Pro Life

Personal motivation for Pro Life ministry

In the middle of a difficult marriage, my mother had decided to abort me. Through the concern of her cousin, the Lord brought an elderly Christian couple to talk to my mother and encourage her to not do the abortion. The encouragement helped and my mother chose to not abort me. Several months after I was born, my mother committed suicide due to the turmoil in her life. I am indebted to the Lord, my mother, and the Christian couple for saving my life while yet a fetus. I want to utilize my influence as a pastor and as a missionary to save the lives of many innocent babies who need help just like I did. We need to raise up a generation of voices who will speak out on behalf of the voiceless unborn.

Context of Pro Life ministry in Romania

Abortion is legal, cheap, and accessible in Romania and is commonly promoted and accepted as a form of birth control. Also, with the elimination of international adoption from Romania, and general poverty which causes concern to care for children, plus other factors, contributes to the extremely high abortion rate in Romania.  It is common for some women to have over 15 plus abortions during their child-bearing years.

Ultimate mission of Outstretched hands Pro Life ministry

We aim to change the mentality in Romania; from promoting and supplying abortions to being a nation known for promoting and protecting the right to life for every fetus in the mother’s womb.

Pro Life ministry goals

To combat the tremendous lack of education on abortion, one of the goals of the Pro Life ministry, which Outstretched Hands launched in November of 2010, is to educate women and men in positive, loving ways about the reality of the life of the fetus starting at conception. For example, many people are taught that the fetus is not a child until later in the pregnancy. Our approach is deliberately not anti-abortion but rather Pro Life, focused on teaching relevant medical and scientific facts regarding the life of the fetus, and offering other thoughts and options which are conducive to the health of the baby, mother, and family.

Outstretched Hands holds periodic conferences and uses them to launch 3-5-week seminars to every church represented at the conferences, normally attended by hundreds of people. As far as we know, these types of conferences have never been done before in Romania! They are attended by men, women, and youth. Our first men’s conference in November of 2011 focused on the Pro Life issue from the man’s view and also had information to help men grow into stronger spiritual leaders within their own homes.

As more Romanians learn the facts and understand options, it is our prayer that the result will be a culture of life in Romania, where every child is cherished, provided for, and given the opportunity to grow into their God-given destiny. We are currently focused on our region, believing that if we can change the mentality towards abortion in our area that we can also positively influence the nation.

Pro Life Objectives & Needs

Church Seminars

We believe the starting point for changing the mentality in our area about abortion is to convince the church leaders and their wives that they must stand for the life of the unborn and bring that attitude to their church and communities. Our 3-5-week seminars are designed to engage the church leaders and then appoint a person in that church to represent Pro Life ministry and work with us to change the mentality about abortion in the church and community. We are systematically going through our region, establishing a Pro Life presence and voice. Subjects taught in the seminars include information about the developing baby, abortion and its effects, STD’s, the joy of being a mother, and more.

Local Crisis Pregnancy Counseling Center

We know that we must offer a resistance to the misinformation about abortion that is so prevalent in Romanian culture. In the absence of the lack of funds to open a center, we have chosen to do whatever we can do to build the infrastructure of an influential and effective Pro-Life ministry, leading up to having a center in the future. The assistance we provide will include educating mothers on how to care and raise their baby they have chosen to keep, as well as offering them practical helps by providing clothing and other necessities to care for their child.

National Pro Life Conferences

Outstretched Hands did a regional Pro Life conference in Bucharest in 2012 and we learned a lot by doing this conference. We then organized regional Pro Life Conferences in Calarasi in May of 2014, November of 2015, and May of 2016. All of the regional conferences are building towards organizing a National Pro-Life Conference in Bucharest in the fall of 2018.

Public School Meetings

It is legal to access public schools with teachings about abortion. Some members on our team are trained to speak with high school students about Pro Life and related issues. With this access to our public school system, we are increasing our Pro Life educational meetings for youth.

Pregnancy Counseling Hotline & Website

We offer over- the- phone pregnancy counseling by our team. We advertise this service with flyers in selected areas of our city and region. We also added a section on our ministry website about our Pro Life ministry in November 2012.

Mobile Crisis Pregnancy Clinic

We know that a high percentage of women who see the baby in their womb, as a living person, choose to keep the baby. We received an ultrasound machine in 2014 and hope to have a Mobile Crisis Pregnancy Clinic at some point. We do use the ultrasound machine and it has revealed the baby to the mother on numerous occasions and the mother decided not to abort.

Literature & Videos

We have collected literature and videos and developed resources that can be reproduced and given out to help in the education process of the life of the baby, hazards of abortion, and other vital information.

Networking

As part of the Pro Life movement in Romania, we see the vital importance to not only do what we are called to do but also to encourage and connect with other Pro Life ministries in Romania. We plan to open a national Pro Life networking website announcing events and providing Pro Life resources.

Public Abortion Policy

In 2017, we will begin to address issues regarding the establishing of and supervision of laws that help to limit or obstruct abortions.

Full Time Ministry

We plan to have our Pro-Life leader in full time Pro Life ministry by the end of 2018.