Whenever I'm describing Care Net’s work, I love to tell the story of the woman at the well. In John chapter 4, Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at a well—at the edge of town—during the hottest part of the day. Typically, a woman would be at the well with other women of the town, during the cooler part of the day—early in the morning—but she was there at noon all by herself.

Christ, who knows us better than we know ourselves, knew that she was alone, that she had five husbands, and was currently living with a man who was not her husband. At that time and in that culture, especially with her being a Samaritan woman she would have been a social outcast. Nevertheless, Christ offers her the living water of eternal salvation and she goes back to the town to tell others what happened. As a result of her testimony, many more Samaritans were saved.

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How Fatherhood, Family, and Discipleship Impact Abortion

The text that follows below is a portion of the LifeChat from Roland Warren. For the full LifeChat, watch the entire video. 

It's a beautiful story of Christ offering compassion hope and help to someone who was probably not accustomed to receiving any of those things. He meets her at her point of need and she accepts His help and is saved. Christ restores her spiritually, emotionally, and socially.

I liken this to the work we do at Care Net, a woman during a pregnancy decision comes to us for help, like the woman at the well. These women often have a no-husband problem that is causing them to consider abortion. But following Christ's model we minister to them spiritually, emotionally, and socially. We hope that they will accept the compassion and choose life for their unborn child, and abundant life for themselves and their families.

Our prayer is that they will be disciples and go back to town to make disciples first of their children and then of others. What a great Pro Abundant Life story.

There's another story that I think is equally as important to tell, the story of the rich young ruler. In Mark 10, as Jesus is setting out on a journey, a rich young ruler eagerly approaches Jesus, asking how he can inherit eternal life. Just as Jesus did with the woman at the well, He loving tells the rich man the truth of how he can have eternal life and salvation in heaven.

But in this case, the rich young ruler rejects Jesus’s offer and walks away. The circumstances of his life cause him to reject the compassion and hope Jesus offers but there's a lesson for us in this story too.

First, as a Pro Abundant Life ministry, we are called to share Christ's love but we have no control over what folks will do with Christ's love. Some like the woman at the well will not let their circumstances cause them to abort their children. Others will make the rich young rulers' decisions; they will choose abortion and the sadness that often follows. Regardless, we have to love them anyway.

Second, these stories highlight two and important aspects of Care Net’s approach to pro-life ministry.

First, Care Net is a gospel-centered, disciple-minded ministry. One of our pregnancy decision coaches recently told me that a woman she was ministering to on the phone—a modern-day woman at the well—ended up responding to our compassion much like the rich young ruler did. She walked away from the call sad and decided to have an abortion.

But our work does not end there their only goal was to save the baby and the baby was aborted then what else could we do? Care Net’s unique goal is to make disciples for Jesus Christ. So even though she rejected our help, we knew we needed to follow up with her to tell her that we still loved her and we're still praying for her and we still want her to experience the abundant life that Christ has to offer. Indeed our coach was able to offer her spiritual encouragement and send her Forgiven and Set Free post-abortion healing resources.

Second, the other unique aspect of Care Net is our focus on reaching fathers. This caller likely chose abortion in part because the father of the baby was unable or unwilling to be involved. She had a no-husband problem.

If we fail to address this aspect of so many of the abortion decisions, we are missing a huge opportunity to save more unborn lives and build strong families. Our focus on fatherhood, family, and discipleship is why we consider ourselves not just a pro-life organization but a Pro Abundant Life ministry.

That's why your support is so important. You ensure that when we serve today's women at the well they don't walk away sad. And even if they do reject our compassion, your support enables us through our abortion recovery and care ministry to continue ministering to them even if they've chosen abortion. Your generosity provides the ongoing support and discipleship they need to heal from their abortion decision and become disciples of Jesus Christ.