Blessed Assurance

The next time you’re at a college football game, take a look around at the crowd. A large portion, over 20,000, represents the number of young women and their families with crisis pregnancies Women for Life have helped since 1985.

Assurance Care for Women and Girls, a local pregnancy help center, is my church’s designated home mission agency. We proudly support their work in saving babies and their moms from the devastation of abortion. They also have a wonderful program called Renew that reaches out in love to post-abortion women.

This year at Assurance’s annual Share the Vision fundraising banquet, director Cindy McDaniel presented the agency’s annual report where the bottom line equals lives saved. In 2008, the clinic had:

1766 client visits
310 clients hear the gospel
111 women and their babies
saved from abortion
19 clients give their life to Christ

The 111 women and babies saved from abortion are just the ones the staff knows about. At the banquet, on each table were framed photos of cute babies – babies that were alive today because of the work of Assurance. There were women holding their babies, beaming with pride. Young fathers grinning from ear to ear. These were lives spared – infants and parents alike.

There were some other numbers which are very important:

$1,020 – the cost of the 1020 pregnancy tests given
$83,700 – the cost of the 558 ultrasounds performed - 60% of clients who saw the first beats of their babies hearts choose life

Assurance’s budget for 2008 was $359,099.20 or about $3,235 for each of the 111 choices for life. (Really, it is $1,617 per life saved as both mother and child were spared.)

If you are not involved with a pregnancy help center – get involved. This is the front line in the culture war. If you’re not comfortable with hands on work at the center, get comfortable writing a check. The Lord works through means. Your parents taught you, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” The pregnancy centers around our nation know that all too well and need our support. III John teaches that when we support genuine Christians workers we share in their ministry, by becoming “fellow workers for the truth.”

For more information on Assurance, go here. If you’re pregnant and feel abortion is your only option, please go here. You’ll be met with love, not judgment.