I told you I would write more about the week... so here I am :)
Saturday was the very last day. We went early that morning to Planned Parenthood Orlando to hold up signs, pray, and preach. We had gone there twice earlier in the week (Tuesday and Friday I believe) and both times they had illegally turned on their sprinklers to deter us. Think it worked? Not a chance.
Saturday was no exception- except they decided to wait to turn them on until we were all standing on the sidewalk unsuspecting. As the cold water sprayed on our faces and on our denim (you know that was fun), we were thankful for it- it was so hot standing right out there in the Orlando sun. Really hot....
It was a bit later in the morning that I saw Daddy from the other side of the parking lot calling to a young man who was at his car and seemed undecided in whatever he was doing. His wife was already in the clinic and he didn't appear to be moving from his position at the car- ignoring my father's pleads to just come and talk- so I walked back onto the sidewalk in front of the mill. I didn't notice that his wife had come out of the clinic until Hannah came and said to me, "That guy and his girlfriend have just been sitting there talking..." I turned to look over and saw them hand in hand walking over to the fence where my father had been beckoning. A surge of joy flooded my body as I raced over- I wanted to see God work!
Believe me, I did. As I listened to their story I kept feeling the urge to fall to my knees and cry like a little baby. The Lord's Hand was revealed to me and I felt so much joy that I wasn't sure how to handle it. Allow me to explain.
If I can figure out where to begin...
The couple, aged 22 and 23, had 3 children already. The first was born when they were 15 and 16 years old. Now, expecting their 4th, they felt as though they did not have the financial means to take care of another child nor did they have any support from their family. They felt like the abortion would be a quick and quiet way to take care of it.
They thought the baby was very small- between 6 and 14 weeks. But when the young woman went in for the abortion, she laid down on the ultrasound table and felt the baby move. She found out that she was actually 20 weeks along. She said that she knew that there was no turning back now. She couldn't have the abortion- in her mind now it was a real baby-she felt it move.
Her husband had been hesitant about the whole thing. He dropped her off and began driving back to their home to relieve his brother from watching the other children. As he was driving he prayed, "God, if You are there and you don't want us to go through with this- have her call me right now." He took the cell phone out of his pocket. It rang in his hand. Guess who it was?
He turned the car about face and drove a half hour back. that is where you first came into the story- she came out, they talked, and they came over to talk to Daddy.
That in itself if awesome- but it was actually everything else on top of that that blew me away.
They had been waiting weeks before they could get the money for the abortion. If they had the money when they first wanted it, she would have had no reason (in her mind) not to abort the baby. Not to mention that it happened to be the week of Operation Save America's National Event- the week we just so happened to be there...
Everything seemed to be going wrong, creating more and more financial trouble. Their transmission in their SUV was messed up, their home's roof started leaking...
Their 1-year-old son, who usually sleeps all through the night, was up all the night before crying. They were up with him, trying to calm him down, and having more time to think about the next day's "procedure". I believe that child was crying for his little brother or sister's life.
The young woman had a Christian friend that had been trying to talk to her and sit down with her.
Coincidences?
They appear to be the mighty hidden hand of God to me!
God's hand is on that little baby... She has already touched lives, drawing them closer to the Lord. She will be a mighty warrior one day- she has already conquered Satan's attack to take her life.
I hope that reading this story was as encouraging to you reading it as it is to me writing it. That whole week was an encouragement- to see other believers practicing what they preach- to hear stories of persecutions, babies saved, people turning their hearts to Christ- it was awesome.
God is surely at work among His believers!
"if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
2 Chronicles 7:14
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