Whenever I describe the work of Care Net, I want to tell the story of the woman at the well. In John chapter 4, Jesus met the Samaritan woman at a well—on the edge of town—in the hottest part of the day. Usually, a woman is at the well with the other women of the town, in the cooler part of the day—morning—but she is there at noon alone.
Christ, who knows us better than we know ourselves, knows that he is alone, that he has had five wives, and is currently living with a man who is not his husband. At that time and in that culture, especially being a Samaritan, she was a social outcast. however, Christ offered him the living water of eternal salvation and he returned to town to tell others what had happened. As a result of his testimony, many more Samaritans were saved.
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How Fatherhood, Family, and Discipleship Affect Abortion
The text that follows below is an excerpt from LifeChat from Roland Warren. For the full LifeChat, watch the full video.
It is a beautiful story of Christ offering compassion hope and help to someone who is perhaps not used to receiving either of those things. He met her at the point of her need and she accepted His help and was saved. Christ restored him spiritually, emotionally, and socially.
I liken it to the work we do at Care Net, a woman in the midst of a pregnancy decision comes to us for help, like the woman at the well. These women usually have a problem of being single which causes them to consider abortion. But follows Christ’s model is that we serve them spiritually, emotionally, and socially. We hope that they will accept compassion and choose life for their unborn child, and abundant life for themselves and their families.
Our prayer is that they become disciples and return to the town to make disciples first of their children and then of others. What a wonderful story of Pro Abundant Life.
There is another story that I think is just as important to tell, the story of the rich young leader. In Mark 10, while Jesus was traveling, a rich young ruler enthusiastically approached Jesus, asking how he could inherit eternal life. Just as Jesus did to the woman at the well, He lovingly told the rich man the truth about how he could have eternal life and salvation in heaven.
But in this case, the rich young ruler rejected Jesus’ offer and left. The events in his life caused him to reject the compassion and hope offered by Jesus but there is also a lesson for us in this story..
First, as a Pro Abundant Life ministry, we are called to share the love of Christ but we have no control over what people will do with the love of Christ. Some like the woman at the well will not let their circumstances cause them to abort their children. Others will make the decisions of rich young leaders; they choose abortion and the grief that often follows. Despite this, we must love them.
Second, these stories highlight two important aspects of Care Net’s approach to pro-life service.
First, Care Net is a gospel-centered, disciple mind ministry. One of our pregnancy decision coaches told me recently that a woman she served on the phone—a modern-day well woman—responded to our compassion the same way the rich young leader did. She walked away from the call sad and decided to have an abortion.
But our work does not end there their only goal is to save the baby and the baby is aborted so what else can we do? The unique purpose of Care Net is to make disciples for Jesus Christ. So even though he rejected our help, we knew we had to follow up with him to tell him that we still love him and we still pray for him and we still want him to experience the abundant life that Christ offers. Indeed our coach was able to give him spiritual encouragement and send him away Forgiven and Set Free post-abortion healing resources.
Second, the other unique aspect of Care Net is our focus on reaching fathers. The caller probably chose this abortion in part because the baby’s father is unable or unwilling to participate. He had one problem of being single.
If we fail to address this aspect of so many abortion decisions, we are missing a huge opportunity to save more unborn lives and build strong families. Our focus on fatherhood, family, and discipleship is why we consider ourselves not just a pro-life organization but a Pro Abundant Life ministry.
That’s why your support is so important. You make sure that when we serve women today at the well they don’t walk away sad. And even if they reject our sympathy, your support through our abortion recovery and care ministry enables us to continue serving them even after they choose abortion. Your generosity provides the ongoing support and discipleship they need to heal from their abortion decision and become disciples of Jesus Christ.
