Be a Lighthouse in the Storm

On the morning walk with exuberant shiny Susy, the fog was burning off the river in thousands of little ballerina wisps dancing on the water. It was very beautiful and made me sad that today I fly home, away from my wonderful nephew, this wonderful dog, and this beautiful little town nestled on the Susquehanna River. It has been a lovely week. 

ON my last morning walk, I passed this excellent message on the village church sign post. I love lighthouses, and there are always people in a storm that need some light. While I was gone from my work all week as a Cities4Life counselor, my heart and prayers were with the teams ministering outside the abortion center. One of our teams encountered a woman who had been raised with the superstition that if a pregnant woman does not shield her baby from a solar eclipse, the baby will be damaged. The woman had been outside during the solar eclipse not yet knowing she was pregnant. She now came to abort over unfounded  fears about her poor baby's health! Praise God our team was there as well as the HELP Monroe mobile ultrasound unit. The nurse was able to show the woman her living, healthy baby and the counselors were able to help quash the superstition that had almost led to a baby's death.

Please hear that again: a baby who was wanted was to be aborted due to superstitions. 

What if the Cities4Life counselors and the mobile ultrasound unit had not been there, parked on the curb in front of the abortion center? Yet our Charlotte City Council is once again considering making it impossible for that RV and our counselors to have access to these women in crisis through zoning the street No Parking. They are being spurred on by the "pro-choice" crowd and the highly profitable abortion center on Latrobe Drive.

Be a lighthouse in this storm. Contact Mayor Roberts and your council members today to express outrage over this attempt to stomp on our rights to free speech as well as attempting to limit access of a highly effective group in offering resources and help as an alternative to abortion.

Click HERE for contact information.

Meanwhile, I leave this peaceful, beautiful village and am back on the front lines of the abortion battle tomorrow. Please pray that those who fight for the unborn who cannot fight for themselves would be strengthened and uplifted in this latest battle. Better yet, join us. Click HERE for volunteer information.

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John 8:12 

Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

She's Almost 89 and Speaking for the Unborn ... What's your excuse?

This is Kitty. She's 88 years old and on next Monday turns 89 years old. Kitty ministers out at the southeast's busiest Abortion Center three times a week. She had double knee surgery a few months ago but is already back on the sidewalk, calling out to those who feel that abortion is the only answer and trying to convince them that Jesus is the answer.

Kitty is opening my birthday gift to her a week early. I told her that no one who is almost 89 has to wait to open her gifts. I gave her my Unlikely Friends series. I promise a full set of my series to any sidewalk counselor who is out there three days a week for their 89th birthday!

Kitty is a huge inspiration to me. She never complains no matter how cold or how hot it is out there. She is always smiling, and always loving to those that are driving in to exterminate their child. She often stops cars probably because no one can believe that this elderly woman is actually offering anything while standing on her own two feet in the blistering hot day.

As the Cities4life volunteer coordinator, I have been privy to a whole host of excuses for why people do not feel they can give any of their time or resources to help stem the terrible tide of abortion. I, of course, must always be polite and encouraging. But then I see people like Kitty who has every right to sit down and relax. She has earned it. And yet the burden of the unborn fills her spirit and so she's out there week after week, as she will be next Monday on her 89th birthday.

What's your excuse?

As I drove into the abortion center yesterday, I heard a sermon about Hebrews 11 which lists the heroes of the faith. Yesterday with my new wonderful iPhone 7 plus, I took portraits of some modern heroes of the faith that stand with me every Monday out on the sidewalk speaking for those who cannot speak for themselves.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German pastor who opposed Hitler and was eventually killed in the Nazi death camp said, "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."

The death of innocent human beings at the permission of their own parents is evil. A society that remains silent and even condones this slaughter is complicit. God WILL hold us to account.

The Bible echoes this sentiment: Who will rise up for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for me against evildoers? Psalm 94:16

My near 89-year-old friend holds up her age worn hands and says, "Me!" 
What do you say?

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We would love to have you stand with us! Please email me at vkaseorg@cities4life.com for info, or fill out a volunteer contact form by clicking HERE.
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Psalm 92:14

They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,

Psalm 71:18

So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come.

2 Corinthians 4:16

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

Psalm 71:9

Do not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength is spent.

One Person With God

I went to the 42nd anniversary of Roe V Wade memorial in Charlotte yesterday. It was very moving. As my friend, Lisa, one of the directors of Cities4Life, was introduced with one of the mamas she'd counseled who had chosen life a few years ago, I snapped a photo. Later, as I looked at it, I saw that sunbeams were radiating across the scene and settling on the Mama, Lisa, and the child who had once been slated for abortion. I hadn't noticed that at all while standing there during the ceremony. What a beautiful picture. I think it speaks eloquently of God's pleasure in this wonderful warrior for Christ, and for the sanctity of life. This mama was so affected by her near abortion, that she has recently started a non-profit organization that will provide transitional housing for other mamas who choose not to abort, and are in dire need.

I teared up not a few times that morning.

As the ceremony ended, the organizer told us if we wanted to take the anniversary pamphlets and hand them out, that would be great. I have never been one to hand out tracts on the street. The  people that do that sort of thing are people I have shunned in my past. But, I grabbed a handful, and decided to hand them out as I walked back the half-mile to my car. Some people ignored me, but many took my pamphlets. A group of two men and a women were on the edge of the sidewalk. I stopped and asked if they would like my pamphlet.

"Oh," said the woman, "I would like one! I am a reporter and I was supposed to cover this event! Will you walk with me and let me interview you?"

So I walked with her, telling her about Cities4life and how we help the women who choose life over abortion. She asked many questions, and I answered them all. I cited some of the terrible statistics about the emotional upheaval of women who choose abortion, including the suicide rate. She seemed genuinely intrigued by how many women actually change their mind, right there at the abortion center. She also was vigorously nodding her head as I described how we are not protestors, but advocates for life, and approach those women with lists of resources and real help in accessing them.

"We do help many of the women," I told her,  "but ultimately, abortion is a Gospel-issue. If we are going to change the culture that believes that abortion is the answer to terrible circumstances or inconvenient pregnancies, we must change the heart. Only Jesus can do that." She wrote that down. I hope it goes in the article. The most important thing we do is challenge them to examine where they are spiritually, and why abortion can never be the answer. Not from a moral/ethical humanitarian aspect, and certainly not from a spiritual one.

I talked with her the entire walk back, where I introduced her to the organizer, Flip Benham. She took my number because she said she'd like to talk to me more.

"Flip will set you straight on anything I said that was untrue," I laughed, passing her off to Flip. We shook hands.

"I really enjoyed our discussion," she told me as I waved and scurried away. It felt like she meant it.

I hope she doesn't twist my words. To the degree that one person is able, I so want to change the heart of this community, of this nation such that we might never memorialize a 43rd year of legal abortion. As I gazed at the photo later of the sunbeams falling like a benediction upon the mama who chose life and her sidewalk counselor, I was grateful that none of us are just one person. We are each one person with God. 

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charlotte.cities4life.org

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Jeremiah 1:5 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Genesis 9:6 

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Exodus 20:13 

“You shall not murder.

Psalm 127:3 

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psalm 139:13-16 

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Isaiah 49:16

Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me.

Ephesians 2:10 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.