The Raw Truth About Abortion Mill Ministry

The Christian Calling to Rescue the Unborn and Defend the Faith

Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity.

I mean, this is what's wrong with the Christian church today. We don't know who God is, and we don't know who we are.

This is where we hold them. This is where we fight.

Officer, you need to repent of your lawless conduct. You don't know the law, and yet you pretend to represent it. That's not law enforcement, sir. That's being a thug.

We will not stop fighting and bothering you all until this monstrous, barbaric practice of legalized abortion ends, and we are teaching our children to do the same.

God's Word says that the shed blood of innocent humans cries out for justice, and mark my words, they will have their day in court.

Nobody gets saved by being treated nicely. They get saved by hearing the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ. If we don't open our mouths and commend Christ, we're not loving Him, no matter what we're doing with our hands.

Rescue those who are being taken away to death. Hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, Behold, we did not know this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it?

And will he not repay man according to his Word? Hey, what's up, everybody? It is a beautiful Wednesday. It's getting hotter out here in Arizona. We kind of dread this day. You know what's so weird about us is that in the wintertime when it's cool, we kind of just were like, we acclimated to it so well that we don't worry about it.

Then as soon as the heat comes, we're just absolutely aware of it. It's just funny how we acclimatize to comforts as human beings. It's like we're begging for the winter. And when it's here, like after two days, we're like, whatever.

Yeah, like, oh, this is wonderful. Well, at first, but then, yeah, we forget about it. And then the summer comes, we're like, why?

Yeah, exactly.

Summer starts in like really spring. You get like half the year here that summer.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and then I was talking to Isaac earlier and he said we have three months of heat. But for us San Diegans, it's like the next five months.

Yeah.

But they're just so used to it.

Yeah, this year, I feel like it's been better. Last year, it started in April and then didn't end till like end of October.

Right.

But this year, you know, we're just now hitting the highs in June. So I'm like, okay, thank you, Lord.

If you guys didn't know, with all of the COVID craziness, we had our hottest year on record in 2020.

Yeah, and I was fully pregnant.

Yeah, 100 days over 110 or something like that or 50 days over 150. It was crazy.

And I had Knox September 2nd. So I was like the biggest you could be in the heat, the hottest of the summer. I call it the summer of sanctification.

The Mission of Provoked, the Gospel Commission, and Abortion as Genocide

Yeah, absolutely. Well, we are Provoked. If you've never tuned into our show, we use the word provoked because it's all about stirring up our Christian brothers and sisters, coming alongside of them and motivating them and hopefully inspiring them through the word of God to preach the gospel just to be about the gospel commission.

And that's to go out into all the world and proclaim the gospel and to help them to do that. Not, of course, ever taking the place of their local church. That should be the primary place of teaching, but just secondarily coming alongside of them and saying, hey, how can we help you get out there and the best that we can?

So it's helping people get the gospel out and in conjunction with that or linked to that is the focus on saving babies. Abortion is the genocide of our day, is a holocaust of our day, and we've got to do everything that we can to fight against it.

That's why I read that opening verse because it's a command for us to go out and rescue those who are being taken away to death, and that's absolutely happening at the abortion clinic. These babies are being actually taken to death via their mom or via being in the womb of their mothers.

And then thirdly, we want to defend the faith. We really want to be bold in defending the Christian faith. It is the faith once delivered to the saints, and we have a defense, and the Bible says we're supposed to be prepared to do that.

So that's what we're all about. What you can do and how to support us, I have been feasting off of Apologia and Pastor Jeff and all the guys for like a decade now. But one thing that can be really helpful is to go to Apologia Studios and become an All Access member, and in doing so, of course, we say it every single time, you're going to receive second to none education, amazing teachers, debates, anything you can imagine pretty much on there.

It covers every topic known to man. No, probably not every topic known to man. Every teacher who has ever taught is on Apologia. No, I'm just kidding. But insanely helpful for you, and especially as you flip it on when you're eating dinner with the kids.

I mean, it brings so much joy and light and teaching. So go there and feast on that, but also support us. You can support us financially, and that's going to keep the lights on. That's going to keep us doing what we're doing.

And of course, hopefully, it's everything that the Christian wants to do. That's just to get the gospel out and love your neighbor. Yeah, we're blessed. I'm excited for today.

John Barros on Full-Time Abortion Mill Ministry

Yeah, I'm so excited about today. We get to talk to our hero in the faith.

Yeah, he's a hero, and I like him for so many reasons. Of course, he's not going to want to hear that, and that's what I like, and I just heard him laugh right there. But we're going to introduce him in just a second.

But who we want you to get to know if you don't already know him is our friend John Barros. He is on the show with us today, and yeah, he is somebody that we look up to. He's a hero in a lot of ways, but let's just go ahead and bring him on.

Hey, John, how are you doing?

Good. How are you guys?

We're well, and we're better because we get to talk to you. We love spending time with you. Whenever we get to be with you and communicate with you, it's a blessing to us. So thanks for taking—I know you're a busy guy.

You're at the mill multiple hours a week, so I appreciate you coming on.

Thank you, John.

Thank you. I miss you guys so bad.

We miss you too. We're excited to talk to you today. How are you feeling?

I'm tired, but I'm getting old, you know. I'm going to be 67 this month.

Wow.

That's awesome.

You're a youthful-looking 67. I thought you were 61 or 62. Hey, we've got a bunch of questions to ask you, and this show is really about picking your brain about abortion, mill ministry. That's what you do.

We call you a hero. Of course, I know you don't like to hear that. Of course, God, everything that is good in you is because of God, and we boast to no man. We exalt no man, right? But we can praise God for what he's done through you as his tool and his conduit.

But you have been at the abortion mill for 15 years or 16 years?

Well, I've been there 18 years, but 18 years ago I started going there. But as far as full-time, every day, all day long, it's been 11 years now.

Wow, 11 years. Backing up, John, he's in Florida, and he's a guy that goes to the abortion mill ministry, and you just heard it. He's been full-time there, which is 40-plus hours for the past 11 years, which is just so hard to wrap your mind around.

That's got to be a gift supernaturally given to you to be able to do that because the average guy just couldn't do it.

No way.

So I'm just going to start shooting questions to you, and we'll just see how it goes. But why do you do what you do? Why do you subject yourself to the pain of this type of ministry? Why do you do it?

Well, you know what's funny? God called me there. And I know a lot of people want to say that God's called everybody to do that and everything, but God called me there. And I know he did. I mean, it's beyond a shadow of a doubt.

And he hasn't told me to leave yet. So I go. I stay in my post. He's called me there. He tells us in Proverbs 31 to be a voice for the voiceless and the cause of all who are appointed to die. And so I go down there.

I consider myself an ambassador of Christ. I consider myself an emissary. And I just go there, and I'll be there until he relieves me of my post.

Right.

What would you say to people in your age group that just want to retire and sit back and live the good life of vacations and just ease? What would your response be to someone that was asking you, Hey, John, why don't you just retire and relax?

Well, I would say, why don't you check out of this life doing something purposeful, doing something for the kingdom? Because if you're a believer, you're going to have the greatest vacation ahead that you could ever imagine.

So why waste your time with these ones?

Right.

Amen. It's so antithetical to what's taught in our culture. It's like the big push for the American dream is to make as much money as you can so that you can retire and kind of live high on the hog for the rest of your years, and that's it.

Yeah, absolutely. But you think about it because so many people believe what the culture teaches about people in the twilight years of their life is that they're done. They're all washed up. They have nothing to offer.

When in the kingdom, this people group, it should be the most powerful. You think of Caleb at the age of 80 who said, give me my land. He was ready to go forward and accomplish what God had called him to do.

But I think when it comes to retirees, I only see them as being so incredibly effective in this ministry. I mean, look at John's, of course, example A, but people who have the time and have the resources generally to be able to be out there for long extended periods of time.

So retirees can live out the best years of their life when they retire or they get to a place of financial independence or something like that. They can be the most fruitful and productive.

It's really a beautiful thing too when you think about just kind of the ebb and flow of life. Like you get about our age and you're in the child rearing and you're taking care of kids and so you're busy and then your children go off and that's sad in its own sense, but also beautiful because that's what you raise them to do is to go out into the world and then God brings another kind of chapter into your life where you're no longer taking care of little ones necessarily, but you have this time to be able to just pour into service, which is a beautiful calling.

Yeah, and I think you capture that, John, in your life. But how many babies do you, and I know this isn't a question that you don't know basically because we don't know how many babies were saved out there because women see you and turn around and see Christians all the time all around the nation.

Yeah.

So we don't know. But from what you do know since you started, how many babies, I'm going to word this correctly, but how many babies has the Lord saved through your ministry at the mill?

Yeah, that's definitely the way to describe it. Because a lot of people will say, John, you've saved these babies. I haven't saved anybody. I mean, I don't have that power. These people come and they're hardened and they're dead set on killing their babies and the only thing that's going to change that direction is God.

And he's the only one that can give sight to the blind. He's the only one that can give a new heart. He's the only one. He allows us to be a part of it in bringing his word into this whole program because according to Romans 1 16, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

That's God's power. And that's what works. And he allows us, like I said, he allows us to be a part of it, to be a vessel, to be used. But he is the one. We can never lose sight of that. I see people that are getting on some borderline stuff that scares me, actually, but you got to remember who it is that's doing this.

Now, as far as what he's done here at this clinic for the last 11 years, I've seen him bring 20 to 30 girls a month to Choose Life. And those are girls that have prayed with us, said they're choosing life, gone to Choices, the pregnancy center that we send them to, maybe come to our church.

These are people that we're in contact with that actually do choose life. And we've seen God do that. And it's been a steady, no matter what happens, COVID, no matter what it is, 20 to 30 girls a month for the last 11 years.

Wow.

So that's about 3 ,200.

Yeah.

Roughly, it could be up to the, I mean, I think that's.

Stay away from numbering.

Yeah, no, you're right. David did that and he got in trouble.

It's a big number. But what I love about John is that he wants no recognition for it. That's why you're one of our heroes is because, you know, you don't.

There's people I see running around numbering people. It is crazy. I remember when David numbered the people. He got judged seriously for that. I mean, we have to. It is God that's doing this. I mean, you got to flee from all that stuff.

These are people, not numbers.

I agree. The Bible says that God gives, you know, resist the proud, but gives grace to the humble. How could we do this ministry with God resisting us? It's hard enough just to be able to accomplish it in our own, you know, with our fleshly struggles, but for him to be resisting our ministry because we're trying to rob him of his glory.

And so I totally agree. We cannot do that. I think we have to go to him daily and repent of false motives and ask him for pure motives just to, you know, decrease while he would increase that he would be the one that we give all the praise and recognition to.

So I, I totally agree. And I, I do cringe when, you know, it's just in our nature to rob him of his glory. That's what our sinful flesh wants to do. It's something that we have to fight against every day.

But for this type of ministry, it just can't even be an option. We can't, you won't even make it past, you know, first base. If you, if you do that.

Right.

But maybe you could bring us back a little bit 18 years ago. And I don't even think. I know, I know we've talked a lot, but you say that God called you, but how did that happen? And did you hear a gospel presentation?

Did you drive by your abortion clinic or how did that happen? And kind of let us know what you did and kind of take us through, you don't have to be too exhaustive about the explanation, but maybe just take us through the timeline of what transpired after that point.

I wish I could say that it was some, that I was this wonderful spiritual creature, but, um, my pastor 18 years ago, Jim Fitzgerald. He, um, he asked me one Friday night, called me and said, you want to go to the abortion clinic?

I said, what in the world do I want to go to an abortion clinic for? And he said, come on, go with me. Um, uh, cause another member in our church was going down there on Saturday. So her name's Patty Smith.

And, um, he said, come on, let's go down and support her. I said, I don't want to go down there. And, uh, and then he said, come on, I'll buy you a cigar. And I said, okay. I went down there because he was going to buy me a cigar.

Now, once I got there, it was horrific. I mean, I could not stand it. I hated it, but something kept drawing me there. And then I spent a few years there going there on Saturdays when I could and any other time that I could.

And then I got really sick. I got cancer. I had brain injuries. I had all these things go wrong. And, uh, had major brain surgeries. And I was screwed up, I mean, big time. And, and so I don't even know how long.

I mean, it was months and months and months that I couldn't even go out the front door. Uh, I was scared of everything. I didn't even know who I was or where I was. But then as my mind started to come back, I remembered God working down at that abortion clinic.

So I went down there. Um, and trust me, my mind was not working. And I went down there anyway. And, uh, uh, I sat on this little pony wall that's there that divides a couple of properties. And a beautiful young black girl came walking by.

And I said, young lady, can I talk to you a minute? And she said, sure. And she sat next to me. And we talked for an hour, hour and a half. And then she started to cry. And she, she stood up. And I mean, she was beautiful.

I can still remember that. I'll remember this my dying day. She bent over. And she kissed me. And her cheek touched my cheek. And her tears came off of her cheek and onto mine. And, uh, she said, I want to thank you so much.

I'm not going to do this. And, uh, and then she walked away. And, uh, and when she walked away, I was just staring at her because I couldn't even remember a word I'd said to her. And, uh, and I felt this warmth come over me.

I don't even believe in this stuff. But I felt this warmth come over me. And I didn't hear any voice or anything. But, uh, I just said, Lord, if this is what you want me to do, take care of my family.

And I've been there for 11 years.

The Fruit of Faithful Presence, Generational Impact, and the Cost of Ministry

Yeah, that's amazing. And so many, so many of our neighbors are alive because of that. Think of that, just simple obedience. Simple obedience and what God will do with that. And, I mean, we're talking about a lot of people.

Yeah.

All to his glory.

Well, and you're not just talking about the children that are alive, you know, just from that, you know, resulting from that. You're talking about their posterity, too.

Yeah.

How many people in the big picture? You're talking about millions and millions. I don't even know.

Yeah.

But maybe we'll just segue into one real quick.

Of course.

Go ahead.

My dad, my dad passed away in April. And so my family, we all had to go out to Garden Grove, California. And we all went out to his house. And after the funeral, we all went over to his house. And it was the weirdest thing.

It was so surreal to me. But I was sitting there, and I was looking, you know, everybody's eating and having a great time. And I looked, and I looked at my brother and sisters. And then I looked at all of our kids.

And then I looked at their kids. And I thought, man, if my grandmother would have aborted my dad, none of these people would be here.

Mm-hmm. Wow. Yeah. It's incredible.

It hit me until then. I don't know if it's because, you know, when you're at a funeral, you're in a different state of mind.

Right.

Yeah, it's so true, though. I was doing that Ancestry .com thing, and you can kind of start going back and seeing, you know, from your mom's side, your dad's side, and then it goes their parents and their parents.

And anyways, all of a sudden you've got this huge web. But then you look, and you're like, man, if one of those people chose to have an abortion, like all of these people would have been affected. So I think that we won't know until we get onto the other side of eternity all that this has affected and how God has moved and done so much through his people.

Yeah.

This goes to show you the wickedness of this thing that we battle every day. I mean, how death-bringing it is. I mean, on so many levels we can't even really touch on just the effects of it, but it just brings nothing but death and destruction.

But what I wanted to do was kind of help those who are going to watch this show who are thinking about getting into the ministry. We've seen, and I know you have seen, just an incredible spike. And I guess you could say interest or people having the burden now to go out to the mill.

I mean, when you started, there was nowhere near the amount of people that are doing it. Now you're looking all throughout Facebook and your feeds and you're seeing people go to the mill left and right, babies being saved.

But there's such a spike and so many people hungry to know how to do it. And I know that's not necessarily an easy question, I think. Maybe the simple one is you show up and God shows off, right, like Rusty Thomas says.

I mean, he gives us the power and ability. But I just want to ask you kind of some probing questions. Go ahead.

He stole that from me.

I was going to say I thought that was you that said that.

Okay, I'm sorry.

Yeah.

So, yeah, I just want to pick your brain. And I think the first question is, is there a cost? And I know there is. But how should a person count the cost when seeking to get involved with this.

Ministry?

You know, Jesus, when he had all the masses following him, and a lot of them was just because of the bread and his popularity at the time, but he would turn around and say, you guys better count the cost.

You know, we're not going to the Ritz-Carlton like, you know, Pastor MacArthur would say. You know, you really have to take in the toll of this type of ministry. So how would you answer, how should a person count the cost who's seeking to get involved in this type of ministry?

Well, you know, first of all, I had an interview like this with a guy named Ben from the Daily Wire just a few hours ago.

Ben Shapiro?

No, another Ben. But anyway, he was telling me he had only been saved for two years.

Oh, wow.

And here he is now out fighting the fight. He's fighting the fight on the streets of Philadelphia.

Wow.

And he's also working for the Daily Wire, and he's battling this battle on two different fronts all at one time. And I told him I was just so amazed that this guy is so young, and I'm so old, and I love just seeing how God is rising up these people.

And, you know, it is a battle, and you do have to count the cost, but that's nothing new. That's part of being a Christian.

Right.

We have to count the cost just in our life as a believer anyway. But there is an added cost when you go to an abortion clinic. Because, number one, abortion has been around since the book of Genesis. Satan attacks children.

Psalm 106 tells us that they're offering the blood of their children to demons. This is a demonic, sacrificial nightmare that we're involved in, and the enemy loves that. They love abortion. So when you get up and you go stand, you can count on being attacked by the enemy a lot stronger than if you were sitting on your couch watching video games or something.

Right.

But, yeah, there's a cost. I mean, you can talk about there's people that have lost their lives doing this. Not very many, but there are. I mean, down where I'm at, I post on Facebook every night because R .C. Sproul wanted me to.

He wanted me to tell the stories about what Jesus does. I also am on a secular radio station every Monday night here where I tell people about what Jesus did down at that abortion clinic through the week, and it's an amazing thing.

What's that radio station, just so anybody in the area could pop on and listen to you?

Well, it's called American Adversaries Radio. It's part of the Salem Media Group, and I believe it's—. Can't remember the numbers. Oh, 950 AM and 94 .9 FM.

Sweet. Awesome.

And then you said it's a secular station?

Oh, yeah.

Wow, that's surprising.

It is surprising. I've been on there six years now doing this.

Wow.

That's awesome.

But see, if you stand, people take notice. Even the world takes notice, and they say, Wait a minute, what is it? Why is this guy like this? Why is he doing this? And then we're able to share. Now, do we have things happen bad?

Yeah. You know, I've had—I can't count the guns that have been pulled on me. You know, I've had urine thrown on me. I've been hit. I've been—I mean, you name it, spit on, all of that stuff. But, you know, that's not what we're to revel in.

And today, you know, today's a good example. There was a girl named Serena that came, and I'm going to post about her tonight. But she came down there today, and she's flipping me off, and this other lady named Michelle that was there with me, and screaming and hollering and cussing her and her friend.

And I just kept giving her the word, telling her I loved her, and she kept on and on and all of this stuff. And then—I won't go into everything. There's no time. But all of a sudden, I look. She's back in her car up in the back parking lot, and she pulls up, tears pouring down her face.

Wow.

She says, I have to apologize to you. I said, for what? She says, all that stuff I was doing, all that stuff I was saying, all of that. I shouldn't have been doing that.

Wow.

And she said, I can't do this. She said, something is not letting me kill my baby.

Oh, my goodness.

And so she asked for prayer, took the stuff for choices. She's going to go there tomorrow morning. She chose life, her and her sister.

Wow.

Praise God.

You could throw five gallons of piss on me.

Yeah.

You could hit me 100 times. You could spit on me until I'm swimming in it. But when you get to witness God do that, it's worth everything.

Yeah.

No, absolutely.

Yeah.

That's amazing.

Yeah.

Spiritual Warfare, Depression, and the Discipline Needed for This Ministry

Well, I think, too, a lot of people, they see just the Facebook posts or video of like, baby saved or this, and they get excited to do this and excited to get involved, but they don't see all that led up to it, like the cursing out and the pee being thrown on you and everything.

That's why I was thinking about titling this episode The Dark Side of Evangelism or abortion ministry, even though a lot of it's dark. But just the spiritual attack and the physical attacks that come along with it.

And so I wanted you to maybe touch on also just like on what can happen to you personally when you decide to jump into this ministry. I know I wasn't really prepared for it when I started. I was like, you know, on fire for the Lord and fire to, you know, rescue babies.

But I didn't realize like there was going to be a huge element of spiritual attack when it comes to, you know, just your confidence and like feel like the enemy taunting you with you're not equipped. You're not good enough in quotes to be doing this, you know, tax on your family, tax on your marriage, tax coming from every side.

I just I wasn't quite ready for that. And so I just feel like I want to warn people who are new to the fight or thinking about getting into it. Like this is real spiritual warfare. I know you've said several times when you're out there, it's this is literally the gates of hell.

Like and so is there anything like you could I know we're short on time, but then you could probably talk about this for a long time. But could you just touch on on the kind of attacks people can expect going into this?

Well, everything you just said, but the ones that are just so surprising, actually, when I first started this, there was a lady, a dear lady, strong, godly woman named Georgiana Larson. And she got a hold of me one day and said, John, you have to be careful out there on the sidewalk.

And I said I said, I'm not afraid of those people. I'm not afraid of any of this stuff. And she said she wrote me back and said, John, I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about the ones that are on the sidewalk with you.

That's another thing you got to watch out for, because Satan is going to move every angle that he can to try to keep you away from that place. But yeah, you're right, though. I mean, people are going to want to spit at you.

People are going to want to beat you. Supposed Christians are going to drive by and yell at you from their cars, telling you you're doing it the wrong way. You're going to have you're going to have every kind of thing that you can imagine.

But thank God that it's not a consistent, regular thing.

Right.

You know, I don't want these people to get a vision, though, that every day there is going to be a constant eight hours of people doing this stuff to them. That's not true either.

Absolutely.

And God, like I said, number one is the one that's there to protect you. He will protect you. He protects his people.

Right.

Yeah.

So what do you think? And I know this is surprisingly, I don't think the toughest aspect of this ministry is the abused. I don't think that is the toughest aspect of this ministry. But from your perspective, what is the toughest thing to deal with?

What is the toughest aspect of this type of ministry? You know, when you're going to put your feet down and really go at it for a long period of time until God says, OK, I'm going to move you to a different post.

What has been the toughest part of it from your perspective?

Well, mine has been, I don't know about you guys, but mine has been depression. Mine has been feeling, you know, the enemy hits at that. But I got to keep my focus on Jesus, just like, you know, Peter would.

He could do the impossible when he when he wanted to walk on water to walk out to Jesus. And as long as he stayed focused on Jesus, he he was able to do the impossible. But when he looked at his surroundings and the waves and all that, I know I'm preaching to the choir, but I have to preach this to myself every day.

That he began to sink. And because if you let up in your faithfulness, if you let up and not look into him, then the enemy is there to kick you around inside spiritually, emotionally, all of those kind of things as well.