A day to remember.

So many of you are reading my prolife missionary blog for the first time, to those newcomers I say welcome, but I also say I would be pleased if you read even more than just this one time because of my arrest.

First of all if you're not familiar with Chen Guangcheng's story please read the following, it will help: http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/04/pro-life-advocates-rally-at-white-house-for-chen-guangcheng/

Okay so here's the whole deal with getting arrested, it's never been something I planned on. While there are some pro-lifers who consider every arrest a jewel in their crown that's not so much my opinion of it.  I actually tried to make sure in every way when I was traveling with Survivors (of the Abortion Holocaust) that I was arrested because I was unsure of how it would affect me fostering and adopting in the future. But after talking to some kick-butt pro-lifers who have been arrested for standing up for the unborn and then going on to foster and adopt my fears and apprehensions were put to the side. But I have to say I still wasn't keen on the thought of getting arrested. I just thought if I'm going to do it, it's going to be something that's really worth fighting for (which is usually just about everything in the Pro-Life movement).

I had been reading up on Chen's situation and had seen Rev. Mahoney posting about it a lot on Facebook of course. But one night after I was reading about how his wife had been tied to a chair for two days and beaten and threatened, I just lost it. I mean how could the US Embassy after promising Chen and his family protection not help them? How could they so easily turn Chen out of the Embassy basically leaving his family to be threatened? I was upset and all I could think about was what if their two kids saw the mother being beaten as well as their father. I couldn't take it, it was upsetting, unnerving and I wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing.

So after seeing the invitation from Students for Life of America and Rev Mahoney to go to DC to stand up for Chen and his family I decided to head up there on Friday morning. So I started my journey at 6am that morning and met up with Tina Whittington from SFLA at 1030 am to drive into DC.  As we drove I found out that Tina herself had never been arrested before either, but this was something that was heavily on her heart and also she wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone if anything happened which was rather sweet of her. I was a bit nervous as we drove, but we talked about many things including how wonderful it would be to see Chen and his family comes to the United States.

We arrived to DC just a little before noon and walked to the White House. We joined Rev Mahoney (Pat) and talked to the media about why we were there and calling for them to get involved and get Chen out of China, since they not only had promised to do so but had the power to do so. Pat then announced that we would be going on the sidewalk in front of the White House to kneel and pray for a bit less than an hour (until 1pm) for Chen’s safety and that Hilary would open her heart to let them come back to the US with her. We went onto the sidewalk and knelt down to pray together, yes we can do that many places, but doing it in front of the White House symbolizes in the media that there are still Christians willing to stand here in the US with Chen. As we were there for about 15 minutes with what seemed to be no problems we thought that perhaps the cops would not be arresting us. But just as Pat said that perhaps we’d be that lucky the cops pulled up in quite a few cars and started barricading off the area we were in including part of the street. The lieutenants came up and told us we weren’t allowed to remain stationary on the sidewalk on which we were kneeling praying on.

So they gave us two warnings saying that we needed to vacate the public sidewalk, and we kneeled firmly keeping in prayer. On the third time they talked over the PA system in the cop car they told us we were then not allowed to leave and were being put under arrest. They came up and determined they would take the ladies first; first they arrested Tina, then me, and then Gwyn. They had us frisked and went through our belongings quickly before they put us handcuffed into the back of eh paddy wagon (as I like to call it). I can’t even begin to describe the horrible feeling of having a cop tell me to stand up and then turning me around and grabbing my wrists to put them in handcuffs. It’s this slow-motion thing in your head of ‘are they actually arresting me, when I’ve done nothing wrong?’

I mean laws are made for a reason right? They’re made to protect people right? What part of this was protecting someone, we told them we were just there to pray until 1pm. We said we just wanted America to know the injustice that was going on with Chen’s situation. We were just there kneeling in prayer and were told we weren’t allowed to remain stationary there… and why is that? Is it because we disagree with what the Obama administration and the US embassy is doing to Chen. Because it that’s the reason then that’s obviously and blatantly disregarding our First Amendment rights as Americans. So we were put in the police wagon, the women on one side and then Wylie and Pat (Rev. Mahoney) on the other side. They locked us in then and drove us to the police station which seemed to be quite a bit of a drive away, at least it felt that way while we were moving around the whole time in handcuffs. We were not buckled into the row in the back we were sitting on so you can imagine how great our nerves were when we saw the police man who was driving the vehicle was texting and driving! But we tried to keep things light and got to know each other and sang a little on the ride.

When we arrived to that station we were taken out of the paddy wagon and lined up to walk through a couple doors into the room that they would process us in. The men (Pat and Wylie) were patted down and had their things confiscated and then were put in a cell together. I’m not quite sure why, but they told the women we could have a seat by the desks where they would fill our paperwork out, they had us patted down again and then let us sit there while we waited for them to come fill out our paperwork. So we waited and they filled out our paperwork and we waited a little more. They then came to us and told us we could either pay the fine or we could stand trial. We all elected to pay the fine and were released within about 3 hours of being arrested I believe.

We thankfully were picked up outside the station somewhat because otherwise we would have been wandering for a bit is my guess with the horrible directions the cops gave us on how to get to the metro. So we all made our way back and Tina and I headed back to Fredericksburg. It was quite the day and I can tell you by the time I got back to Lynchburg and my apartment that night I was just about as exhausted as one could be. To only get up the next morning at 645am to go pray outside Planned Parenthood, what can I say, the pro-life work never ends. But I can honestly say I feel so blessed that working in this movement and defending the unborn is where God would have me be doing His work right now. I feel truly blessed, especially with people like Tina, Gwyn, and Pat by my side as well as countless others in the movement.

One of my friends had posted about what happened and had remarked about how she doubted that this would slow me down in fighting for Life. She is quite right, this if anything shows me how much more time I need to put into it all and how tirelessly we have to work until abortion is ended, not just in the US but in the World! 

New Beginnings

I can say it's definitely different being home so far. It feels like a whole different lifestyle then one of traveling non-stop. Not that I'll be in one place for long, right now what I'm trying to decide is what I want to do tomorrow pro-life work wise. My time with Survivors was great and I've grown so much in learning how to handle different situations and how to become more active defending the unborn. So I'm going to continue this blog with updates of different things I'm doing, though it may not be quite as active as it was on tour. 

So today I made a call to the local abortion mill, relieved to find out they got rid of one of their locations at least when I asked when I could come in for an appointment. But I honestly feel ill to my stomach about the call just made. I called as a scared young girl just trying to find out some information about options. I was asked about when I had my last period, so they could figure out about how far along I was. Then she asked me if I'd like to talk about options over the phone instead of coming in to talk about them. So I asked her what my options might be, and she launched into different types of abortions. Mind you I did not ask or tell her I wanted to have an abortion, just what my options would be. So I stopped her after she explained the first abortion procedure (my stomach couldn't take hearing anymore) and I told her I was unsure of whether I wanted that and might want to consider adoption. I asked her about some options with that, to which she replied "I don't have any information on that, but the office might if I can schedule you for an appointment". She also did say that she could tell me the rest of the procedures over the phone though, and that way she could just schedule me for one for tomorrow. Something is just not right with that.

Have you ever wondered why the "Pro-Choice" movement is called just that? I wonder it all the time, because it seems to me as if they are always trying to push abortion as if that is the only choice! or a choice that should be okay.....?
I don't have a camera I can get info on yet, so I think that I'll be waiting until I get back to VA to do undercover work. But tomorrow Matt and I will be planning on going out to pray and sidewalk counsel in front of the abortion mill. So if you're in NJ and would like to come along, please let me know. I just want these women to see their options... why is that so much to ask?

What do we actually accomplish?

So here we are almost at the end of my trip with Survivors and I find myself looking back as I’ve been on this journey into pro-life missions work wondering what impact we’ve made throughout the country.  Well I’m sure the biggest reward we’ve felt throughout the trip was when we received the “Good news” on Good Friday this past week.
You may remember that I wrote about 4 or so weeks back about standing outside of an absolutely awful abortion mill. At this abortion mill we had the sprinklers turned on us in hope that if they soaked us and the signs that we would leave. We stood as ever steadfastly as we were able to in hopes of talking to someone. We were very impressed with local pro-lifers such as Sarah H. and Father Terry who steadfastly were outside that clinic many days a week despite not only the sprinklers but almost constant harassment from the abortion mill workers.  I can’t lie that the harassment I received from two men who came to fix the sprinkler had been bothering me a bit on the trip. The things they said in effort to bother me quite the wide variety of disgusting things that any father would beat up a man for saying to his daughter. But I prayed for the one man nonetheless cause as I was standing there I could feel as if he was hurting in his life, like he knew what he was doing was wrong, like something in his life he knew was wrong. I very much wonder if that was the ache of needing a Savior in his life.

Okay I’ll get to the good news now… so as some of us were in Mexico on Friday we were told to call Kristina immediately cause she had some news for us, I figured it was about the Jackson arrest. But we called and were told that the Alabama abortion mill was ordered to close by May 18^th! Diane D. the clinic owner had been ordered to surrender her license by or on that date ( you can read more about the story here)! A lot of this is happening due to all the injunctions against them, including I’m sure stuff about the two botched abortions that happened earlier this year. There’s been so much that the pro-life movement and many have done to bring about the closing of this abortion mill. It’s really a blessing to see that all the work we do is not in vain and that we do accomplish great things. I can honestly say that this work is mentally (and sometimes physically) exhausting day in and day out. You wonder if you’re making differences, but we also had some good news while we were in Tennessee. We visited a local pregnancy center and were told that a woman had walked in and after seeing our signs had decided against getting an abortion. What a victory! We know that our signs change hearts and minds all the time, and every day it seems we get those who tell us that our signs will never change anything and we get to tell them differently.

So this week we’ve had a couple office days and today we traveled to Moorpark College in California to do activism on their campus for two days. The first day was a bit rough today, we discovered once we arrived on campus that it was “Multicultural day” which normally sounds like a great time to do what we do. We quickly found out however that there were several grade school classes on field trips at the college, we knew the second we saw them that as soon as we set up that we’d be dealing with angry teachers and parents. That can always almost put a sour mood on the day, but I started praying that no matter what we faced we’d be able to handle things peacefully.

So as you can imagine several parents (and students) came up complaining about the fact that we were there and how awful that we would subject young children to such images. But may I just give my opinion for a second…. I honestly think that what sets the tone for kids being upset or being interested in what’s going on has largely to do with how the adults act. I’ve seen many young children who have been told and shown what abortion is. These children funny enough seem to most times grasp more so than adults that abortion is wrong and is the taking of a life. No, we’re not trying to brainwash the kids, we’re trying to explain to them the truths of what’s going on. So the parents and teachers at the school did manage to reroute the children so they didn’t walk right in front of where we were set up.

It so scary to think though that in a few years when those kids reach middle school and high school that they’ll start to be marketed by people like Planned Parenthood. They’ll be taught that so many things that are wrong and should be called murder are not. Do I want these children to have to see these images, the answer is of course no. But sometimes I wonder if it’s necessary as kids are being hit with sexual images, pornography, and other things having to do with the “sexual nature” and how they can’t control their desires. I simply want people to see both sides of the equation, you want to teach them sex education and all that, well if you insist on doing that then tell them about the consequences of those actions that you say are uncontrollable.

Sometimes we have students come up to us and talk about humans can’t control having sex with people, that it’s simply in our nature to always do it, all the time. I often feel like then asking them whether the fact that I control that nature in myself as do my friends makes us some sort of super humans…. But I usually keep my mouth shut when it comes to sarcastic comments; I find they don’t help in debating so much.

So today at Moorpark went well, we had really a lot of students who wanted to talk and handful that wanted to sign up to get more involved with pro-life activities at their campus. I know these pictures change minds; yes not every mind is changed. Though I guarantee that those images are something that are not so easily shaken from people’s minds.  So I’m preparing for my last day with Survivors tomorrow, it’s sad to see the time go by in what now seems like such a fast time. But I know I am so better prepared to be able to engage in conversations with activism and that this time with Survivors has lit even more of a passion for pro-life work in me. A passion that will not be quickly extinguished, in fact I plan on doing some pro-life work this Saturday in New Jersey with my brother and continuing even back in Virginia. Remember do not let your fires be put out, do not let the outrage at the fact that over 3,000 unborn children are killed every day fall away cause you are simply too busy to do something about it. Get out of your apathy and do something about what’s going on! Scream about it, tell everyone you know, and be active about it! For if we don’t cry out for their murders then who will?

Easter and In memory of those who went before us.

The last week has been such a crazy one, getting back in California and getting showered and rested for just a little before three of us took off for a missions trip to Mexico. So we arrived back in California on Tuesday night and Preston, Jayne, and I took off with a youth group team to Mexico on Wednesday morning. Talk about running all over the place, it feels as if I never stop moving sometimes. 

I was so blessed to be able to go to Mexico to get to play with the orphans and bless the orphanages with food and clothes for the kids. What a difference from going to talking to mostly angry college students all day to playing with orphans who hug you the second you get out of the car. I felt so taken aback when we got out of the car at the first orphanage in Mexico, cause no more than a couple minutes pass and here come a flood of little Mexican children coming up to me and hugging me saying "hola" as they pass by. Oh it was awesome! Exactly what my heart needed after being at the University of New Mexico (I ran into two rather hostile and angry students there).

But back to the Mexico trip, it was absolutely great to meet more of the White family and to get to know all their friends from the youth group that came down on the trip and do ministry with them. I was also blessed in getting to see some absolutely beautiful sights while we were down there because the missionary house is right on the beach. The sights there were absolutely breath-taking (see picture below)

These are the moments in which you take it all in and thank God for blessing you as you do the work He has called you to do. It was amazing each morning to be able to wake up and go sit outside and take in the view as I did my morning devotions. Truly I have been so blessed by God in so many ways along the trip. We were in Mexico until Saturday night when we got back. During the trip we visited orphanages and were able to play with the kids, dye some eggs with them and then do an Easter egg hunt. It was so great to see their faces light up and even more humbling to see kids who had so little wanting to share the candy they found with us. I definitely know that all these years I've wanted to go visit and work with orphanages have now not been for nothing, because it truly is a great experience! It was also humbling as we went and delivered food to families in different locations that were living on so little. One place we went was nicknamed the "chicken coops" by the team and I can see why. Each family there lived in what was the size of a chicken coop with very little, the faces of the little kids and some mothers as we pulled up and loaded out bags of food to give them was enough thanks. The little ones are always so cute because it's as enough they know that when Americans come that we will have candy for them. I can really say that I felt much more blessed by being able to serve then what little we have blessed them with food. I don't think it will ever cross my mind to be a regret of not taking the time off and staying back in CA during those days to rest. Because while we were down there serving God granted me the rest needed. It was truly such a blessing for Preston and I to be able to go on the trip, one I know that we both will not soon forget.


But today celebrating Christ's resurrection from the grave was quite powerful; I also was struck so much on Good Friday on the greatness of Christ laying down His life for sinners such as us. I have so many areas of fault, far too numerous to even list. But He still loved me enough to endure all that suffering, such a moving thought. It was great to be invited to the White family's celebration today with all the kiddies and family members running around. They accepted Preston and I in as if we were their own which was quite moving for us being so far from our own family on the holiday. 

I was especially moved today as we paused before prayer to remember a certain amazing young woman named Kortney. I know I haven't written about her on here before so much, but I'd like to think Kortney is partially responsible for this awesome mission’s work I've been doing for the past 7 weeks. Kortney was such an inspiration and great friend, and I guess you could say mentor of mine when she was working with Students for Life. She was always keeping tabs on how things were going with the pro-life group at Liberty and how I was doing with some struggles there. She was talking to me a lot about going into the pro-life movement full-time after graduating. Well after her, Jon, and her unborn daughter Sophy passed away in October I almost felt a bit lost without them. Jon had been very much responsible for helping me put together Liberty's first pro-life senior project. I remember sitting down one day in January and thinking "okay, I'm done with college what now", then I thought to myself "What would Kortney suggest that I do next, now that I'm done with college pro-life work?" So I remembered that she had worked for a group called "Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust". I had also remembered seeing them at the SFLA conference a week earlier but dismissing going to work for them since it wasn't a paying job. But then I felt something tugging at me to submit an application to become a missionary with them. So I did, and the rest is history!
So today we took a moment to pray for her family and to remember her, I feel like throughout this entire trip I've been seeing little marks of how she went before me in working with Survivors and accomplishing so much!

I've met so many people on the trip who've been touched by her life and the work she's done. I've also met quite a few who knew Jon and were very inspired by his passion for the unborn. So today we remember not only their memories, but most importantly the memory of Christ. The memory of a carpenter's son who was sent to earth to walk the road before us, and die for our sins on the cross. Today I remember the sacrifice made on that cross for all my sins. So today and everyday let's keep on our mind the sacrifices others have made so that we can be where we are today. Let us remember to live life to the fullest fighting for what we believe in (as Jon and Kortney did)!

Thoughts from the road

So as we travel our way out of Oklahoma after a most relaxing day yesterday at a small ranch/farm/whatever you call it I find myself full of thoughts. I couldn't be more thankful for Mrs. Keller and her generousness to take us all in, we arrived around  5pm after about 11 or so hours of driving yesterday and were relieved to get out of the car. We found ourselves on a farm of sorts with cows, horses, and lots of land, and within minutes were riding on the mule (a traveling cart of sorts, but not an ATV as the boys seemed to drive it as). It was awesome to go gallivanting about and yipping as we went over bumps in the cart and such. It was awesome to feel the breeze and see all the land, and no college or high school in sight. I can easily say I've had my fill of schools, but nonetheless will continue the work that's been started.

So we had some awesome time of talking with our host last night and relaxing and we all had a bed of sorts to sleep in last night which I'm sure the whole team can tell you was a little slice of heaven to us. I have a little less then two weeks left of touring with Survivors and am starting to prepare for what's next in my journey. I have an interview this week for a position in Minnesota in which I'd be doing sidewalk counseling training full-time. If you know me, you know that's something I'm definitely passionate about and love to do. But I also have had two other job offers which require fundraising my entire salary, so I'm not quite sure yet where God might be calling me. I'm hesitant to take the ones where I have to fund raise my whole salary for obvious reasons, but I know if I decide to take either of those that God will provide as He always does.

It's scary to think I'll most likely be out of the Lynchburg area come August, quite scary, that's been my home now for the past three years and I'll miss it, but I also know God is calling me not to be comfortable but to serve Him. As I sit in the Sprinter as we drive I find myself drawn to looking at the quote on my window (courtesy of Alexis) which is:
"Courage is not the absence of fear,
but rather the judgement that
something else is more
important than fear"
-Ambrose Redmoon

So I shall go wherever the Lord calls me knowing that the importance of the work I'm going to do overrides the fear of going somewhere new on my own.

Just when you think you can't carry on anymore...

 It’s been a crazy week, so there has been little writing. Somehow everyday I’ve gotten up this week without fail has felt like a Friday. I’ve been exhausted beyond belief and felt like I’ve been dragging my body every day.  But nonetheless I carry on to save the little ones and to grow in this journey that God has me on. I read a really great devotional today that talked about how we need to “walk with God” instead of asking Him to “walk with us”. How true that is in this fight! 

So this past week we’ve been in Georgia, as Georgia State University, which was a really interesting crowd. We had quite a few pro-aborts who came up to us arguing and ripping literature. We even had one that went through our Literature and made what they called “improvements” one of which included citing the ever credible site stfupro-life.tumblr, I know what you’re thinking… they sound legitimate right? So after that crazy filled day we drove off to Clarksville, TN.

We were greeted by a group of local elders and faithful attenders of the catholic church nearby to APSU (Austin Peay State University). They talked about how needed our visit was to inspire them, I truly wish they knew how inspiring they were to us and what a blessing they were. So we rushed from that meeting to another at APSU with the Newman Group. We had a rather warm welcome from the students and were given some much appreciate pizza and drinks as we all talked about where we were from joking and such. We then transitioned however into a time for them to ask us some questions about how they could become more active in their pro-life views.

The Newman group stepped right up to the plate when we found out there had been some miscommunication of how many of us there were and we needed some extra places to stay. So I was very thankful to Mary and Alexis (and Caroline) who so graciously took in Jayne, Sarah, and I into their dorm room for three nights to stay. We had such a good time talking with them and being able to get to know them. APSU’s campus was a challenge, almost as always we were met by security on the campus telling us we had to move our signs or that we couldn’t pass out literature because it was against school policy, which evidently takes precedence over one’s Constitutional Rights. But we worked it out and found ways around what they asked so our voice would not be silenced. It was a very hot day in the sun, but it’s amazing how God carries you through it all.

So we had a rather interesting night, we went and had lunch and did some media work before deciding to chalk on the campus that night. So we got ready chalk in hands and walked to where the play “Vagina Monologues” was taking place on campus. We handed out “180 movie” cards as well as some “Unplanned Pregnancy” cards to the audience as they walked in. Once they were inside we went to work chalking on the ground things like “Real Feminists don’t kill their children”, “Crisis Pregnancy call 1-800-395-HELP” or one of my favorites to combat their chalking “Vagina’s are for Mothers”. But as we were chalking up walked the ultra-feminist old ladies who started yelling at us asking whether we were from the Crisis Pregnancy Center (There’s a background story somewhere). We told them that they weren’t and then they proceeded to tell us how inappropriate out messages were since the play was about Reproductive Rights. We just replied that our messages were actually quite appropriate. So one lady came out with a camera and the proceeded to try and bully some members of the Newman group telling them she would get them in trouble for this. It’s amazing how some people will bully away when they are confronted with the truth of what goes on every day. So we finished up the night with reading a Psalm and we all went to bed for the next day and the work we had left to do on APSU’s campus.

We awoke the next morning bright and early to get set up on campus again, this time I was out at the front entrance of the college which faced a main public road, but also had good access to the students coming in from the parking lot. We had plenty of angry people that day coming up to us telling us it was inappropriate to show these pictures, but still saying that abortion was anybody’s rights. But even as the sun was absolutely glaring we still carried on and I remarked to Vince just how great a having a lemonade sounded right about then. So low and behold one of the members of the Newman group, Kate comes up and asks us what we would like to drink. So she went and got us some water and lemonade, this was truly such a blessing from God that I could not believe. Yes it seems small, but it’s amazing the things you take for granted when you work long hours and are always going on your feet.
We were also very blessed that two different men (one who was a pastor of a local church) specifically stopped their cars that day to come and walk over to us to encourage us that we were doing a great work for God by being there and speaking for the unborn.  That was such a blessings especially considering it came before my last conversation of the day with a particularly hateful young man who kept berating me telling Vince and I that we were breaking the law, even though we informed him we were not.

So that night we had a spectacular time being hosted by the Newman group for a social-cookout-night and ate wonderful food and played Disney trivia games complete with teams and craziness. It was such a great time, we really couldn’t have asked for a better group host experience at the college. I hope that in the future I’ll be running into some of those great people from the Newman group and can bless them as they have so richly blessed us this past week.  It’s been a rough week so far, and we’ll be traveling almost non-stop the next few days, but as we have much time in the car I love to look on this journey and think about all the wonderful people I’ve met. Fighting for the Unborn’s rights is something I hope to not have to do someday, but I can say, that I’m honored that I’ve been given the chance to do so while I can.

Graphics and Saying Goodbye

So sad to see the last week with Created Equal come to an end, I’ve had a blast getting to hang out with some really awesome teenagers and of course the Created Equal staff people.  The last few days I broke off from Survivors to go with Created Equal as we tried to reach as many colleges as possible in the last few days and so I could visit a friend I hadn’t seen in about 4 or 5 years.  I really do honestly believe we changed so many hearts and minds this past week, I’ve had so many people tell me that graphic pictures don’t have a place. But when you see college students as their faces turn to horror because they had no idea that this was what abortion looks like you know that we should be exactly where we are with these signs.

One particular student’s face will remain with me for perhaps the entire trip; I only wish I could know her and her little ones fate. Her name is Savannah, she came up to our display as there was quite the intense debate going on with both Seth , Mark, and students who stood both on the pro-choice side and the pro-life side. Let me just jump on a side note and say I was totally blessed to be able to watch these two men debate and have conversations for the past two weeks! But anyway Savannah is about 9-10 weeks pregnant and the Planned Parenthood worker had already been up to her to offer her services and such. It was scary to see because you almost instinctively know that PP just sees her and her unborn child as a dollar sign.

So Savannah started getting into a debate exclaiming that it was her choice, that she would decide what was best for her and how dare we be out there with the graphics we had. Now let me just say this (you can label me as insensitive if you’d like) there’s no medium ground, either the photos are offensive or they aren’t. You can’t have it both ways! You can’t tell me the photos are offensive and then go on to say there is nothing wrong with what the photos show. This young woman however found the photos extremely offensive but still thought there was nothing wrong with choosing to kill her unborn child. I didn’t get to speak to her much, but tried to stand back and watch as Abigail defended the unborn. I couldn’t be more proud watching some of the girls trying to talk to Savannah; it was always with love, but with an urgency of wanting to help save her little one.  Savannah must have been there for about 2 hours or more talking to many of us, Seth offered to adopt her little one; I followed and offered just as the conversation was ending. You almost have to know that if she thought abortion was completely okay that she wouldn’t have stood there for 2 hours talking to us all. My heart broke for Jessie as my guess was this was her first time seeing a young mother pregnant and treating the life as if it was okay to throw away. I told Jessie as Savannah walked away that while we had no idea the ultimate decision that would be made for her child that I knew those photos would stick with Savannah as would the conversations she had with us.

It’s hard to get used to the fact that in this work as a missionary you’re around life and death on a regular basis whether you realize it or not. Each glance at a picture could change a mind and save a life, as well as the conversations we have. I’d like to think that when I ask students whether they’re registered to vote and then inform them on our current president’s pro-abortion stance that they will be inspired to go out and vote in the upcoming elections for a president who will stop funding the elimination of a third of our generation.

It was really hard to say good bye to the Created Equal team at the end of the week, I felt like I was able to bond so much with the gals on the trip this second week. What a blessing, I am and always will be a die-hard youth leader, so being around youth naturally makes me happy. Especially when it’s so hard being away from my girls back home in Lynchburg.  It’s always sad to say goodbye, but I’m hoping I’ll be making a trip to Ohio within the next few months and get to visit with them all. It’s especially amazing the impact they all can have in my life in a short period of time. I was talking with Rebekah and Emily in the van and hearing them express interest in possibly going into full-time pro-life work, and they’re not even out of high school yet! What an encouragement to see the passion of Cassie, Amelia, Emily, Kailin, Jennifer, Abigail, Jessie, Maggie, Rebekah out in the mission field! I look forward to seeing how they impact their towns, friends, and families as they go home.