{"id":278592,"date":"2022-10-28T12:46:49","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T17:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=278592"},"modified":"2022-10-26T17:27:56","modified_gmt":"2022-10-26T22:27:56","slug":"abortion-devastation-pastor-protection-preborn-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-devastation-pastor-protection-preborn-worldwide\/","title":{"rendered":"After realizing abortion’s devastation, pastor fights for protection of the preborn worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Reverend John Ensor could not have known that in one night, the trajectory of his life would change, eventually taking him to the far corners of the world to share the pro-life message to people hungry for the Gospel.<\/span><\/p>\n

It was during an informal church service that women and men came forward to tell of how their lives had been horribly impacted by abortion. A Baptist minister at a church in inner-city Boston in the late 1980s, Ensor was unaware of the pervasiveness of abortion in his community and was \u201cthunderstruck\u201d to learn that nearly 30% of his congregants had abortions.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensor told Live Action News, \u201cI recall a lady who began crying and lamenting for forgiveness for her abortion revealing that she had carried this terrible burden for so many years. Her testimony opened the floodgates, and one by one, others sorrowfully shared their tragic stories. I cried tears of regret at so much suffering. Marriages, relationships had been devastated under my watch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He was particularly troubled when a woman disclosed that she had three abortions to pursue her career aspirations. She told of how she had been deceived into believing she could not excel if burdened with a child. Ensor was shattered to discover the wife of a well-loved and well-respected elder in his church had aborted their child prior to their walk with Christ, but he was also grateful for their courage to speak of their experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe all have things in our past we\u2019re ashamed of and are hiding,\u201d Ensor said. \u201cBut as a pastor, my job is to help my people to know the will of God. Abortion was never part of my personal life; it was more of an academic subject. My eyes were blinded until the reality of that night, and I realized I had let my congregants down. It was the \u2018Day God Lanced a Boil,\u2019 and I vowed to do better.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Opening pregnancy resource centers to meet a growing crisis<\/b><\/p>\n

Amid this growing crisis, which Ensor believed resulted from the sexual revolution in the 1980s, he helped to open the first pregnancy resource center in Boston in 1992. Ensor and his church members began serving as sidewalk counselors in front of Planned Parenthood and attended \u201csit-ins,\u201d all organized at the time by Operation Rescue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensor said, \u201cWe were a force of about 300-400 in front of Planned Parenthood. Some of us spent a few days in jail for our activism, but we had a mission: to reach women in crisis at the beginning, that was key.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Partnering with other Boston area church leaders, Ensor helped to open six more ultrasound facilities while six abortion facilities were shuttered.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

URGENT:\u00a0<\/b>For every dollar given, 34 more people can be reached with the truth about abortion. Will you join us in this life-saving work as a monthly donor today?<\/i><\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

His newfound purpose in the pro-life movement steered him to write \u201cAnswering the Call: Saving Innocent Lives One Woman at a Time\u201d for Focus on the Family to support those who counseled couples facing unplanned pregnancies. He later authored \u201cStand for Life\u201d with Scott Klusendorf and \u201cPregnancy Crisis Intervention.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my goal to help other pastors lead on the subject of abortion,\u201d Ensor said. \u201cI started encountering other pro-life leaders across the country and soon realized our movement was primarily white and suburban women. It was imperative that we reach minority communities where abortions were occurring at an alarming rate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Serving on the board of directors for Heartbeat International<\/a> in 2006, Ensor sought to launch an urban initiative by partnering with African American and Hispanic leaders to open pregnancy support facilities in minority communities for pregnancy crisis intervention. By determining where abortion facilities were concentrated, Miami was identified as having the most urgent need.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensor said, \u201cSince these centers were opened 15 years ago, we\u2019ve rescued 55,000 babies from abortions. From the first day, we\u2019d have six to nine appointments daily. These numbers were larger than in Boston.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

An international pro-life movement is born<\/b><\/p>\n

Yet Ensor was just getting started. Four years later, his initiative became global when he traveled to visit his daughter in China who was part of a Beijing-based prayer team that had been crying out for God to break the grip of abortion there. He ended up training pastors and assisting them with developing their own culturally based model to rescue babies. Just two years later, Ensor founded PassionLife Ministries<\/a> <\/span>to support international efforts at eradicating abortion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe mapped out which countries were performing the most abortions and concentrated our efforts there,\u201d Ensor said. \u201cWe started in China and are now a worldwide movement training pastors in 27 countries and in 18 languages in Biblical pro-life ethics and providing the tools so their churches can create pro-life models based on their country’s cultural norms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, in Cuba, door-to-door house calls are common. There, doctors use hand-held technology to perform ultrasounds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensor likens his global pro-life ministry to an \u201cunderground railroad of our time.\u201d He is especially focused on Latin American countries where pro-life laws are under attack. In Colombia this past spring, the Supreme Court eliminated abortion regulations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensor said, \u201cLatin American countries have been pressured to change pro-life laws. We are training a staggering number of people in Columbia this year to plant pregnancy support centers as a result.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The four tenets of Ensor\u2019s pro-life outreach include: treasuring human life, rejecting abortion, experiencing God\u2019s forgiveness, and committing to rescuing the innocent by helping mothers in crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what it looks like to be a pastor,\u201d Ensor said. \u201cChurches overseas are more willing to suffer in the name of Christ and to uphold life than in the United States. When you consider that 97% of abortions are performed worldwide, there\u2019s still a lot of work to be done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cutter silence\u201d of the clergy in the United States is concerning to Ensor. By sharing his story, he hoped to prompt other spiritual leaders to \u201clook under the hood\u201d and examine their own hearts. Ensor noted that since Roe<\/em> has been overturned, more pastors seem reluctant to speak out against abortion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ensor said, \u201cIf you look away from what\u2019s happening, you are guilty of shedding innocent blood, because you\u2019re not speaking Biblical truths. I\u2019m inspired every time I travel overseas and see the willingness of people in China and other countries to suffer for righteousness. We need to be fearless in fighting evil with God\u2019s Truth. That\u2019s the only way we\u2019ll make lasting changes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reverend John Ensor could not have known that in one night, the trajectory of his life would change, eventually taking him to the far corners of the world to share the pro-life message to people hungry for the Gospel. It was during an informal church service that women and men came forward to tell of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":798,"featured_media":278610,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2793],"tags":[19,5589,3166,6263,2235],"yoast_head":"\nAfter realizing abortion's devastation, pastor fights for protection of the preborn worldwide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After learning how many people were devastated by abortion, John Ensor has dedicated his life to fighting abortion and helping mothers in need worldwide.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/abortion-devastation-pastor-protection-preborn-worldwide\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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