“Where there’s HOPE, there’s LIFE. It fills us with FRESH COURAGE and makes us STRONG” – Anne Frank
Anne Frank was only 15 years only when she died of Typhus in a Nazi concentration camp on March 12th, 1945. Yet, despite her age, her wisdom went far beyond her years.
You may not be in a concentration camp, but I can almost guarantee, at one time or another, you’ve felt trapped, stuck, or confused. Inevitably, that led you to feeling hopeless. Hope is something we all need to rediscover from time to time.
Imagine you’re in a war. Imagine there are shots being fired, artillery dropping to your left and right. Your commanding officer just told you a minute ago to charge and suddenly you’re trapped in the midst of crossfire with nothing clear in sight—not even your officer. Can’t life feel like that? Someone made a decision. Maybe it was you, and within minutes, hours, a week or two it seems like your life has become utter chaos. There seems to be no end in sight and your life direction appears completely uncertain.
I’d like to share Abby’s story with you:
I was full of fear when I first found out I was pregnant. I was afraid my boyfriend would leave me. I was afraid that some medications I had been taking may have harmful effects on a developing baby. I was afraid to have a baby and I was afraid to have an abortion. I needed for someone to give me a little hope that everything was going to be okay. I felt pressured by all the fears that I couldn’t get out of my mind. I didn’t want to lose my boyfriend. I didn’t want anything to be wrong with my baby. I didn’t know if I could emotionally handle the aftermath of the abortion. I knew I needed some help in dealing with all my feelings, and that’s when I found Hope Women’s Centers. I spent time talking with a counselor by myself, and then my boyfriend joined us. We got lots of good information about our options and we watched a DVD that showed how abortions were done. It was awful, and I couldn’t watch the whole thing. I knew after seeing that DVD that there was no way I could handle having an abortion. I told my counselor that very first day, right in front of my boyfriend, that I was going to carry my baby to term. A couple of weeks later, we went in and had an ultrasound done. That was awesome. That was the day that it really sunk in that we were going to be parents…that we had created a family. It helped raise my relationship with my boyfriend to a whole new level and we started acting like grown-ups and making plans for the future so that our baby would grow up in a stable home, with two parents who were committed to each other. The main thing that I got from Hope was hope… Hope that I could go through with the pregnancy, hope that I could be a good mother, and the hope that my boyfriend would stand by me as he had promised. I am learning to stop being afraid of everything, thanks to the love and support of the staff at Hope.
Hope is a powerful tool. It’s often what the enemy tries to steal from us. If he can distract us, and discourage us, we find ourselves wanting to quit. But, have you ever experienced, like Abby did, a fresh breath of hope? Hebrews 6:19-20 says this:
This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. It leads us through the curtain into God’s inner sanctuary. Jesus has already gone in there for us.
In a world of uncertainty, we want to help lead women and men who come through our centers to the anchor of souls. It is our desire to be a tangible representation of hope for these girls and young men. We may not be able to help each patient every step of the way, but we certainly know One who can.
Where there is breath, there is hope. Never, ever, ever, ever give up HOPE. “Man can live about forty days without food, about three days without water, about eight minutes without air…but only for one second without hope.” ― Hal Lindsey