ABORTION RECOVERY ALABAMA

Our organization would like to see abortion recovery small groups available to everyone who has had an abortion and would like emotional and spiritual help. Small groups break isolation and reduce shame, provide encouragement from group members, promotes accountability, allows "tailgating" on others' stories to help recall long-buried details and memories, offers an understanding community for grieving, and enhances personal and spiritual growth. Some come into the class just weeks after an abortion and some come as long as 40 years after. Whatever the case maybe, they are not alone in their feelings. They may be forgiven by God, but they can't seem to forgive themselves. There is a difference between forgiveness and healing. We offer a program that will help them achieve the healing and peace they desire.

Abortion Recovery Alabama (ARA) offers seven Bible studies in central Alabama, trains facilitators, and seeks to plant new small groups in areas where there are no abortion recovery programs. ARA is a statewide organization. Along with using the materials written by Linda Cochran, the small group facilitators use the Facilitating Biblical Healing Manual from Abortion Recovery Assistance, a ministry of Piedmont Women's Center in Greenville, SC, written by Judy Cooter, Carolyn Rice, and Jeannie Stoner. The ARA program has expanded to include the Five Love Languages and other Biblical peer-counseling techniques and resources.

Abortion Recovery Alabama uses staff and volunteers to facilitate Forgiven and Set Free: A Post Abortion Bible Study for Women by Linda Cochran and Healing a Father's Heart: A Post Abortion Bible Study for Men by Linda Cochran and Kathy Jones in churches, pregnancy care centers, and other available locations. All facilitators have been through the program and have been certified to facilitate.

Since beginning this intense Bible study, we have increased the small group locations from one a year to seven offerings twice a year in central Alabama. We train new facilitators for our ministry and train volunteers at pregnancy care centers. We have opened an office and have gone from one volunteer staff person to an Executive Director and Assistant Director. We counsel by phone and email. Everyone who gives us permission to contact them receives phone calls, texts and emails for immediate help and to encourage them to go through the Bible study.

The classes are offered in the spring and fall of every year. ARA Bible studies incorporate the Five Love Languages including a small gift each week, Scripture Memory, a meal, and weekly personal encouragement scriptures to use after study (if there are recurring memories). Each individual is loved and pampered during the twelve-week study. With the inclusion of administration, it costs approximately $200 per participant. We offer seven classes with a maximum of four participants in each class giving us a need for $5,600 per semester or $11,200 per year.

We also would love to offer a training for Pregnancy Care Center's at a Birmingham location and/or go to Pregnancy Care Centers in counties without abortion recovery programs. Presently, we offer three-day facilitator trainings, going to the pregnancy center and providing all the materials they need both in hard copy form and electronically. Unfortunately, many PCC’s with limited budgets do not have the financial resources to bring us to their area. A three-day training for four facilitators in an additional location, including travel expenses, rental of training facility, all training manuals, books, etc. would cost the ministry approximately $3,500. After the training, we offer ongoing accountability and resources. We would also like to offer materials (gifts, decorations, etc.) as needed.

Our ministry is one of the best kept secrets! There are over 500,000 women in Alabama who have had an abortion and with every woman there is a man who may be experiencing the effects of abortion. Advertising is another big need and a professional film director has offered to write and produce a TV quality commercial for $5,000. After the commercial is completed, our next step would be to purchase air time on TV stations, another $5,000. Radio advertising has proven fruitful in the past and we would love to run radio spots on different stations. The cost would run approximately $5,000, depending on the radio station and the number of spots.

The annual Facilitator’s Retreat costs have increased because we lost a great place to rent for the weekend. The increase in price caused us to cancel this year’s retreat/training. The increase in price caused us to cancel this year’s retreat/training. With the increase the new cost would be $1,650.