Benjamin Watson interviews Amy Ford of Embrace Grace

Benjamin Watson: Alright. Sitting here with Amy Ford. She’s a co-founder and president of Embrace Grace, a nonprofit that inspires and equips the Church to serve single and pregnant women and their families. Amy, thanks for joining us. 

Amy Ford: Hey, thanks for having me. 

Benjamin Watson: Let’s start here. June 2022 was huge. Lots of celebration and rightly just in general, can you just, what were your thoughts when Roe was overturned and how do you feel about this post-Roe era, we’re in right now? 

Amy Ford: When, that day that it happened, I know our whole, it was very early in the morning in our whole office. We just circled up into the middle of the office and we just got really quiet, just thinking about so many prayers that have been prayed, and it’s here. 

But I know it’s not a quick fix or anything. It is saving tons of lives, but we can’t just say at this point, “Good luck, girls. Hope it works out for you.” We’ve got to walk alongside of her, which is what Embrace Grace, the ministry I started, what we’ve been preparing all this time, even before Roe was overturned. 

We want to make abortion unthinkable more than illegal. Illegal is important too, but we want to make it unthinkable. So, what are, what can we do as the church to help walk alongside her? Because the Church has all the resources.  

And I don’t mean the outreach budget in a church, which that’s great, too. But I’m talking about the people because the church is a building or isn’t a building. The church is the people. We are the Church. So, we have all of the resources within us, the gifts and the talents and the strengths that God put inside each of us to do the good works that He’s called us to do. And that can be helping make abortion unthinkable. 

Using those things that God put inside of us, and we’ve seen it happen organically. Just so, so amazing how the Church steps up and says, “I’m in this with you. You don’t have to walk alone.”  

And people saying, ” I can help with this. I can help with childcare. I can help with your resume, helping you find a job. I’ve got outfits you can borrow or have to do your job interview. Let me teach you interview skills.”  

There’s just, everybody has all of these cool strengths that can help empower her and help her be brave in her life decision. And so, that is what we are focused on as an organization, more than the political side. 

We are focused on making abortion unthinkable and that’s through love and through helping her.  

Benjamin Watson: So, practically speaking, I’m at a church and I want to get involved. I want to do something. I want to serve pregnant women. How does Embrace Grace help with support groups, curriculum? What does that look like practically speaking?  

Amy Ford: We have over 950 support groups in churches all over the nation, in all 50 states for women with unexpected pregnancies. And we have, it’s a 12-week program and it’s digital curriculum. So, you just plus press play.  

A lot of the pregnancy centers refer the girls to the church so they’re able to meet other girls going through the similar situations that they are. They don’t feel alone.  

And then just the, of course, there’s the discipleship, there’s healing that happens in their hearts, but organically, there’s practical needs that are met that just happen with needs that they may have as you’re developing a relationship with them and you’re, as you’re walking alongside them, you find out, oh, this girl is in a really hard situation. What can we do to help her? And it just happens.  

And what I’ve been so amazed by, and it’s such a faith booster, is there’s so many people that wanna help, right? They just don’t know how. And so, just putting it out there, even if it’s social media. The other day, there was a girl who, it was actually an alumni from years before, and she reached out to me and said, “I got in a really hard spot. I was so excited. I bought a car, but now it’s made me two months late on my rent. And I just got evicted.”  

And I had, she just hasn’t figured out how to do the budgeting thing, which we started helping her with, but she said, “I don’t have a place to stay.” And so, a few people put together at least to get her in a hotel for then, it was right before Christmas, like during Christmas week. 

So, we got her in a hotel, but then I posted on Facebook. I was like, “Hey, this girl, she’s struggling. And we need, we’re trying to figure out, we need to get her into a place. Does anyone want to help?”  

This guy called me and he’s like, “I own apartment complexes, and I was raised by a single mom. And this story touched my heart. I will, I just had an apartment unit become available. I’ll give her an apartment for free for a year and pay for electricity. And me and my wife would like to mentor her about her finances and help her know how to budget and all of that.”  

And it was just by a post on Facebook. There are so many people that want to meet needs. They just don’t know how. And so, sometimes it’s even just being a voice for them, putting it out there so that people can step forward and meet that need using the strengths. 

Maybe it’s serving, maybe it’s time, but we all have something to give.  

Benjamin Watson: We all have something to give. And you’re right. So many people want to help. They just don’t how. You wrote a book, Help Her Be Brave. Tell me about that book and you have practical steps for people that want to be involved. 

Amy Ford: When I started Embrace Grace, I didn’t think, “I’m starting a pro-life organization” because I didn’t have context as to what that is. 

What if I, if someone would have said, I’m pro, I have a pro-life organization, I would have assumed that meant the picketers with repent signs outside because that’s the only thing the media shows. I had no, no one ever told me that this existed, that there is a movement of people. And so I’m like, I’ve gone to church my whole life. And if I feel this way, maybe there are a lot more people out in the church that don’t know it either.  

So, I started doing tons of research of what are the ways the average Christian can get involved in the movement. So, Help Her Be Brave has over 300 practical ideas of how, the person—man, woman, young, old—how they can get involved in the movement. 

And even just an awareness of I didn’t even know what a pregnancy center was. I went to church my entire life. No one ever told me what a pregnancy center was. So, how can I just bring that awareness to other people? It’s got great stories, and I’m hoping that as people read it, there’s a section or a part or an idea that’s like, “Oh, I can do that because I’m already really passionate about that, or that’s what I do for my job anyways. I can help in that way.” 

There’s something that’ll resonate that they’ll want to jump in and be obedient to the Holy Spirit’s leading.  

Benjamin Watson: I love the tagline, “Discover Your Place in the Pro-Life Movement.” I think that’s what we all want to do.  

Lastly, Embrace Grace obviously equips churches. So much of the time in the pro-life movement, we think about this as strictly Congress, legislation, state legislatures. We think about it from the legal standpoint, but in the beginning of this interview, you talked about the power of the Church. Why is it so important for churches to be involved? Local churches as well as a Church body, globally, in this important issue?  

Amy Ford: There’s over 300, 000 churches in America, and if we all were doing something, we really can make abortion unthinkable.  

One time a girl came up to me and she’s a pro-life atheist. And she asked me to speak at Berkeley College. She was gonna have pro-life speakers all day, and I was like, “I’ll speak, but I talk about God and the Church. Is that going to be an issue?” Because she’s very outspoken about being an atheist. 

And she’s like, “No, that’s not a problem.” She said, “I don’t believe in your God, but I believe in the power of your people, and if you could get your people to actually do something, this issue wouldn’t be an issue anymore.” 

Benjamin Watson: Shots fired.  

Amy Ford: I was like, “Oh, that. She’s got a point.” If we all, we have the manpower on our side, so if we all were activated, which I know that’s what Stand For Life stands for, like how are we gonna stand for life, not just a vote? 

How are we gonna stand for life? How are we gonna be activated and motivated in the movement? That is where the real change happens because it’s God’s kindness that leads us to repentance. It’s His goodness that draws us to His side. So, the love is what changes people. And so, what does that love look like in action? 

Benjamin Watson: Preach. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate everything you do with Embrace Grace. 

Amy Ford: Thanks for having me.