Listen to Jennifer, Shaylene and Jacob talk about how LoveLife brings the church to the abortion clinic sidewalk to minister.
Summary
This is Jacob Barr from the Pro-Life Team Podcast. Today, I had the honor of speaking with Jennifer and Shailene, missionaries from Love Life. They shared their inspiring journey of helping women considering abortions and engaging churches in creating a culture of life. Their focus is on bringing church presence to abortion clinic sidewalks and transforming the abortion narrative through love, prayer, and community support.
Jennifer discussed the challenge they initially faced in connecting churches with abortion-vulnerable families. They found a breakthrough with Love Life, which had a model that effectively engaged churches across denominations. Shailene elaborated on Love Life’s four-step model – Hear, Pray, Go, Connect, inspired by Nehemiah 1-3. This model involves educating church members on the value of life, praying and fasting, participating in prayer walks, and connecting believers with training in areas like mentoring, foster care, adoption, and abortion recovery.
We delved into the intrinsic value of life from a Biblical perspective, emphasizing that every life, even in the womb, is an image bearer of God. The discussion highlighted the crucial role of the church in addressing abortion, not as a political issue but as an evangelism and discipleship opportunity. We talked about the silence from the pulpit on abortion and how it affects individuals who have experienced abortion, emphasizing the need for a confessional and healing community within the church.
One heartening story shared was of an abortion center director who, after witnessing the church’s genuine support for her niece considering abortion, changed her perspective, eventually leaving the abortion industry to start her own business.
Towards the end, we discussed the partnership between pregnancy centers and Love Life, focusing on creating Houses of Refuge churches that provide continuous support and discipleship. This initiative seeks to bridge the gap between pregnancy centers and local churches, ensuring that women facing unplanned pregnancies receive consistent, compassionate, gospel-centered care.
The podcast ended with a powerful message: everyone can do something to support life, and it all roots back to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
#Hashtags: #ProLifeTeamPodcast, #LoveLifeMission, #ChurchEngagement, #CultureOfLife, #PrayerWalks, #LifeAffirmingMinistry, #BiblicalValueOfLife, #DiscipleshipInAction, #AbortionRecovery, #HouseOfRefuge, #GospelCenteredCare, #SupportingUnplannedPregnancies, #FosteringCommunitySupport, #LifeBeginsAtConception, #TransformingNarratives, #EmpoweringChurches, #BreakingSilenceInChurch, #HealingThroughConfession, #PrayerAndAction.
Transcript
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Jacob Barr :
Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast i’m Jacob Barr i’m here with Jennifer and Shailene, missionaries with love life, working to serve women who are seeking abortions by bringing the church to the sidewalks of abortion clinics and promoting a culture of life to change the tide of abortion and bring healing to our country. So Jennifer and Shailene, I’m excited to have you on the podcast today. Jennifer, would you introduce yourself as if you were talking to a small group of pregnancy clinic leadership teams and general pro lifers, and maybe even people who don’t agree with the pro-life stance?
Jennifer :
Well, sure. Thank you so much for having us, Jacob. Yeah, My name is Jennifer Geralds and I am a missionary with a life affirming ministry called Love Life that is based out of Charlotte, north carolina And my ministry partner, Shailene Burlage is also on here with me if you’d like to introduce yourself shailene.
Shaylene :
My name is Shailene Burlage and yes, Jennifer and I started Love Life together back in 2020 We went to boot camp and we were the first people to go through boot camp and camp and learn how to be a life affirming ministry while engaging the church.
Jacob Barr :
So yeah, can so can. So when it comes to engaging the church and in this life affirming ministry, what have been like what’s one of the hurdles that you have come across and we’re able to, you know, work your way past?
Jennifer :
Well, before we had encountered love life, we already had a vision for wanting to connect the church with abortion, vulnerable families, and we had a fantastic curriculum, training curriculum that we were trying to introduce to churches. It was produced by Care Net and we wanted to get that into churches but our obstacle was that we couldn’t get the pastor’s attention, we couldn’t get the church’s attention to let them know that this was a need and that it was available. So when we found out about love life, we discovered that they had the same mission, the same passion, but they had a model that they had already put into use and had found it to be very effective with churches of all different denominations in the evangelical realm. So we were very excited about that And so that’s why we went to training with them up in North Carolina and I’ll let Shailene explain the method if or the model if you’d like for us to do that.
Jacob Barr :
Sure, yeah please.
Shaylene :
So the love life model is it’s based off of Nehemiah one through 3 it’s a four step process called Hear, Pray, Go connect and we have a 40 week campaign that begins in February and ends in November. And we ask pastors to adopt one week out of the 40 weeks and their week begins on Sunday and ends with the prayer walk on Saturday. And the Hear Pray Go Connect is Nehemiah heard about the wall and so the broken down wall in his city, that’s the first thing that happened. And so for us, we asked the pastors to educate their members on what God’s word says about life and how valuable life in the womb is and that we need to protect that. And then he talks about the tragic truth of abortion and he also addresses women in the congregation and men who are suffering the trauma of a of a past abortion. And that there’s healing in that. Jesus died for us all. So he hears the congregation hears about are broken down wall in our cities we believe is the abortion clinics. And then to pray the pastor asked the members to fast and pray with him, which was what Nehemiah did. He then fasted and prayed and then with the pastor invites the members of the church to go to the prayer walk on Saturday when our prayer walks are held out in front of the abortion clinics where all we’re doing is praying and worshipping. We don’t carry signs we’re not political and we’re not engaging with anybody going in and out of the abortion clinics we’re simply there to worship and pray and it’s guided and which is what Nehemiah did he went to the wall and then the fourth step is to connect we don’t want people to just leave with information. Nehemiah connected the 12 tribes and they stood alongside each other and repaired the wall and that’s what we’re asking people in the congregation to do what would God have you do we asked them. And so we do training, Love life does training mostly zoom and online by in the area of mentoring and discipleship. So if someone wants to mentor men and women who are facing unplanned pregnancy, we take them that through that training, foster care and adoption interest, we also take them through that training and connect them with the agencies that lead that. And then we also have abortion recovery groups and prayer teams. And so it, you know, there’s something, everybody can do something, but not everybody has to do everything so that’s what our campaign is.
Jacob Barr :
So Jennifer, going back to the, I guess the first part that Shailene mentioned, which was you know, hearing about the broken wall and how valuable life is in the womb. How would you know in your, in your words, how would you describe the value of life? Like you know, whether it comes from a biblical viewpoint or a moral viewpoint or some other viewpoint, How would you describe your you know, how would you describe the value of life and why it’s worth protecting?
Jennifer :
Well, I believe in what the Bible says i mean, that’s what is driving all of what we do. But God has chosen people of all of His creation to bear His image. We are all image bearers, even if we don’t personally know the Lord. And so just that distinction makes us unique and special apart from anything else. And so that’s why it’s so important that even in the womb, even when a person is so small you can barely see, you know that tiny embryo still bears the stamp of its creator. And so we believe that life begins at conception and we want to serve families from what we call from the womb to the tomb. Like there’s no part of life that isn’t valuable because of what God has said we are and who he has created us to be in relationship with him. So that’s the value that’s behind it. When we fail to see the value of people just because they can’t be seen or they’re, you know, they’re in the womb or they’re in some other type of voiceless type situation, it’s all the more important to speak up for them i mean that’s what it says in Proverbs 31 speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, ensure justice for those who are being crushed. And you know, if we are believers and we believe that people are intrinsically valuable and we know that they’re being crushed and we’re not saying anything about it, we’re couple culpable in that. So for me it is, it’s both an honor and a privilege to be able to be in this ministry, serving us in this capacity. I grew up in the church so like that’s not new to me. And so reaching out to pastors, explaining to them that hey, this is an area that really is not addressed much from the pulpit and a lot of that and you had asked about obstacles. One of the obstacles that pastors have is they hear the word abortion and they just automatically start thinking crazy people who are trying to, you know, stand on the sidelines and say all kinds of offensive things that they don’t want their congregation to hear or they may think, oh, that’s a political topic and I’m staying so far away from politics, I don’t want to touch it. But they are completely missing the opportunity to create in their members an awareness of God’s value of life and the just the need for discipleship. These moms and dads that are showing up at abortion clinics aren’t horrible people that are, you know, that are making these decisions just out of the blue. They’re desperate they have stories, They have situations, and they need people to come alongside them and disciple them and provide support and help so that they actually could make a better choice with their lives, not only in this situation but going forward as well so we see this as a discipleship issue and an evangelism issue, not a political one.
Jacob Barr :
Wow yeah, I would agree completely that was. That’s really well said, Shailene what would you, but is there anything that you would add or what were you thinking when you heard Jennifer speaking right then?
Shaylene :
Well, I believe valuing life in the womb to the tomb is so important but it begins with valuing life in the womb and I think what we are seeing in our culture is that by not valuing life in the womb, life is not valued to the tomb that we were seeing, that we’re seeing so much death and murder and crime and things like that. And I believe it starts with valuing life. And if we don’t value life in the womb, how can we value life outside of the womb or expect a culture to value life outside of the womb? I absolutely believe that life begins even, you know, at conception before conception god knew us. He knew He knew us. And so those are the things that I’m thinking.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah and sometimes I feel like, and this is probably true in Christian life and for pastors in general but in the pro-life world, I feel like we’re, you know, the Goliaths are often false beliefs like there’s these lies that need to be disarmed and like we’re constantly coming up against false beliefs like a false belief that the pro-life people on the sidewalk are violent and they’re you know, murdering and blowing up abortion clinics. And that hasn’t been the case for I don’t think since I’ve been you know, i don’t know like, I’m 44 years old and I think it a lot of that took place before I was, you know, I don’t even know what a long time exactly, exactly and like that’s still like a false belief of like, you know, the people on the sidewalk are dangerous and that’s, you know, it couldn’t be further from the truth they’re praying. They’re carrying their, you know, they’re there, you know, trying to serve that, you know, someone who has a very different belief and trying to help rescue people that are headed towards a dangerous decision.
Shaylene :
And you know, Jacob, the way that we do that, I mean, even these people don’t even really have a belief as a woman who chose who chose abortion i have abortion in my past. It wasn’t that I believed in abortion, it was that I was desperate, i thought that the pregnancy was the problem and abortion was the solution. And so there’s a belief, I guess right there that’s untrue so i guess in a sense it is a belief.
Jacob Barr :
Well, I was thinking of the abortion worker when I said that like, you know, the abortion workers have a belief system that they’re helping women in these situations and I think the women coming in very often feel like they have no choice. Like they like this is the only choice because they’re not ready for pregnancy or parenting they’re not ready for. Like they have these beliefs that they’re not ready and that they can’t do this and that they have planned for their life. And so like, I feel, yeah, they don’t. I feel like they have they don’t think they have a choice and what’s interesting is that like 80 % or 75 % of women who are looking to get an abortion when they go to when they see an ultrasound and they have a caring counselor listen and you know and essentially speak life into them, 75 % will change direction from seeking an abortion to choosing parenting or adoption and I think what that says is that people are in need of real relationship and it also says that they’re also in need of actual like medical information of like what’s truly happening inside their body. And the ultrasound provides a window. And so it’s really sort of and 25 or 20 % still choose abortion and that group, you know that relationship and medical information wasn’t the answer for them but 7580 % are truly, yeah, missing on relationship and missing on medical information. And I think that’s a like a series of false beliefs that set up someone to choose something that if they only knew more, they would choose better.
Shaylene :
If they knew the resources that were available, 75 and I’ll be quick, but 75 to 80 % of women choosing and men choosing abortion have no support system. And I’m not talking about just financial support, but they don’t they feel like they have no support. So by just offering that support and that friendship changes things.
Jennifer :
One story that we love to tell that happened in Charlotte not that long ago. A abortion director for the largest abortion clinic there in Charlotte had her own niece come into the office because she was pregnant and was considering abortion and all of the love life, you know counselors are standing outside beckoning her to reconsider and she decided that she did want to reconsider she wanted to just talk with those counselors that were out there 1st. And so she left and spoke with them and decided to choose life for her baby she saw her baby on the ultrasound and it was something that she wanted to do. So she was quickly adopted by one of our partnering churches we have over 550 partnering churches with us and so they found one near her and they began to cycling her and then through the course of time held a baby shower for her. Well, the church members did not know, but she invited the abortion center director to come to the shower. So that director ends up in the church watching all these church members love on her niece and minister to her and supply her needs and she was blown away by what she saw it totally changed her perspective of what those counselors were trying to accomplish. So she ended up going back to the abortion clinic still was working there but then she began, if any girl came to her who was undecided, she began telling them, hey, you need to go talk to those counselors out there they’re not crazy people they actually help, you know, you should talk to them. So she began, referring the undecided women out the door. And then, like Shaylen mentioned, we run a 40 week prayer campaign well, on week 40 we invite every church that has participated with us during the year to come out for one giant celebration of life. And so we had our Week 40, and she saw all the churches gather around praising and praying and so she just walked out of the abortion clinic that day, never to return. She was just done with that industry and she ended up starting her own catering business. And now she caters food for love life. So, you know, we’ve just seen all kinds of miraculous things happen when the church shows up to pray, which really is fundamental it’s the fasting and prayer part that makes a huge difference but then it’s getting outside of the four walls and being present at the place where it’s darkest in our cities. Now, for Shailene and I, our abortion clinics have closed, but that has not stopped the need for churches to show up. We just have to show up in different ways we have to show up in our own churches where we are outspokenly supportive of families who are struggling in that way. You know, making, creating safe spaces for them to come so that they know where they can go for help instead of, you know, for now, instead of driving across state lines to get an abortion that they can turn to their local church and know that they’re going to be supported and find help and not condemnation so.
Jacob Barr :
Wow thank you for sharing that story that’s so, yeah, it’s so cool to see God’s fingerprints, you know, when it comes to people making life changing decisions and seeing, you know, the power of people in prayer who are standing there for Jesus yeah impacting someone in a positive way it’s so good to hear and share. Thank you you’re welcome. And then one of the other things that you had mentioned was the, yeah, the need for discipleship or the, you know, how these women are. Yeah, they essentially need community and i think that’s where that church connection is strongly needed. So Shailene, how would you describe, you know, how churches can minister or how they connect to these women who are in a, yeah, in a, in a desperate or, you know, difficult time.
Shaylene :
So what we’re who we’re ministering to are men and women facing unplanned pregnancy. That’s where we, you know, are leading the discipleship in the help toward men and women facing unplanned pregnancy. And the way we do that is after the prayer walk, we then meet with the pastors and invite them to become a House of refuge church. And what they’re stating is they agreed to join us and we asked them to read a statement twice a year that simply says it makes it very clear to them, their members, what a House of refuge is and that is that there is safe place for men and women basing on planned pregnancy to run to the church instead of running across the state line now to have abortions or even take the abortion pill we can talk about that in a moment if you like, but to even have that sent to them and have an abortion that way that the church is there, the church, the pastor says What we will not do is we will not gossip, we will not talk, we will not, you know, guide you to an abortion clinic what we will do is that we will come alongside you and help you and overcome any obstacle that you’re facing that would. Not allow you to have this child will overcome these obstacles with you and you’re welcome here we want to love you we want to get you grafted into the church and befriend you and equip you to parent this child or to help you along the journey of the adoption option, you know and then the pastor also in the letter reads. You know to speaks to the moms and dads that have suffered the trauma of abortion. If you’ve suffered the trauma of abortion, you know there is healing there is abortion recovery that we can get you connected with because I believe that the silence from the pulpit is we’re seeing women, we have met women on Monday who went to church on Sunday. We meet a Monday at the abortion clinic with the scheduled abortion of their child to take the life of their unborn baby. But they just left the church Pew the day before and so 54 % of women having abortions identify as a Christian and two out of five of those women go to church every Sunday so those statistics, one in four women and men having abortions are the same inside the church is outside the church. So we first want to create a House of refuge by the pastors making it clear what their church stands for and then we ask them to, you know, identify a point person, not a staff member, not the pastor has enough to do to identify a staff person that love life works with to identify the people in the church you want to go further and be trained in these areas.
Jennifer :
And love life. One of the great things about it is they provide the training. So when somebody decides they want to learn more about foster care or adoption or they want to, you know, find out what it means to be a mentor to a family in need, they can go through training that love life provides for them so the church is not having to invent that wheel. And then i do. I personally also love to connect them with care Nets training curriculum. The stuff that we began with from the very beginning, making life disciples. I mean the name of that curriculum kind of spells it out. We want church members to be equipped to be able to not only walk these families through the, you know, the childbearing years, but for the rest of their life it’s you know, a full time commitment in that regard.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah. So Shailene, what is what is the silence from the pulpit communicate like what is that when a pastor doesn’t speak on abortion, what do you think that is saying?
Shaylene :
It’s the unforgivable sin. Jesus did not die for women like me. I would we sit there and shame it’s not something that we talk about i went through abortion recovery in February of 2016 and up to that point I had several abortions, and up to that point my abortions were not i was not discussing them. However, in 2006 when I was homeless, addicted to the drugs, the Lord pulled me out of that and the first thing that I asked for when I accepted Jesus Christ in my heart, my thirties, is I said Lord, forgive me of my sin i’m the worst Sinner of all. I took the lives of my children and he audibly said to me daughter, my son Jesus Christ died for you. So I was forgiven. See, I checked that secret right back in, but I wasn’t healed. And so the silence from the pulpit we have men and women who have asked forgiveness and received forgiveness of Jesus Christ for their abortions. But because the pastors aren’t addressing it and even offering abortion recovery and the healing of Jesus Christ, there’s the difference. I was forgiven in 2006 but I wasn’t healed until 2016 and that changed everything for me. Now I’m able to talk about it and I don’t fear man because then I am not only forgiven by Jesus Christ but now I’m healed and I don’t want anybody else to go through what I went through. So I think the silence is deafening to men and women and when you’re talking about 25 %, one in four women, also one in four men, have had an abortion in their lifetime, and 30 % of those men and women go on to have more than one. So we’re silently sitting in church, pews hurting.
Jacob Barr :
So on this podcast I often i often refer to this one verse the people that listen to it will probably you’re like, oh he’s going to James five sixteen again, but I’m going to do it because it’s so it’s such a powerful verse for you know for finding healing and so James five, sixteen, it’s it reads. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed and the prayers of a righteous person availeth much and so like being able to like tell someone else who is. So I think what this verse is speaking to is having like a church family that you can, you can speak authentically what’s going on. And without having them, you know, cut you or, you know, or cut you with words or crush you or, you know, having it be a safe place to share and be, you know, be held in a comforting way when you’re trying to, you know, essentially confess sin. And so I think, you know, confessing SIM one to another and then having that person then, you know, respond to pray, you know, and essentially then it says that you may be healed and so I think that’s just like AI think that just speaks to a healthy church body being able to share something, a sinful something and then also then they, yeah, the response is prayer. And what are your thoughts on James five sixteen you know, telling someone else you know, give, you know, speaking those words into existence by saying them out loud and having someone in your church community. Then respond with prayer as a way to find healing.
Jennifer :
I love that passage and I think that it defines like I’ve seen. I’ve seen the pendulum swing both ways i’ve seen where everybody was so prudish that you couldn’t admit anything and people were too, you know that it was just very religious and churchy and so nothing authentic was happening. But then I’ve seen the pendulum swing to the other side, where you know, it’s almost a fad to say everything that was going on in your life. But with no healing, there was no circling back to Jesus doesn’t intend for us to live either extreme. He wants us to be healed and walking with him, abiding with Him. And that happens through confessing our sins with one another and then turning to Jesus together for that solution. Which that verse kind of encapsulates the whole thing. Yeah, I love that verse.
Jacob Barr :
What are your thoughts, Shailene?
Shaylene :
Well, i think having the opportunity having someone open that door of I love pastors that are transparent i love pastors to get up in the pulpit and talk about their, you know, their sin in their healing i do believe that confession with healing does go hand in hand or it should go hand in hand. Like Jennifer said, you could have confessed just confessing everything and never changing. You know, just keep on going, walking along or you’re not allowed to really say your truth. And so I think that’s a great scripture because it does. I mean we have to confess it to get it out we have to tell someone and then the healing process is what opened the door for me to be able to now i can tell the world. I could tell the world, You don’t want to do this. I know first hand what this is and this is not what you want to do we can help you that’s really what we’re offering. You know out there on the sidewalk where we offer the love and hope of Jesus Christ and the help of the local church. We have just love life has found a way to reach the pastor and to really change the mindset that this is not political. This is, this is absolutely necessary to lead, to lead, you know, the members of the church to lead the congregation that they’re the shepherd to shepherd them into with love, truth and love. And so i just think that if they’re talking about it, we have we have 23 churches that have partnered with us we have 12 churches here in Alabama that have become a House of refuge. You know, 23 churches that have done prayer walks. And it’s the process i mean, we’ve been at it for.
Jennifer :
We’re in our second year, Yeah, right.
Shaylene :
We’ve been at it for two years so it’s a process, but it really is getting in with those pastors and just saying, hey, let’s talk about this. Let’s talk about what’s really happening and how you can really help your congregation going forward in this because this is what’s happening in the world i mean, abortion is the number one cause of death. Number one by far.
Jacob Barr :
And i think for the, you know, for pastors who are, who may be listening to this podcast, I think it would be, yeah it’s just like the journey towards creating a confessional community where people can, you know, share and then the response is to pray and bring it to Jesus and yeah, so when someone shares, there’s prayer and then there’s probably also follow up for like you know, how are you doing on this whatever that happened to be and I think that’s all part of that experience of confessing and healing is yeah, that I think that prayer is weaved in and also the follow up is weaved in as well and that I think that all works together.
Jennifer :
I think that’s all part of the whole discipleship piece that I think by and large the church has kind of gotten away from the Big C church we have. There have been a lot of programs, a lot of initiatives, a lot of mission trips, even all valuable things. But like Shailene’s healing happened in the context of a group of just a handful small group of women. She probably couldn’t have worked through that in a large Sunday school class, but in the intimacy of a discipleship type group, that kind of thing happens which is why we would love to see the whole church get involved in this because it takes life on life impact for change to happen. It can’t just be a program or you know, send somebody to do something and we need real believers connecting with people who are hurting so that they can not be alone in the struggle.
Shaylene :
You know another thing is that we have story after story, Jacob, but when a pastor reads that statement, the House of refuge statement from the pulpit we have a church here in Birmingham guiding like church one of our very 1st House of Refuge churches last year is their second one. And they read the statement and she hadn’t there wasn’t anybody trained she they jumped on board yes, we want to be a House of refuge. We’re going to read this to her church. They read it and the lady came down the aisle to the pastor’s sister and said, well OK, I’m pregnant and I don’t want this baby now what? And all she knew, what she did know is she said, listen, don’t go to the abortion clinic. We will help you. We will help you whatever that looks like, we’re going to help you. And that young lady ended up, you know, giving birth and choosing the adoption option and the church went alongside her. But she was going to have it you know, her mind was set she was going to have an abortion. But, and we have stories like that all over the country because there’s 125 churches around the country from California, New York, Florida, Alabama and in between 14 cities where there’s 125 churches that are a House of refuge and we have a map of the House of Refuge churches that are trained and ready for men and women facing unplanned pregnancy, that they’re welcome at that church on our website.
Jennifer :
And we have spent the past several weeks connecting with pregnancy centers, letting them know about our local houses of refuge because we have point people with each of those houses of refuge. And we can give that contact information to the pregnancy center so that when they have a client who would like to be discipled or who would like to get into a church, they don’t just have to walk into a building and not know somebody. Our point person can contact that client and start up a relationship they can go get coffee, they can have breakfast or something and just start the relationship and eventually get them grafted into a small group and then to the church itself. It’s just that it’s up until this point, the pregnancy centers have been faced with, OK, so they have a client who’d like to go to church. They just hand them a list, a list, and we’ll hear some good churches in our area hope you check them out and like them. There’s no personal connection there and they don’t, they don’t ever follow through with that. But when it’s initiated by a real person who cares and who understands the situation that this young lady’s in, it can be make all the difference in the world.
Jacob Barr :
So if you were so, if you could, so how? How would you suggest that a precis clinic improve that maybe by bringing in like how would what would be the steps for a precis clinic team to improve the connection to a local church?
Shaylene :
Well, that’s been the problem there. They haven’t been able to do that their work is the triage they are the triage and they’re ministering to the men and women coming into the clinic needing facing a crisis pregnancy, needing help right now with and so they offer parenting classes and then you earn mommy money they offer Bible studies, you earn daddy dollars and you get to spend that you know in and provide for your child but they’re only geared for the first year or two they’re not geared for long term and they really don’t have the manpower to engage the church. We’re, I believe that you know, love life is the missing link for the pregnancy centers we have very good relationships with our pregnancy centers here. We have nine of them in Birmingham and Tuscaloosa that’s where we minister to it’s about an hour difference from each other and so we have a very good relationship with our pregnancy centers to offer them this help. They don’t. They’re not geared to really engage the church that’s a big process. Like I said, we’ve been doing it for two years and we have, you know, 12 churches that have actually jumped on board.
Jacob Barr :
So how? How does The Apprentice Clinic work with love life like what does that look like?
Jennifer :
Well, we have. Like I said, we work to keep up the relationship there so that we know who they are and they know who we are and we provide them with the contact information with our House of refuge churches. And so if they have a need, they can contact the point or the point person at one of those House of refuge churches. I mean the primary function is for them to be able to get their client into a gospel centered, grace based church and to feel confident that when they give that person over to that church that church is going to use the same language of love and compassion and gospel centered focus that they’re using in the pregnancy center. We’ve talked to several pregnancy center directors who’ve told us that in the past, they’ve actually been too afraid to refer somebody over to a church because they didn’t know what kind of reception they were going to receive there, and they didn’t want all of their hard work to be undone. And that should never be the case. But we want the pregnancy centers to be confident that the churches they’re sending their clients to are prepared and ready to use the same kind of love and communication that’s being done with them at the pregnancy center. Continuity of care is kind of how we look at it.
Shaylene :
Right so one way that we can do that Jacob, for example, Jennifer and I are missionaries our region is Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. We have been focused on Birmingham and Tuscaloosa birmingham is where we live tuscaloosa is 45 minutes away and so there’s an abortion clinic in each city so we’ve kind of been focused in and around those two areas, mobilizing the church. But Mississippi is at, you know, Mississippi. We need House of refuge churches all over. So if there’s not a love life in that city, then there are all of the state states has a love life missionary for that city so our region is Mississippi we’re focused in Alabama and so we have a contact in Mississippi who knows a lot of pastors so we’re soon to have a zoom with this person and their board members to tell them about House of Refuge. So we want to build House of Refuges in every city, you know, outside of our immediate reach. So we don’t have the prayer walk, there’s not an abortion clinic, and we’re not there to guide the prayer walk. But we can still do the House of refuge so if there’s a pregnancy center that wants to find out more about love life in the closest love life missionary or city director to them, then they can go to lovelife.org and look at the map and contact the closest love life representative. And then we can do this we can zoom in and offer House of refuge churches so we can still partner with pregnancy centers outside of our physical reach awesome.
Jacob Barr :
Well, I’ve really enjoyed, yeah, talking and hearing more about, yeah, your connection with churches and the how that connects with helping women and dark situations and just helping them, yeah, bring them into to better places and better relationships. Any do you have any final thoughts before we wrap up the podcast?
Jennifer :
Everyone can do something.
Shaylene :
Everyone can do something and this is the gospel is first for us we haven’t. We have mentioned Jesus in the love and hope of Jesus, but this is all about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Sign up for email notifications when new episodes are published.