With the decision of the US Supreme Court on Roe v. Wade, abortion on demand became the law of the land in 1973. I was 24 years old then, and not yet a disciple of Yeshua. (That happened in 1976.)
About 12 years after Roe v. Wade, I became increasingly distressed about the killing of babies in the womb. In my prayer time one morning, I cried out to God “You need to do something!”
His reply, “You do something.”
“Me? What can I do? I am an uneducated fisherman’s wife.”
The Lord did not respond to my objection.
This story came back to mind to me this week as I read the Torah portion about Moses at the burning bush. The Lord told him he was to do something. Moses objected, resisted. He had spent the previous 40 years in the wilderness, herding sheep. He had learned a bitter lesson those 40 years ago when he had tried to implement God’s plan to redeem his people. Now Moses knew better. He could do nothing. It was then that God could use Moses for his purposes.
When the Lord told me to do something, I felt totally inadequate, but the Word of the Lord would not go away. As I prayed during the next few days I began to see a plan. I could put together a talk about the sanctity of life. Then I could present the talk somewhere—churches perhaps.
I went to work. I put together a slide show.(This was years before PowerPoint had come on the scene.) When it was ready, I started looking for venues where I could present it. The first opportunity came from a Christian high school. The person I contacted said I could do my talk at one of the school’s weekly chapel meetings.
Trembling before the big audience, I did my talk. It went well. From that exposure I was able to get positive responses from some churches.
After one of those talks a lady approached me. She asked, “Why is there no Crisis Pregnancy Center in Bellingham?” (Bellingham is the seat of Whatcom County in northwest Washington where we lived.)
“I don’t know,” I replied. “what’s a Crisis Pregnancy Center?”
She explained to me what they were and that she had volunteered at one in Idaho.
I told that sounded like a good idea and that I would look into it. I did some research to find out more, and how to go about starting one.
At the next church presentation I told the audience that I had learned about Crisis Pregnancy Centers and that I would like to see if we could get one going in Bellingham. I told the group that if anyone was interested in helping me, let me know.
A woman came up to me and said, “I have been waiting to hear about someone trying to get a CPC started here. I will help you.”
The organization that promoted CPCs was called Care Net, if I remember correctly. They gave us all the information we needed. We started by selling hot dogs in a grocery store parking lot to raise the money for printing materials and postage. We followed the Care Net plan and learned where all the abortions were performed in our community and contacted churches to find financial support. We did a live radio show to talk about it and look for volunteers. A woman called in to the radio show and told us she was “in”.
We were off and running. I saw the plan for the center as a three legged stool. As you know, three points define a plane. A three legged stool is stable. It is not easily unbalanced. The three legs would be:
- Crisis pregnancy intervention
- Post-abortion counseling
- Abstinence-based sexual education
Five years later we had a board of directors, had rented and renovated a space for the Center, furnished it, hired a director and trained volunteer counselors. We opened the doors.
I was chairman of the board. I had lots of responsibilities. I was a sought-after speaker at churches, in the State legislature, on the radio and television. I debated the pro-abortion people in public venues, and for the local newspaper.
About a year after we opened the doors, I heard the Lord say, “I want you to resign from the Crisis Pregnancy Center.”
“What?! Resign? Really?” The CPC had become my mission station. I could not imagine giving it up. At one point in the process of getting the Center open, one of my daughters asked me, “Mom, what did you do before the CPC?” Now I could not imagine what I would do after the CPC.
I was preparing to drive my daughter across the county for graduate school in Virginia. I committed to praying about what I had heard during the trip.
In Virginia I heard two messages. The first was at a rally for the new students to Regent University. The speaker talked about Moses before the burning bush. God told Moses to lay down his rod, his staff. The staff was the symbol of who Moses was, a shepherd. We are not told if Moses struggled with giving up his staff, but he did lay it down. When he did so, it turned into a snake. If he had continued to hold it while it turned into a snake, it would have killed him! Moses had to be willing to give up what his identity or he would have died. Then, surprisingly, God told him to pick up the snake, by the tail! Everyone knows you don’t pick up a snake by the tail! But Moses did as God told him to do. When he picked up the snake, it turned back into a rod. But from that point on, the staff was called the “Rod of God” not the “Rod of Moses”. (So Moses. . .returned to the land of Egypt. Moses also took the staff of God in his hand. Exodus 4:20) The message to these graduate level students was: don’t suppose that this education you are getting is all about your identity. You must give it to the Lord and let him do with it, and you, as he pleases.
The second message I heard was at a church service in Virginia Beach. The sermon was based on Revelation 3:10 where Yeshua said to the church in Philadelphia: Because you have kept the word of My perseverance. . .” The speaker made the point that the people in Philadelphia did not have the written words of Yeshua, they were keeping the “now” word, the word He had spoken to them by His spirit.
I boarded the airplane for my trip back to Washington State with those two messages on my mind, and my Bible in my hand. I knew I was hearing the answer to my prayer about whether I should resign from the board of the CPC. I prayed that I would not hold on to something that the Lord was telling me to let go of, and that I wanted to hear the “now” word from Him.
Very clearly I heard, “It’s not just your position on the board of the CPC that I want you to give up, it’s everything—all the activities of the CPC, all the public speaking, all the church activity including the prayer meetings—all of it.”
Stunned, I cried out to him in my mind, “Lord! That’s not even Biblical! You are going to have to prove it to me from your word.”
My usual way of responding to a word from the Lord, was to write it down. I had nothing to write on, not a journal or even a scrap of paper, so I don’t have a complete record of all the places in the word He guided me to, but I do remember He said to go to First Peter Chapter Three. Ever since I had become a disciple of the Lord, 1 Peter 3 verses 1-2 had been my go to verses to help me make sense of my life as I learned to live with my husband’s hostility against my conversion. “In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives” 1 Peter 3:1-2
I didn’t think there was anymore that I could learn from 1 Peter 3, but I turned there, and read further. “For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands; just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.”1 Peter 3:5-6
As I read those words, tears began to flow down my cheeks. I knew what I had to do. I was seated by the window. The two seats next to me were empty. As my tears fell on my open Bible, I noticed the flight attendant walk past me in the aisle. She gave me a slight, sympathetic glace as she passed, “She thinks someone died,” I thought. Then I realized, “Someone did, me.”
My time with the Crisis Pregnancy Center was over. I resigned as soon as I got home. The Lord had used me as the spearhead to get the CPC going, but I was not the one to oversee it long term. My grief at leaving it behind was short-lived. I had done my job, now people more capable at management would take it forward, and they have! The CPC has been ministering to women, and men, and helping to save lives for about 30 years. Praise God.
The Lord had, and has, other plans for me.
To see what the clinic is up to now, click here: https://www.whatcomclinic.com/
Faith Walking 