The Third Wave of the Pregnancy Help Movement

The Desiring God Blog:

John Ensor is the Executive Director for Urban Initiatives for Heartbeat International.
The following story testifies to the life-saving, truth-proclaiming, soul-reviving, conscience-preserving power of the growing pregnancy help ministry and is praiseworthy all by itself. But the story is all the more significant for 3 additional reasons:

1. It arises out of a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in a city targeted by over 30 abortion facilities, all doing a brisk business.
2. It reflects the white-knuckle grip that abortion, as a temptation, has on our fellow Christians.
3. It points toward a credible and achievable kind of victory that we ought to expect as the Third Wave of the pregnancy help movement unfolds.

Recently, John Piper tweeted,

Wave 1: Catholics say No to abortion. Wave 2: Evangelicals flood the land with CPC's. Wave 3: Blacks and Latino's bring it down.

Sometimes an illustration helps.

A young woman came to our Miami clinic seeking an abortion due to the current economic situation. "How can I have this baby? I can hardly make ends meet," Liza said. Her husband, Tony told me how he had recently been laid off from his job of 6 years. They already had a 2 year old son and Liza was now 12 weeks pregnant. I could feel their sadness as I brought all three of them in for an ultrasound.

To our surprise, the ultrasound revealed identical twins! Only God knows the reason why this double blessing should come to this hard-pressed couple at this time. But we know He does not make mistakes. Tony fell on his knees crying out to God for forgiveness.

You see, Tony and Liza happen to be Christians who attend one of our local churches. "God forgive me for bringing Liza to get an abortion!" I lifted him up and said, "God brought you to us so that your babies would not die." None of us could stop crying as we thanked God for using Heartbeat of Miami to rescue these two babies from death and rescuing this couple from blood-guilt and reviving their faith.

We all broke into laughter when little Joey giggled and pointed to his "baby sisters" on the screen. Children see the truth so plainly.

This couple will receive basic and practical help for months to come. It will come from modest- and low-income Christians from this Hispanic community helping one of their own.

By the time these twins are born, dozens, if not hundreds, of people will see the life-saving and life-changing power of the pregnancy help movement. As minority churches in Miami join this outreach and lead the effort to befriend these couples, this one picture becomes part of a mosaic of thousands.

Since abortion happens to one reluctant woman at a time, the Christian community has the power within them, as neighbors helping neighbors, to see the abortion industry in Miami die for lack of business.

This is the work before us nationwide. It is the pathway towards true and achievable triumph—the kind that Paul encouraged us to expect when he said, "Thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession…for we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved…the very fragrance of life" (2 Cor 2:14-17).