 I'm here this morning and I'm very excited about sharing some practical ways to get involved. Just maybe a little quick explanation how I got this information. I worked for Christian Aid Ministries and a few years ago we were looking at this whole subject of how we had a burden of how can our Anabaptist people get involved in crises pregnancy centers and this whole thing of abortion how can we get involved and so I was appointed to do some research and so I did extensive research on this how can we get involved and I was getting things set up and ready and presented it to our board and our board just felt like it didn't quite fit in with Christian Aid Ministries goals and didn't feel real comfortable with it so I was sitting on this information and I was I was burdened and wishing somehow I could go around and talk to churches give this talk and tell people how to do it it's simple let's get involved then I get a call from Joe Martin and we started dialoguing and talking about this and and that's why I'm here this morning so I thank the Lord for giving me this opportunity to to get this burden off of my shoulders and pass it on and and get everybody excited today my goal is not to give a bunch of statistics but I'd like to create sparks it only takes a spark to get a fire going right and I'd like for you to take those sparks home to your congregations and get your fires going in this topic here just a few average statistics about abortion that are key points to what I'll be sharing four to seven hours after a lady thinks she's pregnant she has decided to have an abortion four to seven hours after from the time she decides to have an abortion until the time she has one there is a nine-day window of time to reach her nine days and over 90% of post-aborded women said they weren't given enough information to make an informed choice where are God's people listen to this lady relate her experience I was a scared 16 year old girl searching for someone to tell me that everything was going to be okay I wanted my baby and remember trying to devise a plan of how I would raise him no one told me that it was a doable thing in fact everyone told me just the opposite that I would be ruining my life by having this child I remember the coldness of the office and wanting to get up and leave but I felt like I had nowhere to run and no one to run to I remember crying uncontrollably the nurse said that it would be over quickly and that it wouldn't hurt it did hurt and the pain has lasted for over 26 years they said it was no big deal so I thought that I could put it out of my mind forever unquote there's a tremendous amount of guilt and an emotional pain that these ladies experience from an abortion of course the media would never tell you that media makes it sound like it's nothing so what can we do you may have heard and Finney mentioned this crisis pregnancy centers or the latest name for these is is pregnancy resource centers or pregnancy care centers you hear those names interchangeably pregnancy resource centers are in a quiet way meeting women where they are and gently steering thousands away from the horrors of abortion pregnancy resource centers offer free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds to women who think abortion is their only option the goal is to show the love of Christ and to give counsel concerning other options such as adoption and parenting and just a little side note we need a an abaptist adoption agency that's another whole story in a subject most importantly a loving and caring attitude is the goal to walk alongside these women looking for who are looking for a way out of their pregnancy pointing them to Jesus and all services offered are free at these pregnancy centers now there are two types of PRC we're gonna call it PRC facilities we have the brick and mortar building which is typically what we think about as a pregnancy resource center and then we have the mobile RV unit and this is what really gets me excited and so we're gonna look at these two real quickly here we visited a brick and mortar facility in Alabama called save a life pregnancy test center and just a very nice program very they have walk-ins walk-ins are welcome you can also make appointments they make sure that that you're not sitting in the waiting room longer than five minutes they try to keep people moving through very comfortable atmosphere before a counselor enters the room to counsel a client the staff gather around and have a word of prayer with that counselor and then she goes into the room very organized and very attractive program a stationary building allows you to have programs like earn while you learn and this is another exciting part of it the earn while you learn program offers various classes for parents on topics such as postpartum care first aid foundations of discipline child training and much more and every time a parent attends a class and also if they're puncture if they're on time they earn tokens or what some people call mommy money or daddy dollars or baby bucks and they earn these tokens then the parents can use these tokens to purchase much needed baby baby items from your little thrift store your baby items thrift store that you have there and baby clothing strollers cribs and all of that it's a way of encouraging and helping these young women a lot of them are single that are considering abortion now let's look at the pros and cons of a brick-and-mortar facility number one you're able to establish ongoing relationships when you have a brick-and-mortar facility and you can see multiple patients at the same time if properly staffed also it's able you're able to offer parenting classes like I mentioned the earn while you learn works much better in a brick-and-mortar facility the post-abortion classes and ongoing spiritual counseling and you can provide prenatal care at a facility now some of the cons a permanent facility is a targeted and attacked more by the media and planned parenthood and so here you have a physical building and you get a lot much you get much more resistance you get the walk-in fakes fake clients they do that all the time they walk in with a recorder they set you up and try to catch you in you know saying something wrong or giving them wrong advice and take it a court and all of that so they're they're a little bit more targeted in that way there are higher costs to maintaining a building and they're also limited in reaching people where they are so you kind of have to go wherever there's a building available or a land available and that's where the building is now let's look at a mobile unit ICU mobile is based in Akron Ohio and it provides mobile ultrasound units that are road compliant and legal they build them in Indiana at an RV place there they build them for this purpose special ordered many women especially in the lower class urban areas may not have access to transportation and this this will allow you to bring the ultrasound right to the women where they are it consists of two rooms in the back is the private ultrasound room and in the front it consists of a counseling room very nice and spacious facility is a little shower and kitchenette and everything there and the max is you can bring two people two patients in at a time now let's look at the pros and cons of a mobile unit so a mobile RV unit can get you to wherever there's female traffic you can set up at shopping plazas malls grocery stores near college campuses and near abortion clinics take note mobile units fly under the radar and not as targeted not targeted as much by the media and Planned Parenthood you're moving around you don't have a physical address you're just down in wherever the the traffic is women find them when they are in their decision-making process and are unsure colleges universities excellent place park close by so that these young women have a place to go to they allow you to see 53% more abortion minded clients house calls are very effective you can go right to the home and with the RV and it's a very simplified startup process house calls are I'm sorry I'm ahead of myself here simplified startup process and then more cost effective and I don't have time to go into the details of the costs if you're interested talk to me but the costs are very much a lot lower with the mobile unit now there are a few cons they're not able to provide prenatal care you would need a center to refer clients to for ongoing care you okay there we go sorry need to click can only take in two patients max at a time okay so you're a little bit limited there and you're limited in offering classes and counseling from this unit but mobile units are very effective and there's all kinds of testimonies here's just one one of the many stories the staff of a mobile team in Memphis Tennessee drove to the home of a confused and frightened woman through a free ultrasound it was confirmed that she was pregnant she's still planned to have an abortion that weekend the sonographer of the mobile team said if you're going to have an abortion we will be parked across the street if you need to talk before or after the procedure all right early Saturday morning the mobile team drove to the abortion facility to meet this young woman they parked near the abortion facility when this lady arrived for her scheduled abortion her first stop was on the mobile unit to express her gratitude for their support unfortunately she told them that she was still having an abortion as young woman walked into the abortion facility the mobile team was back praying 30 minutes later she came out knocked on the door of the mobile and said I can't do this to my baby this brave woman chose life she later decided to place her child for adoption this beautiful baby is deeply loved by her two adopted parents miracles like this happen every week on these mobile units and these mobile units are are growing in number they're scattered all across the U.S. so let's bring these two ideas together in a nutshell and this is just a vision that God gave me here but I'm sure there's different ways that you can apply this information but this is how I feel it could work well number one you would purchase a mobile unit and you would start reaching out in your nearest city if you have a near nearby city or abortion facility universities all of that you just get the mobile unit the ICU mobile and Akron provides training and the whole package the ultrasounds in there everything's ready to go you just need the personnel to run it so you would you would purchase that start connecting with people and then you would turn your church and this is what got me excited you don't need a separate building you could do that but turn your church it sits there most of the time anyway empty right except for your services so there's a building turn your church into a counseling center with classes throughout the week that you can refer your clients to from this mobile unit and maybe if you're outside too much from the city you could you could purchase a building right in the city and have a little counseling center right in there and I just talked about the earn while you learn you could integrate that in with Bible truths throughout your classes you can have ongoing discipleship programs right in your church and get your congregation involved everybody has different gifts and you could use those gifts in this whole process it doesn't just take two or three on the mobile unit you can involve your whole church and then start collecting baby items and stores and store them at your church you could have like a little thrift store there your mobile unit would refer these lonely pregnant ladies to your caring church people and their classes again our main goal is not just to save lives but it's to save lives to serve Jesus and that's where the ongoing discipleship in the classes come in if we're just out there saving lives these babies will grow up in these homes and not even hear about Jesus and end up in an eternity in hell and so we have an opportunity not only to minister to the ladies going through this time but we have an opportunity to minister to the babies the children growing up and providing ongoing discipleship and connection I think it's just a wide open door just waiting for our people to seize Psalm 127 threes as low children are in a heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward and so to sum it up your church needs some money an RN or a registered medical diagnostic sonographer on board is what is the required for the ultrasound a local doctor in the area if you have a local doctor that you can work with he can give you a standing order to take do the ultrasounds he doesn't have to be on board and a few dedicated volunteers people that have a vision for the work and your RV unit is available and you're ready to go and I hope that was simple enough for you to take back to your congregations if you are interested and need more information I have much more than what I could put into 15 minutes and I'd love to pass that on to you and share that with you but it's an area that we as Anabaptist people I believe have hardly touched I know there are some involved but I think believe it's an area that would give our people a more direct connection to these hurting people and they're right around us and people are hurting privately it's not something that comes out openly and this is a way you can bring them right into your door show them love and compassion and minister to them and another little side note but ultrasounds are very very effective and it's even more effective if you can have the dead in there seeing the ultrasound most times when the dead sees the ultrasound they want that they want to save the baby they want to keep the baby and so ultrasounds are really really a key to this work as well so let's be in prayer concerning this wide open door of opportunity God bless you all