TeamWork

It was a dramatic day at the abortion mill yesterday.  I had the privilege of working with two counselors I had never met,  Emily and Carrie, who were filling in from the Thursday team, since both my Monday team leaders, Rebekah and Celia, were out of town. They had put out a plea on our Cities4Life page for others to come out and help Vicky, who would be alone. They undoubtedly knew that newbie, loose-cannon Vicky should never be left alone...anywhere. Two other young counselors, Anna and her sister were there. Chrissy and Kitty, two regulars with me on Monday were as always, faithfully present. Erin, who is due with her 7th (?) baby any time now and noticeably uncomfortable, arrived to pray and hold one of my signs.  The director of Operation Save America, Flip, had even shown up to help cover the gap. Add to the mix Carrie's husband and their seven children, it was a pro-life mob scene on the sidewalks of the abortion mill. I thought I was going to be alone...and it was wall to wall Cities4Lifers! (see charlotte.cities4life.org) There were probably enough of us to incorporate and form our own city.

First blessing of the day, we had a sound permit! Yay! That meant we could broadcast with a microphone using an amplifier. This is critical as we can thereby speak to the women in the furthest back rooms of the center. The Abortion Mill fights us for the sound system. Only one is issued for that sidewalk each day. They never use it, but they like to prevent us from getting it. This time, we got it! However, since both my Monday team leaders were out of town, I was in charge of bringing all the equipment. I did...and handed it over to Flip to set up, who told me I had the wrong cord. Boo! This didn't seem possible since I had everything Celia had given me the week before when the microphone had worked just fine. Still, I called my husband, to see if he could find a cord that would work. He was already on his way to his first stint with me as our live worship singer/guitarist. However, he uncomplainingly returned home to find the cord Flip claimed we needed.

Right off the bat, Emily and her husband were counseling the friend of a mama already in the mill. They talked the friend into going back in with Cities4Life literature to try and convince the mama to leave the abortion mill. The friend was in there a long time. We all prayed and continued pleading with new arrivals who were streaming in like lava cascading into the volcano.

Meanwhile, high drama was continuing on the other end of the street. Anna had stopped a car, the first time a car had stopped for her to counsel the occupants in her young life as a sidewalk counselor.(She was awesome.) She handed the mama, S, our literature, and gently spoke with her. I came over a little later and tried to convince S to get a free ultrasound through our pro-life Pregnancy Resource Center (PRC).  Normally, we have an RV parked right there beside us with a mobile ultrasound unit on board. The RV had not arrived, due to repair issues. We didn't know that at the time -- all we knew was the RV wasn't there and it was one of our best tools! I told S we would either determine if the RV was on its way, or I would lead her to the PRC (as soon as I found out how to get there....) She was hesitant. I pulled out all the stops, including my little hand-made fetal model, which has a pretty good record of making the mamas cry.

"Really?" she asked tearfully, as she held the little model (score another one for the fetal model!), "They really are this big?"
"Really," I said, "With a beating heart and all her limbs already formed. Do you think this is just a 'blob of tissue' that we have the right to kill?"
"No," she whispered.

Then she confided with me about her difficult circumstances, and how she didn't know what to do. We talked about whether she believed in God (she did) and how her evident remorse over the sins that led to her difficult situation would not be eradicated by yet a more grievous sin. In fact, sin would be compiled upon sin...never a good thing.  She agreed to the ultrasound. She also agreed to text me no matter what afterwards. Chrissy called PRC and set up the appointment, Flip offered to lead her over, and Carrie and Emily asked how they could pray specifically.  GO TEAM Cities4Life!!!!! As Flip was driving her over, she was stopped by a cop for an overdue inspection! It was a policewoman, and if I have the story right, she sympathized as Flip and S shared the predicament, and let S off with just a warning.

Haha Satan, foiled!!! 

Flip led her to the PRC, prayed with her, and left.

MEANWHILE....Carrie asked about the sound system, and why we weren't using the mic? When I explained what Flip had said, she fiddled with the cord that Celia had sent home with me. She found where it plugged in,  turned the mic on, and it worked perfectly.

 Haha SATAN, foiled!!!!! 

(PS- we will be taking up a collection to send Flip to remedial electronics school.)

My hubby showed up, and played some awesome worship music through our now working sound system. He played several songs, and we knew the women in the abortion center were hearing the praises of God echoing in those terrible death-filled rooms.

As time approached for the abortionist to arrive, I felt compelled to speak on the microphone. I have only done so once, trembling, for about one minute. However, with both team leaders gone, it just seemed I should take the initiative. I want you all to know, I was quaking in my sneakers. However, once I started speaking, I felt no fear. Really. I just felt love for those babies and those women. The abortion mill security guard kept coming over towards me, and I thought he was going to scream at me, but he just watched me a while. I looked directly at him as I talked about choosing the path that God wants us to walk. He looked at me silently, and then walked away.

And then it started raining. I grabbed my umbrella, put a plastic bag over the sound system,  and kept talking. I was still clutching my umbrella , and still talking about the God who loves us and protects us and longs for us to follow Him, when I realized the rain had stopped and the sun had came out!!

Haha Satan, foiled!!!!

Then the friend that Emily and Derek had counseled came out. It wasn't till near the end of our time there that she emerged and told us the mama had chosen life, and would be out soon. We asked her what had changed her mind. When she saw the baby on the ultrasound, she realized she needed to be "a woman of her word" and now that she knew the baby was indeed a baby, she would be her mama. Emily had the indescribable privilege of handing her a blessing bag filled with baby supplies Celia had given me for just this special occasion!

We were all packing up to leave when my phone rang. It was S.
"What did you decide?!!!!" I blurted.
"I'm keeping the baby," she told me. After me and the team stopped dancing and cheering, I asked what changed her mind.
"I saw my baby move on the ultrasound," she told me, "I didn't know they moved when they are so young."
Additionally, PRC staff set up a meeting with her family members and S to counsel them and help them move forward in the best way possible with this precious new life in their midst.

My team and I prayed before dispersing to our separate lives, all of us feeling bound by the joy of seeing God work miracles. The body of Christ in action. What God has asked us to do, he will enable us to do.
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1 Corinthians 12:12-31 

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body.

Romans 12:4-5 

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

1 Corinthians 12:27-31 

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administrating, and various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak with tongues? Do all interpret? But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Colossians 1:18 

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

Colossians 3:14-16 

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.