Heartbeat International’s Affiliation Coordinator Julie Stepp is never sure exactly when she will get the call. But when she does get it, she is grateful, because she knows this particular caller will take significant action on behalf of the pregnancy help movement and for unborn babies everywhere.
The caller is a man named Ken, “whose heart is so with us, and truly God is using him to fight for us and with us in the spiritual realm,” Stepp writes in a recent email.
Prayer minister
She says he is “an elderly gentleman who calls Heartbeat about once every two weeks and asks if he can pray with us.”
“He generally wants to pray about the pro-life issue in our country, or for the Supreme Court, or the president, or anything he’s heard of in the news,” Stepp said. “He asks if we have anything we want to pray about, and I generally pray with him for the women who are facing abortion decisions today and the people in centers or on the sidewalks that they would have the right words to help them.”
Many people believe in the power of prayer, but few act on it as enthusiastically as this gentleman.
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Ken mentioned to Stepp that he had been receiving a list of pregnancy centers by state and he calls each one to personally pray with them.
“He said he’s called over 500 centers already to personally pray with them!” Stepp exclaimed.
Powerful prayer tool: Worldwide Directory of Pregnancy Help
Stepp pointed Ken to a resource that goes beyond pregnancy help organizations to include pro-life service providers throughout the world; Heartbeat International's Worldwide Directory of Pregnancy Help.
“We suggested using a printed Worldwide Directory, which lists not just our affiliates, but all the life-affirming centers, homes, and adoption agencies we’re aware of,” she explained.
“He was unsure at first,” she said, “but when he got the directory in the mail, he called us up right away and excitedly told us how happy he was to get to work on calling all these centers!”
Heartbeat International is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the world. Pregnancy help organizations can include pro-life medical clinics, pregnancy centers, non-profit adoption agencies and maternity homes. The Worldwide Directory is an online register of life-affirming service providers around the world, and Heartbeat makes an updated print copy of the directory available to affiliates each year.
Because she puts the directory together every year, Stepp felt it was special that Ken could use it to carry on in his prayer ministry for so many people.
A vessel to be used by God
Ken takes seriously God’s directive to devote himself to prayer - and to be thankful for the opportunity to pray (Colossians 4:2).
“I imagine him sitting in his chair all day,” Stepp told Pregnancy Help News, “calling all these centers - he’s told me before his record number is about 40 in one week! - and seeing himself still as a vessel to be used by God, rather than hunkering down and saying, ‘woe is me; I’m not young anymore.’”
Heartbeat International Vice President of Ministry Services Betty McDowell commented that people like Ken, “illustrate the power of one person acting … no matter their means or level of influence (as society might view things)."
“Everyone can pray,” McDowell said, “for the unborn, for hearts to be changed, for pregnancy centers, for those who serve in the pregnancy help movement.”
“Keep praying” – Jesus
Jesus told His disciples to keep watching and praying (Mark 14:38). Ken’s perseverance in watching for ways to pray, and continuing to pray, shows a trust in a God who hears and who acts in response to faithful and trusting prayer – and a commitment to lifting up the pregnancy help movement.
Stepp said that as Ken prays with various Heartbeat staff members, “he is encouraging everybody he’s talking to. His thought and intention are inspiring.”
