Ministry Highlight: SaveOne
HELPING MEN, WOMEN, and FAMILIES RECOVER AFTER ABORTION
CONTENT WARNING:
Due to the mature themes that can be connected with abortion, please be aware that this article (pages 11-16) contains mention of sexual activity, sexual assualt, abortion, and miscarriage.
SaveOne is an international recovery program that guides men, women, and families to emotional healing after abortion and offers hope and healing to those who are struggling with the effects of a past abortion. This biblically-based class is held in a small group setting where participants will learn how to overcome depression, anger, shame, guilt, and unforgiveness toward themselves and others. These are safe and non-judgmental groups of men and women who have personally experienced abortion or have been deeply affected by this choice.
For 25 years, SaveOne have been providing resources that enable a compassionate and loving response to the abortion issue, offering help to those who suffer in a confidential, safe setting. The local church and pregnancy resource centers are offering the absolute truth when it comes to abortion; yes, it is a sin, and yes, there is grace.
Men, women, and families are being healed and then turning around and allowing God to use their stories for others’ good and His glory. Our passion is to help restore peace of mind and self worth as you experience how far God’s grace truly extends.
We believe by biblically engaging with the topic of abortion and creating space for God to speak through our stories we can help save one from having an abortion or from living an oppressed life of guilt and shame.
Sheila Harper, SaveOne Founder and President
Terri’s Story
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
Romans 8:1
At age 24 I met my husband, Rocky. We were very happily married, had a beautiful home and everything we needed for a comfortable and happy life. Yet, on several occasions, I thought, "Is this it? Is this all there is to life? I've got to be missing something." I felt such a hole in my heart, an ache in my soul, because we didn't have children.
I have two wonderful stepchildren whom I love deeply, however, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of loss for the children that might have been and I continued to grieve for something that was never mine. I couldn't watch a television commercial with a baby in it without crying. When I was around family or friends with babies, I'd fight to keep my emotions under control. I'd be in deep depression for weeks after attending my friends’ baby showers. I never allowed myself to hold a baby and actually distanced myself because of so much pain and longing. I believed the losses I had experienced years before—when my fiancé was killed in a car accident one week before our wedding, and my not being blessed with children by birth—were punishment from God for past sins. And I believed I deserved every bit of it.
You see, in 1972, when I was in the tenth grade, I got pregnant as the result of rape. After I had broken up with my boyfriend, he snuck into the house through an unlocked door when he knew I was alone, and forced himself on me. I didn’t tell my parents that the pregnancy was the result of rape. I didn’t think they would believe me because he had been my boyfriend, and I felt that somehow I was to blame.
At the time it seemed to my parents that abortion was the only way out of an unexpected and embarrassing situation. For decades since that horrendous day of the abortion, I spent what seemed like a lifetime hiding my secret and burying the pain, guilt, and shame.
The memories and loss were a daily struggle. The abortion ended the pregnancy that I and my parents thought would ruin my life; but the suffering it brought was far greater than if I had chosen life. Decades of despair and daily reminders tormented me. I had sickness of soul. I suffered from extreme guilt and shame and I never told anyone what I had done, except my husband.
I was the poster child for abortion-related trauma: social anxiety, reoccurring nightmares, irrational outbursts of anger without knowing where it came from or why, pushing friends away, isolating myself, long-term and ongoing depression, and a huge inability to forgive myself.
But the worst consequence of all (that I struggle with to this day) was the knowledge that I, in effect, had cut off my branch of the family tree. I aborted my only child. The weight of what I had done was more than I could bear.
Then in March 1998, a tragic event took place that would change my life forever. My husband's friend lost his life in a terrible accident. Little did I know how God would work through this tragedy. At the memorial service, every song that was sung, every word that was spoken, penetrated my heart. I heard of God's love and forgiveness that day. The words that were spoken were directly from God, and anyone who had the window of their heart cracked open just a little bit could claim that message of salvation as their own. I did! In Matthew 11:28-30 Jesus says, “Come to Me all you who are weary and carry heavy burdens and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon yourself and learn from Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." Jesus offered me THE GREAT EXCHANGE and I wholeheartedly received it!
As we drove out of the parking lot of Morning Star Community Church that day, I said to Rocky, "That's it. I'm coming back here on Sunday," and he said, "So am I."
At 41 years of age, 26 years after my abortion, I learned about God's love and forgiveness for the first time. "I, even I, am the One who wipes out your transgression for My own sake and I will not remember your sins" God assured me in Isaiah 43:25. I turned from agnosticism at that memorial service and soon jumped into Bible study, sometimes two at a time. I started to learn what life under the grace umbrella of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ means.
All the Bible verses were new to me. “God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, for those who are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). What I had done all those years before can be turned to good? Really? He is the “God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (1 Corinthians 1:3-4). God can use my suffering to help others through theirs? Really? I also learned in Luke 12:48 that “from everyone who has been given much, much will be required.” Well, I had received much forgiveness and I was starting to understand that much would be required of me. And I would gladly give it.
I was amazed at how drastically my life changed that first year. God peeled back the top layers of hurt and healed me in many ways. In doing that, He also exposed the deep root of pain caused by my abortion decades before, and it needed to be dealt with if He was going to use me in service the way He intended.
He began showing me‒through His Word‒His love, forgiveness, amazing grace and mercy; transforming me.
Showing me who I am in Christ; my identity is no longer the abortion and shame, my identity is now in Christ! I was experiencing VICTORY over my past!
Over the next four years, the Lord walked me down an incredible path of restoration and healing from a lifetime of pain, shame, and guilt brought on by my abortion and from the grief I was harboring over many losses in my life. I knew that God was going to use me in some way to help other women who were suffering the way I had been. Our amazing, gracious, merciful God was preparing me for something and trusted me to follow because I told Him I would. And I trusted Him to equip me because He told me He would.
I began searching online for something—anything—on healing from abortion, and in December 2005 I purchased a book called SaveOne. It followed the exact path of healing and restoration that the Lord Jesus Himself had led me on over the previous years! I knew the time had come and I knew, without a shadow of doubt, that SaveOne was the vehicle He wanted to use.
I started the SaveOne ministry at Morning Star in September 2006. I had been praying for several months for someone to come alongside me to assist in leading the class, and God is faithful! He, being the greatest of all networkers, brought me an assistant leader the day before I started my first class. Patti Williamson and I have been partners ever since, offering three classes per year, not only to the Morning Star congregation but also to the larger Salem community. We have seen many women and a few men healed and set free from the bondage of suffering in silence. We have seen them grow profoundly in their spiritual walk with Jesus. We have also had other family members take the class who were suffering from the loss of a grandchild. Many who have completed our class are now empowered and equipped to tell their own stories to help save one from having an abortion or from living an oppressed life of guilt and shame.
If you are reading this right now and are sensing God speak to you, prompting and prodding you to allow Him to bring healing to your shattered soul, please don’t shrink back. It’s time to deal with those heavy chains once and for all.
The next 11-week SaveOne class will start September 23, 2025, however we have resources available all year.
Please reach out to me at the information below, confidentiality is assured.
Terri Nordone, SaveOne Chapter Coordinator
(503) 999-6333
