Cedarville Student shares Christ with women in a battle between hope and fear

By Sam Sofio

For the past three years, Delaney Schmutte has counseled scared, desperate and hopeless pregnant women who consider abortion as their only escape in their battle between hope
and fear. 

Schmutte, a senior Biblical Studies major with an emphasis in Biblical Counseling, serves at the Pregnancy Resource Clinic of Clark County, where God uses her as a vessel to pour out the hope and love of Christ into fearful hearts – the same hope and love that she received when she was at a dead end. 

“When I was younger, I planned to take my life,” Schmutte said. “The Lord, in His kindness, revealed to me in a really special way that He was present and that He loved me. In that time, I kept telling the Lord that I would go through the various hard things of life if it meant that I could comfort and help someone else who also felt this.” 

During her freshman year at Cedarville University, God was faithful in opening that door. 

Cedarville University’s Dr. Erin Shaw, associate professor and director of Women’s Ministry, suggested she reach out to the Pregnancy Resource Clinic of Clark County to get involved in real-life counseling. 

“I scheduled an appointment with them,” Schmutte said. “I went in and met the people who work there and fell in love with the heart of that ministry.”

Soon after, Schmutte trained to become a certified Care Coordinator. Together, with the passionate staff at the clinic, they work hard to love both the mothers and their babies.

“We offer holistic care to the whole of every individual involved,” Schmutte said. “The physical care for the mom, the emotional care for the mom, the spiritual care for the mom and when she feels seen, equipped and strengthened through resources and encouragement, then that promotes her choice of life.”

Ultimately, Schmutte and the staff share the gospel and pray that these women who have experienced varying levels of trauma will encounter the One who redeems lives and turns ashes into beauty – Jesus. 

As a Care Coordinator, Schmutte regularly sees the women she counsels fight an internal conflict between fear and hope. A conflict between death and life. A conflict between lies and the truth of God’s Word.

“I would say in three years of doing this, I have only had one woman look me in the eyes and say, ‘I know it’s a baby, but the baby isn’t what I want, so I’m going to kill it,’” Schmutte said. “Most women are not calloused-hearted…They are scared girls. I think we do a disservice to the church if we argue against calloused and devaluing people instead of loving scared people.” 

Often, the fears are practical. Pregnant women who have been deserted and left sinking in school and credit card debt do not know how to provide for themselves, let alone another child. Young women are threatened with being kicked out if they do not abort their baby. Others feel completely inadequate to raise a child as their mothers did for them. 

Sadly, Schmutte sees that there are women in these situations who would rather abort their babies than have them abused as orphans in foster care – a ministry the Lord charges the church to oversee in James 1:27. 

Throughout Schmutte’s time as a Care Coordinator, she has helped women bring their fears into the light and honestly examine them. 

“You get to see women externalize their hopes and their fears,” Schmutte said. “The greatest thing I could ever do for someone fighting the battle between fear and hope is labor to bring them to the place of honesty about their fears and guide them to the hope we do have – the well they can find open for the rest of their lives.”

Through the Gospel, Schmutte brings these scared girls to the one who is love, as 1 John 4:18 says: 

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” 

“So in the context of someone who’s facing a pregnancy and they are overwhelmed, that’s where the story of Jesus starts,” Schmutte said. “ The story of Jesus starts with a woman who is pregnant and scared.”

In the story of Jesus, this young teenager believed in the hope of God’s promises over her own fears. She believed that God loved her and had a plan for her, even in the most painful moments of her life. 

The youngest girl Schmutte has ever counseled displayed this hope in God in the midst of a family of unbelievers. 

“When her unbelieving mom told her all the reasons this was going to ruin her life and not be worth it,” Schmutte said. “I watched her look at her mom and say, ‘But mom, I know it will be okay because God loves me.’ She is the picture that will always come into my mind when I think of child-like faith.”

Like this child, Schmutte is learning to look with child-like faith to Jesus as the one who is sovereign over each woman’s decision as they battle between hope and fear. Tragically, Schmutte does not always see each battle end in victory.

When Schmutte found out that a pregnant woman she had counseled decided to abort her child, she became distressed as the fear that she failed to save the child’s life weighed upon her shoulders.

“I had a face to the baby and the day that it was going to die,” Schmutte said. “It is a really weighty thing. If I put that [burden] in my backpack, I’m going to grieve that baby for the rest of my life.”

Schmutte sees that when Christians believe the lie that a baby’s life or a person’s salvation depends upon how they perform instead of upon God’s. The weight can drive Christians away from volunteering and shining the love of Christ to the needy. 

“My belief was so small that I thought I had to play a role in Him changing a woman’s mind,” Schmutte said. “The Lord is bigger than my successes and bigger than my failures. He doesn’t depend on those things to change someone’s heart.” 

Whenever Schmutte fears the mountains in front of her, she remembers that she serves a God who is easily able to do far more abundantly beyond all that she could ever ask or think.

“I’m participating in a ministry that God is sovereign over,” said Schmutte. “He’s the one who says nothing is impossible, and so I can sit across from a client, and I serve a God who can 100% change her heart without a single thing that I contribute to the ministry. The way that you fight fear and capitalize on the right gospel ambition interest that you have is to make it as less about yourself as you can.”

There are many pregnant women struggling in a battle between hope and fear. Schmutte hopes that all Christians will follow the heart of Christ and love not in word or talk but in deed and truth.

Whether the love of Christ compels Christians to counsel fearful women, clean a resource center or advocate for adoption in the local church, these “small” acts of love can make a lasting impact. 

“I do what I do because of what the Lord did for me,” Schmutte said. “There are babies in wombs that don’t deserve to die that are being condemned to death. The Lord looked at me in the helpless state of a child who deserved death, and He chose to give me life. He humbled himself and sacrificed himself with the motive of love. And so, with the motive of love, it is a joy to be that image of my Savior, humble myself and sacrifice my time to love women, babies, dads and communities.” 

Sam Sofio is a sophomore Professional Writing and Information Design major. He enjoys conversations about the love of Christ and aspires to write for a Christian organization.

Photos by Logan Howard