She Chose Homelessness Over Abortion

J greets my dog in her New Winter Coat

This week, in the middle of a flood of weeklong rain, a young lady pulled over to the side of the road in front of the abortion center. When I reached her, along with one of our new Cities4life counselors, her face reflected the weather. Tears rolled out of her eyes accompanied by gut wrenching sobs. I instantly put my arms around her and told her it was obvious she didn’t want to abort. Was I correct? She nodded, unable to speak. I told her we could help her and asked would she be willing to come on our RV for an ultrasound of her baby? She nodded again.

“J” showed little emotion once she stopped crying. She didn’t smile and spoke quietly with terse answers. Her boyfriend sent her for the abortion. He magnanimously would pay for it. J was certain that the aunt with whom she lived would kick her out if the pregnancy was divulged. There was no choice but abortion. She was all alone in this, and felt trapped with a choice she didn’t want to make.

“But you don’t want the abortion?” I asked again.

“No...it is murder.”  Again tears.

I wrote down all the obstacles she faced as she listed them, and told her we could help with each one. We would provide a mentor through Lovelife Charlotte , housing resources, counseling, financial help, and a baby shower that would provide all the baby would need for the first two years of life. Would that all help her situation? She nodded.

Normally, we share the Gospel with the women who come aboard the Monroe Help Pregnancy RV because we know the power of Christ alone can truly change a heart inclined to abortion. However, due to circumstances beyond our control, the ultrasound took a long time, and the young woman had to leave. I told her I would call later to check on her, and she could call me at any time with any needs. I hoped I could share the hope and truth of Jesus with her at that time.

For the next three days, I texted and called. No response. I feared she had decided to abort anyway. Then late last night, in the wee dark hours, she called. My phone was off, but I saw that she had called when I got up early the next morning. I emailed her to let her know I was awake, had noticed she called, and I was available. Instantly, she called.

She had been in a bad accident last night. The car that hit her took off, and the police were unable to find the driver. Her own car was totalled, but since it had been a hit and run, there would be no insurance to cover her car. She was taken to the hospital with abdominal pain and head injury. Her aunt was called. The hospital revealed that they were checking the health of the baby. The aunt, now informed of the pregnancy, called J all kinds of awful things and told her she was no longer welcome in the home. When J was released  from the hospital in the early morning, the aunt told her to pack her bags and get out.

“What did your boyfriend say?” I asked, “Did he end the relationship?”

“No. I did. I didn’t want anything to do with him after he told me to kill my baby.”

She was penniless, homeless, and sore but blessedly otherwise uninjured from the accident. She had a small suitcase of belongings. No coat, hat or mittens. 

“Where are you now?” I asked.

“At the bus station. I am going home to my sister.” The sister lived across the country in a very cold place. A two day bus trip. J had no warm winter clothes.

“I spent my last penny on the bus ticket,” she said. “I haven’t slept in two days. The bus leaves tonight.”

I told her I would be there within an hour. Then I posted at our Cities4Life group page and asked for folks to share the story and see if anyone was willing to donate to this brave woman. Meanwhile, I quickly finished breakfast and went to the bus station. She was alone, except for two policemen standing nearby and one irate woman on the telephone. When I approached J, who was asleep, and quietly said her name, the policeman smiled at me and gave me a thumbs up. I suspect he knew her story. 

I hugged her, and she leaned against me as I walked her to my car. She hadn’t eaten since the day before so we went to breakfast. While she ate breakfast, texts began pouring in from people donating money. One woman offered her home for J to live in. Another donated a warm winter coat, hat, mittens, and a scarf. When I told her how much money we would be giving her for her trip to her sister, she began crying, overcome by the kindness of strangers. It was not enough to get her a car which I knew she would need, but she had plenty to take care of her immediate needs.

With all this good news, now was the perfect time to share the BEST Good News. I shared the Gospel, which I had been longing to do since I first met her. I know God brings people to me with a plan and a purpose, and most of the time, it is to connect them with Him. I am nothing special, but He sure is something extraordinary. 

As she listened to me, eating her breakfast, she asked many questions. I explained the truth of how we all are sinners deserving Hell but Jesus paid the penalty for sin that we owed by dying in our stead, rising from the dead to show not only that He was God but that He had the power to overcome death for Himself and for us, and when we “proclaim with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved.” (Romans 10:9). After a long discussion of what it means if He is truly Lord of our lives, she told me she had never asked Him to be her Lord...but she wanted to. Now. She bowed her head and submitted her life to the God she had just fully encountered.

I brought her home to a freshly made bed. She slept all day. In the evening, I returned her to the bus station. I hugged her goodbye and she promised to stay in touch.

Yesterday was the Day of Mourning for our nation’s sin of abortion. Thousands around the nation gathered to repent, pray, and mourn the horror of legalized murder of our own children. Many were moved to wailing and tears, prostrating themselves on the arena floor while crying out to God.

I pray that the emotion of the event does not end there. I pray that many will be moved to action. Speak for the unborn. Oppose those politicians who vote to continue and expand abortion. Help the desperate women who consider abortion.

J will need a car, both for work and for getting to church. It will bring us great joy to connect her with a body of believers who will continue to minister to her in that cold land where she is headed. If you are moved to help her, please click HERE to donate through Cities4Life, which has the highest rating of ministry financial accountability possible. In the notes section of the donation form, indicate that you desire the donation to be used for J. We will be sure the donations are used towards J’s needs. 

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.

When I awake I am still with You

“How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭139:17-18‬ ‭NIV‬‬

During my daily Bible reading I got stuck on this  verse. When I awake, I am still with you jumped out at me with poignant sorrow. I stand with other volunteers on the sidewalks of abortion centers for the ministry Cities4Life, proclaiming life and hope and help to the abortion-minded mothers. Most of the time they still abort. Those women will awaken this morning.  But the little babies they just slaughtered will never see the blue sky, the sparkling dew on the grass, or hear the song of an early spring Robin. They will not still be with us.

Today across 20 cities of our nation, an  event called Day of Mourning will be observed. People will hear the testimonies and prayers of a woman who Chose Life!, a young girl rescued from abortion, and people involved in the pro-life movement. We will collectively grieve the horrific evil of abortion that our nation has sanctified for decades. We will mourn for those babies who never had a voice and many of whom never had an advocate speaking on their behalf.

It is raining, and bone chilling cold, but our team will be faithfully proclaiming the hope of the Gospel as well as offering tangible help in front of the abortion center this morning. Maybe some of the mothers’ hearts will be turned to their children and their babies will be spared. When that happens, we all rejoice. It is sometimes hard to find new volunteers despite so many people who are repulsed by recent legislation adding new states to the roster of those who will abort a baby for any reason up to the moment of birth.

Please consider joining us. If you can’t volunteer on the sidewalk, consider a donation of your time or money in other areas in which we need support and help. Maybe then you will receive a text one day like this one from a woman who Chose Life! and submitted her life to Jesus as the result of the faithful witnesses of many of our counselors:

L

Yoked With Jesus

Posted with permission by my Mom

With the recent death of my Dad, I am in Tucson with my mom for the next couple of weeks. I try to listen to her and respond whenever possible with words of the only comfort and hope I know — the promises of Jesus. It is also how I respond to every abortion-minded mom I counsel as a sidewalk counselor with Cities4Life. I pray always not only that God will open the doors of opportunity to share the Gospel, but that He would give me wisdom, courage, and discernment in walking through them.

Yesterday, I told my mother about a vivid recurring dream I have that I had again just the previous night. She told me she had a recurring dream as well, but in the past few days, it had a new ending. The dream was that she was falling. She was scared, and would cry out, but always awoke before she hit the ground. A few days ago, she had the dream that she was falling. She was afraid as always, but instead of waking up, she smashed to the ground.

“What do you think it means?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “What do you think?”

“Well if it was my dream, I would think that you were very afraid of terrible things happening, but then it happened, and you survived.”

She looked at me and said, “That resonates with me.”

“It is how I felt when I had breast cancer,” I told her. “I didn’t want breast cancer, I would not want it again…but once I had it, I realized that I could handle it. I knew I was in God’s hands, I knew where I was going if I died, and I knew that God was with me through it all. In fact I never felt closer to God than while I was in the midst of that very terrible struggle.”

She was silent, still looking at me very intently. I knew she was processing what I was saying. 

“Recently I was reading verses I have read a thousand times, and I had an epiphany that relates to this. The verses are in Matthew 11:28-30. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” I always paid attention to the comforting fact that Jesus would help our weary souls and give us rest. But as I was reading it recently, I paused on that verse about taking His yoke. 

“Wait a minute! He just offered us rest…but He was telling us we had to take his yoke. That doesn’t sound restful.

“I went to the dictionary to look up yoke to be sure I understood. This was the definition: a wooden cross piece in which two animals are hitched together to pull a load.

“Well, that made me take notice. First, a wooden cross! Jesus died for me on a wooden cross to pay the penalty for sin that I owed. But then the yoke is used for two creatures to pull a load together. See, Jesus may not remove our burden, but He is right beside us pulling it with us. That is exactly what I felt while I was struggling with cancer. He was right there with me.”

My mom was still quiet, peering at me with deep concentration. I am not sure what she was thinking, but I hope it was how much she longed for that relationship; that eternal, loving presence especially in the wake of her husband’s death. Her family surrounds her and we do our best to help her through this, but we are NOTHING compared to the hope and love of our Lord.

The women I counsel who are on the brink of abortion feel they have an unbearable burden. They see no way out of the crushing circumstances in which they find themselves. Whether we view the burden as heavy or not is of no consequence. They feel trapped by the pregnancy, and they need help.

The only truly transformative help we can offer is to trust Jesus, follow His commands, and let Him help them bear the burdens of life. He does not often remove the burden, but His presence certainly lightens it.

At least it has for me.

**********

Revelation 21:4 

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”