Pro Life Conference Update

The last few days brought a challenge: What will l do with the issue of pro life? I can pray for the end of abortion, but what more can I do? The Pro Life conference showed me that it is necessary to be a voice for the unborn and to help people who are considering abortion, to show them we are here for them  and they aren't alone, and with God's help and provision they can raise their child.

I've been praying a lot about the conference; for a change of hearts and a powerful affect on people. I didn't really realize I was praying about myself.

I can do much more than I've done before. As much as I hate to admit it, the abortion issue becomes old hat, and dull to my ears because I've heard it my whole life. Knowing someone who is considering an abortion brings it closer to home.

Yesterday a friend told me his sister is pregnant. I know her, I think she's 19 or 20, probably unmarried, and I know multiple people in her family from church. My friend said many people think of an unborn baby in the early stage as nothing more than a piece of meat (somehow this struck me stronger than "piece of tissue") and how he told his sister the things he heard at the conference; that very early the baby already has arms, legs, nose, gender, eye color, a heartbeat, etc. Hearing these things, she said she doesn't want an abortion.

Personally this challenged me because I could be either judgmental and accusative, or I can look for a way to help her keep her child. She can experience a lot of shame if she keeps her child and I don't want to be the one making her feel ashamed. She will feel much more ashamed inwardly if she aborts. If she has done wrong, there is a mercy seat in heaven and she can approach it in repentance and receive forgiveness. I want to be someone willing and available to encourage her, help her, and support her in a decision to keep her baby.

One thing that makes me want to do more in Pro Life ministry is my name. It took my parents quite some time to choose my name and I went a month or so without a first name. Finally the name they chose was Rachel Esther. In Matthew, the book of Jeremiah is quoted at the time that Herod commands all boys two years and younger to be slaughtered. It says "A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted because they are no more." Esther was a woman who became queen over 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia by marriage and discovered a plot to kill all the Jews in the kingdom. She opened her mouth for them and their lives were saved.

Please continue praying for these things, that I would know what God wants me to do with this and that I would continue to be challenged, not stagnant or complacent. Pray for the saving of unborn lives, that God would make himself present through our efforts and that he would be the one helping people and making things right in this land where 3 out of every 4 people are aborted.