Thank you to everyone who joined us at the 2016 CareNet Pregnancy Centers & Mentoring Programs Fundraising Banquet!  It was such a wonderful night of celebrating what the Lord has done and is continuing to do!

If you were unable to attend the banquet this year, I would like to share with you a few portions of the speech God laid on my heart. I have also included our first video at the bottom.  The best way for you to hear what God is doing at CareNet is to hear from our clients.  Don’t miss the video below!

My love,

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“Thanks to all of you for joining us tonight!  I look forward to these 2 hours every year because of you!  CareNet is a team effort … the Lord has seen fit to cover us with His Favor and Blessing for the last 28 years and I fully believe it is because of the unity in faith that CareNet represents.  It takes all of us–from the Board of Directors, to our Advisory Board, the staff, the volunteers, our prayer partners, to the more than 50 local churches of all denominations that we partner with and our donors–it takes all of us to accomplish the work He has called us to.  We are a team, a family.

I have been so excited to share with you the great exploits the Lord has done on our behalf and those we are privileged to serve.

Psalm 5:12 says “Surely LORD you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favor as with a shield.”

And, oh my goodness, this year He has surrounded us with His favor like a shield!!!

Every year the board and I spend time praying about our banquet and what the program will look like.  This year as we sought His direction, we decided that once again, we would have a meeting with our CareNet family, with you.  Now I want to apologize that that means we didn’t bring in a big time speaker, you are stuck with me for the evening, but we simply had to give adequate time as an offering of rejoicing over what the Lord is doing!

Isaiah 49: 13 “Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice you earth; burst into song, you mountains!  For the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.”

I want to give you fair warning tonight–we intend to do some joy shouting!  Our God comforts His people, he protects us with His favor like a shield and He has compassion on his afflicted ones!

We intend for this evening to be a joyful celebration, with some shouting included–because we do have a good, good Father!

I want you to know from the deepest place in my heart and that of our team, we cannot thank you enough for your prayers and support.  But, my hope is that you would get a real sense of the role you play, the place you fill in this CareNet family.  You are not just a number or one of the faces in the crowd.  I have read over every name of every guest here tonight.  I have thanked the Lord for you and have asked Him to richly bless you for standing with us.  I know you are here.

I want you to enjoy your dessert just as if you were on the couch in my living room as we reflect on the victories of 2015.  I want you to lean in and connect with the calling the Lord has for us in 2016–so that when we leave tonight, we are all in.  We are united as a family and committed to stand together again for the year ahead of us.

Our theme this year is HOPE RESTORED. 

“This is what the Lord says:  In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captives, come out and to those in darkness, be free.” Isaiah 49:8-9

Hope restored.  How many of us would agree that we live in a culture that in many ways seems to have lost hope?

• Terrorism,
• Mass shooting,
• Politics,
• The economy,
• A 16 year old girl who decides to have sex with the 3rd young man, only to find the outcome was the same–loneliness;
• A teenage boy who is called to ministry, who 9 times out of 10, stays strong and makes the right decision, but that one time, temptation won and he feels lost in regret and shame;
• A young mom who works 40 hours a week but still can’t seem to make ends meet for her two children and then the baby got sick and she had to miss work. How will she ever catch up on all the bills?

All of these examples share a common thread–they appear hopeless.

CareNet is a candle of hope.  Our staff and volunteers meet people in the darkness of their hopelessness and we ask them to be courageous enough to CHOOSE HOPE. We don’t have all the answers and sometimes we don’t have the ability to fully light the room for our clients, but we carry a small spark that speaks hope.

Over the past 28 years, CareNet has touched over 127,000 clients.  Last year alone we served 16,054 clients…that is clients coming in our doors! 

Our ministry is three-fold, we serve men, women, teens, and families before they find themselves in an unplanned pregnancy, we minister to people in the midst of their crisis, and then we continue to journey with them into the redemption of that situation. All of our services are free of charge and confidential. We don’t receive any state or federal funding–all of our support comes from churches, private grants, and from individuals like you.

This decision to not take federal funding was made years ago and we have never wavered because we are committed to offer Christ to every person who walks through our doors. We can offer people classes, and resources, but if we do not offer them Christ then we have failed.  Last year, 85 people made Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of their lives through the ministry.

CareNet is a pro-life ministry and we are called and committed to be a partner with the Lord as He restores hope to scared and hurting women and families faced with a pregnancy that has literally stolen their hope.

Hope is a powerful thing.  Hope to believe things could change. Hope to believe that someone cares.  Hope that there is a God who sees us.  Hope that He really is as strong and good as He claims to be.  As crazy as it seems, when you sit with a young woman literally making a life or death decision for her sweet baby…a little hope goes a long way.

In 2015, 406 pregnant women came through our doors seeking an abortion, and of those 390 chose life!  96% had a change of heart!

Speaking of hopelessness…can you image how difficult it is to raise a teenager in a hopeless culture…much less to be a teenager without hope?

About 15 years ago, we began to see a change in dynamic.  Up until that time, teen pregnancy or pregnancy outside of marriage really was a crisis…it was humiliating and considered to be immoral.  Also, we as the body of Christ or the church, liked to believe that sex outside of marriage and abortion were things that those other people did….but about 15 to 16 years ago, we began to see that change.

We began to see an increase in families from what we would call “intact, healthy homes” coming into our centers.

It seemed like last night when they put their teen to bed all was right with the world, but in an instance everything changed.  It seemed to happen in a moment; however, that isn’t the way it happens.

There are warning signs…

We are living in a culture where we are so busy living life.  I think parents feel like we are so busy that we are trying to get our kids on all the right teams, to all the right lessons with all the right teachers and coaches, all the while we are making a living and keeping up with our own interests, so we look to the right and left to see how people are parenting and we just do that.

If we continue to do what everyone else is doing we will get the same results that everyone else is getting.

When they hit 13, we hold our breath and pray we make it to 18 alive.

Indecency and perversion are everywhere.  Our kids see it on SnapChat, Vine, Periscope, and Instagram.  They hear it sitting in the lunch room, in the latest songs released, and on award shows that now have jumped head-long into the abyss (forget putting a toe over a line).  We are inundated with sexual images, crude language, and a multitude of hostile attacks on our faith.  AND our children, most days, watch us walk silently passed images in the mall or the grocery store line that if we happened across those same imagines in the history on our teen boy’s iPad, we would exhibit a full-on freak out complete with our heads spinning and they would be grounded for life!

On average teens spend over 7 hours each day participating in social media and the internet. 

We allow our 2nd graders to have cell phones. Cell phones that contain pornography far worse than the magazines of 20 years ago…in the hands of 8-year-olds.  We used to think that we should talk to boys about pornography around the age of 13…well I can tell you that I have personally talked to multiple 8 to 10-year-old girls who were exposed to porn by accident and now say they have some level of addiction to it.

Our 5th and 6th graders are allowed to date–91% of the time they will have sex before they graduate from high school.

We feel as though, if we make it until high school graduation and no one is pregnant or addicted to drugs we have succeeded.

When did we lower the bar?  When did we decide that it was just too hard…so we may as well punt?

When did we choose to stop believing what the Word says about them?

The Word tells us…

Above all else guard your heart.

Our children were born for such a time as this

He goes before and behind them

He covers them with His wing and He is their shield and defender.

They are more than conquerors.

I love teenagers and I want them to believe that they are equipped for the battles they face and they can advance the Kingdom and take ground for our King with every step they take.  They can be a part of the Lord’s plan to restore land the enemy has stolen because they can take ground everywhere they go!

In 2000, we began offering mentoring programs because we believe in the next generation and we are willing to fight for them…these programs have grown from our first program, Pearls to a total of 7 programs: Chosen, Squires, Bravehearts, True U AND Lead Council, #reach4greatness are character development programs offered free of charge to public schools.  These programs have literally exploded over the last 2 years!

In 2014 we offered Lead Council on 5 campuses, in 2015 that number rose to 9 public school campuses.  In 2014, CareNet presented #R4G 438 times…in 2015,  837 presentations by a speaking team of approximately 30 speakers!   Okay now listen in…in 2014 CareNet had 26,891 interactions with parents and teens through mentoring programs…in one year that number grew to 43,906!

We believe that strength of character can be taught and practiced, just like an athletic or musical gifting is.  Strong character doesn’t happen by accident but you better believe it can happen if we purpose it!

We can raise a generation of overcomers and influencers.  They can love the Lord with all of their heart, soul and strength…they can hear His voice.  They can be submitted to parents and authorities.  They can have courageous hearts in search of His plans and purposes.  They can literally change our community and their world.

We are counting on His power in them to do just that–change our world.

There are so many wonderful services offered through the ministry that I simply don’t have the time to share all of them.  I would love for you to hear from some of the people we have had the privilege to serve this past year…

https://vimeo.com/158128675

Video by Matthew Levi Rowley

I will continue sharing portions of my speech in the coming days!