EP 2 Embrace Grace's Love Movement

And so I just sort writing them and there's 20 stories of girls who chose life. So it's like preach kids date rape, um, girls that chose to place their baby for adoption. Um, every situation when we're a baby dad was shot and killed during the pregnancy. Uh, and so, but all of these women are so brave and then what God did in their hearts and the courage that they had to go to the church for help and ask for help is just amazing.

And so God did a miracle and we wrote it as an outreach tool to hopefully get into the hands of maybe a woman that may be considering an abortion or just to give her hope. And, and, and, or maybe it's someone that has chosen life already, but she's feeling hopeless. And so we want to encourage her. And I love it that the women that read it, they're like, okay, this story is like mine. And so if that girl did it, then maybe I can do it too.

And so it has saved many lives and, um, and we just give it out to all the, all, everyone. We can in order to hopefully inspire a life decision.

So we give those to pregnancy centers when girls take pregnancy tests and find out they're pregnant and they're kind of maybe freaking out in that moment. We give him this love box for free and it's an to a local church. Okay. To get them plugged into a dust B to be discipled. They get a baby shower, they get loved on. Um, and so we do give them out or people call our office all the time. My neighbor, you know, is thinking about getting an abortion. She has one scheduled on Friday, what do I do?

Let us get you a love box and why don't you go talk with her and you know, give her her her gift. And so it, it has saved so many lives as well. So they are free through that. Okay. But you can buy them on our website. Embraced based, yeah.

Nicole, you were showing, it looked like there was a celebration. I saw women, like we're putting together these beautiful boxes now. Tell me exactly what's going on. And when I saw that online on Facebook, you were showing the storyline of the assembling of them. Yes. One of the coolest things about our love boxes is that you can get a group of women together to come and pack a box. So you assemble the boxes together and you get to talk about life.

You get to talk about these women that are celebrated and their choices. It's really a beautiful, it's called, we call it give grace gathering. And so it's like you could do a small group in your home, you can do it with high school students. One of the most powerful, uh, times that I've seen us build boxes is there is, I've just recruited people. I said we need 400 bucks. It just cut, you know, just let's build them. And we had this one boy, these teenage boys. I go, can you guys write letters?

Cause in there we do a deer brave girl letter and it's personal. It's handwritten. You're going to be a great mom. We love you. We're going to walk side by side with you, which is what? Embrace grace does what? I mean we walk with them side by side and uh, so the letter does that. So I had just, we needed a bunch of people to start writing letters. So even the boys are, you know, dear break are going to be a great mom.

And then this one boy piped up, you know, 17 and he goes, this is going to change lives. And I go, hopefully yours, you know, like when you start doing that, you start to put yourself in that position. Do I want to put a girl in this position? And this makes me think twice about my actions and, but it's also just all centered around love. So it's just showing how to love. Even in packing a box.

I love the power of that message because maybe we should back up to where, like what is the vision and what is their desire that you have with embrace grace. And we want you to share on your part. Like what did, how did you get started?

so, well I had an unplanned pregnancy and I almost had an abortion. I in Bay and I grew up in church, but I just felt like I was so scared to tell my parents. And um, I ended up hyperventilate hyperventilating in the abortion room and so I didn't end up having the abortion. So I tried to go back to church and it just kind of feels like the elephant in the room. People don't know whether to say congratulations or I'm sorry. So they just don't say anything and you feel alone in a crowd of people.

And, and then I just started hearing more and more stories of other women that have experienced kind of the same situation when either whether it's an unplanned pregnancy or any result of sin or, or being in the middle of a really hard situation that they can't get out of that they, it's hard because the church isn't the first place. They just naturally think I need to go to church and get help.

Like that's just not, and even as we invite girls into embrace grace within churches around the nation, I'm always on like pregnant girl patrol. Like do you have a ring or you know, what does that, I'm always looking at first you got to make sure they're pregnant cause I have gotten in trouble with that. But um, but I'm always looking in so, but it's, it's amazing to see when I invite them to a church. Okay. The first response is, Oh, you want me to go to a church?

And that situation, I don't think so. That's just weird. It's not natural. And I hear some girls say, well, isn't that for perfect people to go to? I think I need to fix some things first before I go to church. And this is what the unchurched think the church is like, okay. They think it's about behavior modification and it's about a heart transformation. So we want to change that and that really inspired embrace grace. So we have small groups within churches all over the nation.

We provide the curriculum, we call it a pro movement, and these churches invite the girls in and say, come sit with us. We're going to walk with you. Um, and we're going to walk alongside you. They throwing a baby shower, they get a princess day about it. And that's all about their identity value and worth and how much God loves them. And their lives are completely changed. But it is like pulling teeth to get them to come to that first class.

If we can get them to kind of just one time, then they're hooked. But me and the, the stigma around this issue specifically, but I know many, many more. It's like you just don't naturally think, oh, I'm pregnant. Oh my goodness, I need help. Who Do I call? Like you don't think the church, which we just really wanted to change that. We want the church to be a place for the regular. I always say a church without the broken is a broken church and it needs to be a safe place for all people to go to.

And so if it's just a message of helping the church to realize we need to have a welcoming, loving, which I love how you talk about um, uh, love the love box and how you're allowing people to feel that love and acceptance so that they can make good decisions hopefully to feel that confidence support.

One thing I love about our refreshes about praying and encourage you women and so often when they come in there's so much hurt and woundedness when you want to get to that place where you can just love them and realize the love and acceptance of Christ, no matter how, like all facets we've seen before and how with power prayer that God to help them realize that they can be healed and they can make great choices in their life.

It seems like, you know, Amy, that's a lot of what you also are doing is trying to empower the women that they are loved and accepted. Tell me a little bit more about how God's showing you how to, to invite them and make them feel like, okay. I think there would be okay. That could talk to them and they would accept me.

Yeah. So, um, and you know, with my story having an unplanned pregnancy, the I had, so I ended up marrying my baby dad, which now we've been married 20 years. And, um, but whenever we had decided to get married, I was only 16 weeks pregnant. I had just told my, my parents, they had been together for a while, so they said, let's just, let's get married. And we wanted to anyways, so we had a beautiful wedding, but I still felt shame on our wedding day.

But we had asked the man that had led Ryan to the Lord years before my husband, years before we asked him if he would marry us and he said, I can't bless this marriage because you've sinned, so I will, I will not marry you. And he was just like a scarlet letter on your wedding day. Like we can even get married. Right? We've screwed up so bad. But what's so amazing is two years later he called Ryan out of the blue and he said, Ryan, I'm trying to get ahold of you.

He said, I felt like it was my worst mistake of pastoring history I've ever made. Will you forgive me? And Ryan was like, yes, I love you. You know you, Brian adored this guy. He was like, cause he discipled them off her high school. And so they got to be really close again. And we live in the Dallas Fort Worth area, but this is from Austin. So it's like a few hours away. So we had a son and his name is Jess. He's amazing. He's 20 now and he goes to oral Roberts University.

He is majoring in evangelism. I mean, he is power powerhouse. He's led so many kids to the Lord. Well, when he was 16 so four years ago, that pastor in Austin asked us if we would, if I would come preach at his church and talk about pro love and our mission and all of that. It was on mother's Day and he was very open with his congregation leading up to me getting there. And he said, uh, so he had said he had a religious spirit at a Ferrisi heart, you know, when he said that years ago.

So I got there, I preached, I did my thing, and then he's like, Amy, hang on. I want you to stay on stage and I want your son Jess to come onstage. And again, he's 16 and he said, Amy, years ago I asked her husband for forgiveness, but I've never really asked you for forgiveness. Will you forgive me? Well, for what I did years ago. And I was like, of course, yes. Look at embrace grace. This is amazing. But then he looked at my son and this is in front of the entire congregation.

And he said, will you forgive me for planting seeds in your heart before you were ever even born? And while you were in your mother's womb, I rejected you. Will you forgive me? And my son is 16 in front of the whole congregation says, I forgive you. And you could just, I mean, people's jaws were on the floor. Like you just don't see that church ones were being lifted in that room and saw where we were flooded afterwards of like, oh, I've got a similar story.

And knowing I've never told anyone, you know, shame prevents us from stepping out into the calling that God wants us to have. And so, um, and there's so many stories like that and in even people that literally worked for us and, and uh, Nicole

has a story. We have several on staff. You should cheer yours.

And so I just was like, okay, you know, well, you know, and I was very, you just kind of make it look good and okay, well we're going to get married, why can't marry you and you know, and, uh, we're not going to come and that kind of thing. And so, uh, I just felt like, you know what, in two years everyone's going to forget that we had an unplanned pregnancy and we'll just come right back to church. And that's exactly what we did.

Just kind of put on our Sunday best and went back to church and did that. And, um, I didn't realize until I heard Amy story, I was sitting in the audience and I heard Amy speak and I just started bawling and bawling. And I had no idea how deeply that wound, just, uh, you know, honestly, all of a sudden I felt like I can be genuine. I felt like I could just let it all go and say, yes, that happened to me.

Yes, I was rejected by the church and I didn't realize it until I start until I came on board with them. But I was like, I really want to help the church understand how to love better and embrace grace is just an amazing bridge because you can't, even if you feel like people have said, you can't argue with loving people, just like she said earlier, you know, you can't argue. So it's kind of a, a beautiful bridge to get people to.

And then once they see it, once they see the love and how it transforms people, when you see these girls just flourish, we call them blooms when she just sees a blossom and grow and their kids are, you know, they are, I mean are the percentage is 46% of salvations out of our girls. I mean that is high. It's, you know, it's, and they're raising powerful kids now.

It's like you can't deny it and it, it does just like she said with her pastor, all of a sudden it's like it, it changes an entire congregation. When you start to see

They haven't had the personal experience with what we have may have gone through, but yet I think embrace grace has a great way to help to transfuse. Just maybe give hope of, Hey, this is where you do it. It's real simple. We don't have to make a complex. There's no one, two, three. It's just love. I mean, I think that's when, when you see the scripture says God is love and that's all you have to do is we have to love each other.

You know, the scripture says there's only one law giver and judge and it's not me, so I don't have to worry about it. All we have to do is give a message of hope and love and I think it's a beautiful thing, especially as you're talking about how embrace grace is working with the church, but you're also helping the church know how to receive the girls because they don't necessarily may have not been equipped beforehand of how to work through it.

Know I think that's the great thing is what you're doing is a lot greater than I think you maybe even recognize are some people recognize the power of you aligning with the church and aligning and bringing the groups there and making sure it's there and the church has big great system for loving them and helping them through that at the beginning of the pregnancy and way down the road.

And I think I'm so excited to know what the organization does is not just a story, it's everybody's had a really hard story at some point. And yet you are equipping them with your curriculum, which I think is beautiful of empowering the women to know who they are in Christ now because you, and you're saying salvation, how great. And now I know the hope of glory is now within them. And so they can rise up and they can have this child and, and create a new life.

I think it's just a beautiful way to see a testimony. And I just think the stories that we have, even we're in the midst of a chapter is God's gonna use us. And I can imagine, I'm sure there's stories of, you're seeing even your staff, they've been working through their storylines and probably most of them you said that work with you have stories.

And uh, she ended up staying up all night reading a bump in life and going through all the pieces. The handwritten note that was inside the next day when her sister came to pick her up at lunch to take her to the abortion appointment, she got in the car, shut the door and started bawling and said, I can't do this. And she said she stayed up all night reading and that, that, that she started seeing if God can do that for them then he can do it for me too. And so now you guys are too.

She has a two year old named Matteo that is just amazing. And she, she has such a powerful story and she's so willing to share it with and that we're like, you have to work for us. Like this is amazing. We have poster board of women that work for us and wanting to use that story to be able to share. Number one, if your poster board, if you can still lead and you have a story, you can be the change that you want to see in the world.

And then number two, some of the, um, the women that go through a break embrace Grace May have had a previous abortion as well. So it helps them with the healing process because now they're starting to feel the baby kick and move and things like that. It may stir up things. So it's awesome to see how we trained our leaders even to help with the healing process as they're pregnant. If there has been a past abortion. And so, I mean, between all of us, we've been there, done that.

That's what we tell all the girls in our class. We believe there's their, so we've done it all. You're not going to. There's another thing you could say that can shock us and God says he turns all things for good for those that love him and it's a promise and he does even a worse. I saw a quote the other day, but I'm Rick Warren and it said something about some your greatest pain that you've been through can turn into your greatest ministry and that is so true. We can take all of those hurts.

Like what is that thing that makes you pound your fist on the table and say someone has to do something about this? Most likely God put that passion inside of you because he wants you to do something about it. So take that and don't let it turn to anger or rage, but just take it and do something. Be The change you want to see in the world. You're not disqualified because of anything you've done in your past.

It, it makes you that you can even share, tell your story and help other people overcome as well and, and keeping it so that we stay at vulnerable and authentic and brave and sharing our story changes everyone around us. So your story, Nicole, you said you heard her story years ago, but she didn't go work with her?

And I just had a real heart for seeing people walk in their calling, you know, and just, and as soon as I learned something, I tell everybody, I mean, it could be the, the night before. Yeah. About freedom and I'm like, okay, gather around, we're all going to get free tonight. And so I, I, I love that about teaching, about, you know, equipping people that way and releasing them into their client, whether it's in an entertainment or whatever.

And so this summer I just realized that I want to do the best job that makes me the best mom, whatever that looks like. And so I surrender and I, you know, I was like, I'll have, you've got this, what do you, what does that look like? And embrace grace came up with, they were hiring and I just felt led to call Amy and say, aren't you this? She was so generous, called me and said, well, you know, we'd love to talk, like, let's talk about it.

And so, but I knew that I was going to have to lay down entertainment and two because once I'm in a wallet, so, um, I, so I struggled with that in my heart, but I just, what really pushed me was I just, I just feel like at this time, especially at this time right now, that there is just a grace to push the agenda of life and we just need to speak life all the time and embrace.

Chris is one of the most powerful ministry that I've seen where they just speak life not only about choosing life, but they speak life into these girls and they grow and they bloom. And I was, I was like, I want to be a part of that. I want to be called into, um, you know, this season of warfare really, you know, okay, we've got to stand up. We've, we are going to have to, this does make me want to pound my fist on.

I think a lot of people are feeling that and this climate right now, you know, what do we do? How do we get involved? And there's so many ways to get involved. People just don't, we've just kind of been turning a blind eye to this issue and now it's like, it's hitting really close to home and what are we going to do about it? And so I think at the end of the day I felt honored

But yeah, the way than what you had a message where people can really grab a hold of it too, just to make some good choices, not just for their own personal, but to help our community and our body of Christ. Can you guys both give even some, just like what are things that we could be talking and sharing? Like what ways

can you give? How, how can you help? What roles could other people that are listening, they've even, they could share this with their church, but what are the things that they can do right now to be able to embrace, uh, working along with your organization? Yeah, well I, I, our heart is that we want to be known more for what we're, for them, what we're against. Okay. So we love talking about pro love and life and really to show, look at how these amazing resources that are out there.

Like you don't have to choose abortion because there's so many great people that want to walk alongside you and all of that. So, but I really feel like with helping single and pregnant moms or single young moms, we all have a part. If you're a man and you're like, I don't really see a part that, I ha, are you great at resume writing?

Are you great at my, no. My husband has been helping a single mom would just her her budget, like she's, no one has ever taught her how to it and so she comes to her

W There's, there are, everyone has a part to play in this and there are so many practical ways that we can serve and love and use the gifts, strengths and talents that God put inside each one of us to give back and show how to a single mom, how much God loves them and we can show them through our love.

I love that Nicole would ever, things that you even think of that would be great creative outlets for people, whether they have a lot of time or they might be busy people, but where could they carve out and do something to make a difference?

They love these girls from beginning to end. I mean all the way through to the first year of parenting. I mean, they love him all the way through. And there are some creative ways that you can get involved in your small group can adopt a girl for a baby shower and then you get to go to the baby shower and it hold her baby while she's opening her gifts. That's one just one way you can sponsor, you know, a love boxes. You can, okay, I boxes and build them with your friends.

You can go all in, you can lead a group, you can volunteer. We have plenty of ways to volunteer either coming to the office or whatever. Um,

Do you get to speak life into the heart of someone that literally just found out that they're pregnant? And what would you say to her in that situation? And so that's a great way as well giving, we need, uh, help financially in order for us to reach more people. I mean, we all, we all, there are so many creative ways, um, whether you're old, young kids. Yeah, it does. So you show them how to connect with the church. Yeah. I mean you don't have to do embrace grace.

It's a great bridge, you know, especially with the baby shower and the tool and all of that. But like if it just inviting them to your churches, great. Say here's a box and you're welcome to sit with me on row. You know, so, so anyone can use it. I am an advocate for embrace grace. Obviously you can still do it. There's ways, I mean, we just want them to get plugged into a spiritual family and like she was saying for the pregnancy and the first year, but really the church is forever, right?

This isn't right. A family. So they can get plugged into a famous spiritual family for ever. And so that is ultimately our number one goal. Whether they use it for his grace to get there or not. We'll give them all the tools to do that. I think it's really great. All the different ideas and to link up and we definitely want to get everyone engaged in going to their website and brace grace.com and find a way.

I think every one of us can be actively consider and prayerfully, I think it was a great thing, Nicole, if we need to pray, pray how God wants to show you how to love them. All right. And so thank you Amy and Nicole for being a part and we'd love to have you come back and we want you also to realize that the power of loving people and praying for them is an incredible impact.