A Cog in a Spirit-Led Wheel

Yesterday morning before heading out to the abortion center sidewalk to speak life to abortion-minded moms, I prayed during my one-hour run. I asked God to send us conflicted women who needed the comfort of Christ. I also told Him I was so excited to see what He would do, what miracles He'd reveal as He lifted back the corner of Heaven's veil.

By the time my run ended and my prayer concluded, I felt incredibly joyous and optimistic. As it turned out, our day at the abortion center was filled with miracles just I had hoped and prayed. Miracles always abound, but sometimes they are harder to discern.

The first car that stopped for me was a man with a baby in the backseat.
"You're not looking for the abortion center, are you?" I asked.
"No," he said. "But we did consider aborting our child and in the end did not. She became an incredible blessing in our life."
I pointed to the baby. "She is beautiful."
"That's not our child," the man said. "She's our grandchild."
"Oh! She's the blessing of your blessing?"
"Yes."
"Well you have blessed me! Thank you for stopping!"

The next car that stopped for me just wanted to know what was going on with all these people on the sidewalk and the RVs parked on the curb. I told her it was an abortion center and we were here to encourage women to seek God and save their babies.

She told me she was pro-choice, not religious, and a law student who wanted to go into civil rights law. We had a long discussion about where we put our faith because we all put faith in something, when does a human baby become human if not at conception, and what a barbaric, violent act abortion is. It was a very respectful discussion, and she agreed with many of my points. Finally, I told her since she was entering a career in Civil Rights to carefully consider that the root of all civil rights was the right to life.

She told me that I might be right, and she would think about all we had discussed.

Shortly after that, I was on the microphone for quite some time pouring my heart out in a passionate soliloquy while  the rest of my team was calling out to women and stopping cars. A woman and her friend came out of the abortion center, rolled down the car window, and told me to please come talk to them. I put down the microphone and jogged behind the car, following them to the spot where they pulled over to the curb. The two women got out of the car and the driver told me, "I don't know what to do but it smells like death in there, and I need help."
"We can help you," I told her. "Tell me your story."

They came on the Mobile sonogram RV with me, where our incredible nurse Sherry awaited us. Mama 'C' and her sister described the situation that had brought them to the abortion center -- a difficult one, and not uncommon with the women we work with.  While we spoke, 'C's sister admitted she had had an abortion herself some years ago, and had been urging 'C' not to abort now. The sister had been a minor and was forced to abort by her mother, who threatened she must do so, or be kicked out of her home.

Now, as she recounted this sorrowful tale, she broke down in uncontrollable tears. Later, she told me it was the first time she had ever cried about her abortion. She had felt grief and guilt for years and believed God was punishing her. But she had never cried or expressed the deep sorrow the abortion had caused.

Sherry, the ultrasound nurse was getting everything ready for the sonogram and I began to share the gospel and the comfort of Christ with the two women. Their eyes were riveted on me and I knew they understood they were being thrown a lifeline when they had felt they were drowning.  All of us who have truly grasped the power of the Gospel know what I am talking about.

They asked wonderful questions and I saw lights go on in their heads as they told me they understood these truths for the first time. They both eagerly requested that I pray with them to ask Jesus into their lives as their Lord and Savior.

When we finished praying, they hugged each other, wiped away tears, and said they served an amazing God. They leaned back, looked at each other and said, giddy with delight, "We are saved!" They instantly listed things in their lives they knew must now change, and asked that we connect them with a good church.They immediately decided that instead of watching TV, they would read the Bible and do a Bible study. When I told them a pastor was on the sidewalk, they wanted to meet him. I am not sure I have ever seen such an instant transformation.

While I was sharing the gospel, our other counselor Anna came on board the RV with another abortion-minded mama. This mama also had a friend who used every opportunity on their long drive to try to point her to God and encourage her not to follow through with the abortion. The friend told us that they had hit many unexpected detours on the drive, and she knew it was God giving her more time to convince the mama. The mama may yet have aborted, unless she could see her baby's heartbeat. As she was so newly pregnant, our nurse had to do a trans-vaginal ultrasound, but miraculously, found the tiny baby and the amazing, miraculous beating heart. Praise God for Sherry's skill and determination!

ultrasound of first Mama 'C's baby

In the end, both of the sweet new mothers chose life for their baby. A third mother chose life but did not get on the RV. Our entire team was pivotal in some way for bringing these moms to the point where they could abandon their earlier determination to abort. The entire network of Cities4Life supporters was critical in allowing us to offer the real help these moms needed. What a blessing to be a cog in such a spirit-led wheel!

Those were not the only miracles of healing that God accomplished that day. Daniel, the director of Cities 4 Life intercepted a car that had mistakenly turned into the abortion center parking lot. As always, he began talking with the driver, knowing God often brings us unexpected but necessary encounters. It turns out, the driver had been raped and considered abortion, but then had given birth to her disabled son. She said he was the greatest blessing of her life and when she hears people say that children conceived in rape should be aborted, she wants so badly to tell them what a terrible mistake that is.

Daniel said  he felt God's prompting that this woman desperately needed to tell her story, so he stood car-side and just listened. That woman may have thought she turned into the driveway by accident, but it was no accident that Daniel was there and his presence was a godly comfort to a hurting soul.

So many different needs were met by our team on the sidewalks of the abortion center that day. Each one was a divine encounter, providentially arranged. As I drove home in the late afternoon, stomach growling and reminding me it was well past lunchtime, I praised God for answering my prayer to send us conflicted souls, and to peel back a corner of heaven, letting us peek inside.
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John 20:31

But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.