.

We receive new requests every week. Today there was one from a person in Kenya. Ask God to give us wisdom and grace as we steward both funds and opportunities, and as we respond to people.

Truly, life matters worldwide.

*Read about a fifth challenge here.

Related: Go for the Yahtzee -- an interesting take on helping people help themselves

Friday feature: Pennsylvania PCCs

Today our prayer partners will focus attention on two pregnancy care centers in the Keystone State: Lifeline PCC in Millersburg and Delaware County Pregnancy Center in Chester.

We've had a relationship with PA centers ever since 1987 when we helped establish Pennsylvania Baptists for Life & Families and trained their members for pro-life ministry.

Other PA centers that are (or have been) associates of Life Matters Worldwide:

Amnion Crisis Pregnancy Centers, Drexel Hill (Upper Darby)
Chester County Women's Services, Coatesville & West Chester
Cornerstone Pregnancy Care Services, Gap
Genesis Pregnancy Care Center, Pottstown

Monday musing: The language of choice

In last Monday's "What's wrong with 'choice'?" we noted the abortion establishment's recent abandonment of the "pro-choice" label, and that it seems to indicate their inability to come to terms with the consequences of choice. That inability results in a stunted vocabulary.

Because advocates refuse to think about abortion as something for which we're answerable to a holy God, they imagine there's nothing to "repent," nothing to be "forgiven." These terms are foreign to them. "Right" and "wrong," "good" and "bad" are, therefore, purely self-oriented. The only question is, "Will abortion help me in my present circumstance?"

They fall into the trap of thinking the experience of sin teaches whether it is, indeed, sin. Their thinking goes something like this: "If, after I've done it, I have negative feelings, it may have been the wrong decision for me at that time. But it may be okay for you, or for me at another time. Who am I to judge?" Abortion decisions are perfect test-cases for the post-modern worldview.

The Bible, however, tells us why we're incapable of recognizing sin or its effects, and why we're never better off  having experienced it. God not only expects us to avoid sin by learning from the experiences of others, but implores us by special revelation to submit solely to His explanation of what sin is and does.

In one very enigmatic statement, Jesus told His disciples to be "shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves." This finds its parallel in Jeremiah 4:22, to the negative effect --

My people are foolish, they know Me not;
They are stupid children and have no understanding.
They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.

In Romans 16:19, Paul recasts Jesus' words: "I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil." He says it another way in 1 Corinthians 14:20: "Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; yet in evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature."

As we learn in Proverbs, it is possible for the "simple" (young or inexperienced person) to avoid becoming a "fool" or  "scoffer" and instead move on toward "wisdom"  and "maturity" through "prudence" and "understanding." Such terms are sorely lacking in the language of choice. 

According to the Bible, how do we become wise and mature? The journey begins with fearing the Lord, and often is reinforced through rote obedience. We make further progress by rigorously keeping to the well-lit but narrow way and avoiding the paths of violent men and wanton women. How many abortions would have been avoided if the warning of Proverbs 1 had been heeded?

My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.
If they say, “Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood,
Let us ambush the innocent without cause;
Let us swallow them alive like Sheol,
Even whole, as those who go down to the pit;

. . . My son, do not walk in the way with them.
Keep your feet from their path,
For their feet run to evil and they hasten to shed blood.

. . . But they lie in wait for their own blood; they ambush their own lives.
So are the ways of everyone who gains by violence;
It takes away the life of its possessors.

Friday feature: Women & Teens of Pontiac

In addition to helping people affected by unplanned pregnancies, the main goal of Women & Teens Pregnancy Center of Pontiac, Michigan, is glorifying God. Not only do they help by offering physical and emotional support, but they also aim to lead clients to salvation in Christ and fellowship with a local church.

Women & Teens was one of the first centers that Life Matters (then Baptists for Life) helped start. A steering committee was formed in 1986 to explore the possibility of opening a center on the other side of the state -- one year after our "flagship" Alpha Women's Center opened in Grand Rapids. 

The Pontiac center officially opened its doors June 15, 1988. According to their website, thousands of clients have been served since that day, ranging in ages from eleven on up. "Over 20,000 calls have come in on our 24-Hour Helpline. Our goal is to share Christ with each client who comes through our doors, and if a client professes Christ as Savior, to try to match her up with a local, fundamental, baptistic church."

In 1998, Women & Teens moved to 263 Cesar Chavez Avenue when a permanent building and parking lot was given to them. "We continue to counsel women against abortion and towards Christ. We also have a Learn & Earn Program which has given us many more opportunities to witness as many clients do Bible studies in order to earn the points with which to 'buy' baby items."

Carol Baldwin is the current director. A nurse and former missionary to Bangladesh, she served as the founding director of Flint Crisis Pregnancy Services. For a time after that she served as Baptists for Life's Development Director for Crisis Pregnancy Centers, training other new centers and helping us revise our training manual. Having served on the boards of the Flint center, BFL, and Women & Teens, she knows every aspect of pregnancy center ministry.

Find them on Facebook

Client website

Friday feature: Billboard update

We featured Garden of Hope's billboard campaign back in October. Today, an email from them requested prayer for a new post-abortion Bible study just starting. This sentence was really exciting to read: "Three of the participants came because of our fall billboard campaign."

A leader of the group mentioned the women "seem to be at different places spiritually, but they still knowingly came to a Bible-based study." They'll be working through Pat Layton's Surrendering the Secret.

How you can pray:

• That all the participants will return next week and for the duration, even though their wounds are deep. "It is possible that they've avoided the truth for some time because it is so painful to remember.

• For group leaders Karen and Michelle

• For there to be no hindrances to healing and forgiveness

• For all to discover freedom and joy in Jesus Christ

Working Wednesday: The Summit

Our two-day conference for pregnancy care center staff, volunteers, and board members isn't until June 20-21, but we're busy planning it now. Workshop ideas are gelling into a well-rounded schedule, speakers are being contacted, exhibitors will be invited. Then a brochure will be designed and mailed to PCCs across the country. Soon after that we'll begin taking registrations.

Sol Pitchon

This annual event began in the 1990s, with just a few partner directors sitting around a table in our office. We'd discuss common problems and needs. It grew to include one or two speakers of interest. Eventually we moved to an outside location, invited more speakers, and opened it up to other centers. 

This year our main speaker is Sol Pitchon of New Life Solutions, a PCC in Largo, Florida. He has a very interesting personal story to tell and thoroughly understands the issues facing centers. We're also going to ask area pastors to join us for a couple sessions with Sol the first morning.

Workshop speakers will focus on ministry to men, sidewalk counseling, the special challenges that rural centers face, leadership, evangelism, and other important topics.

New location this year: The Kent ISD Conference Center.

Tuesday prayer: Abortion doctors

We missed our Monday Musing this week, but last week's Friday Feature was pretty thought-provoking as it reflected on how the news often casts the plight of abortion doctors in a pitiful light. Digging a little deeper, other writers have unearthed facts that lend themselves to a different interpretation.

It would be easy to despise these doctors and the people who work with them, but we must not. We must pray for them, asking God to turn their hearts to the children and toward Him.

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. . . . if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." --John 8:34,36

May they indeed find repentance and forgiveness!

UPDATE 2/5/13: Answer to prayer! Operation Rescue reports that two Michigan abortionists -- Alberto Hodari and his associate, abortionist Enrique Gerbi -- have retired and allowed their medical licenses to lapse. Other long-time abortionists -- Jacob Kalo and Theodore Roumell -- are replacing them. They all need Christ!

Blogger Jill Stanek adds a couple statistics from Right to Life of Michigan: "[A]t one time there were 72 abortion clinics in Michigan. Now there are 29 surgical abortion clinics, and two medical, or 31 total – 43% of what once was. In 1987 there were 49,098 babies killed by abortion. In 2011 that number had been cut to less than half, 23,366, or by 52%."

Friday feature: Abortion doctors

The media is always full of stories about abortion in January, but this being the 40th anniversary there seems to be an added focus. I've noticed a trend of feature articles putting a positive spin on the lives of abortion doctors:

• Forty Years After Roe, Abortion Doctors Still Fear For Their Safety
• Sundance 2013: 'After Tiller' puts a face on abortion doctors
• Inside an Oklahoma Abortion Clinic
• Roe at 40: ‘It’s never been this frightening before.’
• Abortions Are Safe When Performed By Nurses Practitioners, Physician Assistants and Certified Nurse Midwives, California Study Shows

This bias is countered by these stories:

• Pro-Lifers See 1,500th Abortion Clinic Close, Now Only 660 Remain
• Most doctors now refuse to do abortions
• “Beautiful, Immaculate, Clean” Abortion Clinics? Hardly
• Records: failed abortions at Muskegon clinic
• Pregnancy centers play key role in fight for life
• Even this, from the NY Times - Pregnancy Centers Gain Influence in Anti-Abortion Fight
• 3801 Lancaster - documentary on Kermit Gosnell's 'house of horrors' clinic
• Abortion abuses and state regulatory agency failure - RTL of Michigan
• Former Abortion Worker: I Held Up Feet to Check the Dead Baby’s Age

I could go on, but you get the idea. Just be sure not to miss these two articles:

• 10 Very Surprising Quotes From Abortion Doctors
• The real truth about abortion from the mouths of abortion workers

Please pray for abortion doctors and their supporters. They need the Savior. The truth will set them free (John 8:34,36).

UPDATE: Two stories from the week of 2/8/13 add to the pile of "things that abortion clinics must answer for" -- Carhart Patient Dead From Horrific 33-Week Abortion Injuries and Ambulance Transported Another Sella Patient to Hospital Moments Before Board Dismissed Negligence Charges. 

Tuesday prayer: To end abortion

This, the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, as thousands gather in our nation's capitol for the March for Life, let's all pray for the end of abortion. May God grant us the mercy . . . the will . . . the hope to see it done.

CORRECTION: The March for Life is Friday.

Friday feature: AWC Des Moines & Ankeny

Alpha Women’s Center of Des Moines, Iowa, opened in 1995 and recently added a satellite center in nearby Ankeny. In that time they've served countless women. 

Their website notes that, "The average age of our clients is between 15-19 years old. The next common group consists of clients 20-24 years old." Additional data breaks down this way --

Ethnicity:
Caucasian – 57%
Latino – 21.3%
Afro-American – 14.5%
Other – 7.2%

Religious affiliation:
Catholic – 21.3%
Baptist – 10%
Non-affiliated – 20%
Penecostal – 9%
Other – 39.7%

Executive Director Linda Albertson and her team are rejoicing over the Ankeny center's new facility. Please pray with them that the new location and updated signage will lead more women to their doors.

Find them on Facebook

Monday musing: Speaking up for the "hobby lobby"

There is no "hobby lobby," but maybe there should be -- advocates of crafting everywhere, UNITE!

There is a Christian-owned company by that name, and it has become a focal point in the battle over government intruding on basic religious freedoms.

Earlier this year, Hobby Lobby petitioned the government for relief from the mandate that employers provide insurance covering contraceptives that can cause abortions. The case is still pending appeal, but the Supreme Court recently denied a request for an emergency injunction. Hobby Lobby says it has no intention of complying, and so, beginning on January 1, the government will fine them an unfathomable $1.3 million dollars per day!

In an open letter, CEO David Green lays out the principles that guide the company:

We’re Christians, and we run our business on Christian principles. I’ve always said that the first two goals of our business are (1) to run our business in harmony with God’s laws, and (2) to focus on people more than money. And that’s what we’ve tried to do. We close early so our employees can see their families at night. We keep our stores closed on Sundays, one of the week’s biggest shopping days, so that our workers and their families can enjoy a day of rest. 

We believe that it is by God’s grace that Hobby Lobby has endured, and he has blessed us and our employees. We’ve not only added jobs in a weak economy, we’ve raised wages for the past four years in a row. Our full-time employees start at 80% above minimum wage.
But now, our government threatens to change all of that. . . . Being Christians, we don’t pay for drugs that might cause abortions, which means that we don’t cover emergency contraception, the morning-after pill or the week-after pill. We believe doing so might end a life after the moment of conception, something that is contrary to our most important beliefs. It goes against the Biblical principles on which we have run this company since day one.

. . . So, Hobby Lobby – and my family – are forced to make a choice. . . . My family has lived the American dream. We want to continue growing our company and providing great jobs for thousands of employees, but the government is going to make that much more difficult. The government is forcing us to choose between following our faith and following the law. I say that’s a choice no American – and no American business – should have to make.

Blogger Kevin DeYoung says, "Millions of Americans are already outraged. And rightly so. Our government not only allows for abortion, and celebrates abortion rights, and wants women to have unfettered access to abortion on demand, it now requires other Americans to pay for abortion-inducing drugs or face crippling fines. It is not an endorsement of any political party to conclude that this policy is morally degenerate. More Americans should be alarmed than are already."

Denny Burk agrees: "This is the most egregious violation of religious liberty that I have ever seen." He goes on to explain this case is not about banning contraception. "Nothing could be further from the truth. No one wants to outlaw contraception. This controversy is about the fact that the government is forcing pro-life business owners to pay for chemical abortions. If the federal government can force citizens to purchase items that they believe to be immoral, where will this end?"

And sometimes it's about employers who do see contraception itself as immoral.

To borrow freely from Martin Neimoller:

First they came for Hobby Lobby,
but I didn't speak out because I wasn't crafty . . . or a Christian employer;
then they came for me,
and there was no one left to speak for me.

January 5th was a Hobby Lobby Appreciation Day, but it's going to take more than one day of shopping at the chain of big-box arts and crafts stores to win this battle. Something sacrificial. The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty represents the company in its lawsuit, going as David against the Goliath of the U.S. government. I don't know how much it will take to win, but they are accepting donations.

Related: 
Hobby Lobby: First martyr under Obamacare?
Contraception coverage heads to high court

Update: Hobby Lobby Delays Obamacare Fines for Now

Friday feature: Faith Baptist Community Center

In our partnerships with missionaries, we're usually talking about helping form pro-life ministries overseas. But in this instance of working with missionaries from Baptist Mid-Missions, we're referring to inner-city Cleveland.

Faith Baptist Community Church and Center was founded in BMM's backyard -- their "Jerusalem" -- and continues to be operated by missionaries from that agency. As director Mike Vanek writes, America’s inner cities cannot be forgotten as fields "ripe for harvest."

The community center offers a wide range of services, including:

• Meal program
• Clothing room
• Medical
• Pregnancy services
• Computer classes
• Interdependent living program
• Men’s programs
• Women’s programs
• Children and Teen programs
• Sunday School & Church service
• Prayer meeting
• Discipleship

Pregnancy services are where we came in to help. In addition to consultation on the start-up of ministry to pregnant women, we helped FBCCC obtain their first ultrasound equipment. They not only offer support at the start of a pregnancy, but help women learn proper pre-natal and infant care through one-on-one and video instruction.

How to help:

• Pray for Sherri Vanek, the clinical coordinator, and Jen Lake, the pregnancy program coordinator
• Volunteer opportunities abound
• Donations are welcome, and not limited to funding - food, paper products, gently used clothing, personal hygiene products, OTC medications and medical supplies, new baby items (check website for details)

Tuesday prayer: Being ready

In life, we're certain to meet with disappointment. May we be prepared to give a gracious response.

Other prayer requests this week:

• Joseph Akakpo, one of our ministry partners in Togo, is struggling with a bout of malaria. Pray that God would raise him up to full strength

• "C" has returned to pro-life ministry in South Asia after a furlough and reports being faced with several challenges. Ask God to help her overcome them.

• Flint (MI) Crisis Pregnancy Services recently suffered a break-in at their inner-city location. Pray for recovery of stolen property and protection in this high-crime neighborhood.

• A staff member at HELP Crisis Pregnancy Center in Monroe, NC, needs a kidney/pancreas transplant. Pray for her health.

• New Life Pregnancy Resource Center in Gaylord, MI, requests prayer for families in financial crisis.

• A pastor friend in Bangladesh reports that country is experiencing record low temperatures. Poor people lack sufficient fuel and clothing. Ask God to help him supply them with blankets for warmth.

Monday musing: A parent's nightmare

Which would be harder to hear: "Mom, Dad . . . I'm pregnant" or "Mom, Dad . . . years ago I had an abortion because I was afraid to tell you I was pregnant"?

It's not a hypothetical exercise. Given the numbers of teen pregnancies and abortions in this country, for many families it's all too real . . . like the family to which the Garden of Hope recently introduced us.

A young woman called their hotline last week, seeking information about abortion. She thought she'd "quickly and secretly" terminate her pregnancy while on a visit to Grand Rapids. As a college student, having a child would complicate her life, but her greatest challenge would be telling her parents.

We talked for a long time and this dear, sweet girl had no clue about the devastation brought on by the decision to end the life of her child. I assured her that her parents would know something had happened because the sparky, happy young girl that left their house to come to GR would never be back and they would want to know what was happening to their daughter.

As she hung up the phone, she promised to talk to her parents, and the next day she called back to report. Her mom "felt badly" she'd been afraid to talk to them. They support her plan to continue the pregnancy and assure her they'll work out everything together.

Not all parents are this understanding -- some overtly pressure reluctant daughters to get abortions -- but most are mature adults who know how to handle disappointments and setbacks. Parents love their children, have sacrificed much on their behalf already, and genuinely want what's best for them. Young people need encouragement to enlist parental input and not act on mistaken assumptions their parents will "kill" them when they receive bad news.

Still, as Russell Moore cautions in his response to TIME magazine's cover story on how the pro-life side seems to be winning, "It’s easy to identify as 'pro-life' when one sees nothing really at stake." He goes on:

A feminist leader once said that most Americans are pro-life with three exceptions: rape, incest, and “my situation.” When the teenage daughter is pregnant, the theory is abandoned and bloodthirsty pragmatism rules. I fear this feminist is all too right.

Pharaoh was pro-immigrant until the Israelites threatened what he wanted. The first Herod Administration was pro-Messiah until the actual Messiah threatened his throne. The second Herod Administration was fine with desert prophets until one meddled with his “adult entertainment.” Lots of people are pro-life and pro-child until the lives of children become personally inconvenient.

. . . [W]e must have a realistic view about how ingrained the abortion-rights worldview is in our culture.

Yes, in our culture, and in our hearts. As with other temptations, it's well before we face this one that we need to determine what our response will be. If we expect our teens to do the right thing when their backs are to the wall, we also must be firm in our minds how we'll react when they make a mistake.

Most Christian parents are zealous about getting the message of sexual purity across to their teens. The trick is striking a balance between that and the equally biblical message of the sanctity of human life. So that his daughter wouldn't err into thinking abortion was better than coming home pregnant, our president Tom Lothamer repeatedly told her, "If you make a big mistake, like getting pregnant outside marriage, don't run to the world for help. Come home! It's safer. Whatever it is, we'll handle it together."

Truly, grace is greater than all our sin. The challenge is to be "cross-bearing for the child-bearing," as John Ensor writes. "To be a lifesaver, you must do what lifesavers do every day" in pregnancy care centers. In closing, I summarize his points:

1. You must listen and love
2. Lower her fear and increase her hope
3. Amplify the voice of her own moral conscience
4. Inform and educate her
5. Offer your personal help

Related: 

• The Messages We Send Can Prevent Abortion
• In her blog, Growing Up Ziglar, the daughter of the "most positive man on earth" reveals how she made the "devastating choice" not once or twice, but three times. 
• Abortion: A Failure to Communicate
• Abortion: The Least of Three Evils
• Losing Ever Since Roe? — Albert Mohler on the TIME article

Friday feature: Maternity Resource Center

A local school donated six cribs to the MRC.

The Maternity Resource Center of Immanuel Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, is a fairly unique member of the Life Matters family. Founded in 1988, it grew out of Baptists for Life of Central Ohio, an organization headed at the time by the pastor of that church, Bill Abernathy, Jr.

At the time, several good pregnancy care centers were already operating in Columbus. Knowing this, the board of BFLCO felt the affiliate’s energies should be channeled into a different aspect of pro-life ministry. No one knew what that would be at first.

“In bouncing around ideas of what we could do in direct ministry to women with needy pregnancies,” Bill recalls. (He's currently the pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Portage, MI, and one of Life Matter's pastoral advisers.) “We came up with the concept of a maternity resource center. We saw a need for additional support for these women after they left the crisis pregnancy center, since the centers were not able to meet their needs completely.”

The MRC is located in the church building and assists families who have chosen life for their babies. The center provides free maternity clothes, baby and infant clothes, and other baby items supplied by members at Immanuel and other area churches. Biblical guidance is available to help with spiritual needs. There's also a Maternity Resource Center in the Westerville, Ohio, area -- at Grace Baptist Church.

Here's a recent video taken at the MRC:

They're currently in need of diaper donations. Pray for this ministry and "like" it on Facebook!

Friday feature: Statewide alliances

Pregnancy care centers are often attacked by abortion advocates as being "fake clinics" that offer false information about abortion and trick women into continuing their pregnancies. Nothing could be further from the truth, but countering such misconceptions is difficult. Abortion advocacy groups are well-funded and adept at manipulating the media. What's a center to do?

Most PCCs adopt standards of operation such as those to which we hold our partner centers. That's one level of defense. Another is to band together with like-minded PCCs in statewide alliances.

One such group is the Alliance for Life of Missouri. You can find a full list of their services on their website, but one of the key components is nurturing centers through consultation and training. Our president, Tom Lothamer, has led workshops at several conferences with the Missouri alliance over the years. He also worked with our state's PCCs to form the Alliance for Life of Michigan.

Another key component of alliances is building awareness among state legislators so they understand the value of PCCs to Missouri families. This effort is aimed at forestalling the tactics used against centers in other states that, thankfully, have come to nothing.

To do:

• Ask God to protect PCCs from attacks
• Find the Alliance for Life - Missouri on Facebook
• Read Are we really so bad?

Friday feature: Beacon of Hope PCC -- Bay City, MI

Life Matters has been associated with this pregnancy care center from its founding by our good friends Kim and Patti Lewis. They served the Lord in the Bay City a number of years -- Kim as a pastor and Patti as director of Beacon of Hope -- before recently moving to another church in Beaverton, MI, last year.

Leadership of the PCC is now in the hands of young and energetic Amy Srebinski. A few months ago, however, the mother of four was feeling a little overwhelmed by all her new responsibilities. She called our office. Even though she had no experience directing a center, she seemed to know what she didn't know, and that's often a key to success.

We were able to advise her on a few things, urge her to attend next year's Summit, welcome her as an associate, and give her a Standards for Excellence manual. We also introduced her to Carolyn Doyle, CEO of Lakeshore Pregnancy Centers.

Amy spent a few days on this side of the state, consulting with Sharlene from our office as well as participating in a training seminar at LPC. She also got to sit in on a meeting with directors of all the Lakeshore satellite centers. She probably felt overloaded with information on her way home, but we've already seen an uptick in her confidence level.

We're grateful for the privilege of working alongside directors like Amy -- made possible by our donors, years of experience working in this field, and a fine network of partner centers.

• Find Beacon of Hope PCC on Facebook

Working Wednesday: What is LIFT?

We've mentioned LIFT in the previous two posts, and now it's time to say more about it.

What is LIFT? LIFT is a ministry of compassionate care to the chronically or terminally. Through LIFT, volunteers are trained to visit individuals and provide non-medical assistance. The circle of care also extends to loved ones who are often the individual's primary caregivers and who face pressures that can be physically, emotionally, and spiritually draining.

LIFT volunteers report to a Care Coordinator and meet regularly with each other for encouragement and support. They help their care recipients by ministering in simple, creative, and practical ways:

• Run errands
• Walk the dog
• Help with housework
• Bake a cake
• Bring fresh flowers
• Read the Bible out loud
• Shovel snow
• Help with correspondence
• Do yard work
• Drive patient to the doctor's office
• Be a friend
• Listen
• Bring encouragement

LIFT is an ideal outreach of the local church -- to church members and people in the community. It also sends important messages to the world at-large: 

1. Human life is sacred
2. God is sovereign over life
3. Jesus Christ conquered sin and death
4. God's people serve others through compassion ministries

Learn more:

What is LIFT? from Life Matters Worldwide

Related:
LIFT on our website
LIFT FAQs
The messages LIFT sends
How not to flinch in the face of suffering

Postscript: An award-winning movie -- Amour -- advocates euthanasia and shows why ministries such as LIFT are needed.