How To Be Ready to Share About Adoption

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

For You From The Word

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. (1 Peter 3:15, NIV)

For You To Think About

woman's pregnant tummyNovember is National Adoption Awareness Month, which provides an opportunity to increase understanding about adoption.

You can help by sharing these facts with those you know.

  • About birth parents: just 2% of unmarried birth moms place their children for adoption.
  • About choosing adoption: for every child lost to abortion, 7 families are waiting for a child to welcome into their homes through adoption.
  • About adoptive families: An estimated 10 million couples would attempt to adopt a child domestically if they felt they had a realistic opportunity to do so.
  • About open adoption: the number of open adoptions is growing, up to an estimated ½ to 2/3 of infant adoptions.
  • About adoptees: about 2% (1 in 50) of U.S. children are adopted.
  • About foster children: more than 100,000 American children in foster care are waiting to find permanent, loving families

For You To Pray

Heavenly Father,
Help me to understand about adoption and be informed. Give me an opportunity to talk with someone about adoption and share accurate information.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

More About Adoption Awareness

3 Types of Adoption

5 Questions Pregnant Women Ask When Considering Adoption

7 Times as Many Adoptive Families for Every Child Lost to Abortion

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Your Prayers for Life Save Lives

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

For You From The Word

If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt. (James 1:5-6, NIV)

For You To Think About

Have you ever wondered whether or not your prayers for life have an impact?

40 Days for life in Schenectady, NYIf so, you’re not alone. It’s one of the most frequent questions posed to staff workers for 40 Days for Life, a 40-day nationwide campaign of volunteer, non-stop, round-the-clock prayer outside local abortion facilities.

Recently, prayer volunteers in Schenectady, NY wondered whether the vigil in front of a local women’s clinic was making a difference. Several discussed the question amongst themselves. They even asked God to encourage them. It didn’t take long to get an answer.

Early in the morning, a man approached the group. The week before, he explained, he and his girlfriend had seriously considered abortion. When they came to the clinic, they had spoken to a woman outside who was participating in the vigil. She showed them fetal models and helped them understand what their baby looked like at that point in the pregnancy.

After the couple left, they realized there was no way they could have an abortion. The father-to-be had returned to the clinic to thank the woman for helping them make the right decision.

“We were emotionally overcome,” said one volunteer. “God sent confirmation that our prayers and presence make all the difference.”

God tells us to ask Him for wisdom. If you’re seeking encouragement about whether or not your prayers for life make a difference, ask God for that insight.

For You To Pray

Heavenly Father,
You tell us that when we lack wisdom, we can ask in faith and You will give it to us. Right now, I ask for Your wisdom, insight, and encouragement on behalf of those who are praying for women to choose life. Show these prayer warriors how their prayers and faithfulness are making a difference.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

More About Praying for the Unborn

How God Uses 40 Days to Save Lives

What Is 40 Days for Life?

40 Days for Life: Find a Vigil Near You

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Campus Outreach Launches a National Movement

Posted on October 21, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

For You From The Word

Share with God’s people who are in need. (Romans 12:13, NIV)

For You To Think About

National Baby ShowerIn April 2012, Pro-Life Aggies (a recognized student organization at Texas A & M University, Bryan, TX) hosted a Community Baby Shower outside their local Walmart. Throughout the weekend, students invited shoppers entering the store to purchase diapers, wipes, formula, and baby items to be donated to a local pregnancy resource center.

Truckloads of baby items were contributed and delivered to the local center, along with $700 in financial gifts.

Because the initiative was so successful, the Pro-Life Aggies launched a National Community Baby Shower movement to support pregnancy resource centers. Individuals and groups alike are invited to host a collection event at a local discount department store, a drive at a local church, or a campaign to purchase new /gently-used baby items from Craigslist.

It’s one way campus groups, churches, and organizations can provide material assistance and practical support for pregnant women and their families – and affirm their choice for life.

For You To Pray

Heavenly Father,
Thank You for raising up students to lead in the pro-life movement, particularly those who sponsor Community Baby Showers. Touch hearts all across America. Move them to come together with affirmation and practical support for women and men who face an unplanned pregnancy.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

More About Community Support for Life

How One Community Rallied Around a Pregnant Woman

Small Acts of Service Make a Big Difference for Mother of Triplets

Volunteers Find Healing While Helping

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A Prayer for the Pro-Choice Community

Posted on October 7, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

For You From The Word

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;
I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.
These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them. (Isaiah 42:16, NIV)

For You To Think About

A prayer based on Isaiah 42:16

woman praying with hands up

Image: Lies Women Believe

Father, You promise to lead the blind by ways that they have not known. Nearly half (45%) of Americans are pro-choice. They are blind to the value of the unborn. Lead them into the truth.

Guidance. You promise to guide them along unfamiliar paths. The truth about life is unfamiliar to them. Nudge them along that path. Urge them to move into unfamiliar territory to seek the truth: that the unborn have a right to live. Fill the blind with courage to examine the facts.

Light. You promise to turn their darkness into light. Shine the light of Your truth into the hearts of the blind. Let them see that life begins at conception. Place images, videos, and resources in front of their eyes. Give them facts they cannot ignore. Use resources to pull their heartstrings towards You.

Clarity. You promise to make the rough places smooth. I see rough, jagged holes in the hearts of the blind. They are hurt. Hearts have become calloused where life is not valued. Touch these hearts, I pray. Remove obstructions to the truth. Clear the rough places. Pour out the truth of Your amazing love for each life – Your love for each of them and Your love for each unborn child.

You promise You will not forsake the blind. You will not leave them to cast about in confusion. Rather, You desire them to see Your truth. Guide them to that truth today. Light their way and give them clarity.
In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

For You To Pray

Heavenly Father,
You desire for Your people to reflect Your amazing love, even to those who are blind to Your ways. Place me in the path of someone who is blind to the value of the unborn. Use me as an instrument of Your love and truth.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

More Prayers for Life

Prayer for Those Facing an Unplanned Pregnancy

A Pregnant Woman’s Prayer for Assurance

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It Took 2 Decades, But Fetal Ultrasounds Are Now Routine

Posted on September 30, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

For You From The Word

Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.
(Psalm 111:2, ESV)

For You To Think About

woman holding a fetal ultrasound imageToday, fetal ultrasounds have become as inevitable in pregnancy as cravings, fatigue, and taking vitamins. It is a routine pregnancy procedure in maternity clinics and medical offices throughout the developed world.

Obstetrician Ian Donald (1910-1987) and medical physicist Thomas Graham Brown (b. 1933) developed fetal ultrasound technology in Glasgow, Scotland during the late 1950s after seeing a similar instrument used in the Glasgow shipyards to discover for flaws in a vessel’s metal work.

Although his work was devoted to ultrasounds for diagnostic purposes, Dr. Donald occasionally used the images to convince a pregnant woman not to abort the unborn child she could now see. As a devout Christian, he opposed abortion.

Ultrasounds Move from Occasional to Routine

By the 1970s, the use of diagnostic ultrasounds in pregnancy became commonplace in the United Kingdom. It took until the late 1970s for the procedure to be adopted in American hospitals and ever longer – until the end of the twentieth century – until it was commonplace in the U.S.

Today, eight in ten pregnancy resource centers report that abortion-minded women they serve decide to keep their babies after seeing ultrasound images. It is hard to determine how many lives have been saved by obstetric ultrasound technology.

What would have happened had its impact hit U.S. shores sooner, perhaps prior to the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade which legalized a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy?

For You To Pray

Heavenly Father,
Thank You for equipping, inspiring, and enabling Drs. Donald and Brown to develop the fetal ultrasound and for using it to move an untold number of women to choose life. Open the doors to more pregnant women so to see these powerful and beautiful images of their unborn children and hear your call to carry them to term.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

More on Ultrasounds for Pregnant Women

Why Ultrasounds are a Game-Changer

Mobile Ultrasound Vehicles Go to Pregnant Women Across the U.S.

How an Ultrasound Referral Saved a Life

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Fall 2013 Message from the President

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

threebabies.students.bucknell.edu.jpg

Fall 2013: Message from the Birthmothers President

Empirical evidence convinces us, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Birthmothers is unique in its ability to help women, men and families who face an unplanned pregnancy.  95% of those matched with a Birthmothers Friend choose life. Our aim is to point them to life. Read more …

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Urgent Message from Birthmothers President September 2013

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

jim_headshot_5-small.jpgSeptember 2013

Dear friends and supporters of Birthmothers,

Greetings in the name of our precious Savior, Jesus Christ!  I am writing today to alert you to the significant need that has arisen for immediate financial support for Birthmothers.  

We are asking you for a gift to enable us to continue our work with this ministry.

Empirical evidence convinces us, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that Birthmothers is unique in its ability to help women, men and families who face an unplanned pregnancy.  95% of those matched with a Birthmothers Friend choose life. Our aim is to point them to life (adoption where appropriate) and strengthen their walk of faith. To our knowledge, no other organization offers this long-term, one-on-one support.

Because my wife and I have decided to pursue this mission on a full-time basis, we are trusting God for financial provision.  Our personal lifestyle adjustment has been under way for many months. It continues each day, for we know this life will soon be past and ONLY what’s done for Christ will last.

We plan to personally contact many of you stand with us in this battle for life and discuss opportunities for partnership.  Together we can reach thousands while helping to slow this nation’s ongoing baby holocaust of 3,000 abortions a day.

But in the meantime, our need is immediate and real. Will you ask God if this is the time to give a gift, increase your regular monthly support – or begin your partnership with us? You can do so here.

Lives wait in the balance. Your partnership is instrumental in saving them.

Thank you for your prayerful consideration.

Under His mercy,
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Jim Wright
Founder, President, and Volunteer

 

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Legislators Help Close Clinics and Win the Battle for Life

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

For You From The Word

When the righteous increase, the people rejoice. (Proverbs 29:2, ESV)

For You To Think About

abortion clinic closedThe numbers of new abortion clinics skyrocketed in the wake of the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade (which declared a woman’s right to choose constitutional) – and peaked in the late 1980s. At that point, more than 700 large-volume clinics and hundreds of smaller ones provided the procedure.

Ironically, today pro-life activists are using the same judicial process that allowed this upsurge in numbers of clinics to legislate the abortion industry out of business. A wave of new regulations, passed since the 2010 midterm elections, makes it too expensive or logistically impossible for many of these facilities to stay open. For instance, a recently-passed Texas law states that abortion clinics must convert to surgical centers (pricing many out of existence). In Arizona, nurse practitioners can no longer perform abortions (drastically reducing the number of providers).

In the last few years alone about 10% of large-volume clinic doors have closed as a result of new legislation.

Placing pro-life lawmakers in state seats has proven to be one of the most effective means in reducing access to abortion services, logging a stronger impact than civil disobedience and blockades.

Elections can help win the pro-life battle.

For You To Pray

Father of life,
Continue to place leaders who stand for life in position at all levels of our government. Strengthen them and allow them to act righteously for the cause of life.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

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Why One College Student Was Able to Choose Life

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

For You From The Word

I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again. (Jeremiah 31:3-4, NIV).

For You To Think About

Raquel Kato and her daughter

Raquel and her daughter

When a drunken one-night stand on her 21st birthday led to an unplanned pregnancy, Raquel Kato was terrified. Five positive pregnancy tests later, the single college student finally accepted the truth … and scheduled an abortion.

In the days leading up to her appointment, Raquel attended church. She sat in the back with her head down. The weekend right before my scheduled abortion God spoke to her soul. “He loved me too much to let me off the hook,” said Raquel. She cancelled the abortion and gave birth to a baby girl, whom she named AveMarie Rose, in October 2012.

Support from friends, family, and neighbors meant that Raquel was able to complete her undergraduate degree, maintain a part-time job, and begin graduate school. Her goal is to ultimately support her daughter with a stable job. “None of this would be possible without those people helping me with childcare,” Raquel stressed.

Raquel’s story spread on the internet as she began blogging, giving interviews, and responding to other women in crisis.

The most important thing she hopes others can learn take from her story is an understanding of how to love mothers who are face unplanned pregnancy. They need practical help and they need love and compassion. “These women are broken and scared,” she explained. “They need to be reminded that they are loved in the midst of brokenness.”

For You To Pray

Heavenly Father,
Touch hearts in women who face an unplanned pregnancy. Let them know their dignity, value, and worth. Place people in their lives who reflect love and offer practical help.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

More on Serving Pregnant College Students

How to Save Lives on College Campuses

58% College Age Students Don’t Know Where to Get Pregnancy Support

College Soccer Star Chooses Life

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How to Save Lives on College Campuses

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Kathy Widenhouse

For You From The Word

I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another. (Romans 15:14, NIV)

For You To Think About

Coed at computerNina, a college sophomore, stared at the pregnancy test stick, unbelieving. She was pregnant.

At that moment, it would have been easy for Nina to get caught in an “Either-Or” mindset, feeling forced to choose between continuing her education (and terminating the pregnancy) or dropping out of college to raise her child.

She would not be alone. 46% of abortions in the U.S. are performed on college-aged women. Lack of information, an absence of support, and a sense of isolation are among the biggest reasons co-eds choose to terminate.

But Nina had one distinct advantage. Her campus offered special resources for pregnant and parenting students. Nina sent an email to the person in charge of those resources. She got an instant message back right away. Soon, Nina was on the phone with her contact person. The next day, her contact called to set up a time to have coffee. Suddenly, Nina wasn’t alone.

Often students are unaware of the resources available to them, and they make decisions based upon this lack of information. You can be the voice that provides hope and help on campus so that pregnant and parenting students make well-informed decisions.

For You To Pray

Heavenly Father,
Move to raise up servants on college campuses to provide resources and support for students who face an unplanned pregnancy.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

More on Serving Pregnant College Students

58% College Age Students Don’t Know Where to Get Pregnancy Support

College Soccer Star Chooses Life

One Way Pregnant Women Fulfill Their Dream of College

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