“I Was Convicted by My Own Apathy” – Juan Riesco on Saving Babies

Once again, to the Conversations That Matter podcast, I'm your host John Harris with Juan Riesco, who was the, do

I say star? He was the main figure in our documentary that we did a few, more than a few years ago now, which was called

Paint the Wall Black. And maybe we'll talk about that a little bit, but without further ado, Juan, it's so good to see you.

Brother John, it's a joy to be back, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah. I love you, brother. I love what you're doing. I see you all the time on social media and it's encouraging to me just to see all you're doing for the cause of anti -abortion and saving babies' lives.

But you were not always known for that. And we were, I suppose, on the ground floor of what

Juan Riesco's kind of Christian trajectory here because you, I'll let you tell a little bit more of the story for those who saw the documentary they know.

But, you know, you had the highest rated business or at least restaurant in Chicago on Yelp and it was shut down during 2020

BLM. And you had to flee with your family, with all these death threats and everything to the

Dallas area. You came back to reopen NeNe's and that's kind of where we left the story. Last time

I think you were on the podcast is you're, you were hoping to reopen NeNe's, but now you're not doing any of that.

You are with Love Life and the link is actually in the info section if people want to support you with Love Life.

It's lovelife .org forward slash location forward slash Chicago. Anyway, you're saving babies' lives.

So walk us through the journey of Juan Riesco over the last five years. Oh my, praise

God, yeah. So the last we all, I spoke, the last time I spoke with the

Conversations That Greatly Matter podcast audience, I was moving back to Chicago from the

Dallas, Fort Worth area to reopen my family's restaurant. And it was really only because of, of course,

I sensed the Lord moving my family and I, but the support that we got from the

Paint the Wall Black documentary, the believers here on this channel that really surrounded my family and I digitally, of course, but vocalized that they would support the family business if we reopened.

And so we felt that energy, like the, the movement of God's people coming around us and saying like, man, you guys should really give this another shot.

And so we did, we trusted the Lord and we moved, relocated our family from Dallas, Fort Worth area back to Chicago, and we gave my family's business another chance.

It was a powerful experience. We were able to reopen for a little under a year.

And John, it was so many people that said, I love John's podcast. I've been watching it for years.

When I saw you were reopening, I had to go. I'm not kidding. I would send you pictures all the time, like, hey, this guy listens to your show.

You know, he's from North Dakota or this, this is a couple from Ontario or, you know,

I was just, just different places. And they drove to Chicago, man, to support our family business.

And that, that alone was such a blessing to me. Like there's nothing greater for me, brother, than to dwell with the

Lord and to commune with his people. Like, it's just, it's everything for me. And so I was so moved by that.

But evidently the Lord didn't want it open, brother.

We at around the nine month mark, I looked at my mom and I just said, mom, we are working hard.

We're doing our best, but it doesn't look like this place is going to work. And that's around the time when we started to prepare for the shutdown, the second shutdown.

But this time I felt like with, almost because we were making the decision to.

What do you attribute? I mean, the Lord has his plans. He puts you exactly where he wants you.

And you're the head of the advertising social media for Love Life, which

I think is a phenomenal thing that we're going to talk about here soon. But for those who don't know, just give a little background.

You didn't post a black swear during 2020. One thing led to another. And within less than a week, you got protesters, hundreds of them, maybe even thousands outside your business, death threats, the whole nine yards.

Do you think that when you tried to reopen, was that hanging over your head? Were the local people just afraid of the political ramifications of eating at your business still?

Or what was it that was making it difficult to reopen? It's such a good question, man.

So I would say 99 % of our support were from professing believers in the

Lord. We virtually got almost zero support from our community, people that we had spent years loving and walking alongside of from our neighborhood.

And again, I say virtually zero. There were a couple of people that were willing to come in, but people were afraid of what they would be labeled as if they supported our business.

People were certainly thinking about that kind of third -party perspective of what it would look like for them to go.

Even some of the Christian friends that I had that used to come a lot did not come back around. It was almost entirely an all -new group of believers that came to support us.

Almost none of the original supporters, except for my church and my close network of people.

So yeah, I do believe that's what made it difficult. You can't really run a business like a community coffee shop restaurant like that on one demographic.

You really need to be reaching your neighbor. And we were not able to successfully do that.

Well, and you're in Chicago, like for those who are listening across the United States, this is a bit of a different ballgame.

The people around you are very left. I don't know how to say this, but they're more Democrat friendly and that kind of thing.

Now you're still talking to leftists every day, probably more than you did before, which is interesting.

And in very heated environments, too. I mean, I've seen people on your channel go after you in the most horrific ways.

And you just smile, which is an amazing thing. And maybe we can get into that. There's a joy of the

Lord that you have. It's contagious. There's a faith you have. And when people start saying that you're a hater or hate women, especially is what

I hear people saying, you know, how do you receive that? How do you process that?

Dude, I just relish on the fact that Christ says if they hated me, they're going to hate you simply.

And they don't hate you. They hate that. I testify, Jesus speaking, that their works are evil.

So I go into a conversation, not presuming I'm going to get spat on or anything like that.

But with the framework that if they reject Christ, far be it that they receive me somehow right now.

And if they do, there's probably a problem with me or Christ is really calling them to himself in that moment.

And I try to heed that and be aware of that. So I just don't go into it.

I do my best by God's grace to go into these conversations knowing these people have murder on their minds and.

Christ is calling them to turn away from murder and the devil doesn't like that.

I would love to get into what you think is motivating abortion because I have some thoughts on it that I want to confirm with you that are not as rose colored as some of the pro -life establishment wants to make it.

I want to know, though, why you chose to go this direction, because not everyone wakes up and says, I want to go in front of abortion clinics every day and try to save babies.

It's a hassle. You're going to be shouted at. You're just you're going to also see a lot of stories that are sad that are not successful.

So the success is you live for that. But you also see a lot of babies that die. And I don't know, like, my mind has a hard time handling that.

Like, I think that would just drive me a little crazy knowing that inside the building I'm in front of there's babies literally being murdered.

And I'm helpless out here, not helpless completely, but I'm trying to convince people who sometimes don't want to be convinced.

So what made you think I want to go do that? Well, I didn't think that I was working one day and got a message from.

So this is in the second time Nene's was reopened. And I got a message from a brother named

Jason Storms, who I admire so much in the faith for the ministry work that he does, but also as a man, how he raises his 12 kids and is a great husband.

He's just a guy, by the way. I just met him a few months ago. You did? Yeah, I know. Oh, it's so awesome.

Yeah, dude. I wish it was my first time meeting Jason again. So everyone, they meet

Jesus and they meet Jason, right? That's right. Yeah. So I got a message from him. He said he had got my number from somebody and was looking to bring his family to my restaurant.

And because, you know, obviously, when you have 12 kids, you can't just show up many restaurants unannounced, you know?

And he said, yeah, he's doing some ministry work in Chicago. And I was like, yeah, bro, come through. You know, I'm so happy to serve your family or whatever.

I didn't know him or anything like that. So he brings his family and he's just this precious brother who loves the

Lord and is serving Christ with his beautiful family. And he's like, man, I've heard a little bit about your story.

I'm hosting a conference in Nashville, Tennessee next year. And I would love for you to show your paint the wall black documentary and then speak afterwards.

I was like, OK, this sounds great. You know, I'm a two time failed business owner at this point.

And I guess you want me to talk. Sounds good. So I was excited. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. So I get home the next year.

So a whole year goes. The whole year goes by. That was like right around time. We reopen. The whole year goes by. I go to do this conference at Jason's event in Nashville, Tennessee, and I get home, dude.

And I was so convicted, bro. I was like, I just went to a whole conference to encourage a bunch of believers that preach outside of abortion clinics to be bold and to do what

I did and stand against the enemy, you know, and I get home, bro. And I was like.

Oh, my word. There are abortion clinics minutes away from my restaurant.

And I've gone a couple times, but I totally don't see this in the way that I'm like almost encouraging others to see it.

Like, if I believe a human being is being murdered. And I'm encouraging you to stand up and continue to do it at this conference.

Who am I? And so at that moment, I just vowed to the

Lord and in a way, I just said, Father, if you want me to go.

I'm going to go and I'm going to go. I'm going to go once a week. And the only time that could work was

Friday, Friday and Saturday mornings. And those were the few, very few moments of our business that were actually busy.

And that was the only time that I knew I could actually go just with my schedule and the way things are working out. I'm like, I have to go on a

Friday or Saturday morning and Lord, I'm going to go once a week. And so I did it because I was convicted by my apathy.

And so how did this turn into your job? So great question.

So I committed to the Lord to go once a week while the restaurant was still open the second time.

Then I could sense that we were not going to make it. So I told my mom, we got to close this thing. My mom said, well, what are you going to do?

So I started applying for jobs. I applied to work at an HVAC company. I had a close friend of mine say

I can. He would train me to be a general contractor. I had applied for a lot of different things and doors were just closing, bro.

Everywhere. I had a third interview at a company and they just closed the door on me out of nowhere. No call, no show shortly after.

And I was realizing like, man, people like my resume. They like what I've done. But as soon as they Google me, they don't call me back.

I was marked in a way through the bad reviews, through the bad press that came about me calling me a homophobe and a racist and all these things.

And I just sensed in my heart, dude, like I think I'm marked for ministry.

I think I've been I think God is commanding me to just preach.

And so I said, well, you know what, Lord? I don't know what I'm going to do once this restaurant officially closes, but I know what

I am going to do. I am going to preach this gospel until you call me home. And so I said,

God, I'm going to stay faithful to this preaching once a week at the abortion clinic. I don't care what job I have. I'm going to do it.

And, bro, just like that, I get a phone call from a precious brother who

I also admire so much. His name is Brian Ottinger. He works for Love Life, and he got my number from none other than Jason Storms.

And he says, hey, man, I'm coming to Chicago just looking to break bread with like minded believers.

And Jason gave me your number. I heard you love Jesus. I heard you're against abortion, too.

You know, I work for this ministry. And so we just started talking. And he said, man, what if God calls is calling you to start a

Love Life chapter in Chicago? And I was like, man, I don't know about that.

I'm not really trying to start a new thing. It's my second time my business closes. You know, it's he says, well, one of your duties would be.

To preach the gospel outside of abortion clinics at least once a week. And he had no pre knowledge of the commitment

I made to God. He was not privy to as my first couple of times talking to the guy. You know, he doesn't know much about me.

He's just laying out what people who do this position oftentimes do. And I was just floored.

Wow. I was floored. And so did you you're the one that opened the Chicago branch?

Yeah. So the Lord used me to start Love Life Chicago. We're in 20 plus cities.

And at that time that, you know, Chicago was just where God was leading. And so I became the guy by God's grace.

I was able to go to Love Life New York City maybe about a year ago or so. Oh, cool.

Really had it. Yeah, I got a great time. New York City is a little far for me, unfortunately, to be involved regularly because like two hours.

But that's one of the biggest Planned Parenthood's wherever we were. The largest facility, actually.

I think it's like top three largest facilities in the nation. Yeah. And I've never done sidewalk counseling.

I've known a lot of people who have. It was a first time kind of exposure for me seeing that and seeing

I think what was stood out was how maybe we'll just jump here now. We can jump around however we want, right?

As our minds work and the spirit moves. So I was struck by how the contrast was so stark between light and darkness there where you got all of us praying.

And then you got sidewalk counselors trying to persuade women going in. Here's literature. You don't have to do this. And then, of course,

I guess what I wasn't prepared for was the amount of volunteers for Planned Parenthood who were there.

Who are brazen, who are mocking, who were helping ease the conscience of women who might be persuaded by what we were trying to do.

And what I just right then I thought, you know what? This isn't this is not what

I've been told my whole life about. The abortion issue is that these women are victims. Now, I want to be clear.

I understand there are women that are believing lies that are in tough situations and there are real rape cases and all that.

I understand that. But I'm saying in general, I write then the whatever assumptions

I had were gone about women being overall, in general, victims that were just doing something they didn't want to do.

Because I saw women going in there brazen. I saw one girl in particular telling the sidewalk counselor that, you know, kind of rubbing it in her face that she's going to kill her baby.

And I'm like, this is evil. This is self -conscious. They know she knows what she's doing.

And so I want to ask you about that. You see this all the time. I mean, are you I don't know if you could put a percentage on it, but I mean, is this really deception?

Is it evil? Is it ignorance? Like, how do you see this? Yeah, great. Great question.

And great. I would say that's a very accurate analysis of what it's like being at the front gates of hell for sure.

What I would say is, Brother John, are there women who have been victimized that seek abortion?

Sure. Sure. Some of them are in some sense a victim in some way. Are there women who don't want to do it and are still going through with it because maybe they're being pressured?

Absolutely. Yeah, I would say that that exists. But without a doubt, however, the number one reason why someone gets abortion is not financial.

It's not pressure. And it's not anything other than sin.

It's sin. 99 % of the women we encounter are living promiscuous lifestyles, sex outside of marriage, sleeping around very regularly from their own admission.

99 % of the women that we meet are not being forced in there physically by a person.

They come on their own. They drive themselves. They're not in tears as they approach the door.

This idea that if they just knew of another option, they would have chose life, from my experience, is simply not the case.

Because we offer quite a bit of other options. First and foremost, don't do it. Let the church walk alongside of you.

And the vast majority of them mock us, mock the concept of God as a whole, mock our options.

They literally will say things like, I'm better off than you. I don't need your resources. And so that's kind of what has led me to the concept of the primary reason anyone seeks abortion is sin.

That's, I think, startling for people who haven't had that experience. What do you do to prick the heart?

Because I know you have some success stories. So maybe tell us about some of those. And how did the Holy Spirit use you to reach some of these hardened souls?

Yeah, so there's no magic to it. It's just all gospel. It's all gospel.

A lot of people will say, you know, they'll look at some of my videos or something like that. And they'll be like, oh, it's your tone. It's your delivery.

No, it's not my tone. And it's not my delivery. Because there's been times when I've had terrible tone and terrible delivery and I've still seen fruit.

I have literally stood outside of the abortion clinic with a speaker and have said, if you murder your child,

God is going to hold you accountable for murder. And if you don't repent, you will go to hell. I've given the full -blown, rigid message of Christ, you know, without any sugar on top.

And I've seen women come out and hug me and literally say, I was in there and I heard your voice.

And I knew it was God. I knew it was God. And she hugged me, bro. She thanked me. She was so thankful that she heard the voice of God through the preaching of the word.

Then there's also been times where I've said, ma 'am, God loves you. And the response is blank

God and blank you for telling me that. So you cannot tell me that this is about tone.

Does tone work? Sure. Is tone helpful? Sure, tone is helpful. But are we going to nail tone and things like that all the time?

We're not. We're not going to nail tone and delivery all the time. But what we can count on is if we share the full word of God as it is written, that it won't return void.

So this is a 100 % gospel issue, which means the only solution is

Christ and his people bringing the word. That's it.

And I mean, I'm sure Planned Parenthood is not a big fan of you. Have they threatened you or have you had people?

I mean, you're used to this from previous experience, but people showing up at your house threatening you, anything like that?

So, I mean, other than, you know, the community who throws clothing hangers at us, who has spat on us, who has told me they're going to, you know, blank kill me.

Yeah, pushed us, shoved us, just those types of things. Amazing.

Nobody at my front door yet. Thank God. But they wouldn't like what happens if they show up. I'll invite them in for coffee.

Yeah. Well, I hope they don't. That's an awful thing. And I'm just so happy, though, that babies are being saved.

Do you have numbers for us? Do you have any? Yeah. Yeah. I would say, you know, before I give like success stats,

I'll share this. There's a brother that I look up to so much. His name is Cal Zastro. He's a missionary to America from America, but he's just a life on vision.

He's a brother who's on mission constantly. He's preached outside of so many abortion clinics for years.

He was a part of the generation that, you know, would blockade the doors and stuff like that.

He's part of the reason why the FACE Act exists, which, in my opinion, is a beautiful thing. And I asked him one time, the first time

I ever got to meet him, I said, brother, in your, you know, 40 years of serving Christ, how many babies have you seen saved?

And there was like this awkward pause. And Cal said, I don't count the amount of babies that are saved because the number of babies that are murdered is just so large.

And it just it didn't feel right for him to track that digit. And that really moved me, man, like that actually really affected me.

And I started to, like, question, you know, what I was doing, if I was doing the right thing by tracking the numbers of babies saved.

And ultimately, I just sensed God give me peace about it. Because the scripture says to let your light shine before all men so that people would glorify your father in heaven.

And so I don't think Cal is wrong. I just think, you know, God has moved in us in different ways.

And so for me, you know, I have had a great sense of peace sharing that number. Also, too, the scripture that inspires me greatly is where the word of God tells us that we triumph over the enemy and his schemes.

Primarily through the blood of the lamb and by the word of our testimony, you know. So my testimony by God's grace here in Chicago is that the

Lord has used us to rescue 95 babies from abortion. I would say for 14 of those moms, we have the privilege of still walking with at this moment.

We have a full time staff member. Her job is to connect moms to resources, primarily the local to local churches.

And so our number is about 95 babies rescued from abortion and about 14 moms that we're currently walking with, whether it be through discipleship or connecting them to resources, et cetera, at this moment.

Well, praise God. And I'm glad you shared it because people need encouragement. And to know that the gospel's working,

Christians being motivated, our work is working. I do wonder for churches who want to be involved or people, what does it look like?

Maybe this is the best way to approach it. Let's say best, well, not best case, but like, let's say she's, how do

I say this? She's gotten herself in a position where an abortion seems like that's the out and comes to Planned Parenthood thinking she's going to get an out.

She can continue with her life, meets you and then meets Jesus. And now what?

So take us through the process from there. You connect her with a church, you connect her with an organization that helps take care of the baby.

What happens? Yeah, such a good question. So, John, here's the primary thing we must remember.

Abortion is an opportunity for the Great Commission to be displayed before these people.

That is what it primarily is. And so the Great Commission is gospel and discipleship.

And so we believe the number one resource that a mother needs is first to meet Christ and then to be connected to a local church where a woman can mentor her.

And so our primary means our primary resource that we offer women at Love Life is connection to a local church.

Then we will address physical issues. Sometimes physical things can come first. But what we have noticed is that when a woman gets connected to a trained mentor.

So many of her alleged problems and worries dissipate because she's hearing the good news.

She's realizing that God is her provider. God is her healer. The Lord is her counselor. And then she has a actual woman of the faith who can come alongside of her and walk with her through those things.

So then that's primarily. Then, of course, we work with local pregnancy centers to provide free prenatal care.

And we have a philosophy in Chicago, at least, that we never want to say no.

So when we meet moms that have physical needs, again, our literal philosophy amongst my team here in Chicago is never say no unless it's a sin.

So we've helped with moms. Provide or we've helped pay for daycare.

We've helped pay for rent. We felt pay for gas money, groceries, Uber rides, getting them to and from.

We've literally picked Susie has picked moms up and brought them to and from doctor's appointments. So we we want to meet as many needs as we can.

First, spiritually. And then secondly, physically. Gotcha.

I love that. I love the priority being the spiritual need because that is the primary need. And in the local church, you usually organically can figure these things out better than some organization that's just handing things out without a lot of vetting.

So, no, that's great. When you how often do you go out? Because I see videos all the time.

You're out there, I think, more than once a week. Oh, yeah. So so at this point,

I mean, that's like my all. I want to be at church at the abortion clinic or at home.

Those are like all I ever want to be. So I'm there all throughout the week. Wow. And they know you. They everyone there,

I'm sure. You want to go in. They definitely know me. Yes. The workers know me.

They know my name. They know my family. Yeah. They know me. Oh, have you ever had a worker soften up because of the relationship with you or are they all just so hardened that, you know, they just dislike you?

I'm wondering if like because they're hearing. Yeah. I've had a couple of really good conversations, but I would say the verb softening up is not one that I would use.

Yeah. I've not experienced that yet. Just having a conversation where you're not shouting at each other is a sick.

Oh, we have exactly. I've had quite a bit of those. Oh, for sure. Yeah. Yeah. What about other areas where there's not a chapter of love life?

Because I think there might be Christians listening and they think whether it's love life or they just want to start something with their church.

Yeah. Yeah. It's a little daunting. Like, I'm going to go there. And what?

One's got a bullhorn. The cops are going to show up like I've never been arrested in my life. I've never gotten a speeding ticket.

What do I how do you go from A to B? Yeah. Great question. So at Love Life, we are in 20 plus cities.

So chances are, you know, 50 percent chances or so that if you're watching this and you live in the

States, we may have a chapter near you to get involved in. But to those who don't. Again, we believe that abortion is not only an issue of darkness, but really an absence of light, an absence of the church being present and clocked in and doing the things that God wants us to do regarding this sin.

So how does the church get involved by God's grace? We have launched a program called the House of Refuge Initiative.

And what that is, is we essentially ask churches to firstly vocalize from the pulpit that you are a church that believes abortion is sin.

But then the good news is that Christ died for sinners. But we want we encourage the pastors through our

House of Refuge Initiative to vocalize this specific sin and say that we believe this is a sin.

Why? Because over 30 percent of the people we meet at abortion clinics identify as church going evangelical

Christians. And so we believe if pastors and when pastors speak specifically about abortion from the pulpit, we might be able to pull 30 percent of Planned Parenthood's clients away because we actually will meet them at the church.

And then through our House of Refuge program, we help train two people in your congregation to be mentors, what we call life mentors for any person who we may meet or who you may meet that is considering abortion.

So we train those two people to know how to walk alongside of moms, answer the tough questions, and really just be available for a mom who is either pondering abortion or who has had an abortion or dad too.

And so, yeah, we see great success through the House of Refuge program. It's a really easy onboarding ramp.

You don't have to come to the abortion clinic. You might be in a state where there is no abortion clinics near you. But that doesn't mean that women aren't getting abortions.

They're just going to the closest state next door. So when somebody meets her there, if you become a

House of Refuge, we'll look at our map and say, oh, you're from Louisiana, for example, and you're getting an abortion in Georgia, which is very common.

Praise God, we actually have a House of Refuge church near you with mentors trained. Would love to walk with you today.

That's great. I don't want people to gloss over this. Did I hear you just say that 30 %?

Easily. Easily. 30 % is the statistic that the Care Net puts out.

But when we're in front of the abortion clinic in Chicago, dude, it's over 50%.

And you know what I even do, John? I ask them, what church do you go to? And I get their pastor's names.

I've called churches and said, do you know that a pastor's daughter at your church is here right now?

Oh, my. Please reach out to the family. Please call them to repentance. Love them.

Walk alongside of them. You know, I've literally called churches because I'm meeting pastor's daughters at the front doors of the abortion clinic.

And maybe that makes sense, you know, in a twisted way because of the shame dynamic that it's not accepted, obviously, in the

Christian community to do activities that lead to pregnancy out of marriage. And so to get rid of the evidence, especially if you're playing church, especially if you're not really a spirit -led born -again

Christian, you're going to say, I got to keep playing the part. I knew it was bad.

I didn't know it was that bad because I lived in, well, you know, because you came, you visited me when I was in Lynchburg, which is like the buckle of the

Bible belt. And there was, I think it was in Roanoke, which is like, I don't know, an hour south.

There's an abortion clinic. And the local Planned Parenthood, my wife went to, sorry, the local crisis pregnancy, my bad.

My wife went to one of their events and they were saying, this is a problem with students at Liberty University quite a bit.

And the shocking thing was the mothers taking the daughters to get the abortion.

And like the mothers of all people, the mothers, I didn't know how to, like, in my mind,

I couldn't make sense of that. I still quite can't. John, in the same day, within the same 30 minutes,

I evangelized by God's grace, a father who brought his daughter to abort his grandbaby.

And five minutes, I'm sorry, maybe 10 minutes before that, I evangelized a grandfather who brought his granddaughter to abort his great grandchild.

We see this very regularly, very regularly. It's insane.

I mean, you have both of which said they believed in the Lord. Both of them. I've got a little daughter who's like,

I just can't imagine. It's it's inconceivable to me. But, you know, sin makes you go to dark places.

And it's so important that there's a witness out there like yourself, like other Christians who are spreading the gospel and sharing that this is a sin.

You shouldn't do this. The Lord sees this and is not pleased. I think that's all.

This is all really helpful. Christians need to know this is happening. And you know what, one, I think, and I'm sure you agree with this, knowing that the kingdom of darkness is present, not getting lulled into complacency, understanding there's a battle right in front of you and there's a physical manifestation of that battle.

That, I think, does things for your spiritual life. Right. Like I know if I go evangelizing or if I even just share the gospel with someone in public,

I'm reminded, oh, there's people going to hell. I don't always think about that because I'm paying bills and all the activities of life people get involved with.

But no, like there's a spiritual battle. And I know you're reminded of that every single day. I think it would be good for us as Christians if the opportunities out there.

I happen to live in a community where there's not as much opportunity along these lines, but it is New York.

So there are people getting abortions. It's just smaller clinics and so forth. And there's not a huge Christian presence.

But but I'm convicted myself like this needs to be something that we're staring in the face and not afraid to stare in the face.

Well, John, let's get your church signed up to be a house of reference. I would love that. Yeah, no, I'm already thinking about it. I think we need to do that.

One of the things, too, I wanted to point out and then I'll give you the floor. You're saying something really important that needs to be said in all this.

Not the crisis pregnancy. That's the basis for this. It's the local church. And that I think has been missing for so long.

I grew up and nothing against crisis pregnancy. I love many of the people there and they're doing some good work.

But here's the thing that I've noticed. You go to a crisis pregnancy dinner, which I'm sure you've been to some local churches go.

They talk about their success stories and you feel like you did something. And maybe you did. You contribute.

You're part of a raffle, whatever you do there. And you think, well, they're the they're the good people that are challenging abortion.

We need to keep supporting them. OK, good. What about local church? What about the ministry that God has ordained?

That's like that. You have to have that to sustain what you're doing and what other people are doing.

And that's one of the things I think in especially areas that there's not a strong local church like that's got to be bolstered.

We need local churches who are strong, able to intake people that need discipleship.

And so if you're a pastor listening to this and you're thinking, man, I'm so I'm just doing so much already trying to just bolster my church to build it.

You're already doing the groundwork. That's what I wanted to say is like, don't feel bad like you're doing what needs to be done.

Do you have any thoughts on that one? Dude, I couldn't agree more. And the last thing

I want to do is really put more on the plate of a pastor. That's why we created House of Refuge, because all the pastor would do is say that abortion is sin from the pulpit.

We would say that crosses off that box. And then we are actually working to train other lay leaders in your congregation.

That way, when a woman comes to your comes to your church by God's grace, we don't have to call the pastor.

We can call these lay leaders to do that work of the ministry. And so, yeah, no, I certainly think that that what you said also regarding pregnancy centers is so accurate, bro, because Christ has called not the pregnancy center, not the

Republican, not those things to be the voice of truth and culture. The pillar of truth and culture is 100 percent the local church.

And God can use Republicans and God can use crisis pregnancy centers and God bless them if they love the Lord. But certainly it is the church that is already the pillar of truth and culture.

And and and and when we take that place, dude, that's when we really see when we like walk a step into that place.

Yeah, that's that's when I think we will really see change. Amen. Amen. All right. One last question for you.

OK, before I have off camera, I'll have I have some personal questions I want to ask you a question for everyone.

Politically speaking, you have any idea where this is all going? I know there's abolitionists in certain states like Oklahoma and Idaho.

They're trying to get bills through. What do you think happens in the future? Are we going to see some some state rollbacks on abortion or things going in a good direction?

Or do you think that that it's not good and things are going to go? I'm pretty sure what we're seeing in Tennessee right now is pretty groundbreaking.

Like, I think I heard Jeff Durbin say something like 50 percent of the legislators that they needed had signed the bill or something like that.

Like they're getting they're gaining grounds. I. Yeah. Yeah. So I personally believe that we should be fighting for equal justice and equal protection.

And I believe even if people say we're not, it's not going to happen. I think Christ is king. So it's going to happen.

So I'm just believing for the best, man. I don't know. I don't want to say I don't know.

I'm not on that forefront as much as, you know, the Jeff Durbin's and all those guys. So I definitely kind of just adhere to what they're doing.

I'm like, they're doing the right thing and we should all be supporting that. I kind of in more focus on local church and presence outside of the clinics.

Yeah. Well, I think what you're doing is phenomenal. And I would advise people to check it out. Lovelife .org.

And I'll put the info in the whatever they call it, the info section.

You can go check out the link under this video. But it's the Chicago location of Love Life. And you can support what

Juan's doing financially or through prayer. Keep up. I know you're on social media, too. So especially

Facebook or Instagram, if you want to follow Juan's videos, you can find some of them there. And Juan, really appreciate it.

Thanks for taking some of your time to share with us about what you're currently doing. I'm so thankful to be back, bro.

I love the precious saints that are a part of the Conversations That Deeply Matter podcast. And I just pray that the

Lord continue to bless you, Brother John, your beautiful family. I'm so excited about your little baby girl. I know so many people prayed for her, you know, and I know

I did. So to God be the glory. Please give your wife my best. Yes. All right. God bless, brother. Talk to you later.