My mother was pregnant.
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She was living
with an abusive husband,
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and she was
determined to have an abortion.
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Suddenly,
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the one thing she
thought would buy her freedom
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was stripped away from her.
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How did she manage to survive?
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Join us today on
Life After Choice.
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Hi, my name is Antionette Duck.
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Welcome to Life After Choice.
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When my mother first
believe that she was pregnant,
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she was living in an
incredibly abusive marriage.
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Her husband, my
biological father
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was addicted to
drugs and alcohol,
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and life could
be extremely scary.
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She decided she was
going to have an abortion.
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At that time, it was 1981,
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and she was
originally from California,
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and abortions were free
at that time in California.
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So what she decided to do was
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she was going to
secretly put money aside.
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And when she finally thought
that she had enough money,
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she was going
to take that money.
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She was going to
go back to California,
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have her abortion and be
done with this relationship.
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She began secretly
giving money to a friend of hers
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who she thought was
trustworthy and dependable.
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And when she finally thought
that she had enough money,
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she goes to
this friend and says,
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"I've got to get out of here.
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It's time for me to go.
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I need my money."
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The friend turned to
her and said, "What money?
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I spent all of it."
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Think of that,
she was 20 something,
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she was in an
abusive relationship.
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And she was entirely on her own.
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There was nowhere
that she could turn.
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There was no one
who she could turn to.
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She had no way home,
and she had no way out.
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She had been
experiencing morning sickness.
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And so it was
actually her husband
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who knew that
she was experiencing
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this morning sickness.
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He found an ad in the paper.
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And the ad
said, "Hey, I'm alive,
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voice of the
preborn, Columbus, Georgia."
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Because she was in
Georgia at that time.
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And it was an advertisement
for a crisis pregnancy center.
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There was a church
and they had started
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a crisis pregnancy center
out of their actual church.
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So she calls, she
makes an appointment.
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And she goes in to
see if she can get help
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in some way.
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When she goes in, they
give her pregnancy tests,
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they confirm that
she is in fact pregnant.
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And she said,
"Will you please help me
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have an abortion?"
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And they said,
"No, we won't help you
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have an abortion.
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But would you be
willing to come back
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for some counseling?"
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She didn't know what else to do.
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And so she agreed.
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She said,
"Okay, I will come back
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for some counseling."
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When she went in for
her counseling session,
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the counselor, the
person who was seeking
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to give her advice was speaking.
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And she was
halfway paying attention
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to what was being said.
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There was a magazine
that was there in the office,
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and it was a Life magazine.
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Now, back in 1965,
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Life magazine had done a
photo spread of the unborn.
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It showed the unborn in
utero and it showed all of these
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different stages of development.
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It showed fingers, and
toes, and arms, and legs,
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all of this development
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throughout the
gestational period.
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And as she sat there,
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looking through the
photos flipping page after page,
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she was absolutely amazed.
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When this issue
came out in 1965,
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it was the first time
that the world had ever seen
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the baby in utero.
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And she herself,
even though it was 1981,
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she had never seen
the child in utero.
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She had literally
been taught that the baby
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was just a massive protoplasm.
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So as she was
looking at these pictures,
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she was completely blown away.
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And the Holy Spirit
just fell on her truly,
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truly moved her.
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And she knew,
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as she was
looking at those pictures
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that she saw arms and legs,
that she saw hands and feet,
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as she saw a face.
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She knew, "Whatever happens,
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I'm going to go
through it with my baby."
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Well, the baby
that she saved was me.
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And so here I sit
over 35 years later,
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because my mother chose life.
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When I share this story,
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what's important to understand
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is that she chose life.
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She loved me.
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There was a
purpose and a plan for me,
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she knew it, and a
purpose and a plan for her.
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But our
circumstances did not change.
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Our household was
still a scary place.
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My father was very broken.
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He was very wounded.
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And he had
suffered tremendous abuse
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at the hands of people
who should have loved him.
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And because he had not
found freedom, forgiveness,
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healing at the cross,
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through him the cycle continued.
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So our
circumstances did not change.
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But you know what?
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Neither did the
faithfulness of our church.
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When my mother
needed a baby shower,
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the church was there.
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When my mother needed a job,
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the church was there.
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When we needed a safe place
in the middle of the night,
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the church was there.
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They were with her.
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They were with her in the
midst of that crisis pregnancy.
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And they were with her
in the trenches of life.
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It was absolutely incredible.
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This is what we have
the opportunity to do
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as individuals.
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This is what we
have the opportunity
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to do as a church.
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These people who were willing
to intercede for the value
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of human life,
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they didn't foresee
what my life would be.
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They didn't foresee
who or what I would become.
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They didn't foresee
what my mother would be
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or what she would become.
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They didn't foresee
what my father would be
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or what he would become.
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They were standing on truth,
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and they refused to be silent.
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For our sakes,
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they were willing to
have a difficult conversation.
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For our sakes,
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they were willing to go
to uncomfortable places.
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They were willing to intercede,
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to intervene in the life
of a woman in Christ and say,
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"There is a better way.
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Please, choose life
and praise the Lord."
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She did.
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That is our story.
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But you know, there
is story after story,
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woman after
woman, man after man,
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who they haven't had
that kind of intervention
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because people have
decided to remain silent.
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They decided this is
too much for us to handle.
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It's too scary a conversation.
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It's too uncomfortable.
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And those people
are living broken,
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devastated completely
under the condemnation,
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accusation and
shame of their enemy,
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the enemy of their souls.
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They haven't found freedom
and forgiveness at the cross.
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Can you imagine the difference
that would have been made
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in their lives?
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There are approximately
a million abortions
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that take place in
America every year.
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Can you imagine the difference
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if people were willing to say,
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I love you.
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If people, our
churches were willing to say,
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I will walk alongside you.
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And no matter what,
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I'm not going
to stop loving you.
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I'm not going to abandon you.
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I'm not going to leave you.
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We will walk alongside you
in the difficulties of life,
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not because
we're celebrating sin,
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but because we
know who our God is.
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We know the
value that He's placed
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in every single human being,
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and we refuse to be silent.
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Think of the
difference that would be made,
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imagine!
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When I was 23 years old,
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I was working with
a particular ministry
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that deals with
talking about abortion
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and the value
of the human being.
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And I was on a college
campus and I was speaking
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to another young
woman, who was 23.
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And while we were speaking,
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she shared her story.
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She had chosen
to have an abortion.
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And she had
experienced a tremendous amount
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of family pressure.
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Her grandmother, in
fact, drove her to the clinic.
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It really was a non-negotiable
that she go through with this
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and have the abortion.
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And as she shared her story,
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my heart was just
filled with compassion,
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with empathy for
this young woman.
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We were the same age.
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And I shared with her my story,
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how my mother had chosen life,
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how she had tried to
give money to a friend,
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the friend had
spent all the money
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and the Lord
intervened and she chose life.
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And when I shared
that story with her,
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the young woman,
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she, her eyes filled with tears.
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And she looked
down and she said,
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"That's wonderful.
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That's really wonderful
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that your mom
made that decision."
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And I reached across to her,
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and I took hold of her hand.
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And I said, "Yes!
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It is wonderful that my
mother made that decision."
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Because you know what?
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I am here to tell you today
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that you are forgiven.
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Think of that.
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There I was someone
who had been rescued
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from the very
thing that she had done
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to her own child.
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There I was
rescued from the very thing
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that threatened to
burden her with a condemnation
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that she would not be
able to escape on her own.
00:11:59.28\00:12:03.52
She was a new Christian.
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And she was desperate to believe
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that the grace of the Lord
really was sufficient for her.
00:12:06.82\00:12:11.93
And I was able to
speak life into this woman,
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into her existence,
into her experience.
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Think of that.
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The Lord preserved me,
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had preserved me
over 23 years ago,
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and brought me to that place,
to that woman, to that story.
00:12:26.64\00:12:30.78
And He allowed me to
speak life into the death
00:12:30.81\00:12:35.25
that had taken place.
00:12:35.28\00:12:37.49
When I said, "You are forgiven,
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the Lord has forgiven you.
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Walk in the
freedom that is yours."
00:12:43.96\00:12:47.80
She literally looked
up with different eyes,
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eyes that were full of hope.
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This is what we have
the opportunity to do.
00:13:00.81\00:13:04.35
This is why the Savior came
to speak hope to hopelessness,
00:13:04.38\00:13:09.75
to heal the brokenhearted,
00:13:09.78\00:13:11.82
to free people
from their captivity.
00:13:11.85\00:13:16.86
The evil one,
00:13:16.89\00:13:18.23
the enemy of my
soul fully intended,
00:13:18.26\00:13:22.33
that my voice would never speak,
00:13:22.36\00:13:25.07
that my eyes would never see,
00:13:25.10\00:13:27.70
that my hand would never write.
00:13:27.74\00:13:31.04
But my voice does
speak, my eyes do see,
00:13:31.07\00:13:35.28
my hands do right,
00:13:35.31\00:13:38.35
because of those who are willing
00:13:38.38\00:13:40.95
to stand in the gap.
00:13:40.98\00:13:43.59
They stood in the gap for me.
00:13:43.62\00:13:46.65
They stood in the
gap for my mother.
00:13:46.69\00:13:50.03
They stood in the
gap as Christ stands
00:13:50.06\00:13:52.83
in the gap for
us, not as the savior,
00:13:52.86\00:13:55.83
but as an
intercessor, as a reconciler.
00:13:55.86\00:13:59.13
They literally pleaded
00:13:59.17\00:14:00.80
as though God were
pleading through them
00:14:00.84\00:14:03.37
to be reconciled to
life, to choose life
00:14:03.41\00:14:08.48
and they changed
the course of history.
00:14:08.51\00:14:12.58
This is what we have
the opportunity to do
00:14:14.85\00:14:18.09
as individuals.
00:14:18.12\00:14:19.69
This is what we have
the opportunity to do
00:14:19.72\00:14:22.49
as the church.
00:14:22.52\00:14:24.29
We have the
opportunity to stand in the gap.
00:14:24.33\00:14:30.57
And if we will do that,
00:14:30.60\00:14:32.90
if we will choose
to stand in the gap,
00:14:32.93\00:14:36.60
we will watch as
there is so much life
00:14:36.64\00:14:41.01
after choice.
00:14:41.04\00:14:42.48