Working at Care Net this semester has been an incredible blessing to my life. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to see the many men and women who help lead the fight for life.

For the last few months, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to work as an intern with the Care Net Center Services team. By writing and editing blogs and articles, as well as performing various administrative tasks, I’ve learned lots about formating web posts and emails, copyediting handbooks, and utilizing various software programs to enhance user experience. Although I’m grateful for the practical skills I’ve gained through this internship, I’m even more thankful for what I’ve learned about Care Net and its ministry.

This internship has given me a glance into the inner workings of pregnancy centers. While I have supported the pro-life movement for as long as I can remember, I had never studied abortion or its effects on women before.

1. Through editing pregnancy center handbooks, I saw how Care Net and local centers help abused or trafficked clients.
2. When writing a blog post in response to an article from The Atlantic, I learned how ultrasounds empower women and can be an important step in the pregnancy decision.
3. I also discovered the importance of an efficiently and effectively run pregnancy center. Care Net offers materials to help centers run more effectively. They provide resources that allow center executives to help train volunteers and staff in pregnancy center ministry. A well-run office is critical to helping women and men who are facing pregnancy decisions.

The pro life movement has plenty of visionaries -- people who understand the big picture and the reasons behind pregnancy center ministry. Sometimes in looking for the forest, however, it is easy to miss the trees. That’s where Care Net comes in. It’s been an honor to do my small part in helping Care Net equip affiliated pregnancy centers to serve their clients with excellence.

Another advantage to interning in the Center Services department was being able to observe how Care Net strives to maintain personal relationships with all of their affiliates. Every day I worked, I could hear co-workers making phone calls to various centers to ask for any prayer requests. Whether through email correspondence or phone conversations, Center Services team members would answer questions for affiliated centers and would always be sure to follow up if needed. Care Net establishes personal relationships with affiliated centers, empowering them , in turn, to better address the needs of their communities.

Additionally, I’ve learned how Care Net centers try to address the needs of their clients on a personal level. The centers never assume what a client may need and never try to make a  decision for a client. Instead, they show the love and promise of abundant life through Christ to all of their clients and support clients in making their own best decision. Care Net cares most about developing transformational personal relationships with clients, encouraging them to grow as people and sharing the joy of relationship with  Christ and the power of the gospel with anyone who is interested.

Finally, I learned about the importance of teamwork. Care Net Center Services is only one part of the larger scope of pregnancy center ministry. However, it still plays a crucial role. While crafting articles might not seem to be most important in the fight for life, you never know how an article can help a center more effectively run its office, which in turn, can help more clients choose life. Fixing a typo in a handbook can clear up distractions so that centers can better learn from the material. Even random administrative tasks help the Center Services department run more smoothly, which in turn, allows the team to answer questions from different pregnancy centers. It’s like what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12:26: “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” Realizing this made me really enjoy the tasks I did.

Maybe hundreds of people would read my articles or maybe no one would. Either way, I was doing my part in helping an organization whose vision is to see women and men transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ, and choose life for their unborn children and abundant life for their families. Working at Care Net this semester has been an incredible blessing to my life. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to see the many men and women who help lead the fight for life.

Becca Samelson is the Care Net Center Services intern. She is a junior at Patrick Henry College and will graduate with a degree in journalism in Spring 2018. Her writing has been featured in both The Herald and Founders magazine.