EP 2 Embrace Grace's Love Movement

After a decade of gathering women together for prayer, we are inspired to bring our words of encouragement to you. This is iRefresh. Welcome to iRefresh. where we empower ordinary women to do extraordinary things through the power of prayer and encouragement. We have today with us Amy Ford and Nicole Jones of Embrace Grace, and we want to just say thank you so much for coming and being with us. Thank you so much for having us. Hey, I'm so excited. So Amy, this is your book, A Bump in Life, and I wanted you just to tell me, like how did you start and even think about writing a book? Well, so this book is full of testimonials of girls that had an unplanned pregnancy and chose life. And then the miracle that God did in their hearts through the process. And so I serve single and pregnant young women within churches. And I have seen, I've had front row seats to miracles. And so as I've been serving over the last eight years, I'm like, someone needs to write these. These are like, you can't even watch a movie. Like this is amazing. And so I just started writing them. And there's 20 stories of girls that chose life. So it's like preacher kids, date rape, girls that chose to place their baby for adoption. Every situation, one where a baby dad was shot and killed during the pregnancy. 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 we just give it out to everyone we can in order to hopefully inspire a life decision. Wow, that's incredible. So this is something you give out? How would someone be able to get their own copy, though? Yeah. Well, we do sell them on our website, embracegrace.com or on Amazon, but we also put them in love boxes that are given out and distributed to young women with unplanned pregnancies. And it is, again, to inspire a life decision, but it has a onesie that says best gift ever. It has a journal about being brave. Yes. And so it's like the most cutest gift you've ever seen. And so it goes inside of that. 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 them this love box for free and it's an invitation to a local church to get them plugged into, to be discipled, to 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, 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, but you can buy them on our website, embracegrace.com. So you can buy that. Now one of the things I, when I actually discovered your Embrace Grace is because Nicole, you were showing, it looked like there was a celebration. I saw women like were putting together these beautiful boxes. Now tell me what exactly was going on 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, you get to talk about life, you get to talk about these women that are celebrated and their choices. It's really a beautiful, we call it Give Grace gathering. And so it's like you could do it in a small group in your home, you can do it with high school students, one of the most powerful times that I've seen us build boxes is there is a I just recruited people I said we need 400 boxes 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 because in there we do a dear brave girl letter and it's personally it's hand written 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 I mean we walk with them side by side And so the letter does it. So I just, we needed a bunch of people to start writing letters. So even the boys are, you know, dear, brave girl. You're 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, 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 the desire that you have with Embrace Grace? Amy, why don't you share your part of, like, how did you get it started? Yeah, so, well, I had an unplanned pregnancy and I almost had an abortion. I grew up in church, but I just felt like I was so scared to tell my parents. And I ended up hyperventilating. 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, whether it's an unplanned pregnancy or just 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? You know, what is it? I'm always looking. First, you've got to make sure they're pregnant, because I have gotten in trouble with that one. Yeah. But, um, but I'm always looking and so, but it's, it's amazing to see when I invite them to a church, the first response is, Oh, you want me to go to a church in this 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 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-love 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 throw them a baby shower. They get a princess day about, 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 get them to come just one time, then they're hooked. But man, the, the stigma around this issue specifically, but I know many more is 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, um, you don't think the church, which, um, you don't think the church, which, um, you don't think the church, which, um, you don't think the church, which, you don't think the church, which, you don't think the church, which, you don't think the church, you don't think the church, you don't think the church, you don't We just really wanted to change that. We want the church to be a place for the broken. 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. Sounds like out of your own experience you saw the need to help the body of Christ to know how to help precious women that need to be loved and all accepted. Because sometimes I think when someone's coming into prayer ministry, they're like, if you knew my sin, you would never even let me enter into your home. I'm like, oh, honey, some are more apparent and obvious. But I said we all have come short of the glory of God. And so if it's just a message of helping the church realize we need to have a welcoming, loving, which I love how you talk about I love the love box and how you're allowing people to feel that love and acceptance so they can make good decisions hopefully to feel that comfort and support. One thing I love about our refresh is about praying and encouraging women and so often when they come in there's so much hurt and woundedness and you want to get to that place where you can just love them and realize the love and acceptance of Christ no matter like all facets we've seen before and how with power of prayer that God wants 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 shown you how to invite them and make them feel like... I think they would be okay that I could talk to them and they would accept me. Yeah. Well, I just realized that there's, there are a lot of church wounds out there. And sometimes that's the hesitance about getting plugged in either that, or maybe they feel like they're disqualified because of choices they may have made in their past that they don't want anyone to know about, which is, we know a lot. It's shame. Yeah. So, um, and you know, with my story, having an unplanned pregnancy, the, uh, I had, so I ended up marrying my baby dad, which now we've been married 20 years. And, but whenever we had decided to get married, I was only 16 weeks pregnant. I had just told my parents, they, we had been together for awhile, 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 not marry you. And it was just like a scarlet letter on your wedding day. Like, we can't 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 a hold of you. He said, I feel 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, he's the Ryan adored this guy. He was like, cause he discipled him all through high school. And so they got to be really close again. And we live in the Dallas Fort worth area, but this pastor 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 power house. 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, so he had said he had a religious spirit and a Pharisee 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 on stage. And again, he's 16. And he said, Amy, years ago, I asked your husband for forgiveness, but I've never really asked you for forgiveness. Will you forgive me for what I did years ago? And I was like, of course. Yes. Look at him. Brace 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, 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 wounds were being lifted in that room. And so we were flooded afterwards of like, oh, I've got a similar story. And no, I've never told anyone. You know, shame prevents us. from stepping out into the calling that God wants us to have. And so, and there's so many stories like that. And even people that literally work for us. And Nicole has a story, we have several on staff. You should share yours. Yeah, Nicole. I had a similar story. I found out I was pregnant and I had grown up in the church. And it was a huge shock to everyone at church that I was in this situation and I went to my mentor at the time and he said I couldn't be more disappointed if you were my own daughter. And so I just was like, okay, well, you know, and I was very, you just got to make it look good and okay, well we're going to get married, well I can't marry you and we're not going to come and that kind of thing. 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 I didn't realize until I heard Amy's 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... You know, honestly, all of a sudden I felt like I could 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 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 sinned, 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, and you see these girls just, flourish we call them blooms once you just see them blossom and grow and their kids are you know they are i mean our the percentage is 46 of salvations out of our girls i mean that is high you know it's and they're raising powerful kids now it's like you can't deny it and 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 testimonies like that you know so many times i've been in the past we are disillusioned by sometimes people's reactions to the sin in our life. You know, throughout, I think everyone, there's so many of us that can have a story. Whatever our story is, we don't realize. A lot of times I think we call it the church, it's other friends, even outside of us, that they just don't know how to work through. They haven't had a personal experience with what we may have gone through. But yet I think... Embrace Grace is a great way to help to transfuse, just maybe give hope of, hey, this is the way you do it. It's real simple. We don't have to make it complex. There's no one, two, three. It's just love. I mean, I think that's when you see the scripture, it says God is love. And that's all you have to do is we have to love each other. You know, scripture says there's only one lawgiver and judge, and it's not me. So I don't... 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. I think that's the great thing is what you're doing is a lot greater than I think you maybe even recognize or some people recognize the power of you aligning with the church and aligning and bringing the groups there and making sure it's there in the church. It's a great system for loving them and helping them through faith. at the beginning of the pregnancy and way down the road. I think I'm so excited to know what the organization does. It's 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 when you're saying salvation, how great that now they know the hope of glory is now within them. And so they can rise up and they can have this child and create a new life. I think it's just a beautiful way to see a testimony. I just think the stories we have, even we're in the midst of a chapter, is God's going to use us. And I can imagine, I'm sure, if there's stories, if you're saying, even your staff, they've been working through their storylines. And probably most of them you said that work with you have stories? Yeah, well we have one on staff that had an abortion schedule for the next day and got a love box. And it was actually her sister had knew about Embrace Grace, so she called us saying, What do I do? I think my sister has an abortion schedule. She wants me to pick her up from work and take her to the doctor, and she's not able to drive afterwards. And there's a lot of secrecy around it. Come to find out that it was an abortion scheduled. I'm like, take this box, go meet with her. And 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 she started seeing if God can do that for them, then he can do it for me too. And so now she has a two year old named Mateo that is just amazing. And she, she has such a powerful story and she's so willing to share it with everyone and that we're like, you have to work for us. Like, this is amazing. We have post abortive women that work for us and wanting to use that story to be able to share number one, if you're post abortive, 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 women that go through 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 their baby kick and move and things like that. And it may stir up things. So it's awesome to see how we've 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 drugs. We've done it all. You're not going to, there's nothing you can say that could 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 by 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 makes you that you can even tell your story and help other people overcome as well. And keeping it so that we stay vulnerable and authentic and brave in sharing our story. It changes everyone around us. So your story, Nicole, you said you heard her story years ago, but you didn't go work with her. No. Until recently. So what brought the connection again then? Because you'd heard it a while back. Uh-huh. I'd heard it a while back. And I was definitely moved by it. But I was in entertainment. So I didn't. I mean, I came up to her and I said, I would love to help. I'm in entertainment. What does that look like? Does that spark something in you? I don't know. And so we went back and forth, back and forth. And I was teaching. I started this school at the time, as you were talking about. And I just had a real heart for seeing people walk in their calling, you know, and just, and as soon as I learn something, I tell everybody. I mean, it could be the night before about freedom and then like, gather around, we're all going to get free tonight. And so I, I love that about teaching, about, you know, equipping people that way and releasing them into their calling, whether it's in 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, you know, I was like, God, you've got this. What do you, what does that look like? And Embrace Grace came up that they were hiring. And I just felt led to call Amy and say, are you, you know, what does this look like? And 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. Because one time I'm in the wall. So I struggled with that in my heart. But what really pushed me was I just feel like at this time, especially this time right now, that there is just a grace to push the agenda of life. We just need to speak life all the time. And Embrace Grace is one of the most powerful ministries 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 like, I want to be a part of that. I want to be called into... you know, this season of warfare, really. You know, okay, we gotta stand up. We are gonna have to, this does make me wanna pound my fist. I think a lot of people are feeling that in 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 gonna do about it? And so I think at the end of the day, I felt honored to just say, okay, this is, this is where I need to be right now, whatever that looks like. So you made a decision to give up the entertainment world for now to go all in. And you said that there's a lot of ways in which, like, there's so much heated discussions. And I love, though, how you have the essence of it's all about love. It overrides... any other message. And there's ways in which the people are like, I don't wanna do that. But yet the way in which you have a message where people can really grab a hold of it, 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 you could be talking and sharing? Like, what ways can you give? How can you help? What roles could other people that are listening, that even they could share this with their church, but what are things that they can do right now to be able to embrace working along with your organization? Yeah, well, our heart is that we want to be known more for what we're for than what we're against. So we love talking about pro-love and life and really to show, look at all 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. 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 have. Are you great at resume writing? Are you great at, I know my husband has been helping a single mom with just her birth. her budget, like she's, no one has ever taught her how to do it. And so she comes to her house and lays everything out and he's showing her, okay, you can cut some here or cut some, you know, just, we all have a, have a part in whether it's leading an embrace grace group and going all in, or if it's taking care of a kid so a single mom can, have a night to herself for just a minute. You know, they hardly, if they're in survival mode, they hardly get a moment. Or so she can go to church if they don't have childcare. There are, everyone has a part to play in this. And there's 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 to a single mom how much God loves them. And we can show them through our love. I love that. Nicole, what are 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? The very first thing that pops to mind is pray. Pray and ask God, how am I supposed to be a part of speaking life? Because it is a controversial... You know, so many people are afraid. I don't want to say this. I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings, and I don't want to do this. So it's like, just pray. Where are you in your heart about loving people? And just ask God, how can I love people right now? Embrace Grace is powerful. They love these girls so... from beginning to, I mean, all the way through to the first year of parenting. I mean, they love them all the way through. And there are some creative ways that you can get involved. Your small group can adopt a girl for a baby shower. And then you get to go to the baby shower and hold her baby while she's opening her gifts. That's just one way. You can sponsor. you know, love boxes. You can buy 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, also the, we have brave girl letters that go inside each box and we have a download link on our website. So if you go to embrace grace.com, click love box, there's a download link for those dear brave girl letters. If you have a small group, you can download, print those things off, get your small group, get your school, however many people, your, your office, your staff and write letters. 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 help financially in order for us to reach more people. I mean, we all, we all, there are so many creative ways. Whether you're old, young kids. Yeah. 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. Mm-hmm. Especially with the baby shower and the tool and all of that. But just inviting them to your church is great. Say, here's a box and you're welcome to sit with me on fifth row. So anyone can use it. I am an advocate for Embrace Grace, obviously. But you can still do it. 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 is a work. family so they can get plugged into a spiritual family forever and so that is ultimately our number one goal whether they use embrace 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 embrace grace calm and 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. Bye.