World Congress of Families IX: Woman who was nearly aborted finds purpose in helping others

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Bev Adair-Beets used her story of despair to create a dialog of hope in New Zealand by creating the organization Street Dance New Zealand.
Bev Adair-Beets used her story of despair to create a dialogue of hope in New Zealand by creating the organization Street Dance New Zealand.

Living with her mother who was a prostitute until age nine, Bev Adair-Beets saw how grim life can be.

She learned that her mother sought an abortion, but for some reason the abortion didn’t work and Adair-Beets was born anyway.

She summed up the first years of her life with this declaration: “All I’d learned by age eighteen was that I’d wished the abortion had worked.”

But Adair-Beets decided then that she was going to dedicate her life to helping youth have hope and a bright future.

Adair-Beets came to the World Congress of Families IX to share how her journey began and to inspire others to begin theirs.

“God has put a dream inside you and it’s yours and no one else’s. It holds your potential. And only you can give birth to it,” Adair-Beets said. “Take responsibility for it, for all those who would benefit from your truths.”

Adair-Beets’ journey began when she first posted a message on Facebook. Her posts were later picked up and used by the prison systems in New Zealand to give people hope, and eventually led to formation of an organization called Street Dance.

She didn’t know what she was doing or how to use Facebook; she just wanted to reach young people and that’s what she did.

“People look at New Zealand and think it’s fantastic, but let me tell you we have the highest rate of suicide in the world. Somebody in New Zealand commits suicide every 16 hours,” Adair-Beets said.

Thirty-one percent of New Zealand boys appear in court before they’re 25 years old, she added.

These statistics are why she dedicated her life to helping youth. Her organization, Street Dance New Zealand, now has nearly 30,000 likes with each post getting over 1,000 views. She helps manage 62 bands to help youth make their dreams come true.

“Everything I do I think, ‘Is this building a strong bridge for youth to be who God wants them to be and helping them fulfill their dreams?'” Adair-Beets said.

She encouraged those in the audience to use their stories for good to help strengthen the family.

“There are a lot of things we have to do and family is worth fighting for,” Adair-Beets said. “We’ve got to find ways to get our parents back as our heroes and get them not to abdicate that role to celebrities or sports stars.”

She encouraged the audience to never underestimate the power of kindness. That’s how she got her start, she said, adding that everybody has something worth sharing.

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