The Power of Prayer To Change a Culture

Director of Cities4Life Daniel Parks at Love Life Charlotte Prayer Walk

Love Life Charlotte is a coalition of one hundred churches in Charlotte who are promoting a culture of life in our city. They partner with Cities4life , the ministry I work with that is on the sidewalks of the abortion center being a voice for the unborn babies who have no voice. LoveLife Charlotte provides mentors to any woman who chooses life, and with the support of the churches, ministers to those women spiritually, physically, and emotionally. 

Every Saturday, for forty weeks, Love Life Charlotte gathers member churches to do a prayer walk around the abortion center. The participants which often number in the hundreds, and even thousands by the final week, walk in total silence, except for the murmuring of prayer. It is incredibly powerful and moving.

This Saturday, members of Cities4Life were asked to join the prayer walk. Many of my fellow counselors were there. I am out on the sidewalk several times a week as a counselor, but it felt very different to be marching around the street completely committed to prayer with so many other people. The power of God felt very present and very real.

As we stopped in front of the abortion center, tears glazed my eyes. I am on the sidewalk so frequently that I am no longer reduced to tears most of the time. Usually, rather than focusing on the grief of all those babies that are dying, I focus on looking for God’s miracles in that dark place.  But yesterday, from that different vantage point behind a crowd of people praying, I saw the battle from a new perspective. And it broke my heart anew. How God must grieve at what our country is doing to the unborn.

Our Cities4Life director, Daniel, found me in the crowd and motioned to me. There was a young couple that had just come  aboard the HELP Monroe Pregnancy Center RV. The woman was abortion-minded, but was willing to see her baby first. The RV has a mobile ultrasound unit, and works in conjunction with Cities4LIfe counselors to encourage women to choose life. Daniel asked if I would be willing to counsel the woman. 

No one ever has to ask me twice to have the opportunity to speak on the baby’s behalf and share the hope and truth of the Gospel. I sprinted to the RV.

As I ran to the RV, I heard the founder of Lovelife, Justin Reeder, tell the prayer warriors to pray hard; someone was on the RV at that very moment, wavering between life and death. I cannot express how encouraged I felt to know how many petitions were being raised to God for that little baby.

The woman chose life! Right after she left, a second abortion-minded woman was ushered into the RV. She also chose life. Due to privacy issues, I can share no details but neither was an easy counseling session and both had difficult circumstances. The nurse on the RV, Courtney, was exceptional and handled sensitive issues with compassion, knowledge, and love. The power of God during both sessions was overwhelming. I can only surmise that the presence of so many people in concentrated prayer mobilized the heavenly forces. When we left the RV three hours later, we heard a third woman had also chosen life but not gone on the RV.

At one point, the second woman, who was on the verge of asking Jesus to be her Lord but has many questions, looked out the window. She saw the long line of the LoveLife prayer group walking past. I was in the midst of explaining to her about the LoveLife mentorship program and told her, “You never have to feel alone in this. See all those people? They are praying for YOU.”

I would urge everyone in the Charlotte area who has not joined LoveLife Charlotte to encourage their church to be a part of this incredible ministry. We are not protesting abortion nor are we motivated because we hate abortion. We are proclaiming life and motivated by a love of God and the precious life He has created.

At the end of the second counseling session, after sharing our resources and the Gospel, I asked the young woman what her decision was NOW for her baby. 

“If Jesus is Lord, I cannot kill my baby.”  And in case you are wondering,  she did sign up for the LoveLife mentorship program. It was key in turning her heart from abortion.

Later she texted me, thanking me for all our help and saying she felt “much better.” 

Yes! God has a way of doing that to all of us.

**************

Romans 8:26 

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.