Help her be brave

Help her be brave

Amy Ford

In Help her be brave, Amy Ford shares how her own experience of unplanned pregancy led her to start the Embrace Grace ministry.  She challenges us that:

'People are the church.  The church isn't a building.  We are the church wherever we go, and we represent Jesus wherever we are.  The church can play a powerful role in saving lives.  It can help prevent unplanned pregnancies by affirming identity and the value of individuals as daughters and sons of a King and by talking about hard topics like sex and abstinence.  The church can be one of the first places a girl runs to when she finds out she has an unplanned pregnancy.  It should never be the place she avoids because of shame and guilt.  The church can Help her be brave and choose life.  It can reach out and invite these women and men into a spiritual family.  The church can help heal past wounds because it's free people that free people.  It can help practically by giving single Mums support so that they don't just survie, they thrive.'

Embrace Grace started when Amy Ford and a friend fomed a group at their church for women with unplanned pregnancies.  Three fearful women came along.  Together they explored what it is to embace grace and to be embraced by grace. The ministry grew rapidly, first in their own church, then in other churches in their city, then across their nation, and eventually in other nations.  They encourage the global church to be a refuge for the broken hearts of single and pregnant women.

Their focus is on identity and how our true worth is found in Jesus.  Based on this foundation, they minister in a myriad of ways, many of them practical.  The suggestions are very varied and creative, not actually difficult, but perhaps challenging.  But every practical help to a woman in crisis is a way to Help her be brave.

'Being pro-life is a stance, a belief system, a vote. And it’s important.  But being pro-love is an action, the boots on the ground, the hands and feet of Jesus, the church.  Together, we can make abortion unthinkable.'

Amy Ford urges us to ask God how we might get involved.  The opportunities are endless.  But God can use our natural and spiritual gifts, our church experience, and our professional training.  Consider what it is that gets you excited.  What makes you say, 'Someone ought to do something about this!'  Don't forget that your own story is valuable.  God often uses our deepest pain as the launching pad for our greatest calling.

Amy Ford is the founder of Embrace Grace, based in Texas, USA, but which also operates in some other countries.  It inspires and trains churches to minister to women with unecpected pregnancies.  This support is not only spiritual and emotional, but also practical.  They also encourage ministry to single Mums and Dads.