Louisville—Pam Tebow knows about the pain of considering abortion.

More than 21 years ago, she and her husband, Bob, were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam became ill and was treated with strong antibiotics before discovering she was pregnant. Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety. She refused.

The doctors “didn’t think of it as a life, they thought of it as a mass of fetal tissue,” Pam Tebow told the audience attending an Oct. 23 benefit dinner for two pro-life ministries in Louisville.

That fifth child, Tim Tebow, was born Aug. 14, 1987.

Last year, the University of Florida’s star quarterback, became the first sophomore in history to win college football’s highest award, the Heisman Trophy.

Tim’s notoriety and the family’s inspiring story have given Pam numerous opportunities to speak on behalf of women’s centers across the country.

She was the keynote speaker at the Oct. 23 benefit banquet for two Louisville ministries. A Woman’s Choice Resource Center offers such services as free pregnancy tests, post-abortion counseling, adoption information and material support. Necole’s Place is a companion ministry that provides support services for women in need.

Several Louisville-area Kentucky Baptist churches and Long Run Baptist Association help support both ministries.

A Woman’s Choice board chairman John Schmitt reported at the banquet that in the 20 years since the resource center opened, 4,500 children have been saved from abortion; 400 in this year alone.

Speaking of the thousands of lives saved, Pam Tebow said, “That just blows my mind. … Every little baby you save matters.”

The Tebow family knows firsthand the importance of a life saved. In 2006, Pam and her husband, Bob, and their five children were profiled on an ESPN documentary. She said the piece was done only on the condition that the family’s faith was represented front and center.

Tebow noted that the documentary, as well as Tim’s success on the football field, has opened up a whole new ministry opportunity for her. The enormity of that was revealed when a young woman told her, “‘I decided not to abort after I watched the story on ESPN.’”

“I’m a planner but God directs our steps,” Tebow told the Western Recorder. “I never anticipated doing this.”

While pregnant with Tim, Pam said she “almost lost him four times,” but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband, “If you will give us a son, we’ll name him ‘Timothy,’ and we’ll make him a preacher.”

Pam said her youngest son is indeed a preacher. “God has given him the platform of football,” she noted. Tim preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits and serves with his father’s ministry in the Philippines, she added.

Although the Tebows served only five years in the Pacific island nation, their legacy continues through the Bob Tebow Evangelistic Association. The ministry employs 45 Filipino evangelists who have preached to more than 12.6 million people in eight years. The association also has founded 8,000 churches in the country, and operates an orphanage that serves as a home to more than 50 children.