Impossible Redemption

I wanted to kayak yesterday, but then found myself googling “drug addiction Christian treatment centers for pregnant moms in South Carolina”. The first hit was a residential place in Kentucky.  What’s this? Kentucky is not South Carolina. Why did Google bring me here? Right on the heels of that thought: Maybe it was not Google...but God. 

Intrigued, I read the information on their website. They were too good to be true. If only they were local to the mom I had in mind!! I  decided I should call them anyway, knowing they were not likely possible for the local mom with desperate, immediate needs. However, I hoped they might point me to a local facility similar to theirs. 

The blue sky and sound of waves in my heart beckoned. NO. This was more important. The lake would still be there later...the baby or even life of the addicted mom might not...

I punched in their number on my cell phone. After speaking with them about what our ministry, Cities4Life  does and how desperate an immediate need we had, they offered an immediate open bed and program for the mom. I then called the woman who just asked Jesus to be Lord and chose life for her baby after meeting us on the sidewalks of the abortion center two days ago. I spoke with her mother first. Her mother said there is no way her daughter would do that. The mother was worn out, beaten down by failure after failure trying to help her addicted daughter. Nonetheless, she said it did sound like a wonderful facility, and she would try.  She asked her daughter if she would consider this place. This young woman had been in drug addiction for more than a decade, and in the past, refused treatment.

She said YES...she had never known the peace she was feeling since submitting her life to Jesus. She was ready for a new life in all ways. She was so excited that she called them, and would do the admission interview right away. 

It was worth giving up the day of kayaking to hear that!

When they had come aboard the HELP Monroe Pregnancy Center RV with the mobile ultrasound unit parked outside the abortion center, they told us the “pro-choice” people had told them not to trust us, not to listen to us, or to go on our RV to hear our resources or see the baby. “They lie,” they told her, “And never do what they promise.”

This mom has already been offered and received a mentor to walk with her, a list of several treatment/residential options, all of which were called first by the Cities4Life counselor, a baby shower to provide the first two years of all the baby’s needs, and the sharing of the Gospel which resulted in the woman asking Jesus to be Lord and feeling the first peace she has felt in years. The mother and daughter who were shrieking at each other with the mother saying she was done with the daughter when they came aboard the RV, are now actively working together to heal and follow God. They went together to church two nights ago, after meeting us.

Do not grow weary, all ye who labor for the Lord. His mercies are new every morning, and His strength is greatest when we are weakest. Do not believe the lies of the enemy of our souls. Remember that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.

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1 Peter 5:7-11 

Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Resist Hate

Last night I received a text from a young man who had brought his girlfriend to the abortion center where I minister as a sidewalk counselor for Cities4Life . I was already in bed. I rise long before the sun, and so usually go to bed when the sun sets...or before....

I woke up in the middle of the quiet, dark night and noticed I had missed the text. When I read it, I could not fall back asleep. The young man and his girlfriend had decided they would keep their baby and they wanted to meet with me this weekend. They wanted the help Cities4Life and our partner ministries could provide.

I was so excited that I spent the next few hours in prayer and plotting what resources I would need to pull together for this young couple and how I could best present the glorious truth of the gospel to them. This was on the heels of a call I’d received earlier that day. 

A sixteen-year-old girl had called me. She had considered abortion, but her friend, another pregnant sixteen-year-old girl told her about these people with Cities4Life who told her really cool things about God and offered all kinds of help. So the teen called me saying she wanted to hear what I had to say about God and about any help we could offer. She did not want to kill her baby, despite all the people in her life urging her to do so.

She had a troubled and sorrowful life. She had gotten in all kinds of trouble in school, which she said were efforts to get her mom to pay attention to her. She attempted suicide. She’d been discarded by her boyfriend when he learned she was pregnant. When I talked to her about filling the emptiness in her heart with the glorious presence and love of Jesus, she wanted to submit her life to him immediately.

Already, she has been connected with a mentor, resources, and help. She is on my daily Bible email list. She told me she received the scripture I sent this morning, and she was grateful. She couldn’t wait to meet with her new mentor. This lonely young lady has landed at last in a safe haven.

Today, when I arrived at the abortion center sidewalk, one of the “pro-choice” people swerved at me as she pulled to the side of the road. She gave me the finger, and parked. I glanced at the back of her car.

When she got out of her car, I said, “Good morning. I noticed your bumper sticker. Do you think giving me the finger is resisting hate?”

“Yes,” she said, “You deserve it for screaming at women.”

“For offering them help and resources, you mean... so they don’t feel they have to abort?”

She didn’t answer as she set up under the shade of a tree as her post to usher women in to kill their babies and to tell them we were crazy liars and they should not talk to us.

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James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Dancing in a Hurricane

For three days the wind and rain from the hurricane has swirled around us. The photo is of my yard this early morning. That light is a beacon of hope to me. I will be able to make coffee as the power is still on!  Yesterday, we lost internet, but shockingly, workers arrived at our house and restored it! Our power flickered out once, but then flickered back on, and thus far remains on. I had filled the bathtubs with water, just in case. Just in case of WHAT, I wasn’t sure. However, they quickly drained anyway so I hope that was God’s way of saying that particular precaution was unnecessary.

For the Charlotte region, the worst effects of the storm are predicted to occur today and tomorrow. Because the storm swung South, we are on the most dangerous NE side of the whole mess where the most flooding rains and tornados are. So I am focusing on verses like these:

Luke 8:23-25 

And as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”

This is a literal storm we are enduring, but there are many metaphorical storms in life. In the midst of this hurricane, I have counseled two women who chose life over abortion and one who left the abortion industry. In every case, as in my own heart facing the hurricane and facing the struggles and storms of existing, I had the same answer.  Jesus.

The hurricane may end up being devastating to this region. I know already lives have been lost, homes have been destroyed, and thousands are without power. The power of the storm that none of us can stop or control reminds me of the inescapable truth that we are NOT in charge. Why would we not submit to the ONE who Is???

I can no more control the evil of the world than I can divert the path of the hurricane. But I CAN control the evil in my heart when I give my life to Jesus and submit to His will and His plan. He warns us that in this world we will have troubles, but take heart, for He has overcome the world. This world will pass away. A new heaven and a new earth await all those who have ceded their lives to the author of their lives.

Yesterday, I attended a wedding. I am so glad they didn’t postpone the wedding because of the hurricane. Two of our Cities4life counselors went first to the rain-pelted sidewalks of the abortion center, spoke for the unborn in the raging storm, and then came soggy and joyful to the wedding. One woman had chosen life for her baby! The bride herself is a Cities4Life counselor. The groom told me before the wedding that he hoped to rearrange his work schedule such that he could join his new wife on the sidewalks of the abortion center. Music to my ears, louder than the hurricane’s roar!

The wedding was a joyous event and the pastor who officiated reminded us that this wedding was a reminder of the wedding of the lamb, spoken of in Revelation:

Revelation 19:6-9 

Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure”— for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints. And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.”

It was a glorious reminder as the hurricane pelted rain on the church that we, the church, are the Bride of Jesus. We are to enter into an eternal covenant relationship with almighty God and nothing will separate us from His love. And then we all gathered at the reception and danced. I love that image that remains in my head, dancing in the midst of a hurricane.

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Trust Me, God Said To My Disbelief

I was on my way to Richmond Wednesday to see my first grand-baby for the first time when I noticed a billboard with the big letters of an unusual name in the middle of it. I instantly voice-texted one of the moms, G, that I work with who chose life over abortion. It was the name she was going to give her baby if it was a boy. To preserve her privacy, I won’t share the name but I had NEVER seen that name before. And there it was...on a billboard.

I texted her because she had scheduled the abortion twice already. I knew she was struggling in her choice for life for the baby. She had asked Jesus to be Lord when I first shared the Gospel with her, and I felt that would seal the deal...but it had not. Her spirit was willing but her flesh was weak. When I knew she was wavering the second time, I traveled 3-hours round trip to take her to lunch. Our discussion helped her turn back to God and she canceled the second abortion appointment.

Then she rescheduled and drove to Charlotte for a third appointment! I went out to the abortion center waiting for her. She never showed up. Later she texted that she was doing great, and I thought the crisis had passed.

Back to my drive to see my grandson. 

I told her in the text that I saw her baby’s name on a billboard. I felt certain God was sending a message of encouragement to her, and to me. She asked where I had seen it. I told her. Then she was silent. I sent a few verses, as I had been doing all week, reminding her to trust God to keep her strong. She did not respond.

Right after that, I got a message from our Cities4Life team at the abortion center. She was back...for her fourth appointment...to abort. She would not stop and speak with them. Daniel, the Cities4Life director, told me he felt I would want to know. I texted her for an hour. She did respond once saying she loved me and she was sorry, but she just could not have this baby. Then...silence.

I cried and prayed. Then I heard a voice. Not an audible voice, but clear in my spirit: trust me.

I asked God if that was Him speaking or just my hopeful heart. And how could I trust Him when I knew she had gone in to abort? Just in case it WAS God, I answered out loud, “Ok. I will trust you...but it is hard.”

For the entire five-hour drive, I prayed. Daniel told me that by the time he left the abortion center sidewalk, she had not come out. She had not responded to my texts after that first one. I continued to text the rest of that evening and then all day Thursday as well. I tried not to think of the baby our team had fought so hard to save. 

This early morning, as I rode my bike along the James river, I remembered a fellow Cities4Life counselor once telling me, “We can’t want it more than them.”

My response was, “Sometimes at first, we have to want it more than them...or the baby will die.”  Those words came back to me as I tried to shove the despair aside and focus on the miracle and joy of my first grand-baby. 

When I first arrived in Richmond Wednesday, I told the other grandparents the woeful story and they instantly prayed with me. I did not share the story with my son and his wife. The despair I felt would be mine alone to struggle with. They needed to focus on only the joy of their precious new child.

I continued to text G over the next two days. She never responded. In case she took the pill, I texted info on how to reverse it, and then I sent many verses pleading with her to confront herself over what she had done, and that she had to decide if she would trust and follow Jesus, or trust and follow her own path that had led to such a sad place. I admit I felt like a failure, and very very sad for the baby. I also grieved deeply for her. Her prayer of faith had seemed so genuine, but was Jesus really Lord of her life if she could so quickly disregard His commands? 

Last night, I had a very strange dream. I was at the abortion center, and there was a water leak on the sidewalk. Suddenly, it began spurting and soaked all of us counselors. However, what began as a disaster slowly transformed to a fountain and it was inexplicably good, like a baptism. I felt like God was telling me He could take very terrible things and turn them to good. Trust Him.

Later this morning I was on a walk, when I received a text from a fellow Cities4Life counselor, Elijah.

“G just came out of the abortion center. She didn’t do it. She told me she has tried five times, and just couldn’t do it. She is on the RV now getting an ultrasound. She said she just needed to see her baby.” 

I may have heard God say, “See?” But I was spinning and shouting so loudly that I wasn’t certain.

G called me as she left the RV. She told me she had scheduled the abortion five times, and always something happened that prevented her from doing it. When I had texted her about the billboard with the baby’s name on it, she said she thought about it. Was God talking to her?

“Are you never returning now?” I asked. “Are you done now?”

“Never returning. I am done. I am keeping this baby. I think God is telling me so many times and I am listening now.”

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Romans 15:13   

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Psalm 9:10 

  

And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek you.

Mark 5:36 

But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”

A Grand Child Is Born

This is my grandson. My first grandchild. Beau. I sit with him, holding him, unable to take my eyes off of him. A miracle. The new parents are going through what all new parents go through. Elation. Exhaustion. Worry. Joy. I’d love to be able to remove all the anxiety and overwhelming fatigue, but the hardest hours are theirs alone to bear.

Grandmoms just get the joy.

But I remember. I remember never eating a hot meal for years as the babies always knew when to disrupt my life for maximum effect. Never getting enough sleep. Never laying aside the fears of what might harm my precious child. Never feeling up to the task. Loving so deeply that I would for the first time in my life sacrifice myself for that little brand new being.

So I sit here now with the sweet memory of his little head resting on the crook of my arm. Then, the picture of my own dear son, gathering Beau into his arms, kissing him as he carries him up the stairs to his wife for another sleepless night. 

Lord bless them and keep them. In their bleary-eyed ministrations through the night, they don’t know that the most precious moments of existence are ticking slowly by as guardian angels gather near watching with breathless wonder.

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Luke 1:14 

And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth,

Beautiful Promise of God’s Protection

I CHOSE LIFE FOR HER AND I CHOSE THE RIGHT CHOICE 😍😍😍😢 I COULD NOT EVER IMAGINE MY LIFE WITHOUT HER. SHE BRINGS SO MUCH JOY IN MY LIFE AND GIVES ME SO MUCH STRENGTH TO KEEP PUSHING IN LIFE. HER SMILE IS THE CUTEST AND HER HUGS ARE THE BEST HUGS  EVER 😍😍🤗 I LOVE HER SO MUCH THAT SINCE THE VERY FIRST TIME I HEARD HER HEART BEAT INSIDE OF ME I JUST KNEW I HAD TO MEET MY 2ND PRINCESS. AND THANK U MRS VICKY BECAUSE WITHOUT UR HELP, I WOULD HAVE DONE THE MOST HATEFUL AND BAD DECISION IN MY LIFE. U R THE BEST TOO WITH BELLA PROMESSA (BEAUTIFUL PROMISE )

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This wonderfully encouraging text came from a mom who was facing incredibly difficult circumstances when I met her about two years ago. She came to the abortion center feeling hopeless and helpless. She knew abortion was wrong, but she was overwhelmed by struggles. After meeting with Cities4Life counselors and seeing her baby’s heart beat on the HELP Monroe Pregnancy Center mobile ultrasound unit, her world shifted. How could she destroy her living child? She could not.

We presented the gospel after she saw her baby on the ultrasound. With joy and tearful repentance, she submitted her life to Jesus. Her struggles did not end, but from that moment forward, she knew that she would obey God in loving the little miracle He had created within her womb. He would make a way for her. 

And He did.

I stay in touch with many moms who have chosen life at the abortion center. This one may be the most effusively grateful. She texts me regularly to thank me, and has for the past couple of years. She asked me to give the baby her middle name. And she always sends texts in capital letters, her enthusiasm for the joy of life requiring so much more than lower-case letters properly express.

Today, I was at the abortion center to help our team. There was so much adversity. The “pro-choice” escorts were playing music...a song entitled, “Another One Bites the Dust.” Friday they were playing, “Only the Good Die Young.” Their mockery of the seriousness of abortion and the tragic deaths of so many unborn babies every day makes all of us sick. I don’t understand how anyone could take delight in unborn children dying. However, our team played worship music and since it was amplified, it was heard.

I was stationed up the road. A driver stopped for me. The young woman beside him looked scared. They told me they were headed to the abortion center. I handed him our literature and told him we had resources that could help. I told the young lady her baby’s heart was beating as early as 17 days from conception. He took the literature with pictures of unborn babies at varying stages of development and drove on. He slowed down for the next counselor down the road, and she told him Jesus loved them and their baby, and also offered help, and a pamphlet. He held up the pamphlet I had given, turned the truck around, and drove away from the abortion center.

Sometimes, just the presence of people proclaiming God’s hope and reminders that someone values that little unborn life is enough to turn hearts. It is easy in times of struggle and discouragement to lose sight that God promises He will uphold us, He will be strong when we are weak, He will bear our burdens, He will restore us, He will never leave us or forsake us.

The beautiful promises of God. 

Deuteronomy 31:6 

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”