The adorable boy in the photo is here because Cities4Life was on the sidewalks of the abortion center when his mom feeling desperate and trapped showed up to abort her baby. She came with her own mom. Her mom stopped on the way in to the abortion center, and took a pamphlet from me with my name and number on it. I knew she was conflicted, though she seemed to feel her daughter had no choice but to abort. Still, she claimed to know God, and she was sorrowful over the choice.
I was sad when it was time for our Cities4Life team to head home, and the mother and her pregnant daughter had not emerged. We had hoped they might choose life. However, as far as we knew, they had gone through with the abortion. They had been in there a long time. We had all spoken and pleaded with them on the microphone and called out to them as they walked from their car. All to no apparent avail.Our mobile ultrasound RV packed up, and drove off to Monroe while we all dispersed for home.
I had just walked in my door when I got a phone call.
“Hello,” the woman said, “We are following the bus.”
“Excuse me?”
“We are behind the bus...the one that was at the abortion clinic. We want an ultrasound. Can you call the bus driver to pull over?”
I was totally confused. “How did you find the RV?” I asked.
“We saw it pull out of the abortion clinic street.”
“How do you have my name and number?”
“You gave us a pamphlet. We want to see the baby. Can you stop the bus?”
Now I understood what had happened. The woman had changed her mind after hearing our words as well as her mother’s prayers. She wasn’t convinced she could do this...not by a long shot...but she was willing to see her baby.
I called the bus.
However, the driver didn’t answer. So I called HELP Pregnancy Center, our partner ministry that sends out the RV. I told them the situation. They urged me to direct the mom to their building. They would show her her baby.
This was two years ago so the details after that are a little fuzzy. I know at one point, they did see their baby but I don’t believe it was that day. However, I gave them a couple of hours, and then I called them. The pregnant lady, who I will call Abigail to preserve her privacy, answered. She was distraught. She faced very dire circumstances. However, she had been raised in a Christian home and knew abortion was wrong. What could she do?
It was a long time ago. I don’t know what I said but I know I shared our resources and promised that even though she lived over two hours away, we would find a way to help her. I prayed with her and we talked about God and in the end, she shakily agreed to give us a chance, and the baby a chance. Shortly thereafter, we were able to help her into an apartment, Cities4Life supporters fully furnished the apartment, we sent her all she needed for the first two years of the baby’s life, and even helped her mom into an apartment.
We stayed in touch off and on. I send her daily Bible verses and she contacts me with photos now and then of her son and with gratitude of all we did to help her. Recently, she had a burglary in her home and lost $2000 worth of possessions. She is on a shoestring budget and this was a terrible blow. She didn’t know how she could provide anything to her kids for Christmas. I told her I felt certain our generous supporters would help, and put a plea on facebook. Some of her wish list has already been promised by our generous donors. Others are considering “adopting” her family for Christmas and taking over the entire list. I am praying that will happen.
While I was on the phone with her, as often happens, we began talking about God. She told me that if she were to die today, she would go to hell. She told me she tries so hard, but is never doing all she knows she should be doing for God. This poor woman was working so hard to earn her way to heaven when the Bible is clear that she would never succeed. None of us can do that. All of us have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Our eternal salvation is not dependent on our works which are filthy rags to a perfect God, but on faith alone. Over the next hour, I presented the incredible truth of the Gospel, and this lovely, weary woman prayed with me to ask Jesus to be her Lord and Savior.
If the pro-choice folks had their way, I would never have been able to have given that sweet woman our pamphlet, she would very likely have aborted, and she would have none of the vast range of resources and things that our ministry had supplied for her. What is perhaps most tragic is she might not have heard the redemptive message of the love of Christ and laid aside the burden that was crushing her soul.
All you who labor in God’s work and wonder if your efforts are worth it or if maybe you should just give up, take heart. You never know when or how God is preparing those who need you to persevere on their behalf.
If you have a church group that would like to take over and adopt this precious family to help with Christmas, please email me at vkaseorg@cities4life.com
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Ephesians 2:8-9
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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