SaveOne

How did SaveOne get started?
SaveOne was started when I saw such a need for men and women to tell their stories and how abortion affected their lives. Since we are not currently hearing the truth, the people who know the truth, the ones who have chosen abortion, are the ones who should be telling it. So God showed me these men and women need a platform to tell their stories of what He did in their lives after they made this dreadful choice.

Give a brief history of SaveOne.
I had an abortion on March 29, 1985. For seven years after that day, my life was on a roller coaster that only went in one direction…down. After a failed suicide attempt and many years of drug and alcohol abuse, I finally found a group of women at a local pregnancy center who helped me. They offered a class that was just for women who had chosen abortion and were having problems getting their lives back. I knew that was ME! I knew the drugs and alcohol were just my way of numbing my conscience so I didn’t have to think about the choice I made on March 29.

I took the class they offered and found my way back to Jesus Christ. He healed this gaping wound in my life. I turned around and immediately started teaching this same class for others. I heard in every class I taught, “If I could just save one unborn baby, I would be willing to tell my story.” Knowing what a colossal risk telling your story would be, I paid attention to that statement. After hearing that same phrase for years, God showed me the need for these stories to be heard in our communities, workplaces, and families. I believe this is how abortion will end in our country and around the world—people no longer willing to be silent about the tremendous heartache abortion brings, and all the terribly scarred people it leaves in its wake.

What is unique about SaveOne?
There isn’t another ministry like us. One of our unique features is the men’s curriculum—more about that in another response. We offer training to teach SaveOne either in person or on DVD, and we don’t leave you alone after that. We have coordinators that cover every state and continent where SaveOne classes are taught. These coordinators stay in touch with each facilitator offering encouragement, prayer support, and tools to help promote the class, a free web page on the SaveOne site, and much more. We are a HUGE network of people, all on the same team, working toward the same goal. We’re truly family.

How do we address the abortion issue without causing unintended shame and guilt for women who have experienced an abortion?
The men and women who have experienced abortion are usually doing a good job of heaping shame and guilt on themselves. So just talking about this subject will bring all of those emotions and pain to the surface; there’s no way around that. But the way to break in to those emotions is by offering a way out. By offering SaveOne, you’re saying there’s hope. You’re helping them believe, sometimes for the first time, that God can forgive even this sin.

Another thing to keep in mind is to be soft with your words. We all know what abortion is, we don’t have to use words such as murder or kill. That is absolutely the reality of this choice, but by being harsh you will turn people away. Instead draw them to you through the love of Christ and you will see tremendous results.

Why should a church consider starting a Save One Chapter?
When you look at the statistics of abortion in the United States, the numbers are state that on average one of every four women and one of every four men have lost a child to abortion. When we realize that many people need this ministry, it becomes an outreach for your church. In recent decades the church has been stereotyped as people who will judge and condemn if a person has sinned. We have to shake that image and deal with the relevant problems people are facing today. This is one way to change the churches image and be known as a place of great restoration and healing. Your church will tend to rise above the crowd when men and women know they can find love and a safe place to deal with this horrifying problem.

What’s involved in starting a chapter?
We have made this process so easy. We want to make reaching those who are hurting after abortion a tremendous experience for a church. So a chapter is simply a ministry or church that is teaching the SaveOne curriculum.

What are the obligations to SaveOne?
There aren’t any contracts to sign or fees to pay. The only obligation to SaveOne is that the facilitators are accountable to a pastor or ministry director. We offer our success principles, while the facilitators have everything approved by their leaders.

The only cost is the price of the books and the training. However, most churches charge each participant the cost of the book and it becomes virtually cost-free for your church.

What resources are available through Save One?
We come to your church and train all who are interested in being a part of this ministry, usually a full day of training. The only cost for the training is travel expenses of the presenter. Another option is to purchase our DVD set that has a facilitator’s manual as well as a DVD of training tips, plus five personal testimonies of people who have gone through SaveOne.

Then we offer SaveOne-A Guide to Emotional Healing after Abortion and SaveOne-The Men’s Study as curriculum for women’s and men’s groups. These mirror each other so it’s very easy for men and women to be in the same group, or a couple to go through the study together. We also have a pregnancy journal written with the single, pregnant woman in mind entitled May I Have This Dance? and my abortion story “Survivor”.

We have speakers who can come to your church and help kickoff this ministry or speak at your men’s or women’s functions. Plus, once you’re a chapter you will have access to our “chapter tools” section of our website where we have free downloadable tools such as bulletin inserts, flyers, information on videos used in the class, and more.

Tell us about the men’s aspect of Save One.
One of the things the pro-abortion side did was close the men’s mouths. They made this issue all about women, and ingeniously it worked. Men have been parked on the sidelines of this choice for three decades, but that is all changing. By offering post-abortion help to men we are saying, “We don’t believe the stereotype that has been hung around your neck all these years. We realize you may be grieving your lost fatherhood and children as well.” What we have to realize is that child was just as much his as it was hers. He should have the right to decide that child’s fate, and if not, then at least recognize his grief. We have men who have come through SaveOne who forced their wives or girlfriend to have the abortion; those who have begged her not to; and those who didn’t know they had a child until it was too late. Their pain is all the same. Sure, there are different issues associated with each situation, but they’re grieving a great loss and need a place to relieve this overwhelming stress.

What parting comments would you like to make?
Doing abortion recovery work is a blessing that some never experience. I tell new facilitators they are literally on the front row of God’s miracles. To see people come in the first week and they are broken beyond belief, and then the third week they begin to smile. By the seventh week, they’re making people laugh, and the last week they are singing God’s praises. They feel like they’ve been let out of a prison! It is just nothing short of fantastic for the facilitators.

Don’t miss this opportunity to make a difference in a realm Satan has had in his grip for more than thirty years. Help people break free today and watch the babies be saved, lives turned around, marriages be restored, and people live again.