Hey readers, today I want to introduce you to someone in the Annapolis Valley that desires to show Christlike love and support to women facing unplanned pregnancies.
There are many people in the Valley that know who you are, but some may not. So let me begin with a few get-to-know-you questions. Who are you, where are you from, and what are your passions in life? I’m Bill Davenport, born in Arizona, raised in Nova Scotia, gave my life to Jesus at the age of six, graduate of the Baptist Leadership Training School, the University of Saskatchewan & Acadia University, and an ordained Baptist minister. I’m the father of two grown daughters and married 36 years to my lovely wife, Joanne. Through my father, God gave me a strong work ethic and the fear of God. Through my mother, God blessed me with a deep faith and strong dependence upon Scripture and prayer; a yearning to be found in Christ, knowing God and making Him known. The combination of the simplicity of the servant heart of Christ (Philippians 2) and fulfilling God’s own definition of what it is to know Him as pleading and winning the cause of the afflicted and needy (Jeremiah 22.16) is what consumes my life as I struggle daily in my walk with Him. I got to know you a little while my wife was volunteering at the Valley Care Pregnancy Center. How long have you been involved there? What made you decide to serve God in this way? My family was involved with the Centre the year it opened in 1994. Joanne and I had just adopted our newborn daughter and the Centre asked us to speak at a local church about our experience with adoption (since my wife was also adopted). As a pastor at the time, our small congregation didn’t have extra funds, so I created an annual fundraiser, “Bowling for Babies” with logo, sponsor sheets and promotional material for the Centre to raise funds, which they used until the bowling alley in New Minas closed. In 1999 I was invited to be on the Centre’s board of directors and was active there for five years until I found myself between jobs in 2004. At that time, God gave me a vision for advancing the Centre’s mission and I asked if I could step off the board and create a new position of “Director of Development” where I would promote the Centre in the community, raising funds and awareness. After doing that for only a few months, the Executive Director at the time, Dana Webster, had to step down due to a serious illness and the board asked me to fill her position. I felt very unqualified and out of place, but with the heart God had given me for the afflicted and needy, I saw it as His leading and have been serving in that position since that time. Could you share from your experience how an unplanned pregnancy affects a person emotionally? Every woman is different and their response to an unplanned pregnancy will also be different. But for many, the best illustration I have heard of is if you were to think of the most embarrassing, shameful thing you have ever done in your life and were to write that on a piece of paper in bold writing and had to stick that paper on your forehead for nine months – that comes close to what I understand a woman feels when she faces an unplanned pregnancy. For many women, they feel that their life is being threatened – like their life is over if they have a baby. They feel that they must end the life of their little one to save their own life. They feel alone as they consider adding a baby to their world with a lack of loving, tangible, personal support. It seems an impossible, unsurmountable task that must be avoided at all costs. What type of support is needed during this sensitive time and how does the care center seek to offer this support? We asked this question to hundreds of Acadia students who had known a student facing an unplanned pregnancy. We asked what she needed most. We asked if they thought she needed access to abortion or good information about her options or loving support or help in relating to family and friends. The overwhelming response was that what she needed most was loving support above all things. The Valley Care Pregnancy Centre was founded by those who had received loving support in Jesus Christ – His sacrificial death for our sins, His burial and His bodily resurrection from the dead – and were motivated to offer His loving support to those facing an unplanned pregnancy here in the Valley. The Centre offers a safe place to consider their options and find loving, personal, practical, long-term support for them, their partner and their little one. The Centre has free pregnancy tests, option information, new and used baby clothes, diapers, formula and a great educational video library on pregnancy, birth, parenting and personal development which can be sent directly to their devices and viewed at home with supervision from the team at the Centre. Many times, these new moms just want to have a safe place to come and talk where they won’t feel judged or pressured. The center not only provides care for those considering an abortion but also for those who have had one. Can you share from your experience the mental and emotional impact having an abortion has on a woman? How does the center seek to support the woman during this sensitive time in her life? Yes, we offer prevention work in schools and youth groups in hopes to help young people to avoid needing our services; intervention work with those who find themselves pregnant and restoration work for those who experience deep, ongoing grief, guilt and relational struggles arising from memories of their abortion experience. As a matter of fact, all the women we have spoken with have said that they regret making the choice of abortion. A leading abortion provider in the Valley told us that there aren’t any women he knew about who were glad they had an abortion – he said that they are all crying before they even wake up from their anesthesia. Women who have had an abortion may experience sadness, guilt or shame, emotional numbing, depression, nightmares or flashbacks of the abortion, alcohol and drug abuse, thoughts of self-harm and difficulty with bonding in relationships. On top of emotional pain, as evidenced by women who have come into the Centre, they can also experience serious long term medical complications, repeated hospitalization and extra surgeries that last for years. The deep, long-term emotional struggles after abortion can affect both men and women. Trained team members facilitate biblically based studies that have brought much-needed healing and restoration to both women and men. I have been recently looking at the abortion rates in Canada, and they are quite alarming. How should Christians get involved in this moral issue in Canada? Yes, Canada as a nation cannot help but be under the judgment of God for electing governments who empower over 100,000 abortions annually and being the only democratic nation in the world with absolutely no legal protection for the innocent unborn human life from conception to the point of birth since 1988. Research indicates that “Many women with unplanned pregnancies go silently from the church pew to the abortion clinic, convinced the church would gossip rather than help. More than four in 10 women who have had an abortion were churchgoers when they ended a pregnancy and only 7 percent of women discussed their abortion decision with anyone at church.” The answer is for Christians and Christian congregations to become known as wells of compassionate support – starting with their own. Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another (meaning Christians loving other Christians as a priority).” The church is often thought of as a group of “good people.” So people struggling with guilt and shame and sin do not think that church people would understand their situation. Christian congregations need to be known as a group of broken sinners who gather for support, help, encouragement and grace. Church gatherings should often have times of public confession where people share their struggles and how they are finding support from others within the congregation. It should be a place where the greatest sins are known to be gossip or selfishness or pride. This would foster an environment of humility, hope and redemption where the broken find healing and grow to be helpers of others. Christians need to follow Jesus’ commands learn to love as He has loved us by laying down their lives, surrendering their possessions, and practicing hospitality - inviting the needy into their homes. Lives are saved by the love of Christ. During your time at the Valley Care Pregnancy Center, how have you seen God change the lives of the mothers who have come into the center? Every year at our annual banquet we celebrate how God has worked through the team of this little home mission to bring hope and help and healing to women, men and little ones in our community. I remember one call I received on our 24-hour help line. A woman called to say, “Thank You.” She said that she had been driving from Nova Scotia on her way to Quebec to get a late-term abortion when she saw the Valley Care Pregnancy Centre. She stopped in to talk that day and was calling now to say thanks for the little baby boy she had. Another young lady called and said that she wanted an abortion, so we invited her to come in and talk about it. She was excited about having a baby at first, but her friends became upset because they had planned to travel that summer. So even though her boyfriend didn’t want her to, she decided she’d have an abortion. When she arrived at the Centre, she was surprised to find that it was a Christian ministry, but at the same time, she said she was so thankful that it was. She said that in just a few minutes she recalled her strong faith background and how supportive her boyfriend was, and she chose to continue her pregnancy. Now she is happily married with a large family. Both men and women who have come in to work through their struggle with a past abortion have shared how deeply helpful and restorative their experience has been. Thank you for taking the time to respond to these questions. Is there anything that you would like to add as we end the interview? We are always looking for faithful, available and teachable individuals who sense God may be leading them to join the team at the Centre or be part of our prayer support team. Interested people can find our application at the bottom of the home page of our website, www.asafeplaceforme.com.
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