Lately, my Saturdays have started at 4:45 in the morning. Usually, (and especially) because it’s Friday night, i will have stayed up to some unGodly hour the night before. This particular case would be a result of shooting in downtown with Bethany and going to go see a 925 showing of Mama Mia. But nevertheless, i find i am pulling myself out of bed, getting ready quickly, drinking some Naked (ha.) to stay alive, nourished and full of fruit ( best way to be.) and running out the door to drive (either with Quanns or without) to the South Point Chick-Fillet to meet some of my good friends at 630. From there, we carpool down to Richmond to the Woman’s Health Clinic just off of Boulevard. Each Saturday morning, the clinic is open for solely abortion procedures. We go and read Scripture and pray for a few hours.
i have found that in the past two or so years, i have gone through times where i treated this time in the same mentality as one would say “doing church.” It became a system. I felt very disheartened by the angry anti-abortion activist’s yelling and screaming, the cold stares from escorts, people going in and passing runners and though i knew i needed to be there, it didn’t feel like i was doing anything but ‘doing my time.’ For a worthy cause, obviously.
i praise God that He keeps showing His face and His hand to my doubting heart when He is under no obligation to do such a thing. He brought new people who have been convicted to stand for truth. He broke down incredible barriers between us and the escorts. He’s helped us build relationships. Not only with each other as we are bound in a tight-knit group of friends with the same mindset and desire to see Jesus glorified, but with the people we would have considered our enemies on first approach. The people on the other side of the battle lines. literally. He’s emboldened us. He has shut the mouth of the Devil from spewing lies into the ears of the lost. He has crushed my heart and made it so much bigger. Not with anything i have thought and done but wholly with Himself.
I sat down with my journal and bible by a tree this morning, after we read Colosians and 1st Thessalonians together, and watched. I saw women being loved, even when they chose to keep walking. I watched Tim as he continues to build his relationship with Peggy, the clinic escort. I watched Fred, an angry, yelling anti-abortion guy who has been confronted in love more in the past two weeks than in a very long time stand on the street corner and sing hymns with little passion, NOT loudly quoting the bible in a hateful way, and NOT screaming at women. God was being glorified there. Yes, even at a location where thousands of precious babies are killed. He can and will make all things good. Not in my time, not in my ways, but in His perfect way. And we can wait on Him and trust in Him, cause He has been good to us. (PS 13).
So, two means of support i ask from you: prayer and participation. I ask anyone who reads this that if you feel you want to see what goes on there beyond what you hear on the news or in politics, please come join us. We are there to Love God and Love people. We pray for an end to the holocaust, but we know we alone cannot do it. So, while we wait on God, we are called to be is servants and to show His love to the lost and hurt like He showed us His love when we were lost and hurt. If you feel called, please come. And if you simply cannot join us in Richmond on Saturday mornings, i would ask that you would pray for us in a few specific ways:
–that in whatever we do, Christ is glorified and nothing of ourselves is added
–that we would know when to speak and when to be silent. to pray without ceasing.
–for our relationships with the clinic escorts, Peggy and Andrew. We know the most about Peggy and she does not know if abortion is right or wrong, she just knows that the hate exuded from some of the people in the pro-life movement is wrong. That she would see the One who is Love through us and find Him.
–for Fred, a very angry man at the clinic who is there fairly religiously. that he would not yell and that he would not scream and if he does, we would have the discernment of what action to take. That his heart would be broken for these women and the doctors and nurses. Particularly, that we would not look at him and compare him to ourselves, seeing as we are equally in need of a Savior from our sins.
–for the people who run by who see what we are doing( because in Richmond on Saturday mornings, there are quite a few).
–for perseverance and hope.
and that’s the story of today…goodnight.
