June | July | August 2015 Cover Story6

A Moment of Hope: One Conversation at a Time

7June | July | August 2015Cover Story

M arch 13,

2015 was a typical Friday in Columbia. It began with crisp, cool temperatures, an overcast sky, and 17 abortions scheduled at Planned Parenthood of South Carolina in Middle-burg Plaza. Every Tuesday morning and alternating Fridays and Saturdays, “procedures,” as the staff calls them, are performed while hundreds drive by on Forest Drive. Most are unaware of what is going on inside.

Mark Baumgartner is trying to change that. “Please pray that there would be a growing awareness and unease in our community about what goes on here,” the married father of six types to his ministry’s Facebook page from the right-of-way outside Planned Parenthood. He hopes to engage abortion seekers in conversation, convince them to reconsider, and allow their babies to live.

Baumgartner, a corporate pilot self- employed as an aircraft loan broker, was hit hard by the economic collapse of 2008. “By 2009, I was twiddling my thumbs, not knowing what to do,” he says, “so we moved to Columbia to be near my wife’s parents while I looked for work.”

As months turned to years, Baumgartner, a member of First Presbyterian Church, attended a Desiring God conference hosted by John Piper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He stayed with Jerry Chase, an old friend and retired missionary with Pro Life Action Ministries. Baumgartner had met Chase years before while living in Florida and

attending a church that was four doors down from an abortion clinic.

“Several pastors, church members, and I began going down there to reach out to the women there. We didn’t know what we were doing back then, “ says Baumgartner, “but Jerry showed up one day and began to share the philosophy and gentle strategy of Pro Life Action Ministries, which had been doing this type thing for 30 years.”

Over breakfast the last morning of the con-ference, Chase and Baumgartner discussed Mark’s future. Chase asked, “Have you thought about going out to the abortion clinic like we did in Orlando?”

Baumgartner had not. The question stayed with him, along with the reason why he hadn’t considered the option. “It takes courage to be out there; people misunder-stand what you are doing,” Baumgartner explains. “They think you’re out there to yell at them, to judge them, to tell them they are going to hell.”

Piper’s message that day contained Hebrews 11:26 about Moses regarding dis-grace for the sake of Christ as more valu-able than the treasures of Egypt. Baumgart-ner went home with another lingering

By Dawn Gonzalez

Dawn Gonzalez is a writer, Bible teacher, speaker, and pastor’s wife. She co-founded Columbia World Outreach Church in Columbia with her husband Mike. She contributes to various magazines and websites with features online at TheHigh-Calling.org, incourage.me and LacedWithGrace.com. Dawn blogs at DawnGonzalez.com.

June | July | August 2015 Cover Story8

question: Am I willing to suffer the reproach of Christ by being misunderstood and mischaracter-ized?

At home one morning two weeks later, Baumgartner searched online to see if Columbia even had an abortion clinic He found the listing for the Planned Parent-hood location on Forest Drive. “I immediately drove there, not knowing what I’d see or do,” Baumgartner recounts. A woman, “Holly,” drove up and went inside. While he waited for her to come out, Baumgartner pulled out his aviation business card and wrote on the back, “You can still change your mind. There are caring people who want to help. (803)348-1984.”

Holly accepted the card as she drove away from the clinic where she had just scheduled an abortion for the following Tuesday. Then Holly circled back, rolled down

her window, and asked, “Can you really help me?”

Baumgartner searched online for contact information for Daybreak Crisis Pregnancy Center from his phone and gave it to Holly. She left the encounter undecided. On Thursday, he received a text mes-sage saying, “Mark, I want you to know I changed my mind. I’m not going to have an abortion. Thank you for giving me a moment of hope.”

The ministry Baumgartner had not yet decided to start was born that day. The non-profit’s inde-cisive start is not unlike that of the babies it would save. Both survived indecision amid fragile and desperate circumstances. Baumgartner still gives out his personal cell phone number to any woman visiting Planned Par-enthood who will accept it.

Holly, the mother of the first baby saved from abortion through Baumgartner’s ministry, unknow-ingly gave the ministry its name in her text message, A Moment of Hope. The following April Holly sent Baumgartner another text,

waking him in the middle of the night. It was a picture of Holly’s newborn with the words, “Thank you so much for being there at the end of that driveway.” On February 26, 2015, Baumgartner held Holly’s baby at A Moment of Hope’s first fundraising banquet at Embassy Suites in Columbia.

Now two years old and over-seen by a nine-member board of directors, A Moment of Hope is funded solely by donations and operates out of Baumgartner’s walk-in closet He still pilots cor-porate flights part-time to make ends meet. “You don’t make a lot of money standing in front of an abortion clinic,” Baumgartner says with a smile.

According to Planned Parent-hood, their no-show rate increas-es 75 percent when people are outside praying, so “you can make a huge difference just by being there,” Baumgartner says. “Our goal is to have at least one person outside the clinic whenever they are open.”

Baumgartner recruits volunteers with an informational breakfast meeting and short, on-site prayer time while the clinic is closed.

photo by Tim Huebel

photo by Gillian Brickey

9June | July | August 2015Cover Story

Contact Usmark@amoh.org

amoh.org

803.348.19854

http://www.facebook.

com/amomentof

hopesc?fref=ts

A one-day training workshop prepares volunteers for ministry. Volunteers are encouraged to be a presence outside Planned Parent-hood for one hour, either once a week or once a month. They are taught to be approachable, win-some, peaceful, prayerful, caring, compassionate, and law abiding.

Baumgartner maintains that the non-abortion days are just as important as the two abortion days per week. Women and girls go there for counseling, preg-nancy testing, and scheduling. “I’ve informed girls planning to pay Planned Parenthood $22 for a pregnancy test that Daybreak will administer one for free. I’ll offer to let them follow me over there,” Baumgartner says. “I even help them fill out Daybreak’s intake forms.”

A Moment of Hope also forges a friendly rapport with abortion workers in hopes of eventually

encouraging and supporting their decision to leave the abortion industry. Baumgartner often en-gages boyfriends waiting outside who have brought their pregnant girlfriends. One boyfriend took the information he gave and went inside to stop his girlfriend.

Girls leaving Planned Parent-hood with a white bag are car-rying the second pill of two that will cause an abortion. It’s called the Abortion Pill, with one pill taken in clinic and one the next day. The effects of this pill can be reversed if proper medical atten-tion is received soon enough after swallowing the first pill. “It takes being there at the right moment, which could be at any point in the process,” Baumgartner says, “so we need to be there anytime they are open.”

South Carolina Department of Health reports that Columbia’s Planned Parenthood performed

1,805 abortions in 2013. Planned Parenthood of South Carolina, one of three abortion clinics in the state, terminates pregnancies through the 14th week of gesta-tion.

Many Columbians are surprised to learn that abortions are per-formed right here in Forest Acres. A Moment of Hope is bringing awareness, education, and alter-natives to people with a crisis pregnancy, abortion workers, and the Columbia community.

Saving unborn babies happens one conversation at a time. Re-gardless of how these conversa-tions end, Baumgartner feels each woman deserves a moment of hope. ROC

photo by Tim Huebel