Rhonda Darville understands post-abortive heartache and despair.
Twice post-abortive herself, she struggled for years with guilt, even attempting suicide three times.
Fortunately, the Bahamas native felt God calling her and her husband to attend Liberty University, in Virginia, to study the Bible. Their mandate going in was “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things would be added to you.”
It was a huge step in faith, but one they were compelled to take.
While there, she says, “I began to understand who I am in Christ and what His love truly meant and looked like.”
Tweet This: Pregnancy help director in Bahamas understands post-abortive heartache and despair.
“I began to understand why abortion is wrong and why I carried so much guilt for my actions.”
In the Bahamas, while abortion is illegal, it is also quietly common, with a respected public-sector medical doctor saying the practice is governed by “a nod and a wink” culture that is silently supported by some licensed physicians.
The reality of underground abortion in the Bahamas, compounded by Darville’s lack of understanding that she had been created in God’s image, left her vulnerable for abortion, Darville says.
After a decade in Virginia, Darville and her husband felt a call from the Lord to return to the Bahamas and open a pregnancy help organization. She had served in PHOs in Virginia for the past 10 years, and believed the need was great for life-affirming pregnancy help in her own home nation.
The cost of living in paradise is very high and so the fear of survival drives many to certain choices, Darville points out, citing a study that reports over 60 percent of children born in the Bahamas are born to single mothers, many of whom are still in their teens.
Now, Darville is poised to launch the first-ever free-standing pregnancy center in the Bahamas.
The fledgling center hosted its first public event June 2, welcoming the nearly 100 guests who had crowded in to hear about the vision for Bahamas GodParent Center: “Proclaiming the Sanctity of Every Life and Offering Hope to the Hurting.”
Bahamas GodParent Center’s mission is to help women and men before, during, and after unexpected pregnancies. All of its services are free, and Darville has been busy establishing relationships with youth groups, churches and schools where she and her volunteer staff can teach seminars.
Darville says that the response to the opening was great. Four additional churches have invited Darville to speak and also plan to host Baby Bottle Boomerang events.
While they don’t yet have a building or ultrasound equipment, Darville says she won’t allow this ministry to stay limited. The motto for this year is, “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop!”
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“We are beginning abortion recovery classes next week,” Darville says. “Two local schools have committed to us sharing with the young people,” she said, adding that she is also looking into grants for the equipment and a donated property.
“Right now, our focus is to promote education and awareness of the need for a faith-based crisis pregnancy center, to educate people of the sanctity of life and traumatic aftermath of abortion and the great need for post-abortion care; to provide an education for fathers and to build church partnerships to bring a medical clinic to life.”
Darville believes that only through a unified effort can the island nation see great change.
The “silent hurting” Darville suffered for years and subsequent healing and forgiveness from God she has experienced is now the driving force behind Bahamas GodParent Center.
Tweet This: New Bahamas center offers post-abortive help, peer counseling, with ultrasound testing on the way.
“I would not be here today if not for God’s saving and redemptive power,” she says. By allowing the Lord to redeem her past, Darville says she has “become a trophy of His grace.”
And it is that very mindset that she wants to offer to all who are in a crisis situation, other post-abortive women and men. There is hope beyond the pain, there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus and His healing can restore or give hope for those hurting.
One great blessing about the Bahamas, Darville is quick to point out, is that the Bible is still taught and allowed in schools, so she and her team are able to share a Biblical message of identity in Christ, purity and sexual integrity.
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“If we can get the children to understand that they are created in the image of God and that He has a plan for them… if we can proclaim the sanctity of every life, then maybe they will learn to make better decisions and never suffer the heartache of poor choices,” Darville says.
The Center offers ongoing biblical and physical support for up to two years, but Darville says she’s mindful that it can’t do it without the body of believers. Darville believes that if the whole church is mobilized, they will see a difference.
