Associations give sacrificially to pro-life projects

Seventy percent of those expectant mothers who see their unborn child on a sonogram refuse to abort it.”
   
Pastor Garry Ragsdale stopped reading abruptly to take in that statistic. It leapt out of the Project Psalm 139 report he was reading and spoke to him as he prepared his sermon for Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in January.
   
Naturally he included it in his notes. Then something big happened, said Ragsdale, pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, Alexandria, in Calhoun Baptist Association. “As I was preaching my message that Sunday morning, the thought came to me that we could provide a sonogram machine for our local Sav-A-Life clinic,” he said.
   
His vision for his church grew to involve several other pastors and then the entire association. 
   
In a little more than two months, the churches donated $34,590.69 — more than enough to purchase the equipment.
   
“Life is precious for the folks in our association. They have truly put their money where their mouth is,” said Sid Nichols, director of missions for Calhoun Association. “The churches did it; we (the associational office) were just a clearinghouse. It was a magnanimous thing they did.”
   
Pat Gatlin, director of Sav-A-Life in Anniston, said the sonogram machine has already been ordered and volunteers are being trained to use it. 
   
“I’m amazed at the help the churches gave — I get chill bumps every time I think about it,” she said. “When people obey God, there’s no telling what can happen. We are looking forward to putting it (the sonogram machine) to use and having babies born as a direct result.”
   
According to the Sav-A-Life Outreach Centers Web site, Sav-A-Life is a “life-affirming ministry offering positive alternatives to young women facing unplanned pregnancies.” After a quarter century of gaining momentum, more than 65 Sav-A-Life centers across the Southeast currently minister to more than 42,000 young women annually. About a third of the centers are in Alabama.
   
Nichols said the clinic sent the association a letter of appreciation for the ministry it had made possible and the lives that would be saved as a result. “It said one day, I might meet a child whose life was spared because of this,” Nichols said. “It’s a wonderful thing to be a little part of.”
   
Other associations such as Madison Baptist Association also have made a habit of showing through their stewardship that they feel Sav-A-Life is a vital ministry. 
   
At least eight Madison Association churches give monthly to fund the work there, and still others have pitched in over and beyond the monthly giving to see the program move from a rented facility into its own space.
   
“We have been renting for 25 years, and we felt the Lord wanted us to have our own home,” said Jane Baker, test center director for Choose Life/Sav-A-Life of North Alabama in Huntsville. “We recently put a down payment down on a facility three or four times as big as the one we are in now. 
   
“The churches have been a big help with this. They, along with other Christians, are the only way we are funded.”