Our Struggle is Not Against Flesh and Blood

It never gets old holding a baby saved from abortion

It was grand central station on the RV with the mobile ultrasound yesterday out at the busy abortion center sidewalk. Our RV, from Monroe HELP Pregnancy Center is brand new and was being utilized fully!  We had three pregnant women on at one point, with a fourth who thought she was pregnant but turned out not to be. It was controlled chaos. All three pregnant women chose life. A fourth mom at another Charlotte abortion center chose life as well with the counsel of a Cities4life volunteer. What a blessed day!

There was one piece of disturbing news. If you have been following this blog, you know that Charlotte Zoning Authority has seized four of our signs under the guise of an ordinance that says NOTHING about it being illegal (as they claim) to hold our signs the way we do. I read the ordinance carefully. It is clear the city has targeted us to silence us, and our 1st and 4th amendment rights have been violated. We just found out that those signs, totaling about $400 of precious ministry funds, were destroyed by the city.

The little guy in the photo above was the son of a mom who dropped by for a visit. She chose life a few months ago and received a lavish baby shower from our partner ministry, Truth and Mercy Prolife Ministry. It is always a joy to see the babies who might not have been here if Cities4Life hadn't been here.

With our signs.

Which the city destroyed.

One of the moms who came on the RV cried because she knew abortion was wrong, and it broke her heart to consider abortion. However, she was losing her home the next day, and had no idea who to turn to. While she was with me, I called an agency that I thought might help from our list of resources and set up a meeting that afternoon. They assured her she would have immediate housing.

I am a high energy person who LOVES long walks and runs and bikeriding and kayaking. I got home from the very intense day of counseling moms who chose life, and collapsed. I sat in my recliner and wondered why our city would destroy the signs of a ministry that today alone helped save the lives of four little people, found housing for a desperate family, and brought hope and joy to people who had thought all was lost.

As my dear team members reminded me today, we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against spiritual forces of darkness. I dragged my tired carcass off the recliner and went for a walk, praying for the forces of good to light the way.
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Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Speak Lord, For Your Servant Hears

Yesterday one of our brand new volunteer families stopped a car and got the woman driving to take our literature at the abortion center sidewalk. I hurried over and spoke to her as she walked into the abortion center. I spoke as fast as I could to optimally use the thirty seconds I had till she entered the building.

I told the family of volunteers, "Great job getting the literature in her hands! She is very conflicted. I can tell. Now we pray." I saw the volunteer mom and dad talking to their children and knew they were all praying.

The young lady emerged very shortly thereafter. As she walked to her car, again I begged her to let us help her. She looked at me and smiled, and I knew she had chosen life. As she got in her car, the security person came to talk to her. I suspect she was telling the young woman not to stop and talk with us on her way out. I would not be surprised if she was encouraging the woman to go back in and just do what she came to do. I do not say this in spite but because we know for a fact this happens.

A woman who chose life that we helped in the aftermath of her decision told us that every week after she left the abortion center, she received ongoing calls from them encouraging her to return to abort. This continued until her 20th week of pregnancy, at which point she could no longer (legally) abort at the clinic.

Now, as the car backed out, the volunteer family and I exchanged joyful glances. The little children who had been holding our signs were all smiling. "This is very good!" I whispered to them. When she reached the driveway, she rolled down her window.

"Did you change your mind?" I asked.
"No speak English," she said, still smiling. I reached in my belly pack for our Spanish literature.
"Espanol," I said handing her the pamphlet. I opened it to the name and number of our Spanish counselor and repeated, "Espanol."
She nodded.
"Bebe?" I asked patting my own stomach and then pointing to her midriff.
She nodded, smiling broadly.
I cradled my arms as though rocking a baby and pointed to her. She nodded again.
"Wait!" I said, "Gift! We have a gift!"
Unbelievably, she waited. I ran to my car, got a huge gift basket a donor had made for moms who choose life, and brought it to her. She laughed as I handed it to her.
"Gracias!"
"Dios te ama!" I said. (I hope I was saying God loved her.) I pointed upward, and then at her.
She nodded again, and drove away.

I have never spoken in tongues, but I had to wonder if God had opened her ears to hear our pleas in her own language. I don't know what changed her mind, but clearly she had chosen not to abort. The little family was overjoyed.

"We would do this whether women chose life or not," the father said, "Out of obedience to God's call."
"Yes," I said, "Me too. But man it feels good to see them choose life and know we were used in that choice, doesn't it!"
The children nodded.

This week, one of our Cities4Life network supporters called and asked if I had a mom I worked with who needed a washer/dryer. She had one to donate. I instantly thought of V, a mom I have worked with for three years and who has recently had a spate of struggles. She never asks for help, though I call regularly to check on her and usually offer some resource to help her. I emailed and asked is she wanted the washer/dryer.

"Oh my!!!! Jesus, yes!!!!" she wrote. Her washer/dryer had died a month ago, and with all the terrible setbacks of late including a terrible accident that totaled her car, she had no hope of replacing them. Another wonderful new volunteer will be picking up and delivering the appliances.

God lets us hear the language we need to hear when we open our ears. Sometimes it is the language that speaks without words to a mother's heart, and sometimes it is the language of unvoiced despair that whispers in our ears compelling us to action.

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If God is whispering to you to be a part of our team spreading a culture of life in our city one precious baby at a time, please email me at vkaseorg@cities4life.com for info and training.
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1 Samuel 3:9 

Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

John 10:27-28

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Charlotte City Officials Apprehend Signs From the Clutches of Dangerous Gospel Singing Pro-Lifers

 
We have a group of young adults from Harmony Believers Fellowship in Harmony, NC who drive an hour each Tuesday to volunteer on the sidewalks of the Southeast's busiest abortion center. They are unassuming, gentle, and shy young ladies and men with sweet demeanors and conservative modest dress and actions. They have the voices of angels and often gather after the abortionist arrives to sing with achingly beautiful words of redemption and hope.

Their explanation of why they want to volunteer on their Cities4Life applications state reasons such as: I desire to fulfill Christ's great commission despite my feeling of inadequacy, or I want to show the love of Christ through building relationships with the women who come to abort, or I want to minister to hurting people and save lives, or my heart breaks for dear innocent souls and I want to be a voice for them.

You can see why Charlotte officials are so eager to silence these obvious threats to our fair city.

Bravely, Charlotte Zoning Officials snatched the signs from the hands of these extremists about a week ago. They cited Ordinance 10-212 as their reason for the confiscation of our signs from the hands of the shy and peaceful, quiet young lady who DARED to hold a sign in a manner the officials interpreted as an obstruction, a threat, and a violation of the safety restrictions on signage.

Below is Ordinance 10-212. That's the ordinance which the zoning officials wrote on the citations they issued to Cities4Life director, Daniel Parks, as they seized the signs.

Maybe I am just not as smart as the Charlotte city officials, but I don't see where this ordinance requires that a sign being held by a person shall have no portion of it touch the ground or it will be seized by the Zoning Authorities. Do you? AND if that is what the city insists upon, does that seem like a good use of taxpayer money, sending three city officials to snag a sign from the hands of a shy and unassuming 18-year old young lady who smiles and offers help to women in crisis?

Their courageous seizure of the sign from the hands of our sweet female volunteer was for the subversive and frightening danger posed by the sign resting on her shoes, thus legally off the ground as the ordinance they claim insists...but, GASP, her feet were not in her shoes. 

Yes. You read that correctly. The sign was seized because it rested on her shoes with no little piggies in them. The officials took their lives in their hands to look more closely. No doubt! Her feet were naked on the grass and the sign was resting on empty shoes!!!! A HUGE constitutional crisis was brewing and they had NO CHOICE but to stem this dangerous tide.

Can you imagine the horrifying situation created by this scenario they describe in the video below?

Perhaps it was because the young woman held the sign of a baby who was a victim of abortion. It is indeed a horrific sign. I find it difficult to look at. Many have told us the sign is offensive. Let that thought sink in. The sign is offensive but the reality of the law that allows 20-30 babies each day at that single abortion center to end up as the baby the sign depicts is not? We have seen women look at that sign and change their minds about aborting their child because of that sign alone. The truthful portrayal of consequences of what we do has a way of helping us consider our actions more carefully.

However, it didn't seem to be that particular sign's graphic message that so worried our city officials about the risks posed to Charlotte. Before their brave intervention with the sign depicting the truth of abortion, they tackled the terrifying problem of the young man who held a sign of a baby saved from abortion. That baby is particularly adorable with a huge smile and a flower in her hair. It is a photo of an actual child born in Charlotte and saved through the efforts of Cities4Life from abortion.

What could be the danger of that sign...other than people might reconsider which reality they wanted to be theirs that day: the mangled aborted dead baby or the smiling joyful saved baby? Who knows what unknown catastrophes the officials felt might come of the sign-wielding pro-life Harmony Believers Fellowship singers? The baby on the sign is very cute, and maybe the Charlotte Zoning officials felt people driving by might ooh and aah right into the car in front of them. An accident waiting to happen.

The young man, unlike the young woman, had his feet inside his shoes. They removed the sign from his hands without having to resort to violence, for which we all breathed a sigh of relief. These people sure know how to take control in a crisis situation. I just pray if ISIS comes to Charlotte, those city officials are there with as much authority and courage as exhibited in wrenching our signs into their cars.

As you ponder this valiant effort of Charlotte Zoning Authority to rid the city of dangerous and reckless sign behavior, you might want to take a gander at a recent article about the very issue of signs that are taking over our city! In the case of the signs mentioned in the news release, no one is holding the signs-- they are being tacked up on every available structure all over our fair city. Unlike our signs which are held or strapped to our cars and removed each and every time we leave our volunteer shift, these signs remain for months at times! What are Charlotte city officials quoted as saying they are doing about THIS clear and present danger?

In that article, the following telling statement is made: But the city said it doesn't pursue fines, saying that "non-punitive methods have proven most effective and efficient when compared to the outlay of resources necessary to identify and cite each offender"


WE must be special! We received citations for both signs the officials seized; signs NOT left for months unattended on street lamp posts but signs held by volunteers who let one edge of the sign touch the ground.

We pay a lot of money in taxes. Charlotte's violent crime rate continues to rise but tax dollars, resources, and energy are diverted to render citations to sweet volunteers just barely into adulthood, to remove signs they are holding because a two-foot wide edge of cardboard is resting on the ground. These signs are expensive and help a small privately funded ministry do such good work as typified by the past few weeks when we sheltered a homeless family for a month, fixed their car, bought groceries and clothes for their children, and gained them entrance into a private program that will provide housing and life training skills so they will never find themselves homeless again. Not a CENT of taxpayer money was expended in this effort. And by the way, they are excited about the baby they chose not to abort.

Meanwhile, instead of helping others in devastating situations, our funds and energy might be diverted to regaining our signs from the city of Charlotte. Does anything upset you about this use of government power?


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If you are concerned about this harassment of volunteers who routinely help homeless women find housing, rescue babies led to the slaughter of abortion, provide gas and groceries and support to those who choose life along with a host of other immediate helpful resources, please contact the Charlotte zoning department, specifically Ben Krise 704-336-2485

Perhaps this encourages you to join us ministering to women who feel they have no choice but abortion, and yet though our vital ministry, find out there is a better choice and real hope and help.
Email vkaseorg@cities4life.com for information on shadowing experienced volunteers and training sessions.
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Jeremiah 22:17

"But your eyes and your heart Are intent only upon your own dishonest gain, And on shedding innocent blood And on practicing oppression and extortion."

 

Charlotte City Officials Seize Cities4Life Private Property Without a Warrant

"I feel constitutionally violated," Daniel Parks, Cities4Life Executive Director said after Charlotte City officials seized two of Cities4Life signs. "I don't feel like my constitutional rights are protected in the city of Charlotte. To imagine the city has the right to seize private property without a warrant is very unsettling."

Official taking private property without a warrant

One of our volunteers on the sidewalks of the southeast's busiest abortion center was holding two signs in the legally prescribed manner near his car. A policeman arrived while I was speaking on the microphone. The police come every day to check that we have the legally required sound permit. (We don't use the sound system if we don't have the permit.) The sign-holding volunteer was the permit holder. Daniel Parks, seeing the policeman approach the sound system alerted our volunteer to please get the permit and bring it to the officer.

The volunteer put down the signs, turned them facing his car and leaned them against the curbside of his vehicle. His car was parked on the curb of a wide street where at least three cars can easily pass abreast of each other. He got out the permit and walked across the street to stand near the sound system, waiting for the policeman to approach. The total elapsed time that the volunteer was away from the signs was approximately ten minutes, allowing the officer to approach him, look at the permit, and exchange a few pleasantries.

When the volunteer turned back around to return to his car, city officials from the zoning department were already walking to the signs from their car parked some distance up the street. The office of these city officials is estimated by Mapquest to be 14-17 minutes from the abortion center in light traffic. That means the officials received a call by the pro-choice defense team, leaped in their car, probably exceeded the speed limit or used a 5th dimension portal, and ran to the signs to get there in ten minutes. Either that, or they were lurking nearby, awaiting a call. They responded beautifully to the dire emergency of signs leaning for ten-minutes against a car parked on the curb. Thank God for our quick response Zoning Officials!

Two other officials tried to confiscate the sign of another volunteer. While he was holding it with two hands as prescribed by the city, the bottom of the sign was apparently touching the ground. This is VERY DANGEROUS and no city official in their right mind would let this infraction go unpunished. When the city officials tried to confiscate Patrick's sign, they told him it was because he could not let the sign touch the ground. As they tried to take it, Patrick put his sign down, and sat on it.

Patrick stands...er...sits...in defense of his private property rights despite the dangerous precedent of letting all parts of a sign touch the ground. Thankfully, no immediate catastrophes ensued from this gross overreach of safe sign behavior

He didn't speak much except to say that he was a veteran, and they were violating his 4th amendment rights he joined the military to preserve. The city official told him sitting on the sign was okay, and did not try to remove him or the sign forcibly. It could be they ran back to the office to research the 4th amendment.

Meanwhile, Daniel followed the official who had confiscated our signs demanding to see a warrant for the seizure of his property. This is what the official finally handed Daniel:

In case you can't read this "warrant", it says:
Section 19-241. Obstructions
It shall be unlawful to place or maintain an unnecessary obstruction in the public right of way. The city may require the person who has placed or maintains an obstruction in violation of this section to remove the obstruction and repair or restore the right of way within a reasonable period. of time, which time shall be set in consideration of the harm or risk created by the obstruction and the effort and expense of removal. In addition, the city may summarily remove an obstruction and charge the expense of the removal, restoration, and repair to the person who placed or maintained the obstruction.

Harm or risk? Remember, the signs were leaning against the curbside of a parked car for ten minutes.  Also keep in mind this is a 3-4 car width wide street with most of the curbside empty. The only thing those signs were obstructing was the smooth path of an inchworm across the car's side.

Vicky pondering a sign which was NOT seized despite clear violation of logic and the sign ordinance

Meanwhile, this sign in the picture above was right along the path of the brave zoning official clearing our city of obstructions that could cause imminent harm or risk to Charlotte citizens. The sign said "Keep off the grass". This is a clear violation of logic since the sign itself was not keeping off the grass, but the city has no ordinances about illogical sign usage (yet). Nonetheless, that sign which was breaking rules of logic AND the sign ordinance requiring someone to be HOLDING the sign was NOT seized and put in sign jail. Perhaps the official preferred that message to the one our signs proclaimed. Whatever the reason, that sign not being held and on the ground in CLEAR VIOLATION of the city sign ordinance was not seized. All signs are apparently NOT equal under Charlotte city zoning law.

By the way, don't lose sight of the fact that just a hundred feet away, four dozen or so little living human beings were being dismembered by an abortionist. Good thing the doctor of destruction didn't let a sign touch the ground in his operating chambers or those zoning officials would have been on him like vultures on a dead skunk.

Even with our signs seized, our attention distracted, and the hot sun beating down on us since the city officials had seized our shade canopy a few weeks ago, four mothers left the abortion center without killing their babies! Four babies saved from the forces that would find it illegal to let a sign touch the ground, but not illegal to dismember a living human child without anesthesia or even perhaps a molecule of shame.

Dangerous subversive sign holders pray before offering help to women in crisis

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If you are a constitutional lawyer and would be interested in taking this case pro-bono, we would be grateful for your help. Please contact Daniel Parks at dparks@cities4life.com
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Isaiah 5:20
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.

This Baby is Going to Be Something Special

A text from a mom who chose life, my response in blue

These were two texts I received from a mom who chose life over abortion about a week ago. She was determined to abort then...but transformed before our eyes as we shared the truth of the gospel, the humanity of the baby, and the resources and help Cities4Life could offer to address the obstacles she faced.

Around midnight, she felt her baby kick for the first time and she knew her text might wake me up, but couldn't wait to tell me. And then later yesterday, she texted again, overcome with the "liberating" joy of knowing a special little human was developing in her womb.

The complete turn around in her is NOT unusual. The pro-choice people would suggest that all women who go to an abortion center have made up their minds and view us as a judgmental and hurtful enemy. These texts, similar to many I receive regularly, show the fallacy of that view.

A young lady who came on our Monroe HELP Pregnancy Center RV yesterday for an ultrasound told us, "You people are doing God's work." She blinked at me in incredulous wonder as I listed all the ways we would help her. She was an abortion minded woman who expected us to be terrible, condemning, and telling her how wrong she was. Unexpectedly, she saw "God working" and said, "I never thought I would enjoy coming on here...but I did. I have so much to think about."  It turned out she was NOT pregnant, but I feel optimistic that one day if she is, abortion will no longer be considered.

A second woman on the RV chose life. When she came on, she told me she was wavering and had considered abortion, that she was overwhelmed, afraid, and stressed beyond her ability to bear. She opened the first page of our pamphlet and read this verse: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah 1:5)

"I read this verse," she said, "And it really startled me. Before my baby was formed...God knew him."
I nodded as she gazed in wonder at the photo of the baby 8-weeks-old in utero.


Later, after an hour with us, she hugged the nurse Sherry and me and told us that she was "inspired" and knew she could do what she needed to do to keep her baby. Again, Cities4Life is helping her with a vast network of resources.

"I can't believe you all would do all that for me," she said, as I listed the assistance we would provide.
"God loves you and your baby," I told her, "Immeasurably. We believe so strongly that God hates abortion that we are committed to helping women who choose life every way we can."

Do you want to know the most amazing part of this story? Yesterday morning, before heading to the abortion center sidewalks, I read an article by a pro-choice advocate. Her scathing remarks about pro-life counselors side-swiped my assurance that we are helping women. I drove to the sidewalk of the abortion center praying the whole way that God would show me that I was doing what He wanted me to do.

I think God answered my prayer.
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Please join us. The rewards are enormous. Contact me at vkaseorg@cities4life.com for information and training on how you can help an abortion minded mom realize her baby is going to be something special.
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Jeremiah 1: 4-9

⁴ The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵ “Before I formed you in the womb I knew^[a] you,
    before you were born I set you apart;
    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

⁶ “Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”

⁷ But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’ You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. ⁸ Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord.
⁹ Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “I have put my words in your mouth.

A God of Second Chances and The Proper Response

I came home from a week in the 111 degree Tucson desert to have my granddog Ragnar with us for the day while his family was off to the beach. It was a cool 80 degrees when we went for a morning walk. Ragnar, a Siberian Husky, does not love the heat. He made it clear that two miles was his limit.

"You don't know heat," I chided him. Dry heat or not, 111 degrees is HOT. I dropped him home to finish out my walk, thinking how wonderful it is to have a granddog. None of the responsibility and all the joy of a dog.

After my walk we had an amazing sermon at church from a guest pastor. He spoke about the book of Jonah, but with a depth and clarity I had not heard before. Three points he made struck me. They mirrored concepts I voice often in my work at the sidewalks of the abortion center encouraging women that this pregnancy was not a disaster, but choosing to destroy their child surely was.

1. Jonah being swallowed by the "great fish" was NOT punishment. It was grace! Jonah was on a ship to Tarshish while running from God's presence when given a command he did not wish to fulfill. The sailors threw Jonah overboard to calm the raging storm when Jonah admitted that his God was probably ticked off and the one arousing the waves. In the middle of the tumultuous ocean, Jonah had NO hope of making it to shore on his own power. BUT GOD "appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah..." (Jonah 1:17)  It was God's gracious provision of the whale that carried him across the ocean and eventually spit him out on dry land. Being in the stinking gut of the whale saved his life.

Immediately I began thinking of how often I view calamity with the wrong lens. It might not be punishment...it might be provision. I need to cogitate on that.

2. One wrong choice tends to lead to a series of wrong choices. The same is true of good choices. When Jonah chose to run from God, it endangered both him and the sailors on the ship in which he tried to escape. As the storm raged and the sailors were in a panic, Jonah was sleeping!

How often do we become immune to God's warnings and God's voice...dull our senses to the degree that we do not appreciate or respond to danger and sin!? This is another point I often make at the abortion center sidewalk. So many of these women have made terrible choices that move them further and further from God. Abortion, killing their own child, is not a choice probably any of them ever envisioned having to face one day, but that is the nature of bad choices. They tend to snowball until we have fallen so far from God that we are justifying unthinkable actions.

Blessedly, the opposite is true as well. One good choice tends to pave the way for the next good choice. Each moment with each new choice, we are given an opportunity. Will we move towards God or away from Him?

3. One of the greatest verses in the Bible that I had never really thought deeply about is in Jonah 3:
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

God is the God of second chances. Jonah had not only disobeyed God's command to go to Nineveh the first time, but ran away from the Lord, and admitted to the sailors that was what he was doing. Yet God didn't give up on Jonah. He gave Jonah another chance.

After church and that inspiring message, I hurried off to the river to kayak. I thought about all the second chances I have been given in life after so many truly God-less choices. As I paddled into my fourth mile,  I mused about how last year battling breast cancer, I thought I might never be able to kayak again. I remembered the pain of moving my arm at all.

But God...

From the depths of the despair of cancer, so much was revealed to me. The most important truth of that journey was that God would not abandon me and God was all I needed. If I could focus on Him and trust in His essential goodness, then where He sent me would lead to good. Instead of fighting God or running from God or blaming God or doubting God, I submitted to God. How freeing it was to put my life in His hands. It was never my life anyway. It was always His. Cancer gave me a second chance to trust God in the midst of a terrible storm. I didn't want to die, but if I did, I knew He would bring me safely to His shore.

God is the God of provision, and second chances. This is the message I hope to convey to the women at the abortion center today. As I struggled to sleep last night, a woman who chose life after being certain she would abort texted me: "Oh my!!! I know it's late but I had to tell you. I just felt the baby move!"

Don't run from God, run to Him.
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Jonah 3:

3 Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: ² “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.”

³ Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was a very large city; it took three days to go through it. ⁴ Jonah began by going a day’s journey into the city, proclaiming, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown.” ⁵ The Ninevites believed God. A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth.
⁶ When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth and sat down in the dust. ⁷ This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh:

“By the decree of the king and his nobles:

Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. ⁸ But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. ⁹ Who knows? God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”

¹⁰ When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.

She Tried to Kill Me But God's Presence Was Still There

Actual 3-d ultrasound of baby scheduled to die by abortion yesterday

Despite the "pro-choice" leader swerving her car to try and hit me while careening into the abortion center driveway, three women chose life today, and I was thankfully not flattened and able to continue pleading for babies' lives with our Cities4Life team. I was not surprised by the dangerous and vile action of that "pro-choice" woman. If one does not revere life in the womb, it doesn't take long for all human life to be devalued. It is easy to try to silence and harm those who are defenseless when you are a bully with a car or an abortionist with a scalpel. What is not as easy is justifying the erosion of decency in your own heart towards the babies and towards the gentle Christians who are providing so many helpful resources to so many hurting, impoverished, and wounded women.

I pray for her soul. What terrible sorrow and bitterness must be abscessing inside her to cause her vile language and actions? I pity her and am grateful I am not her. I hope one day she will know the truth of God's love and salvation: Holy Father, keep them and care for them – all those you have given me – so that they will be united just as we are. I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me because of their testimony" John 17:11, 20 NLT).

Two of the women who heard our pleas in the morning as they lined up at the door returned to their cars and drove away before the center opened. They did not return.

The third was a woman, Maria (not real name), who really didn't want to abort, but went in to do so anyway. Maria's mother had stopped speaking to her when Maria told her mother that she was pregnant. In her grief over her mom's stony coercive silence and desire that Maria abort, the young lady entered the clinic. Once inside, she remembered the "very sweet" voices of the counselors, and left.

She pulled out of the parking lot and told us she "just couldn't do it." Later, she told me, "No matter how my Mom feels, how could I live with myself?" She had a long drive home, but said maybe she would like to come aboard our beautiful new RV and see her baby. The baby put on a magnificent performance. She turned her face towards us, and it was as though she were gazing at us. Then she raised her hand to her face. Maria could not stop gasping in incredulous delight. Our nurse Sherry got fantastic pictures.  Maria was in a continual state of awe and wonder.

"Wow!!! You guys, this is just awesome. Wow! Wow! Is that her hand? Is she sucking her thumb? Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!"

She was so excited and wanted to know gender, which we don't determine with our limited ultrasounds. However, we do provide a 3-d ultrasound free for moms who choose life through our partnership with Sweet Pea 3-D Imaging. Maria was so excited and eager to know her baby's sex that she asked if she could do the 3-D ultrasound right away. I called Morgan at Sweet Pea, and she had an impossible, rare opening in the time it would take our exuberant new mother to drive there.

Morgan called me after Maria left.
"She was smiling ear to ear when she walked in," Morgan told me, "She said she was SO relieved she had not killed her baby."

After speaking with Morgan, I looked at the notes I had taken while counseling this lovely young lady. I had asked what was going through her head that made her change her mind.

"Besides the sweetness of the counselors," she told me, "I knew I was in emotional distress...and no one should make a life and death decision based on that."

Yes. A wise woman. I think she will be a good mother.
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Romans 12:19

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Romans 12:17-21

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.