This post is written by the President and Founder of Deeper Still, Karen Ellison. Karen has a book that just came out called Healing the Hurt that Won’t Heal, Freedom for the Abortion-Wounded and Help for the Church They Fear.
The United States accounts for fewer than 2% of the world’s annual abortions. Internationally, statistics reveal anywhere from 42 to 56 million abortions occur every year. As mind-numbing as those numbers are, we can’t just ignore them as if that reality is someone else’s problem.
If what I’ve described in this book and the testimonies I’ve shared are a microcosm of what’s going on in the hearts, minds, and lives of billions of people around the world every day of every year, then we have a huge global crisis. The truth is we live in an abortion-wounded world. It’s a deadly blight on the peoples and the nations of the earth, but this affliction is a hidden one.
Whether someone chose an abortion or an abortion was forced upon them, no one wants to go public with their inner torment. This affliction is not recognized as a crisis in our world like starvation, disease, or even sex trafficking, but it is every bit as deadly to the soul and the spirit of the nations. Deeper Still has had opportunities to minister in some international settings, and our materials have been used in many others. We have had participants from Africa, South America, Eastern Europe, and Asia. We have a lot to learn from each other, but we observed early on that we all shed the same tears over our sorrows. We all need the same Savior.
LIFE International is a wonderful ministry that has directly taken the message and theology of the sanctity of human life into 64 nations and has influence and materials in close to 90 nations, www.LIFEInternational.com. Praise God for this pioneering movement to reach the other 98% of the abortion-vulnerable world. In recent years, LIFE International has used a version of our Deeper Still materials as part of their abortion healing training in 29 countries. They, too, have witnessed firsthand that although people come from different cultures, traditions, and worldviews, certain things are universal and cripple people the world over. These are things like guilt, shame, grief, regret, fear, anger, and hopelessness.
The abortion-wounded heart is found in every tongue and tribe, and many of those people have no knowledge of a God who would have great compassion on them if they would just call upon His name. He wants to heal them and free them from the shackles that have them bound. But He also wants to renew their minds with the truth that their offspring are heaven sent and should be considered their most treasured resource and inheritance.
A worldview devoid of the fundamental truth of the value of life will treat its people differently. Instead of being valued intrinsically, the question is are you an asset or a liability to our society?
The testimony of so many abortion-wounded people is this: “it affected every area of my life.” If you think about all the women and men in the world who have participated in abortion, and if they, too, are living with these consequences in every area of their lives, then addressing their abortion-wounded heart could revolutionize their lives, not to mention their nation.
What if it was part of the strategic ministry plan for every missionary organization and every church planter to not only plant churches for the sake of getting the gospel into foreign lands and for getting people saved, but, in addition, as part of their core discipleship strategy, they would teach people the theology of the sanctity of human life? When people have knowledge of biblical truths, then the Holy Spirit can begin to work. When the Holy Spirit is given access to people’s hearts and begins to renew their minds, then they begin to get convicted about the spiritual strongholds and idols that have held them captive.
– Karen A. Ellison,
Healing the Hurt that Won’t Heal, Freedom for the Abortion-Wounded and Help for the Church they Fear
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Father, we live in an abortion-wounded world. We know you see every heart and every heartache. Father, we ask for your providential strategy and provision to reach across the globe to minister to those suffering from the pain of abortion. Heal their hearts. Heal the nations. In Jesus’ Mighty Name, Amen.