As the battle for life continues in today’s culture, Focus on the Family plans a major August event that brings life to light with the power of ultrasound and celebrates life-affirming ministries and organizations.
“It’s our opportunity to again come together,” said Robyn Chambers, executive director of Advocacy for Children for Focus on the Family. “It’s our chance to really showcase them [pregnancy help centers] as the heroes, those men and women on the frontlines day in and day out. It’s also a fun way of gathering like-minded and life-minded people together.”
See Life 2021 will culminate in Dallas, Texas, on Saturday, August 28, at 7 p.m. Central Time as an in-person and live-streamed event. Pregnancy resource centers throughout Texas have been invited to the in-person event that features speakers from various organizations and a worship conference.
“It’s a way to celebrate life and celebrate everyday heroes,” Chambers said.
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Guest speakers include Amy Ford, co-founder and president of Embrace Grace; Dr. William Lyle, pro-life OB-GYN and a medical advisor to Heartbeat International’s Abortion Pill Rescue Network; and Nick Vujicic, who was born without arms or legs and is the founder and president of the ministry Life Without Limbs.
Focus on the Family’s president, Jim Daly, will host the evening, and Christian singer-songwriter Matthew West, who sang “Unplanned” in the award-winning film of the same name, headlines the worship concert.
See Life 2021 is the continuation of a similar event Focus on the Family created after the passage of the 2019 New York law that gives free-reign for abortion. Alveda King, niece of Martin Luther King, spoke, and a live ultrasound featuring Abby Johnson noted for the book and movie Unplanned was conducted.
Ultrasounds will be done at the Dallas event as well, Chambers said.
Partnerships
Several national organizations, including Heartbeat International, CareNet, NIFLA, Live Action, and ICU Mobile partnered with Focus on the Family for this event.
“It shows the collaboration at the national level,” Chambers said. “It’s not all about Focus, it’s not all about one organization; it’s about all of us coming together to serve the men and women in our community.”
“See Life has been a powerful witness to the work of pregnancy help centers and in particular, focusing on the importance of ultrasound,” said Jor-El Godsey, president of Heartbeat International. “We’ve been great partners with Focus on the Family through their option ultrasound program and their Sanctity of Life team, and we have worked together on a number of collaborative efforts.”
That includes Heartbeat’s Unplanned Movie Scholarship.
Tweet This: Focus on the Family's See Life 2021 event is a way to celebrate life and celebrate everyday heroes
“Focus on the Family has been very supportive of that program,” Godsey said.
For more than 15 years, Focus has partnered with pregnancy help organizations around the country, equipping them with resources, including new ultrasound machines.
“I’m so inspired by those who work in a pregnancy center because they are standing for life every single day,” Chambers said. “We [at Focus on the Family] get the joy of coming alongside, helping with a new machine, or helping with nurses’ training.”
Preparing for Dallas
Each Friday in August, a new video focusing on pro-life issues releases on the See Life 2021 website. These programs are free of charge for viewers.
“We educate people on what pregnancy centers do,” Chambers said. “Our goal is also to equip and educate people to have conversations with those who may not know how they feel about abortion or ones who are really pro-choice. We just always want to have an open door for conversation.”
Each episode presents a different aspect of the pro-life movement, including the work of pregnancy centers and stories of people facing unplanned pregnancies or experience the pressure to abort a child for reasons such as rape or adverse diagnosis.
“We’re sharing stories about how God can redeem even through some broken times,” Chambers said. “There’s always room for redemption, there’s always room for hope and healing.”
Another episode focuses on how the church can come alongside pro-life centers and groups as well as women in the congregation and community experiencing unplanned pregnancies.
“As believers, Christ is calling us to get involved,” Chambers said. “We need to get off the sidelines. He’s calling us to do something, and what that looks like for me and what that looks like for you may be totally different things. What’s your ‘yes?’ What is God calling you to say, ‘yes’ to?”
Celebrating pro-life work and people
See Life 2021 showcases the value of life and the significance of pro-life ministries.
“We want to introduce people to what a valuable resource pregnancy centers are to communities and challenge folks to get involved at their local level,” Chambers said. “These centers depend on volunteers, and they are dependent on giving. This is an opportunity for us to educate and to have a conversation and then challenge people to get involved.”
“Every opportunity that we have to celebrate the work of pregnancy help, wherever it’s happening, is a good thing,” Godsey said. “This is either one of the vastly untold stories or it’s the story that get skewed by the political wranglings – everyday people doing amazing things. It’s everyday people standing up and helping everyday strangers see life and champion life. Not only the gift of life, but the Giver of Life. We’re grateful to Jim Daly and all our friends at Focus for their leadership in all of this!”
To learn more about See Life 2021 and view the Friday videos, as well as sign up for the Dallas event or learn how to view the event via live stream, visit the website.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages the Abortion Pill Rescue Network and Pregnancy Help News.
