Listen to Jor-El and Jacob talk about the amazing growth that pregnancy clincs have acheived in america along with the need to continue to grow in locations, services, hours of operation and in the new online spaces – where abortion is being shipped from a virtual shopping cart. We hope you find encouragment and direction from this conversation. We feel honored to serve executive directors and pregnancy clinics as part of The ProLife Team who reflects God’s heart, hands and feet.
Link to white paper being discussed: https://proliferibbon.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/PHCsRoomtoGrow.pdf
Job Opening Announcement at the very end off the podcast: https://irapture.com/employment/
Summary
This is Jacob Barr, and in our recent Pro-Life Team Podcast, I had a profound conversation with Jor-El Godsey, President of Heartbeat International. We explored the growth potential in the pro-life movement, particularly in pregnancy clinics. Jor-El shared insights from Heartbeat’s 50-year journey, emphasizing the need for more pregnancy help centers in both underserved and densely populated areas. We discussed the expansion of services such as ultrasound, STI testing, and abortion pill reversal, and the necessity to adapt clinic hours to better serve those in need.
The discussion also touched upon the changing landscape of abortion practices, like the shift towards chemical abortions, and the consequent need for the pro-life movement to adjust strategies. We emphasized the importance of having a strong digital presence to compete in the virtual space where many clients seek help. The conversation highlighted the evergreen nature of the need for pregnancy help centers and the ongoing need for compassionate care, irrespective of legal landscapes.
We also spoke about the vital role of conferences like the Heartbeat Conference in fostering growth and learning within the pro-life community. These conferences are crucial for both new and seasoned directors to share knowledge, learn about new developments, and stay connected with the mission’s heart.
For clinic directors looking to grow and adapt, I shared an announcement about Shareix.com hiring a Christian marketing manager with a focus on Google Ads, seeking someone passionate about the pro-life cause and proficient in digital marketing.
Hashtags that capture the essence of our discussion include:
#ProLifeTeamPodcast, #HeartbeatInternational, #PregnancyHelpCenters, #ProLifeGrowth, #LifeAffirmingCare, #AbortionPillReversal, #UltrasoundServices, #DigitalProLifeMovement, #ProLifeConferences, #HeartbeatConference, #ChristianMarketing, #GoogleAdsExpertise, #CompassionateCare, #PregnancySupport, #EmpoweringWomen, #ProLifeMission, #CommunityOutreach, #ProLifeAdvocacy, #NonprofitGrowth, #ProLifeLeadership.
Transcript
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Jacob Barr :
Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast i’m here with Jor-El and we’re going to talk about the pro-life world and how there is room for growth and location and hours of operation and services in order to better serve those who have a need for help and who are in the abortion vulnerable space and who need love and care as if God wanted to help them right where they are. So Jarrell, I am so excited to have you here. Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast. Would you introduce yourself as if you were talking to a room of executive directors of Tracy Clinics?
Jor-El Godsey :
Happy to, Jacob grateful to be here. Thanks for the opportunity. I’m Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International, and I’m always glad to be in a room full of executive directors of pregnancy help efforts wherever they are around the world.
Jacob Barr :
Awesome so, yeah, and so, and in the description, we’ll have a link to this report or this article about room to grow. So tell me how this article got started. Tell me about the yeah, what are the roots and then let’s just go ahead and start talking about what your findings were when creating this piece.
Jor-El Godsey :
Sure. Heartbeat celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in twenty one and that’s was 50 years of the pregnancy help movement in particular, we were called Heartbeat was called into existence by the fledgling pregnancy help movement back in the sixties started in nineteen seventy, one but that we started then because people had already been doing this before Roe. There were those trying to reach out and help women have another decision and have an alternative to abortions in fact that’s what Heartbeat International was originally known as alternatives to Abortion International and there therein began the adventure in 1968 the very first pregnancy center opened as a standalone effort the that we can we understand was kind of the beginning of this even the concept or the method of how to deliver life affirming help to those who are facing unplanned pregnancy. So we were celebrating and looking back on the arc of all of that and we were, you know, it’s very exciting being Heartbeat International we get to talk about these other networks that exist in other parts of the country we are connected with many or most of them, if not all of them. And it kind of occurred to me like hey i was actually in some other article newspaper articles I was reading about per capita and I was, I was thinking I was like OK we need we that’s a good tool let’s do some research and let’s just put the numbers down and see and I was really looking at the international side of things and wondering how things were internationally. But then I turned around and did them state by state and eventually county by county. And it was a fascinating it suddenly became obvious it’s like, wait a minute, we’re very excited to have two thousand seven hundred and fifty or twenty eight hundred pregnancy help locations in the US But is that enough and is it in do we need more and if so how much more and how many more and where do we go with those? And that was the idea that began to kind of coalesce into what this white paper that I wrote last year called Pregnancy Help Centers Room to Grow.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and it seems like when thinking about the concept, there’s always a yeah, seems like there’s a Evergreen need for more places that will provide healthy, positive experiences for people, especially in these pockets that have been identified as not having any pregnancy clinics in those counties perhaps and meanwhile maybe there’s not much competition. But nonetheless there’s people there and those people need service and healthy options and healthy support, which makes a lot of sense. And then also when it comes to the highly populated areas, there’s usually room for more services to be rendered when there’s you know a density involved and one of the things i often think about is like, I feel like there’s always room for growth because God’s fingerprints are ever present in this crazy clinic movement and there’s like never ending stories of how like God is honoring this work and supporting and growing this work and so I feel like pouring into it makes perfect sense to be like if God’s will had a bullseye like this would be a really good zone to be hitting.
Jor-El Godsey :
That’s a that’s a great way to put that, Jacob. The understanding I have is the really the pregnancy help movement is an outgrowth of the of the church. It’s really the church in action now that’s not to say that people who are have no faith, can’t be involved or shouldn’t be involved we certainly welcome everyone to be part of this, but it really is a manifestation of the practical outreach of the gospel of Jesus Christ as we try to be the hands and feet of Jesus in someone’s life and that to me is one of the most amazing things that happens at a pregnancy center is when a complete stranger we sit down with a complete stranger and enter and intentionally enter into their lives in order to give them the opportunity for life affirming options. And so you described it well there’s always room for that and always room for us to grow that and we kind of coalesce that into a thought that every woman should be loved and supported in her pregnancy. And unfortunately in our culture that doesn’t happen enough and so but the heart of the pregnancy help movement is just that love her into life affirming decisions. Care for her help her make sure that she knows that she has a true choice and true options available to her.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and I love that analogy of like this is the hands and feet that reflect you know God’s hands and feet. The only thing I would add to that would be i often see God’s heart reflected in the, in the executive directors and like they’re you know, they’re essentially working so hard to provide free, high quality medical services. And they’re you know, the level of care and just the outpouring of energy and compassion it reflects God’s heart so well that I feel like, yeah, I feel like we have such incredible executive directors across the country that are just doing an amazing thing, you know, providing medical services while also fundraising so that they will be completely accessible to everyone who may or may not be able to afford those services, which is pretty much just sort of, it’s amazing.
Jor-El Godsey :
Yeah and I appreciate that you’re you know we’re talking to executive directors the good news is over 50 years the look and feel of a of a pregnancy help center has grown over time and become a become a more than just one person situation it’s become where that executive director is merely the representative of many individuals who are making that local mission grow to make it happen so they’re the ones who get to sit in the in the hot seat right in the big seat. But they have a number of team members who are helping them, helping them envision what what’s happening, helping them fulfill the mission and vision that they’ve been called to. And so we have a number of nurses we have a number of professionals who are involved we have a myriad of volunteers so we did a survey and trying to understand how big the teams are now that are you know we know the lone executive director scenario is still out there, but it’s just more and more become bigger teams, more involved making that happen.
Jacob Barr :
So one of the areas that I was pondering after reading your article was which areas need, which needs growth like geographically i think you’ve identified that there’s room for growth when it comes to new areas or maybe certain population dense areas i feel like that was being highlighted. But then well, yeah and another area would be like services and that also was highlighted such as you know, 72 % providing ultrasound. I feel like that would be you know, pretty well served if that was even higher. And then FTI testing childbirth classes And then I one of the numbers that I would i sort of longed to see and I’ve got a feeling you might have a finger you might have a pulse on it would be the APR when it comes to how many clinics are and I know that’s brand you know new as in like less than eight years is sure however long it’s been around. But yeah, so relatively the newest kid on the block but at the same time growing very quickly so I’m wondering, yeah, where that one might be and that might be in the follow up report perhaps?
Jor-El Godsey :
Right yeah that’s still unfolding as far as the abortion Pill reversal and it’s still it’s still small in compared compared to the numbers that are out there of people that are sure participating chemical abortion. But that’s our vision is to grow that each and you know each and every month it’s every year we’re growing that we’ve seen a 60 % increase since last year and we’re we only see that going up as women step into that reality and change their minds and we need to be there for them. When we talk about services. One of the things that what we really focused on in this particular report room to grow is and we did we did talk we did use the specific address location right so we didn’t take into account and that this is intentionally we didn’t take into account the service area that this so it’s entirely possible that for instance 1 center really strongly located like maybe right on the county line can serve both counties very well. You know we just don’t, we don’t have a way to kind of capture yet we don’t have a way yet to kind of capture truly the impact of a service area versus the county that they’re in. But what we saw is that is that 51 % of all the counties in the US have a pregnancy center hallelujah. And now that tells me that 49 % don’t so OK, we’re going to keep that number and we’re going to grow in that direction and we’ve used that we’ve used this tool actually to kind of help refine our ability to launch new centers we have a program called the Life launch program where we launch new organizations primarily at up to up to this point that are interested in going into areas of greater need and so we certainly see a an area that is either very dense in population and underserved because of it which is the other factor you call that or has no pregnancy center in that county we’ve had I think five or six opened in counties that did not have an existing pregnancy center available to them so we’ve been excited to do that it’s kind of helped sharpen our focus and kind of Orient our thinking to know where to go with those places. But the one challenge that we two challenges that we realized is we really are going to need more pathways, more ways to reach them which goes to the services dynamic are we using the right services, Could we, could we see more ultra more ultrasound services yes, absolutely you called it out earlier we have more than 70 % of all of our pregnancy hub locations have ultrasound. We can easily see that going to 100 % no reason it shouldn’t be. Of course. You know there might be some instances where a local center board has made that made that kind of a calculus where they said, well yeah, we don’t need to be that maybe because that there’s something nearby that does that and we understand that. But on the on the face of it, there’s places where we can see adding more services that strengthen those services and also broaden them as well.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah i think for the for the clinics who are not providing the medical services, having that close referral partner might be satisfying that need. But at the same time towards growing and making things even just one step closer for a client to have those services going. Yeah, more clinics. Usually that non medical stage of the clinic’s life, you know happens before they go medical and that’s just part of that natural progression towards growth for that given organization that makes a lot of.
Jor-El Godsey :
Sense it is and every board should be asking themselves these questions. We know that ultrasound increases by our by our research it increases the decision making process like three times she’s three times as likely to choose life because of an ultrasound. Now I can also add are the same research that is a few years old but not that old it says also if she comes back for a second a second visit that too increases her probability that apart from the ultrasound it increases the probability that she’ll choose life by nearly as much so if we have compelling services, if we have a compelling and engaging relationship that we start well with her and it draws her back whether it’s to some other service or to continue the conversation. Both of those things can be very powerful and both of those things then we see increase her ability to choose for herself to carry that child to term and so we want to see both of those increasing, see her more and also or ultrasound we are excited for that.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and I think that seems to reflect the, if there’s a way to measure the amount of trust that she’s placing in that group or the person that’s helping her, that’s probably got some correlation when it comes to her decision making or how much weight she might give the voice of that person she’s talking to at the clinic.
Jor-El Godsey :
Certainly helps her mindset realize that even if we don’t do everything perfectly we’re at least conveying something to her that gives her that courage that i appreciate my colleague Betty talks about encourage means to give courage, right we give her courage to do this and you know, i we need to we celebrate all of the women that get served you know Charlotte Lozier estimates nearly 2000000 every year by the pregnancy health movement we celebrate every baby that is saved from the risk of abortion. The truth is though is as you and I Jacob know that we haven’t saved one single baby. We have empowered her to save her own baby and that’s really that joy of bringing her the information that she needs, providing the services that help her know that. And we need to see more of that happening across the country and around the world by the way, just for those that haven’t read pH DS Room to Grow the US has hands down the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the globe with averaging more than four pregnancy help centers per half million people. The next closest country to us is Italy and after that is Zambia now Italy has an amazing network as well they had they but they’ve been at it since 1975 and it’s that’s a that’s a network all kind of contained like you know we’re not our movement is connected in many ways certainly through heartbeat through our friends at Carenet NIFLA and where lots of folks like to affiliate with all of the above or some of the above or whatever and but I’m always talking about the pregnancy centers as a whole in Italy, they were all part of 1 entity called Muvimento Perla Vita and they’ve been at this and they have last numbers I heard were 360 pregnancy centers what we would know as pregnancy and then 4042 maternity homes so they have been growing that network that’s the next largest now after you get Italy and Zambia, we begin to get the numbers go way down as far as per capita. And so that that’s been an interesting kind of understanding and yet in the US there’s still room to grow there’s still more people that can be reached and we did a even a brief city look in the in the report we just looked at 5 cities and kind of using that per capita. So for instance or I’m sorry, Los Angeles County is essentially Los Angeles, right we use that kind of as the metric there are 29 pregnancy centers in Los Angeles County like yeah, or in the in the in the Los Angeles metro area, let me say that. And like that’s exciting 29 like that doesn’t exist in that geography doesn’t exist to that degree in density in any other part of the US or anywhere else in the world. Yet when we look at the actual per capita numbers they would be almost not quite but almost one of the smaller countries in the globe you know that with a 1 4-5 pregnancy centers per capita why is that per 500,000 thousand why is that because there’s a there’s a lot of locations and we celebrate and they literally are the number one area in our country for locations but per when we take that number and put it against the actual density of the population there.
Jacob Barr :
Population it’s.
Jor-El Godsey :
Way underserved.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and it seems like you’re highlighting there’s exponential room for growth globally when it comes to other countries like I, you know and in some countries where it’s probably like Ground Zero at some points and starting yeah, like, yeah, it’s just umm that’s yeah, that’s a huge like that yeah the room for growth is enormous, even in some parts of the world and or they’re just yeah, there’s no help or little tiny bits of help available currently.
Jor-El Godsey :
Yeah And of course in some cases there are a few countries where such efforts are either illegal or would be operating against a. You know, a declared policy, you know, China, France, those are the kind of places, of course there are there are, there are countries that are very much closed off to Christian thinking in general, right certainly if some of our Muslim countries are that way. North Korea of course is one of those that it would be can’t imagine it doesn’t mean pregnancy help is not happening. It just means that the kind of our traditional knowledge of or how we would see the method of a pregnancy center, that kind of standalone entity where people can go and get connected it doesn’t it doesn’t mean that it’s not happening it just means it doesn’t quite look like that for us.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, maybe they’re maybe they’re having to operate underground or without public visibility.
Jor-El Godsey :
Right or in connection with some other ministry that’s a broader service ministry and so that pregnancy help might be happening within that you know, that happens here in the US as well where we have some churches have established these community centers, dream centers where it’s a myriad of services and pregnancy help is often happening within those even though there isn’t. A specific corner carved out that says this is the pregnancy center, right that, but it’s still happening where she’s empowered to make a life decision so we know that those things are happening those are of course are harder to count to evaluate from a distance, but where we know that does happen.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah so going back to the US and recalling something I heard Abby Johnson say, it was either at a care net conference or a heartbeat conference, I don’t remember which she did this talk about hours of operation and how when Planned Parenthood is open on a Saturday or they’re open until eight. Pm how there’s room for growth when it comes to the pranky clinics in the area competing that match their hours or beat their hours when it comes to being open, which is obviously, you know, using volunteers and staff is no easy thing to do but it’s critical and important to be open, you know, as many hours and I feel like there’s room for growth on matching the hours of our competition.
Jor-El Godsey :
You’re basically kind of teeing up the focus of a of another white paper that we’re in the process of OK of discussing. We we’ve done some additional research of course this kind of inspired it using the information what we have of hours and of hours of operation for the option line, right so option line is a program here at Heartbeat International which basically has over 2000 organizations or locations that are on option line that we help serve now setting aside the some of the housing and adoption services and just focusing on pregnancy centers, we evaluated about fifteen hundred locations that are on option line and the hours that they’re open. And i literally, we were just doing this pulling this information together and you’re right. Abby’s right, less than 10 % of our pregnancy center locations are open on Saturday. And that is important because that’s when if that is important, particularly when if there’s a an abortion clinic nearby within driving distance that’s critical i know our sidewalk friends, you know sidewalk advocates for life and 40 days for life. Those guys, when they’re taking their time, they’re most of them are volunteers some of them are you know are kind of missionary staff members. But when they’re taking their time to go and stand out on the sidewalk on that Saturday and the center pregnancy center is closed, that’s a huge missed opportunity that we have and so it’s going to be one of the things that we’re going to be talking about more specifically is are we open here’s another one that this actually shocked our entire team. We knew this was an issue we didn’t know the numbers and how big of an issue was but even on Fridays Jacob is the number is less than 50 % of our pregnancy centers are open on Fridays which is a weekday. And here’s why that’s important and more important now than ever is because the abortion pill itself, chemical abortion the entire movement is shifting the abortion movement the big abortion is shifting to chemical abortion we called this out a couple of years ago that we knew in 2020 We were saying in 2020 that the number would be 50 % of all abortions and that was a trend calculation it wasn’t something we knew because we know abortion reporting is a challenge but here we are sitting in 2022 and of course 2020 was COVID year and we don’t we haven’t actually seen the numbers come out from the abortion industry which they have the we think of the most accurate numbers but using the CDC numbers, which is only a partial count, we know that this is true that 50 % of all abortions in 2020 were chemical abortions now why is that important? Because most often the chemical abortions are prescribed and done when it was still required of them doing it in the doctor’s office were encouraged to happen on Thursday or Friday. And the reason for that is because the symptoms then that follow right the as you know you mentioned Abby as her as her movie unplanned shows that the symptoms that follow is heavy bleeding and pain you know pain cramping those things that that’s intentional that that’s what the drugs the two drug protocol is designed to do. And So what they’re what they were doing was basically giving her these prescriptions on Thursday or Friday so that she essentially has her abortion you know sadly in you know in her dorm room or at home in her own bathroom. Our friends at site at students for Life call these bathroom abortions or toilet bowl abortions but they do that so that those symptoms can be can be had over the weekend and then therefore she can in theory return to normality albeit you know a post abortion normality on Monday. Well here we are we’re sitting and we need to intervene with her and yet and yet our locations are not are not open to receive her now the good news is option line is still functioning because we function twenty four seven three sixty five abortion pill rescue network is functioning because we because that also is twenty four seven three sixty five. But this is going to be something that if as the as big abortion shifts we’re going to have to revisit these ideas about hours and hours open and how to serve and that may challenge some in many cases i know many centers have already done this they recognize that relying on an all volunteer or primarily volunteer team is going to have its issues and that’s gonna require us better vision, stronger vision for staffing even into difficult days and that’s why Friday and Saturday’s gonna have to be an issue and you know, almost no, I think it’s 4 % on Sunday, which that we understand. That’s what would be a challenge under any circumstances but this is an area we’re gonna have to speak into.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and I don’t know what the numbers are for Planned Parenthood being open on Sundays. I don’t know, probably depends on the location. I mean it’s probably, I’m not sure what the % would be but.
Jor-El Godsey :
Well, and keep in mind that they are changing the equation even as we’re running to catch up they’re changing equation they’re you know they’re basically doing mail order abortions, right so yeah, you know Amazon will function any time of the any you know, Amazon will deliver abortions on Sundays and Saturdays and Mondays and Wednesdays and everywhere so we’re not sure what that new landscape looks as far as the arc of those things, but it is, it is a current problem that we need to wrap our minds around about being more available when she’s in that valley of decision.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah the new the new sidewalk is the virtual sidewalk which is fighting or competing on Google and with branding and it’s just it’s a different well yeah the virtual space for people who are shopping online and allow. Yeah and the sidewalk might involve advertising and yeah, search, search engine marketing efforts, but it’s a different landscape than the physical because of, yeah, ordering it from either ordering it from Amazon or ordering it ordering it from overseas.
Jor-El Godsey :
Or right?
Jacob Barr :
Or going across the border to go to a pharmacy, like those are some of the new spaces we’re competing in.
Jor-El Godsey :
That’s true and as the as the abortion industry changes their tactics, ’cause you know, they’re trying to preserve their bottom line and it’s which is of course terrible but they they’re gonna be have abortions anywhere, anytime, for any reason that’s their goal. And our limitations to some of this came along with kind of the healthcare mindset of like well you know doctor’s offices operate between nine and five true. But rooms don’t you know and urgent care doesn’t that you know they’re they have different hours and we’re going to have to do some rethinking if we are truly about the abortion minded that abortion bound person if we’re truly going to be interacting with them we’re going to have to be there when she’s looking and that of course is a is a digital response it’s a marketing response but it’s also a missional response that are do are our people ready to talk to her and to receive her of course our people are here at Heartbeat that’s one of the great things we get to do is serve in that way and at least be that friendly voice that connects them and we can even set appointments into the center services as those are made available to us. But there’s nothing like making that live transfer to that warm person who’s not, who’s ready to receive her, that complete stranger we talked about earlier to help them as they walk through this valley of decision.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and speaking Speaking of Heartbeat, I for clinic directors looking to answer or you know to respond to the desire to grow i would encourage the conference, the heartbeat conference, the care net conference, you know one of my favorite, I really like the heartbeat conference honestly because it’s really it’s full of so many good tracks and you can essentially get your the variety of education that you might need from industry leaders. And what’s amazing about that is that you can you can go in knowing that you need help in a certain area and then you can find probably 2 to 4 workshops that will provide you with some insight, some evidence, help you fast track your learning curve and help you go down that new road towards growing that part of your ministry.
Jor-El Godsey :
And so thanks, thanks for that Jacob it’s really a smorgasbord, a menu of things that people can tap into everything from board business to marketing conversations. Not only that connecting with our exhibitors and knowing what you know what yeah good services are there available to them. We you know ours is coming up in at the end of March in Jacksonville for all of those even cold climates not that you’re in a cold climate I know you’re in Arizona so I’m going to go anyways but all of us that are in cold climbers are going to want to get to Florida at the end of March and enjoy some hopefully some good sunshine warm weather. But that very much that kind of spectrum of things available and we’re actually doing it we started this for the first time last year. We’re actually doing 2 conferences at the same time so we’re doing the in person conference which we love and enjoy and get to hang out with a thousand of our closest friends maybe more this year for in Florida and it’s and the weather invites excites more people but we also are doing a virtual conference So even if you can’t travel you can participate still in that learning track the information is different in both environments we so that gives us more experts and more people that are doing good work and there are there are those that are going to be training and teaching on the virtual conference and then those that are going to be there for the in person experience.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and so, yeah, for, so for clinics who are opening their doors or just open within the last year, this is, this is the place to go to find out all of the things you didn’t know you needed to know. And then for clinics who are looking to grow, it’s always a good place to go to find you know new ideas and a network and ask other you know, even just interacting with other directors and asking them questions or talking to the workshop leaders and the different speakers and essentially leaders from across the country all coming together under 1 mission and vision and having so much common ground when it comes to passion, you can find answers in different outlooks and things to consider so you can, yeah, you know, sort of come back, come back equipped.
Jor-El Godsey :
It’s true and you know even the conversations when around the you know the lunch table or the dinner table are excellent you know you meet people who are in some other part of the country maybe even some other part of the world which we get to enjoy at Heartbeat International but you get to learn and see what they’re facing and sometimes it’s I find that these are good conversations because they sometimes are a peek at where things are going like I’m in a red state but I’m but you know our politics have been changing and I and I’m talking to my friend in the blue state who that their politics changed years ago and they can see how that things are going or they can see well I’m next to the blue state or I’m next to the red state how can these things work together. And you know we can’t manufacture those all the time but they happen in amazing conversations either in kind of AQ and a or from a workshop presenter or even just that sitting next to each other and the and are standing extra in the in line for Starbucks this is nothing like it to get connected and I would highly encourage now you mentioned those that are new or relatively new, but i every now and then I run into someone who has been in this movement for a long time and they say, oh I stopped going to the conferences years ago And any of them because you know it’s always same stuff it’s like well you’re not paying attention because we have all kinds of new things that we’re discussing we are intentionally finding people who are pushing the envelope, who are pushing into areas of services and ways to do things that are finding successes and exploring new ways so that’s a great place to come whether you’re seasoned or just brand new into this. Because by the way, we want our seasoned veterans to be sitting in those lunches and dinner so they can be the ones that are sources of information.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, that the person that’s been, you know the executive director for 24 years has so much to offer and meanwhile if she if she usually she doesn’t come to the conference, she may not hear about these new ideas that are popping up over the last couple of years and it’s important to be there for those, for those ideas that are being crafted. You know year after year especially when it comes to like you know the whole COVID scenario has a lot of new pieces that have come into play when it comes to virtual marketing. When it comes to competing on the in that virtual space like the landscape has shifted and is continuing to shift. And so we as a group, we need to continue to be responsive and proactive on trying to reach you know essentially to compete where our clients are looking.
Jor-El Godsey :
We do and let me let me also say this cause i’ve run into this as well we also need what that seasoned director bring so like they ask better questions of our workshop persons or the OR they’re asking better questions because they have experience they’ve also walked through some things that are challenging how do you deal how do you have that kind of longevity in ministry and how do you have that And it’s because you’ve learned some things and we need that we need to rub shoulders together like that we need to have the you know the scripture talks about the older should it should encourage the younger right because they’ve seen some things and they can say, you know, they, hey, they can say, oh, you know the it will be OK like, I remember my when I first went to a conference, someone said, you know, it takes about 10 years to really understand what’s going on. And I thought to myself, I don’t have that kind of time i need to figure this out a lot faster and one of the ways that I did that was by sitting at the feet, listening and rubbing shoulders to those who had been in the ministry, seen some things, learned some things and I’ve tried to glean as much as I can until time pass and you know, I’ve been at this now for a lot of years and have learned a lot in the process.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, for the for the directors who are in year one, they might feel like a freshman in college. But then for those, you know, those who have been in it for 24 years, they’re essentially working on their doctorate or maybe they’re like in a master’s program and they’re pouring into some of those younger students who are looking for, you know, looking to find their way around the.
Jor-El Godsey :
Campus exactly yeah and that that’s every bit about the faith mission that we’re on you know we’re learning to walk in our faith every single day and the minute we get satisfied that we’re that we’re at that place, then we’re in the wrong spot we really need to maintain that sense of constantly walking, learn to learning to grow our faith and learning to walk in our faith better and that is very much a part of the mission of pregnancy help.
Jacob Barr :
Awesome all right well, I think, I think that might be a good podcast i think we might be there. I think and this, I really appreciate your time, Jarrell i think this, yeah, this will be good for executive directors to hear and I think most of them know who you are. But just to hear this encouragement to grow, this encouragement to be refreshed And i just think they’re going to find this to be helpful and encouraging to. And I hope that they find encouragement to open up a new location in an unserved area and then in order to add STI testing, add parenting classes, add an ultrasound service if it’s not there already to continue to grow and you know because growth can happen with locations, with services, with hours of operation online, with virtual marketing and the new sidewalk with branding with in these different areas there’s room for growth and so it’s not just like in one plane it’s more of an A multi faceted there’s always room to grow as there’s room for women who need help and yeah and yeah it’s real and in the end the need to help women in this scenario is an Evergreen need and it’s gonna be present in 50 years and so we may we need to keep working toward you know serving God’s heart and acting as his feet and hands so that we can help those who yeah need help just as if we were in their shoes and they were in ours we’d want them to be helping us if we were caught in that bad scenario.
Jor-El Godsey :
Evergreen is a good way to describe that and I think, I think some of our pro-life friends are seeing the we, you know, pray Lord will do this for us the reversal of Roe V Wade as the as the end or the finish line and that is the farthest from the truth it’s really the IT can be the beginning of the end of abortions grip on our nation but it but it still means that there’s a lot of work to done and until that life is protected in law we will have a lot to do and I suspect even once that happens, we’ll still have things to do as the i think.
Jacob Barr :
Even if all the laws protected life, there would still be a need to help women who are in an unplanned unexpected pregnancy and who are not desiring to be a parent they still need love, care, compassion absolutely. And essentially a friend who can help them do that journey and I think and by and then that friend comes with that, you know connects with that trust element. And so I think, I think this is an Evergreen problem regardless of the laws however, the laws have a big impact. But I don’t Yeah i don’t think it’s like a light switch by any means i think it’s more of people need help when they’re in hard situations.
Jor-El Godsey :
Sure and that’s why we call it unplanned unexpected pregnancy, right it’s something that we’ll be facing no matter what you know, we even we even work with within countries where the law does seem to protect women from abortion. But in fact it it’s a it’s a law in name only and it’s not being enforced and so, you know, it doesn’t just because a country, some of our South American countries have had good laws protecting life, but they have to be enforced and then they have to be followed through. So it’s not that just because the law does, it means that there will be no abortions and if there, if there are abortions, there will always have need for alternatives to abortions.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah. Well, I appreciate your time, Terrell i’m so excited to share this with people and yeah, so thank you thank you for being on the podcast i really, I just it’s always a pleasure to see you and to hear your wisdom and all the all the thoughts that you’re ready to share it’s an it’s enjoyable it’s enjoyable and helpful.
Jor-El Godsey :
It’s a privilege and an honor to be part of this movement, and it’s a joy it’s been a lot of adventure, let me say it that way.
Jacob Barr :
None i have an announcement to shareix.com is looking to hire a Christian marketing manager with a Google Ads focus. Or looking to find somebody who is passionately pro-life who is a strong writer, has experience with Google Ads, Who enjoys digital marketing and thrive on data and analysis. Someone who really enjoys learning and improving in the digital marketing space with the natural ability to blend intelligence and heart to identify client specific solution. And so if you know someone who might have some of these attributes, you could check out the link in the description to find a link to this job opening and I hope that you would. If it’s you, please apply. Please reach out to us. If it’s someone you would refer as being possibly a good fit for this job, please introduce us to that person. Thank you so much.