While untold numbers of women get abortions every year in China, there are Chinese Christians who attempt to minister to women considering an abortion.
This article is from the WeChat account “Don’t Get an Abortion of Children’s Day” which is operated by one such Christian ministry that works with women considering abortion. The writer describes some of the success stories behind this ministry and encourages other believers to support such a cause.
My Diary: Keeping the Birthdays of Twelve Children
Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. Psalm 68:5
1
Not long ago, I posted something on my WeChat social media account asking for second-hand clothes for a six-month-old girl. I quickly received replies from several Christian sisters. Among them, clothes sent by two of the mothers seemed special to me, because the children who had worn them were originally doomed to the fate of abortion. But God moved his children and helped those two kids to be born safely.
Two kids: one just over a year old, and the other already two years old. Their ages also mark the time we’ve had a special relationship with two families.
If you’ve ever experienced anything that’s made your thoughts leap back suddenly to some momentous occasion, then you can understand that when I think about these two children, I am unable to suppress a heartfelt sigh. If, at that time, that complicated situation had ended with a different outcome, neither of these two children—crying and smiling, with names and surnames, bringing so much joy in the memories of their families—would be here.
Being able to participate in these two families’ crucial moments was also, at the same time, an experience of amazing grace. For me, I have absolutely no doubt this was an enormous gift. Compared to those things, when I think back to what we expended at that time, it really was nothing—sharing a few words, recommending a few things.
I suddenly feel that serving in protecting lives has a very high “cost-performance ratio.”
2
In the calendar on my computer, I’ve recorded the birthdays of some of the children I’ve helped over the past few years. There is one birthday in February, one in March, one in April, one in May, three in June, one in September, two in October, and two in November. If I were to number all the children who are alive because of this “lifesaving” work, then the list would be longer. I believe that in the future, this list of birthdays will keep growing.
These dates are the children’s birthdays, but you can also say they are the mothers’ “victory days.” The mothers fought a hard battle with hopelessness. Whether this was a pregnancy before marriage, or whether the mother was already married but coming under pressure from her husband, they experienced some kind of relational fracturing. It’s hard for bystanders to help bear this load. Even when they are in a situation where a volunteer is serving and accompanying them, the one on the frontline is always the mother herself.
Recently we shared an article calling them “hero mothers,” because for the sake of their children’s lives, they have burst through the upper limits of their own strength. (All mothers who give birth to their children while under pressure to have an abortion are heroes.)
Of course, we hope for the day when all mothers can give birth to their children in peace and safety, without the need to become “heroes”—that they would receive protection from their families, and not pressure. But, having these “hero mothers” appear in our midst, I have no doubt, is a blessing.
3
A few years ago, when the film “This is Life” came out, a friend recommended I watch it. In the film, there are stories about what happens before entering the labor ward, a few short hours before the child is born. The soul-deep hopes and disappointments of the family, their sacrifices and plans—it’s all there. After I watched it, I thought, if they had removed that family from outside the labor ward and replaced them with two or three Christians, it would be, more or less, our own experience.
When a laboring mother is in the labor ward, the doctor may need to find some family members to do a few things or pay some money. When we turn up, the doctor may well ask us what our connection is to the laboring mother. We only have a few seconds to respond—perhaps we say we are her older brother or sister. If we have to explain we are not the pregnant woman’s blood relatives, we are strangers who are helping her, it’s too many words. After that moment, if we think about it, we are doing these things for the Lord—is this not in fact because we are family?
The research data of a certain organisation shows that more than 83% of women who have had an abortion express that if, at the time, someone had stood alongside and encouraged them, they would have been willing to continue with the pregnancy and birth.
You see: the thing that has the ability to change the course of most of these situations is not a great deal of money, as we often assume. It’s simply encouragement.
4
If you are a Christian and are wondering where you might serve God; or if you are a servant of the church wondering what new service your church should invest in—then, this area of service should definitely be on your list.
The kind of investment you give can be just the smallest step—just investing that little bit of encouragement—and it is possible that you will supply the encouragement needed to prevent 83% of abortions.
In our experience, one way of giving encouragement is that you can just post an article about “lifesaving” on your social media accounts, or forward it to friends, or friends of friends, experiencing hard situations. This can be a spark of light in the midst of dark hopelessness.
In comparison, the things that you might receive in return will be richly extensive.
You might change the fate of a child’s life, bringing them from death to life.
You might find a friendship that you will never forget as long as you live—like me, you might put that child’s birthday in your diary, the day of their mother’s victory.
You can bring hope from God and give it to someone whose soul is hopeless.
You might indirectly bless a church. When more families see this kind of testimony, people’s attitudes to abortion will change.
Your understanding of God, and of life, will be completely different. When you have first-hand experience of “life and death choices,” of the stark difference between those two roads, then you will have a very different view of Bible passages about creation and redemption.
If you or your church want to know more about this area of service, we have prepared this list (below) of twelve classes. We hope that we can share them with those who have a burden on their hearts to serve God, Christians who want to protect the lives of unborn children.
- The basic logic of morality: What is a person?
- Humanity’s basic identity: made in God’s image
- Do not spill human blood
- The great red dragon: the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent
- License to murder: the dehumanising of mankind
- Go forth and multiply
- Planned childbearing: Are there really too many people?
- Idol worship
- Children of the Heavenly Father: Saving grace is God’s adoption plan
- Handling some case studies
- Final freedom: How people who have previously had abortions can have victory in the gospel
- Responding to the call: becoming a “life saver”
We are happy to give you all these classes for free, but we hope that beforehand you will promise to give up your time and attention, and finish the course of all 12 classes.
We invite you to become a “life saver,” for the sake of the Lord who created life, and to bless the Lord’s church. Original Article: 我的日历里，藏着12个孩子的生日 by 儿童节不要堕胎 (WeChat ID: pro_babies)
Image Credit: Petra Šolajová from Pixabay.
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