Episode 2: Gospel Focused Pregnancy Centers with Melissa Heiland of Beautiful Feet International

And I love that you’re reaching the women who are really the center of the family. They have the ability to convert their entire family to Christianity. As their lives go, so can their family, their children, their husband.

– Brian Mumbert

Melissa Heiland: Yeah, that’s a great question. One of the places where we are that is very hostile is Nigeria. And that is actually the newest country that we’ve added at Beautiful Feet International. And so I think part of the beauty of the ministry is that we are training nationals. So we are equipping them through the Word of God and through these materials that we have developed over the years. And so they are the ones that are best equipped, really, to work in their culture, to speak to the hearts of women and men, right?

Orlando Aska: So you’re not just going, doing a bunch of work and then leaving, but you’re equipping the people who are there to do it long-term.

Melissa Heiland: Right, and who can speak the language well, who understand the mindset and the challenges of women. Because unplanned pregnancy, and I use that word lightly because no pregnancy is unplanned by God, but unplanned pregnancy is a human problem. And it’s funny because people will ask me very frequently, and they’ll say, “In, fill in the blank country, is abortion a problem?” Yes, it is a human problem. It is not an American problem or an African problem, or… It is a problem everywhere. It is an issue that we as believers need to be on our knees and maybe more. Fighting.

Brian Mumbert: And so Melissa, I know here in the United States we have the privilege of scripture in our own language. We are culturally a Christian country. At some levels here, there’s inherent right and wrong and things like that. But overseas, especially in places like Africa, I know that culture can be wildly different than here. Is that something that plays a role in just why abortion is happening so frequently over there? Is there lack of knowledge of this or just a cultural difference from the United States?

Melissa Heiland: Absolutely. That’s a great question. I’ll give you a story to illustrate that. I was teaching one time in Tanzania, I had been asked to come in and teach about this work that we do in Tanzania. And so I had a training and it was in a hut, dirt floor, all kinds of pastors in suits. And I was talking to them about what I’d been asked to come and speak about. And they were standing up one by one with Bibles in their hands and saying, “Well, that won’t work in Africa.” Because in Africa, typically what they do is when a girl in their church becomes pregnant, an unmarried girl, they throw her out on the street, which means she’s going to die. I mean, it’s like Hagar in the desert. I mean, you’re out there, you’re a girl, pregnant in the street without anybody to protect you. You’re going to die.

Which means that they are actually in effect promoting abortion, because if this girl knows she’s going to die if she gets found out. And so it was difficult for me, me and I said, “Well, I’m not a pastor. I’m not a pastor, but respectfully, I’ve been asked to come here and teach you what I do know. And so I want to teach you from the Word of God what God says about the sanctity of human life and what that means for us, which is how do we treat these pregnant women?” Because somehow there seems to be a disconnect between protecting the baby and protecting the mom.

So it’s a beautiful story, but in the end, those same pastors that were saying to me, “We can’t do it. You don’t know. That doesn’t work in Africa,” they were telling me. And at the end of the training, the 16 hour training, they were saying, “I’m going to go back to my village and I’m going to find those girls that I threw out in the street. I’m going to bring them back into the church and I’m going to protect them and love them.”

Brian Mumbert: And I know here in the United States, the family, the nuclear family, as we’ve known, feels like it’s, under attack is a hard word-

Orlando Aska: But I would agree. Under attack, absolutely.

Brian Mumbert: But here it feels like we’re under attack in some ways. So we have this forces coming against the family in the United States, and then you have family over in different countries that it’s a completely different dynamic, is it not?

Melissa Heiland: But you know what, it is Satan, right? Satan is attacking and he’s attacking all over the world. And of course he’s going to attack life, because Jesus is life and Satan is darkness. And so what is more dark than a mother taking the life of her child in her womb and she’s being fed lies. She doesn’t want that. That woman who’s making that decision is not evil. She’s not evil. She’s terrified and she’s trapped.

Orlando Aska: Right. And I think that’s a great point. And as Americans and here, we see so much with women’s marches and women’s empowerment, and I think we have to make sure that we understand in other countries, it’s not like that. It may not necessarily be like that everywhere you go. There may just be a lack of understanding or education on exactly what or how to go about this pregnancy or what to do. And some of the women, I’m sure, probably don’t even know what to do and feel like this is their only choice. They may not necessarily be shouting their abortions. And so in regards to a lot of the women that you come in contact with, what are some of the more common situations that may come about that these women are dealing with to where they feel they don’t have any choice in what to do? Is it culturally? Is it just a religious thing that they do? How does that work?

Melissa Heiland: There are a lot of factors. One of the big factors is clearly poverty. “What am I going to do? I can’t take care of this child.” Another factor that is very large, that really is huge, what I see outside of the United States that I don’t see in the United States anymore, is shame. When I first started in pregnancy ministry in the United States, I think that was still a thing. The shame. Now I don’t see that. There’s no shame in being pregnant outside of marriage. However, in other nations, there is tremendous shame. And I learn as I go. As I go and I teach, that’s how I start my teaching is by asking them, “Do people get abortions here? If they do, why? How is a girl in an unplanned pregnancy treated in the street? In the church?” And they all will say, I mean it’s horrific, that burden of shame that they can’t face it. And so they cannot face the shame.

And I think again, we need to be as the church, that’s who we’re teaching, the church. I don’t care what country you’re in saying, “Honey, okay, that’s all right.” Again, most of the time these are girls, it wasn’t even really their choice, but whether it was or it wasn’t, that is okay. God still loves you. God has a plan for you. He has a plan for this child. So let me take your hand and love you through this.

Brian Mumbert: So there are not a whole lot of ministries that I’m aware that have the focus that you have internationally, especially for pregnancy centers and for women. What have you encountered when going over there? Who is over there trying to quote, unquote, “help” these women right now?

Melissa Heiland: Well, from my experience, what I know is that pastors just will hear about what we’re doing somehow through God. And they’ll say, “Oh, I’ve seen what you’re doing and we want to do that too.” So again, what we do is we go and we train the church. So the pastors might say, “Hey, we want to do this.” But it’s like I said in that conference in Tanzania, they’re saying, “We want to do this.” But then they’re kind of fighting me on it a little bit in the beginning and saying like, “Well no, this is how we teach abstinence and purity by throwing the girls out of the church.”

And I have another story. One time I was teaching in Togo, West Africa, teaching about pregnancy ministry. And my translator took me aside and she said, “This is so good that you’re teaching this.” She said, “I want you to know that in all of our churches we have a painted bench.” And she said, “It might be a different color no matter what church it is, but there’s a painted bench and a girl that has gotten pregnant outside of marriage has to sit on that painted bench.” So that everybody in the church at all times, it’s kind of like the Scarlet Letter. And that’s not the message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is not shame and condemnation. And again, there are no men on those benches. Those girls did not get pregnant by themselves. So I think the pastors, once they understand that this is an issue, they want to help and they don’t know how. And so that’s where we come in and we teach them through the Word of God.

Brian Mumbert: Now over here in the United States, of course, to combat Planned Parenthood, we have these pregnancy centers all over the place. Is Planned Parenthood over there too?

Melissa Heiland: Well, shockingly it is. And I have a story that also happened in Togo, West Africa. We have a lot of work there. We actually have 18 pregnancy ministries in Togo. But one time I was there and we were driving down the road, and I use the word road loosely, because it’s really not something we would call a road here. It’s dirt and kind of stuff is cleared away. And we’re driving down the road and I see this, what I would call the equivalent of a billboard. It’s a big sign and it’s in French. I don’t read French, but I kind of read French. And so when I saw the billboard, I was like thinking, “Is this what I think it is?” And I asked my Togolese friend, who is the country director over there, I said, “What does that sign say?” She said, “Oh yeah, it’s advertising abortion.”

And so here I am in the middle of nowhere. There are no other signs, there’s nothing. And there’s this big sign advertising by Planned Parenthood, about abortion. So it’s shocking the access that they have and really the foothold that Satan has over there, because of a lack of education. And when I say education, I mean like biblical education that the churches don’t know and they’re not teaching this message. And when I was in Togo one time when I was teaching, a pastor stood up and turned around and started speaking to the congregation in his native language. And I didn’t know what was being said. I didn’t know if he was speaking against me like I have had before. But my translator said, “No. He’s saying, listen, you need to listen to her. We have been too focused on the righteousness and we forgot about the love.”

Orlando Aska:

Wow. And again, that just speaks to how much it’s not just a human issue that just happens to happen, but there’s a gospel issue there and there’s a theological issue that is not being understood. So, it’s so appreciated that you all go with the heart to equip the people who are there.

Brian Mumbert: And I love that you’re reaching the women who are really the center of the family. They have the ability to convert their entire family to Christianity. As their lives go, so can their family, their children, their husband. And so what you’re doing sounds like it’s empowering women over there to do this, right?

Melissa Heiland: Absolutely. And again, it’s through the Holy Spirit. It’s not really through us or through our power, but when they come to know Christ as Savior and have that Holy Spirit living in them, then everything changes. Everything doesn’t change what we can see, but everything changes inside, right?

Orlando Aska: Right. Yeah. And I’m curious, I’m sure there’s a ton of success stories and great things that are consistently happening. Do you ever see some of the fathers coming back into the woman’s life or the child’s life and things like that? Families coming back together? How do some of those things work?

Melissa Heiland:

Yes. Sometimes we see that and we love to have a ministry to the dads too, if they will come. It’s not that we neglect them, they’re not always there, right, we know that. But when we can, we do. And one of the most beautiful things is a number of times I have seen women that go through the program, they go through the whole almost two years of discipleship and then they say, “I want to come back and help others.” So we have former clients come back and volunteer and helping other women and girls to know the truth.

Orlando Aska: Well, praise God.

Brian Mumbert: So Melissa, where can we find you and how can we help promote or support your ministry?

Melissa Heiland: So we have a website, it’s beautifulfeetinternational.com. And we are also on Facebook, Beautiful Feet International. So sure, I would love to hear from you. There’s great need. Like I said, we are growing so fast. I mean, we are running, these beautiful feet are running. And so there’s always a need to spread the Word. I would love if anyone’s listening, I would love to come and speak to your church, speak to your pastor, speak to your women’s group, your missions committee, and talk to you about how you can get involved. There’s all kinds of ways. And we need you. I mean, this is a big thing and it takes a lot of people to do this work.

And so please pray. Pray for the unborn, pray for their moms. Pray for the volunteers around the world that are doing this work. It’s hard work. It’s a hard work and it’s harder when it’s outside of the United States. Everything’s harder. And so pray for them. Ask the Lord if He would want you to come with us on a trip to see what we’re doing. Ask the Lord if He would want you to give, if He would want you to share this with others. There are all kinds of ways to get involved and the need is huge.

Brian Mumbert: And this is just another great reminder, as in America, here we are faced with what may be a blessing in the striking down of Roe v. Wade and the potential changing landscape of abortion here in America. That just because we might be changing as a country, the world is not, thus, your ministry is vitally important.

Melissa Heiland: I would like to say though, please continue to support your local pregnancy centers. I would never want this to be heard as a message of, “Now forget about the US.” Keep doing what you’re doing in the United States. The need is great. And even when I believe Roe versus Wade will be overturned, I’ve always believed that would happen in my lifetime, the pregnancy ministries in the United States still need you. So don’t take your-

Orlando Aska: Keep your foot on the pedal.

Melissa Heiland: Yeah. Yeah. Keep your foot on the pedal. But you got to add another pedal too.

Brian Mumbert: Absolutely. Let’s be pro-life everywhere we can be. Well, thank you Melissa for coming in and sharing your time. The need is great. This is such great information. This has been Invested with Purpose: Making the Most Out of Your Time, Talent and Treasure.

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