Tebow shares personal ‘God story’

“Passionately pro-life” is how Pam Tebow describes herself as she calls her youngest child her “miracle baby.”

The mother of five was keynote speaker at the Wiregrass Emergency Pregnancy Services Seventh Annual Fundraising Banquet held Feb. 24 at the Enterprise Civic Center.

WEPS is a non-profit pro-life pregnancy resource center providing support to expectant mothers and families. The organization began in 1972 under the auspices of the Catholic Ladies Guild of the Ladies of Loretto Church on Fort Rucker. Within two years, the women saw a real need for a pro-life organization in the Wiregrass which led to the establishment of Wiregrass Right to Life office, located in Daleville.

By November 1985, Wiregrass Right to Life changed its name to Wiregrass Emergency Pregnancy Service. Volunteers staffed the office three days a week in Daleville where WEPS remained for 39 years before moving to Colony Square in Enterprise in October 2014.

The WEPS center has now expanded through a recent move from Colony Square to 442 Glover Avenue in Enterprise, on the corner of Glover and Highland Drive.

Among the services WEPS provides are pregnancy testing, ultrasounds, counseling, nutrition classes, adoption support, maternity home referral, car seats, crisis intervention and post-abortion support.

“It takes a lot of faith to do everything that your pregnancy center and your community does,” Tebow told the more than 400 people attending the annual fundraising banquet. “It is absolutely incredible everything that they offer the clients. It’s amazing.

“They are really ministering to the Lord by ministering to these women in so many ways,” she said. “And they continue the relationship with these precious moms after the child is born.”

Tebow is a self-described evangelical missionary and public speaker who has won national awards for her ministry work, including the Commission for Women’s Inspiring Woman of the Year in 2013 and the National Pro-Life Recognition Award in 2017.

She and her college-sweetheart husband, Bob, serve as missionaries in the Philippines through the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association. The Tebows run an orphanage in the Philippines, which has been home to hundreds of children since 1991. They also support a safe house they built for rescued girls.

The family, with four children at the time, moved to the Philippines in 1985 to serve as Baptist missionaries. During the Tebows' stay, Pam Tebow contracted amoebic dysentery during what was her fifth pregnancy, fell into a temporary coma and received strong medication to combat the infection. Doctors believed that the baby would not survive and recommended to Tebow that she have an abortion. “They thought I should have an abortion to save my life all the way through the seventh month," she said.

“When my doctor delivered Timmy, he said it was the biggest miracle he had ever been a part of,” Tebow said. “He said he had never seen anything like it and he couldn’t explain it. He said there was no explanation for how Timmy survived all of those months in the womb.”

That baby would grow to become the largest in size of her children, the mother of five said. “I call him my miracle baby.”

A star football player at the University of Florida by 2007, Tim Tebow went on to win a Heisman Trophy. When the son she calls “Timmy” won the Heisman Trophy, Tebow was featured in national media for her decision to choose life for her youngest child against a doctor’s advice. Their story has been highlighted on Good Morning America, ESPN and in a 2010 Super Bowl commercial celebrating family and life. “A survey revealed that 5.5 million people had a chance to re-think their stand on abortion because of that little commercial,” she said. “I love to call it a ‘God Story’ because it is one that would be impossible apart from the power of God.

“All of us have platforms of some sort,” Tebow told those attending the WEPS banquet. "Some are large and some are small. We encouraged our kids while they were young that whatever they do, they need to use that as an opportunity to impact the lives of people around them.”

Tebow said that she and her husband made a decision early in their relationship to make God “the master of our family, our future and our finances.

“My husband always says that faith is like a muscle,” Tebow explained. “The more you exercise it, the more your faith muscle grows.

“God has given us a manual that equips us,” she said. “We have to have a Biblical mindset if we are going to think accurately about how to live and do life.

“The first thing is to think like a servant. You will be great because you serve. He who exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted.

“You have the opportunity to impact your community,” Tebow said. “We have a Master who has given us a manual which has given us a mindset of service and focusing on eternal life and a significant mission.

“A mission in life is what is going to give your life purpose, fulfillment and significance. Nothing you do goes unnoticed by God,” she added.

“Tonight is all about the value of life,” Tebow said. “It costs to run the pregnancy center but it’s worth it because it saves lives. Not only does WEPS save babies physically, it saves their families spiritually, too.”

WEPS Executive Director Melissa Braun said that in 2021 the organization saw 204 first-time clients, provided 1,379 appointments for current and expectant mothers, and gave 352 car seats. WEPS also did 148 ultrasounds and gave away over 1,000 packs of wipes and 25,000 diapers.

“We are really lucky that we who are in this area practice what we preach,” Braun said. “When we say we are pro-life, we are pro-life the whole way. So thank you for your support.”

For more information about WEPS, call (334) 417-0270 or email [email protected].