In the spirit of unity for the cause of life, a new partnership between Heartbeat International and Embrace Grace was announced during Heartbeat’s Annual Pregnancy Help Conference in Salt Lake City.
Amy Ford, founder and executive director of Embrace Grace, and Tracie Shellhouse, vice president of Ministry Services for Heartbeat International, announced the new program, an endeavor to enhance and strengthen relationships between churches and pregnancy help organizations. Heartbeat is the largest network of pregnancy help organizations in the U.S. and the world, and Embrace Grace is an outreach connecting individual churches to women facing unplanned pregnancies.
“The church really needs to know what you do,” Ford told the gathering of more than 1,300 staff members, board members, and volunteers from pregnancy resource centers and pregnancy medical clinics and maternity homes.
She shared her personal unplanned pregnancy story, and noted that back then, and even in 2012 when she started Embrace Grace, “I didn’t know what a pregnancy center was.”
The fact remains true today, that many churches and Christians don’t know about pregnancy help organizations, even those existing in their own communities. This new endeavor between Heartbeat and Embrace Grace, seeks to change that.
“We’ve got to shine a light [on the work of pregnancy help organizations],” Ford stated.
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During the past 12 years, Embrace Grace has grown from a small gathering at the church Ford attended in the Dallas area to more than 1,100 groups across the United States and beyond today. Women experiencing an unplanned pregnancy who join an Embrace Grace group offered at a church receives love, kindness, discipling, meals, a Princess Day, and a baby shower. These acts of care and compassion often turn hearts to God.
“They are overwhelmed by the gifts [and] the love they receive,” Ford said.
She shared a story about a wiccan who attended an Embrace Grace group at Ford’s Texas church. She said she prayed for this woman throughout the 12-week session and “felt sure” the woman would come to accept Jesus. Ford said she felt disappointed when such a decision didn’t transpire. However, not long afterward, Ford received a Facebook message from the woman that she had, indeed, come to know the Lord, not during her Embrace Grace tenure, but later, when a man came into her place of employment and told her he felt impressed by the Holy Spirit to tell her that God loved her and that He saw her.
“We’re all planting seeds,” Ford said. “Love is what changes people.”
There are more than 300,000 church buildings across the United States, she said. But the church isn’t a building, the church is people.
“This is the church,” Ford said as she swept her hands over the gathering. “If we can link arms together with our local churches, we can make an even bigger impact.”
She said she and her team “get to hear the stories” of what pregnancy help centers are doing, “the fruit” of the work done at these organizations. Missions align in many areas and drawing more churches into the work of Embrace Grace and pregnancy resource centers and medical clinics will add to eternal mission.
“We want to change lives and families,” Ford said. “Together, we can make a huge difference.”
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The 2024 conference theme, United for Life, echoed within the development and announcement about this new partnership, as well as amid the purpose of the endeavor, connecting churches and pregnancy centers to help women experiencing unplanned pregnancies and their unborn children.
You can view Ford and Shellhouse in this short video HERE.
Additionally, a new website, ProLoveCenter.com, provides information about this endeavor, and a special guide, Strengthening Church Relationships, is offered as a free download.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
