Life Choices | S7 E1

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00:01
Welcome back to the Point Taken Podcast. We are at a new season, and I'm not going to say the number because I don't know, and Lowell doesn't know either.
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So we're at a new season here, and I am here with Anna, with Kaylee, and with a friend,
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Sarah Grace, who Anna and Kaylee continue to call the wrong name. This morning, well
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I guess I should say over the summer, Sarah Grace came and spoke to us at Witten. Actually, last season we did an episode on abortion, and one of our members, well actually she's been on the podcast before, she shared that with Life Choices here in Memphis, we'll talk about them in just a moment, and they watched it.
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We went and toured their facility, I believe it's the second or third time we've been over there, and here we are four weeks later, and Sarah came and spoke at the church this morning.
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I hope the interest meeting afterwards went well, figuring out ways we can work with them and they can work with us, and so here we are at the church meeting, church working together.
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So today is mostly going to be about Sarah Grace and Life Choices, and I'm going to let
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Anna take it away, but before I do, guys remember, continually please like, share, and subscribe to these videos, and if there is any topics you want us to cover, we're not afraid to tackle, or really any topic, if Anna's here, we can talk about pretty much anything.
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I mean, it's Anna, right? So you can send those questions to the thing that I always say, listenpointtakenatgmail .com,
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and we'll read them all. I did it right, did I? Yes! Listenpointtakenatgmail .com.
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I'm like 82 % confident. No, that was good. I mean, sure. Or drop it in the comments below.
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Yeah. If you don't want to send it in the email. They'll probably get like a bounce back email, like this email address is incorrect.
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Well, so like Pastor Josiah said, our church ended up doing a tour at Life Choices about a month ago, and really got to see what type of work this center in the city does for our community, and so we just wanted to have her on to discuss what services they provide, what type of work they do, all of the things, essentially.
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So, again, this is Sarah Grace. I always want to call her Sarah Beth. It's this southern double name thing.
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But I didn't know originally how Life Choices started, so can you tell us a little bit how that happened?
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Yeah. Disclaimer. Sorry, Sarah. Just to make sure. Quick disclaimer. If you haven't yet watched the abortion episode from last season, it may be good to do that so that this conversation makes a little more sense.
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Anyway, go ahead, Sarah. Sure. No, yeah. So, Life Choices has actually been around in the city of Memphis since 1986.
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I know a lot of people didn't realize how long we've been around in our city, but at that point in time,
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Roe v. Wade had been around for a little while, and abortion rates were actually at an all -time high in our country, and obviously we've seen that those rates have just continued to go.
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But Memphis locals Don and Ann Johnson and Buck and Monette Jones had been actually at a summit in D .C.
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kind of hearing about the state of what was going on in our country, and they really just felt the
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Lord kind of pressing in on them to kind of do something about it.
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They were honestly kind of questioning, like, God, why aren't you doing something about it? And the Lord kind of pushed back and was like, well, why aren't you doing something about it, right?
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And so they ended up starting Life Choices, they brought it back to Memphis, and rallied local churches to support and started the pregnancy medical clinic that is
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Life Choices in 1986. Obviously, we've grown and shifted since then, and changed locations a time or two, a few times,
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I don't know how many exactly, but yeah, so since 1986, we've been serving the women in our city.
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And what services do you provide those women? Yeah, that's a great question. I like kind of starting off when we talk about services, just stating the fact that first and foremost, we're a ministry of Jesus Christ, and so the most important thing that we do with any women that walk through our doors is we're sharing the gospel with them.
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But women that come to our clinics are really in need of kind of first stop intervention for pregnancy.
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So when they find out that they're pregnant, or they think they might be pregnant, they can come to one of our clinics and get a free pregnancy test and a free limited ultrasound, basically to confirm that they're pregnant.
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But then while they're in for that appointment, our client advocates get to meet with them and kind of talk through where they're at, what's their story, what's going on in their lives, and kind of help to figure out what they're thinking.
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Because obviously, we recognize that not all pregnancies are planned, and so sometimes women need an extra set of,
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I guess, maybe hands to help kind of process and figure out what those things are going to look like.
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So our client advocates are sitting down and they're doing options education and counseling, talking through resources that these women might need to be able to parent, and helping provide referrals for those.
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We offer STI treatment for our clients that come in. Lots of different education opportunities.
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Our mission statement at Life Choice is to educate and empower women to choose and cherish life.
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So we really do take that education piece very, it's very important to us.
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How, with y 'all not taking any government funding, how do y 'all fund all those services?
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Yeah, that's a great question. All these services are free for our clients, but that is because of our community.
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Local churches, people in our community, businesses that believe in the work that Life Choices is doing and want to support that.
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Financially, we have a lot of businesses that help with in -kind gifts and coming and serving us in that way.
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And so we're able to provide all these things because there are believers in our city that want to continue the work of building the kingdom of Life Choices.
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This probably leads into why Life Choices has to exist in general, but just out of curiosity, what percentage of the time that a woman comes in, does a man come in?
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Not as often as we would hope. A lot of times they might have a mom, a sister.
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Right. I don't mean the man who got her pregnant. Right. Very rarely. Yeah. It happens on occasion.
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We do have some men that are stepping up to the plate and coming to these appointments.
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And we do have some clients that the fathers are working appointments and those sorts of things.
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So we understand that. But homelessness is an epidemic in our country. And so there are a lot of women that are coming to these appointments, probably sometimes even without a relationship with the father of their baby.
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Yeah. Okay. I wanted to know if someone who wanted to schedule an appointment, how they would go about that?
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Do they need a referral? Can they just call? Do they need to book an appointment online? How does that process work? Great question.
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You don't have to have a referral at all. You can call either of our clinics or fill out a form online, and then one of our receptionists will get in touch.
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They do a really good job of kind of discerning what services you're in need of and if that's something that, if we're the place for that, or we get a lot of calls for different things because people don't necessarily know the full extent of what we do.
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And so our receptionists are really good at making sure that the services that we offer are what you need.
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Okay. You know, one of the criticisms, and especially if you're watching this and you haven't heard our stance before, our stance when it comes to abortion is the same as the
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Lord's. You shall not murder. But in that, one of the common false attacks on believers who stand for the, in fact,
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I have to say the sentence, defend the lives of the unborn is an amazing time. Anyway, the fact that you have to say the sentence, are pro that.
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One of the common attacks they'll do is say, well, you're not really pro -life, you're just pro -pregnancy.
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Pro -birth. You pro -birth. That's not true. There are believers all over, exactly like what
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Sarah Grace is saying, like with Life Choices, who that's not true. We are eager to show grace, mercy, love, and compassion to those who might not have done it right on the front end, but we're going to help them do it right on the back end.
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So it's just untrue. So I guess talk about that. The idea that if you are pro -life and anti -abortion, then you're really not pro -the father or mother, you're just pro -baby.
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You ever heard this before? Sure. So one of my favorite kind of thought processes with this, obviously we have these thoughts and words of pro -life, pro -choice, right?
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But if we genuinely are wanting to practice what we preach and say that we're really pro -life, especially as believers, it goes back to John 10, like Jesus came so that we could have life and have it abundantly, right?
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So we are in the business of not just pro -life but pro -abundant life, and so that looks like walking alongside of women and supporting them and empowering them with the resources that they need to choose life for their babies.
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And so many people kind of gloss over and make these generic statements, but we are walking out and practicing what we preach about this, of like, if we really want to see women, again, going back to our mission statement, choosing and cherishing life, what can we do?
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How can we do that? How can we empower them to do that? And I think that our ministry is probably one of the most holistic in that aspect of the amount of services that we offer, not just the amount but the quality and the way that we go about it for the sake of caring for women as a whole and not just in regards to body, mind, and spirit, like you said, like holistically.
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How long have you worked there? A year. A year. Y 'all got a good reputation. Is your boss doing this?
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I hope so. What's your boss's first name? Rachel. Rachel, and then our
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CEO is Shelly, so I'll definitely send it to them. They better watch it. Come on, look at this girl.
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She's doing it. Yeah, this girl already. Come on, she's doing it. I was going to say that. She did a good job. She deserves it. She does deserve it.
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So you mentioned, like, with the different types of people that come into your clinic, like what is the main demographic that you see and is there a reason why your guys' clinics, because you have two locations in Memphis, one on Raleigh -LaGrange, one on Poplar.
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Yeah. Is there a reason that those clinics are placed specifically there? Yeah, that's a really good question.
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So I would say any type of person that you see in the city of Memphis, those are the demographics we see.
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There are so many different demographics. Obviously, Memphis is predominantly
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African -American, white, and Hispanic. And so those are a lot of the main kind of demographics that we see.
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But then also we look at even the socioeconomic statuses of people in our city.
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I think it's something like maybe last year I think in Memphis maybe 21 % of people were in poverty, which is kind of crazy.
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That puts us, I think, at least in the top ten, maybe the top five in the country for cities below the poverty rate.
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And so when we look at kind of that demographic, that distribution of that, it is really important to think about our neighbors.
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We're supposed to love our neighbors, right? And so the intentionality of being in areas where those demographics are, the people that need services that are free and accessible, and obviously a lot of our clients struggle with transportation.
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And so being in areas where people can access us. Raleigh, Grange, and Poplar are pretty common streets here.
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You know, for those of you who don't know, euphemisms. Euphemisms are soft ways of saying true things.
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Unfortunately, most times they are negative. Euphemisms are normally not good things. I mean, there are sometimes like instead of saying, yeah, my grandpa croaked, you'd say he passed away, right?
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It's a euphemism. It's a kind way. Unfortunately, when it comes to abortion, it is filled with euphemisms.
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Terminate the pregnancy. Health care. Oh, my gosh. It's not a baby.
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Yeah, of course. What is it? What is this in my state? You know, I think the most discouraging, the way you get most discouraged when you hear, and I guess
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I need you to not listen and look when I say this, Christians who are in line with that.
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And, you know, I'm not going to rehash the scriptures because you guys, might have been Kaylee, pointed out last time, you know,
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Elizabeth with John the Baptist and the baby leaps in the womb, and we went over this before. But if you notice,
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Pastor Jemiah preached this morning, and I thought he did an excellent job. Nailed it.
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He was pretty straightforward, but I thought he did an excellent job. And, you know, I always say her last name incorrectly,
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Margaret Singer. Singer. Singer, thank you. The founder of Planned Parenthood.
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You know, guys, it is amazing. You look at the location of those in cities.
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Just look in our city where they're at. They're not going to be from the most important places like Collierville. Germantown.
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Germantown. Okay. They're going to be in Nutbush. They're going to be in Fraser, and if you're not from Memphis, in other words, in the low socioeconomic status, because there was a goal from the get to eliminate a certain demographic of people, mainly black people.
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And if I could get to talking to them, just tell me to shut up. And Katie, I don't want to cut you off because you're talking too much.
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You know, every now and then, when I drive by, there's this guy, and if you're from Memphis, you'll recognize him, who's waving the
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Palestinian flag. And, you see, once I say that, some of you are so trapped, you think
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I'm talking politics. I don't care about, based on our presidential debate over the summer,
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I'm not really interested in politics. My point is, you can pull up on TikTok a young woman, shorts and a
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T -shirt with makeup and her hair braided, talking about supporting Palestine, not realizing the people she's supporting would never let her look that way, dress that way, or be on a podcast.
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Right. Without permission from her brother or uncle or cousin. You know what I mean? I mean, the other day when
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I passed that guy, I wasn't even angry. I said, Father, forgive him because he really doesn't know what he's doing.
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Right. He has no idea. And when it comes to, we have been lied to so often on things like this.
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And the lies are so amazing because they're covered in biblical words, like love and tolerance and patience and kindness and all things that, if they're biblically defined, are beautiful things.
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But those are the words the enemy uses to define the most horrific and terrible things. So if you notice us speaking plainly about those things, it's because we're trying to remove the euphemisms that have overtaken things like the murder of children.
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And, you know, one day, by God's grace, 100 years from now, people are going to wake up and say, wait a minute.
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My great grandparents lived in a time where this was okay. And I want them to be able to say, yeah, but you know what?
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Great Grandma Annie did something about it. You know, Grandma KK did something about it.
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She didn't just sit quietly. You know what I mean? So we would rather, because I know this upsets some people when we talk about this stuff.
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I would rather be ridiculed now and have the father say, well done, good and faithful servant, than be well liked now.
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Or worried about offending somebody. That has become an everyday job for me. That's what I'm saying.
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All right. So, Sarah Grace, you've been there a year now. Where did you work before?
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Please tell me. At an incredible coffee shop. I thought you were going to say incredible pizza.
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I was going to say incredible pizza. At a coffee shop. I loved people.
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And so getting to engage with customers. Oh, great. But that's actually the only person I've ever heard.
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Is he here? Is that Sarah Grace? No, he's the only person I've ever heard. He's worked in like customer service type thing.
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He's worked in retail. Actually enjoyed it? Yeah. So, look. I can tell someone if they were to ask me, how did you become a pastor?
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I can tell them exactly what happened. A lot of times people in the mission field, they can say, I know exactly why
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I'm here. I went on this trip and I saw this and I couldn't unsee what I saw. So, you're at a coffee shop, which you're going to leave nameless for whatever reason.
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You're at a coffee shop. And then now you're working at what many people would call, most people who would think clearly and are not clouded would call it a place where you show love and kindness and support to women.
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Other people would call it a place where you spread ideas and whatever. How did you go from working there to there?
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Yeah, that's a great question. She says that a lot and that makes us feel good. That's a great question.
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That's a great question. It's that exhortation spiritual gift, right? Yeah, thank you. So, my degree is actually in social work.
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And so… U of M? No. I know. I know. Maybe I'll get my master's from there because that's maybe a next step.
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Hopefully. Maybe. I don't know. I really don't like school. But we'll see. It's very expensive. It is.
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It is. But, yeah. So, I got my social work degree and actually when
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I was getting that degree, I had to do a practicum, internship, all that good stuff. And I did it at a pregnancy center local to where I was.
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And really just fell in love with pregnancy center work and the way that the
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Lord can use that to build a kingdom. And when I graduated from undergrad, it was
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December of 2019. So, literally right before the world shut down. Yeah. Right? So, just so many things that when you're graduating college, all those expectations were kind of…had to shift.
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And so, I was applying for jobs all over the country. I was actually looking at some pregnancy center work and had an interview for a job very similar to what
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I'm doing now, which is really funny, in California. Got like four interviews deep.
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And they were like, we're not quite ready to move someone this young across the country.
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And I was like… Because you were here at Bedell? I was in Nashville. Right outside of Nashville, yeah. Wow. And they were like, yeah, we're not going to do that.
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And I was like, okay. So, I just kept getting a lot of closed doors on what that would look like. And so, the
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Lord was just kind to me. He kind of provided Memphis to me as a safe place to land. I had a mentor from college that lived here with her family.
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And she was like, Sir Chris, I just want you to come stay here for a little while. Just come stay with us, see what happens.
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And when I was getting in my car to come here, I was really thinking I was going to be here for maybe a month, maybe two.
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Here I am two years later. But I moved here in 2022.
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A week after I moved here, I started that job at the coffee shop called The Hub. I love it. It's in East Memphis.
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It's great. That sounds like an East Memphis name. It's an East Memphis name, and I love it for it.
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But I actually met my current boss at The Hub, at the coffee shop. And when
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I am kind of talking about this now, and I just see the Lord's hand just so evidently ordaining each of these things.
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But I met her, and she was actually in the coffee shop meeting with one of my pastors.
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And my pastor was like, oh my gosh, you guys need to meet. And I was like, okay. My pastor did not know that I had done my internship, like anything in pregnancy center work.
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But he was like, I just feel like you guys would get along, and you would enjoy getting to know what they do and all this stuff.
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And at the time, Rachel is her name, she was like, why don't you just come in and learn more about the ministry, do a center tour, all this stuff.
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And I was like, okay, yeah, I'd love it. And I was kind of explaining, I was like, yeah, I did my internship at a pregnancy center. She was like, stop it.
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And I was like, yeah. And so I came in, did that center tour. Basically, that center tour turned into an interview because I just love the ministry and love what they did.
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And they had this job opening to be the outreach coordinator. And here
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I am, a year later. Living and thriving. I know, doing all this stuff that I love and that I just feel is so much in this gifting that the
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Lord has given me and this passion that I have for loving and supporting vulnerable women.
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So I love it. Very good. Well, and Kaylee had actually gone to the tour that our church did a couple of weeks ago.
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I wasn't able to go, but she said that you guys had started really focusing on the abortion pill reversal.
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Yeah. And so she's like, yeah, Sarah Gray said she really wanted to talk about that. I was like, good, because I have a lot of questions about that.
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Because that's a big thing since the overturn of Roe versus Wade. It is. Is now these abortion pills are being prescribed without these women being pregnancy tested, without confirming how far along they are in pregnancy.
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And they're just getting prescribed this pill and taking it at home, like not even seeing a doctor physically. So what does that look like?
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Yeah, so it's so interesting because with the overturn of Roe v.
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Wade, the expectation is that we would see a decline in abortion rates.
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But the reality is that women still have ready access to the abortion pill.
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Just like you were saying, there's not a lot of medical oversight to that.
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They can stay in the living room. Exactly. They don't have to have a medical confirmation of pregnancy. They don't have to have a prescription for it.
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And you can, like, order them online. Right, you can order them online. Literally have them shipped to your doorstep.
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Our CEO tested it to see because she was like, I just want to know if in Tennessee you can actually get this shipped to your house.
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And she did. And so realistically abortion rates have still been increasing because of that.
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But obviously we understand that abortion in and of itself is not safe, right?
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But it's even less so when you're taking a medication and taking it improperly and it not being administered with any sort of correct instruction, anything, any sort of oversight.
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And so there's a lot of facets to that conversation right now that's going on.
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But part of what our ministry has felt like has been important to help be a part of that conversation is abortion pill reversal.
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So I don't know what you guys know about the abortion pill, but it's actually a series of pills.
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So there are two separate pills that you take. The first one is actually cutting off the nutrient supply to baby.
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And then the second one that you're supposed to take within 24 to 48 hours of the first one is actually basically inducing labor.
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It's flushing out your uterus. And so what abortion pill reversal is, is if a woman takes that first dose of the abortion pill series and has an immense change of heart that can obviously only come from the
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Lord and says, I can't do this, I need help. If she happens to Google, I took the first pill, now what?
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The abortion pill reversal hotline can come up and she can call that phone number. And if she is in the greater
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Memphis area, she's connected with Lifetresses of Memphis, a 24 -hour hotline that we have that connects to a member of our nursing staff.
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And they are able to get that medication to them. So basically what the abortion pill reversal medication is, is an extra dose of all of those good nutrients that were being cut off to reinstate that supply and to try to make sure that baby is getting what baby needs.
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So just to put it bluntly, the first one is basically making it where the nutrients do not pass through the umbilical cord to a child, so the child is starving.
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In other words, is that where you're getting at? And then it can be reversed by doubling down on the things they missed in the past 24 hours.
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Right. So earlier on in pregnancy, the way that baby gets nutrient supply is actually through something called a yolk stack.
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And so it's basically like just cutting off that supply that comes through your mother.
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And so yeah, so basically if the abortion pill reversal can be administered, again, we're wanting to be kind of in a, we're in a little bit of a time crunch when that call comes in.
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And so it's such an interesting ministry, because our nurse director will come back with stories of just how the
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Lord, like, worked out every step along the way. I don't know if you guys remember snow apocalypse that we had a few months ago.
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Yes. We've had them for a few years in a row. Right, right. Global warming. So our clinics were closed because we couldn't necessarily get out to the clinic safely.
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And we obviously didn't necessarily want clients trying to get there either. And so we had one of those hotline calls come in while we were snowed in.
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Right. And so our nurse director, like, just started the phone tree, like, calling her now.
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Hey, I need, exactly. They were like, I need a truck. Who can get me where I need to go?
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And she was, like, reaching out to people at her church. Sitting Chapman and Adler. But each step of the way, there were so many different things.
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Even finding a pharmacy, because we have to call it in to the pharmacy, find a pharmacy that was open that could get the medication for us.
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So she had to find somebody that had a truck and take her to the pharmacy and then take her to this woman calling in. What's the name of the medication that reverses it?
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So it's under this abortion pill reversal, like, umbrella. Basically, it's progesterone.
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Okay. So I was going to say, because I'm very familiar with that. I've had three children.
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Yes. By me and my wife. Okay. We've already done that episode. Okay.
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We've already done that episode. What would it take for you guys to be able to have that on hand?
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That is a good question. That, to be honest, I don't. Because it would be illegal because you would be prescribing it to a person.
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I don't know that that is something that we have the means to do without a pharmacist.
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Because you would be prescribing it. Well, then you would have to have a physician to be able to prescribe the medication.
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The pharmacist would just fill it. That's what I'm getting at. Yeah. So we do have a medical director that kind of does a lot of our medical oversight.
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And so any time that we have a woman that comes in and has administered this medication, she's then considered a high -risk pregnancy.
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But our medical director then takes her on as a patient and walks with her through that pregnancy.
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I understand there's probably legalities behind it, but if we could ever figure out something there, it'd be cool to not have to rely on Walgreens in circumstances like that.
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We do have a really good pharmacy that has been a supporter of us, and we know that we can call them.
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Very good. So we're grateful for that, for sure. Keep that medication in stock. Yeah. Because I could see many pharmacies would be like, oh, sorry, it didn't get ordered.
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Because I worked at a pharmacy for a handful of years, and it's like, oh, yeah, sorry, we just don't have that. Right. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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And not even understand the. I was going to say, yeah, you worked at the pharmacy too, so. Yeah, you'll both do. I need it. I need it now.
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You'll both work for pharmacies. I have some good stories about the pharmacy. I honestly can't remember for sure how long ago we started being a part of the abortion pill reversal hotline.
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But just statistics wise, because I think this is something that's worth celebrating, we have,
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I think, six women that are still carrying their babies to abortion pill reversal.
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And we actually just celebrated two of our first births this summer. I would say it was one a few weeks ago, so that's quite another one baby.
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But genuinely, just life -saving work. And I get chills thinking about it, because it's just, it is.
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It's just the Lord, and you just get to be a part of it. But it is worth celebrating. That is exciting. I love that.
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So with these moms who end up choosing life for their babies, whether it's through the abortion pill reversal or whether they go in and be like,
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I couldn't think about having an abortion, whatever the situation is, what programs do you offer to those women?
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So I know we talked about this this morning, but just for our listeners and stuff, like what kind of programs, like support groups do you provide for them?
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Yeah, absolutely. So there are clients that come in that, as they're kind of thinking through what it looks like to parent, a lot of our clients come in with financial insecurity, food insecurity, housing insecurity, so many different hindrances that they feel like could prevent them from being able to parent, right?
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And so part of what we want to help in that is any needs that we can help meet as a ministry to support them and walk alongside them.
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We want to do that. And so tangible needs, like baby items, diapers, wipes.
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We have an incredible baby boutique that, I kid you not, right now, you guys, is overflowing because of people's generosity.
33:09
It's so cute. It's so cute. I walk in there. Each day I'm at the office, I have to walk through there, and I'm like, oh, it's just oak.
33:16
You know, all the little baby things. But it was so funny.
33:22
I was reorganizing some things this week. We're kind of at a lull in the summer, and so it was like, okay, this is the time to clean house, organize things, and I kid you not, there are diapers and wipes tucked into nooks and crannies of our office because people are just so generous, and they want to see women succeed.
33:43
And, again, going back to that, experiencing abundant life. And so between our baby boutique where we offer diapers, wipes, clothes, all sorts of baby items that you could think of, it's in there.
33:57
I find things all the time. I'm like, what even is this? I don't know. I don't have kids. But it is just fun, and that's a really sweet way.
34:06
So our clients that stay connected with us, whenever they have their baby, our advocates, we get to them and give them a really beautiful baby basket full of different items, and so that's so sweet.
34:21
That's the kind of stuff that Pastor Jeff says all the time. I'm sorry to cut you off. No, you're okay. When he says that ministry supersedes sermons,
34:34
Jesus preached and ministered, and all those words are in the
34:42
Scripture. Ministry is investing in the spiritual life of another.
34:50
When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was naked, you clothed me, so on and so forth.
34:56
What do you say? Remember when they all look at him? This is at the end of days. It's like the one kid in class that always asks the teacher about the homework, and everyone's like, shut up.
35:08
So Jesus says, blessed are. So he looks at all the righteous from all the ages. And if you think of the scale of everyone who ever saw
35:16
Jesus as a human, we're less than 1 % of all Christians ever. Less than, less than,
35:22
I can't even put it. And he goes, bless you. When I was hungry, you gave me food. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink.
35:27
When I was naked, you clothed me. You came and visited me in the hospital and jail. Just stay with me for a minute. And you remember the one guy goes,
35:34
Lord, when did any of us see you in prison? You know, we lived in South America in the 1500s.
35:41
When did any of us see you in prison or naked? What do you say? You do it for each other. You did it to me, right?
35:48
So when I hear you say that, that is ministry, and that's what
35:56
Pastor Jeff means when he says that's worth a thousand sermons. You know, you don't go to church.
36:08
That's not true. We are not sitting in a church right now. Every time in the
36:14
New Testament the word ecclesia is used, the called ones, the elect ones, the chosen ones, it is in reference to the people.
36:21
So you can be the church by doing what Jesus said to do, and that's to do good unto all people, especially those of the household of faith.
36:28
So I'm going to commend you for that. That was beautiful to hear. Little baby baskets. Yeah. Well, and the thing is, too,
36:35
I wanted to mention, like, that's actual support of the women going through this.
36:41
It's not like when they go to Planned Parenthood or another one of these abortion clinics, and it's like, oh, we'll provide you support with this abortion.
36:48
And then they call them. I've heard tons of stories of, like, you're a live -action listener, watcher, whatever. They always do stories and articles about this, about women who call back with complications after the abortion pill or after, like, whatever type of abortion they've had, and, like, they don't call them back.
37:03
You know, like, oh, well, you just need to go to the hospital. Like, there's nothing we can do for you. And so, like, these women are actually being supported, like, through every step of the way.
37:11
And like you talked about, we had a little questionnaire -type thing after the service today, and we talked about the different ministries that you guys offer.
37:21
It's like parenting classes, like postpartum, like education, breastfeeding, like all of these other things.
37:28
And so you're actually supporting them through every step of the way. And as a mom of almost two, like, postpartum was so difficult.
37:36
And postpartum isn't just like— You're still pregnant? Yes. Okay. He's still in here at this point. He's 33 weeks today.
37:43
And so, like, going through that and knowing how difficult that was, the fact that you guys provide support through every aspect of that is a huge deal.
37:52
Because it can be a very isolating situation. Yeah. And I just think it's beautiful.
37:58
Like, I was telling my husband—I introduced you guys earlier. What a stud. Well, she was, like, talking—her and Pastor Jeremiah were talking about, like, all the things that Life Choices did.
38:09
And I'm just, like, sitting there, like, tearing up. And I'm like, part of it's probably hormones. I cried three times today. Oh, no, I cried, like, during the sermon.
38:15
But even when Sarah Grace was on stage talking about all of the services, I was just so touched by, like, the women in our city are so blessed to have this as a resource, if they utilize it.
38:25
But that's what we're trying to get the word out for. And I think it's because it just goes further than just, like, just the pregnancy.
38:34
You have the budgeting class and the— Oh, yeah. Just the life resources to make it for a young mom or even just a young woman in general.
38:49
Because I had a husband, and I was still struggling. Yeah, family support, all of it, and I was still struggling.
38:56
I always tell people that one of our best referrals is when our clients tell other people, like, hey,
39:05
I felt so loved and cared for here. You should go here. I love that. And we really do.
39:10
We get that a lot. Clients will come in, and they're like, yeah, my mom came here 20 years ago, right?
39:17
Like, my auntie, my sister, my neighbor. And I think that that's, like, that's where it's at, where it's, like, people are willing to say,
39:27
I came here. I was cared for. You should come here. I drove by you guys the other day with a newfound sense of attachment.
39:38
My prayer is, God, I pray that that building is torn down in a year, because it's too small to contain the clientele that need, and that back part they're going to have to buy and just park somewhere else, and that it has to double in size because of the need of the place.
39:58
That was my prayer. They can park across the street at that restaurant. I was about to say that apartment complex over there.
40:06
Well, and two, the support doesn't stop, like, when the women choose life.
40:11
Like, if women who come into the clinic in the beginning, and then they end up changing their mind and choosing to have an abortion, they can come back and receive counseling for that.
40:20
And I think that that's so just, like, gracious and merciful, because, like, we don't deserve any good thing that God gives us.
40:31
And so the fact that you will, like, take back somebody who made a mistake, and it's like, I made a mistake, and now
40:37
I need help, and you're like, come on back. Like, there's no judgment. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so that's our hope ministry, right?
40:45
Yeah. And, again, it just always goes back to being a ministry of the gospel, right?
40:51
Like, if we are saying that we're a ministry of the gospel, we have to be living out the gospel.
40:59
And so that's what that looks like, is continuing to meet women wherever they're at the same way
41:06
Jesus did with grace and compassion and truth, but truth and love, right?
41:13
This is where I can, like, go on a rant, but I'll just, as the male present here.
41:20
You know, we keep talking about these women, as we're supposed to, but, you know, gentlemen, the only reason life choices has to exist is because of the failure of men.
41:32
And I want to even address the more dire scenarios where she doesn't even know the man for all that.
41:40
I'll skip past that for a moment. The first example we have of sin in the
41:50
Scripture, human sin, is a man's failure to lead. And that continued,
42:02
Isaac. We just walk through the Bible, and there's continual judgment.
42:09
I mean, just look in the garden. Eve sinned first. God speaks to Adam first.
42:17
Adam, ultimately, is responsible. And then Paul has the gall, 4 ,000 years later, to say, and a sin passed through one man,
42:28
Romans 5 .12, and death through sin, and this way death spread to all men. So Paul's understanding is that sin passed through Adam, even though Eve, chronologically, sinned first.
42:39
The whole reason that Jesus does not have an earthly, biological father is not to do a cool magic trick.
42:44
It's because the sin nature passes through the man, because God holds him responsible.
42:52
He held him as, you know, it's funny, on government forms, there is a box that says head of household.
43:00
They don't recognize that's a biblical term. That comes from the Bible. The head of the house, for everyone that lived in your house, even if it wasn't your family, anyone who lived there, you were not just authority, but responsible for the well -being of.
43:16
So, you know, and I say this all the time, but it's the truth.
43:22
The burden of being a godly man is that it might not be my fault, but it's always my responsibility.
43:33
Always. It is a heavy burden, but that's the job. If my daughter disobeys my wife at the house when
43:40
I'm up here, it's my fault. That's how it is. So, in every turn,
43:49
I would argue, this might sound insensitive, but I don't mean it to be.
43:55
At every turn, for everyone that walks in your clinic, that's a, clinic's not a good word, center.
44:05
I won't say every, because I can think of a couple scenarios. I'll say 90%. At some point, it's going to be a failure of a man in that woman's life.
44:13
At some point. Father, boyfriend, you know, whatever.
44:19
We could go down the line. A large portion, I'll say at the time, is going to be a failure of a man to lead how he's supposed to.
44:26
To love his wife, if it be that case, the way that Christ loved the church, so on and so forth.
44:31
That's what it's going to boil down to. And, you know, you ever read in the
44:41
Old Testament what God's judgment line is? His judgment what? When he judges a nation, do you remember how he does it?
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He gives them bad leaders. Judges. If you don't see the judgment of God in our nation, you don't live here.
44:57
I mean, you don't live here. You live under a rock somewhere. But he goes further than that church.
45:03
This is kind of what Sarah Grace was getting at. She was just saying it softer. 1 Peter 4, verse 17.
45:13
For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God. And if it begins with us, what will be the outcome of those who do not obey the gospel of God?
45:26
Every nation you see where judgment begins, it begins in the church. We have more division in the church today.
45:35
It's just getting worse and worse. Judgment begins in the household of God. We have to clean house first.
45:41
How many times does this happen in the Bible? What does he say? Get the log out of your eye and then get the speck out of theirs.
45:48
Remember, zeal for your house has consumed me. He goes and cleanses the temple first. Every city he goes in, every city
45:55
Paul goes in, where do they go first? They go to the synagogue. Every time. When they go to preach and teach in Newtown, they go to the synagogue.
46:01
Every time judgment begins in the household of God. So I would say that, men, it's only a lonely road if you let it be.
46:12
This is why God made churches, to find older men to teach the younger, to find a place where you will be challenged in a way that only a man can.
46:22
A woman, as iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another. Fatherlessness was the word she used.
46:31
Most of the time it's cowardice. That has effects on not just you, your women, your children, your nation.
46:42
Generations. For generations. I mean, for generations. So I say that to say, if you are in this city and you're stuck in that, here's what you need to do.
46:54
You need to repent for an almighty God. And you need to go find a church. It doesn't really matter what's on the sign that loves this, that loves
47:03
God's word. It doesn't really matter. Denominations of less importance that loves
47:08
God's word. And then go ask for an older man to put you in check.
47:13
That's what you need. That's what we all need, myself included. Well, Sarah Grace, I'm like, did you want to talk about the men's ministry that y 'all are trying to start up?
47:21
It kind of goes with what Pastor said. Well, I plan on helping out with that where we can. For real. I mean, that's a cool thing.
47:27
Talk about what you're trying to do there. Yeah. So, obviously, the thought process in that is the
47:36
Lord's design for family is a mom and a dad, right? A mother and a father. And so in order to truly empower women, it looks like empowering fathers as well.
47:51
And realistically, on a day -to -day basis, it's women that walk through our doors.
47:57
It's the women that we're serving. Currently, we don't have a man on staff. And so if a man does come in and is willing and engaging and wants that extra encouragement and mentorship and discipleship, we do offer a mentorship program for them.
48:26
We're coming up on kind of evaluating that program and trying to figure out what it looks like to get fathers engaged.
48:34
Send them here. We'll take them to the gym. Yes, I love it. I love it. I got a tour earlier.
48:41
Pastor Jeremiah gave them a tour. Yeah, it's pretty cool. I was so impressed. You'll be there, Susan? Honestly, maybe.
48:47
She loves it. Wow. She loves it. No, it sounds so fun. I love to watch them. Yes. I worked my toe that one time.
48:53
Her mom pulls up the camera and watches us go. We watch them.
48:58
Pastor decides it's going to be her tomorrow. We count all the fists. We're like, yeah, that's about 20. I love that.
49:05
That would be perfect. But no, genuinely. Can you swear your name today? Genuinely, like having local churches that are, you guys are our neighbor.
49:13
You're like maybe less than 10 minutes down the road from us. So having places that we can say this is a place that we know that you can find community and discipleship and all that is so important to us.
49:29
Even with programs like this, knowing that there are men in our community that if we do have a father that walks in, we can make a phone call and know that they are going to be, again, met with open arms and ready to be loved and encouraged and discipled.
49:48
We've been slowly working with the union mission to do the same thing there.
49:54
That's one of the problems. The problem is too strong. That's one of the challenges is the now what?
50:01
That place is awesome. It's the same thing. No government funding.
50:07
The exact same thing. So they can say whatever they want. If Caesar's not, if you're not opening your hand to Caesar, you don't have to do what he says.
50:16
However, the now what? They do a pretty good job. They have some, you can call them transition houses.
50:22
You can call them whatever you want. They have some, but they're trying to get them in other parts of the city. So we've worked with them some.
50:30
We have our own addiction recovery group here now. So having some guests in that realm.
50:37
Really, like you said, God's designed for family. He wasn't joking.
50:43
He said, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
50:50
Therefore, what God has put together, let no one tear apart. So anyway, we support that, doing what he wanted us to do.
50:59
So I wanted to ask about adoption. So for women who have chosen adoption for their babies, like what does that entail?
51:08
Because you guys just aren't like a pregnancy crisis center. You guys are also like an adoption agency. So what does that look like?
51:13
Yeah. Life Choices is a licensed adoption agency in the state of Tennessee and Mississippi.
51:19
And so when women come in and they might not feel ready to parent, right, but they also still want to make a life -affirming decision, we can walk through that process of making an adoption plan with them.
51:38
Obviously, that still has its challenges as well, same as any other decision.
51:46
And so it's really important to us that we are walking alongside these women as they choose life for their baby.
51:54
And so what that kind of looks like is they have the opportunity to meet with our birth mom counselor and basically flip through a portfolio of families that have said, we are willing to step up to be an option for a woman to take.
52:13
Okay. All right. And so these families have gone through the process of having a home study done and going through the application process with Life Choices.
52:26
And again, being privately funded, we are able to hold fast to our belief systems on what families should look like.
52:36
And so our adopted families are a man and woman, married couple, that are believers and have an active involvement in the local church, right?
52:48
I remember whenever we were there, I think they had to be prepared for that.
52:54
Yeah, there's some more specifications to it like age and how long they've been married and those sorts of things because we want to honor this mom that's choosing life and choosing to make a life -affirming decision by doing our due diligence, right?
53:12
And so, yeah, we very thoroughly… When you're trying your best to set the child,
53:18
I mean, you just said active in the church, a believer, a man and a woman, you're trying to set the child up for the way that God said, this is the process of success.
53:27
Exactly, yeah. Yeah, and so these women are able to kind of look at these portfolios, these families, and maybe their child is going to be biracial and they want their child to be raised in a biracial family.
53:44
They can flip through our book and be like, that's the family I want or maybe they want their baby to grow up with siblings and so they pick a family for that reason.
53:55
They have all of the say. It's such an empowering process for our birth moms to have all of the decision -making in that.
54:07
But we also really value them as this woman and we're not going to be like, hey, you give birth to this baby, you've made this plan.
54:16
Once the adoption goes through, that's not it. If a woman makes an adoption plan with us, they have access to counseling for life because we realize that that's something that you don't just place a baby for adoption and that goes away.
54:33
That's something that you carry, right? That's something that you're like, I carried this child. This is something that I did out of a place of love, right?
54:41
And so birth moms are able to come and have free counseling with our birth mom counselor.
54:49
And so with the birth mom counselor, are they licensed or have they gone through adoption themselves?
54:55
Yeah, so our birth mom counselor is a licensed social worker and has been in this field that we care for not just the baby and the life of the baby, but the life of the mom as well.
55:08
Families that adopt through us, part of that process is that we ask them to continue to send us updates on their babies, send us pictures.
55:18
We always keep a file in case that birth mom, sometimes even the father comes back and wants to know.
55:27
And so it really is just a beautiful picture of caring for everybody that's involved.
55:36
About the birth moms, I know you guys have the
55:41
Hope Ministry for the women who have had abortions and they're recovering and all that. Do you guys have a support group for birth moms?
55:48
Yeah, we do, and it's really, really beautiful. So our birth mom counselor leads that as well.
55:53
We actually just had a woman that joined our staff a few months ago, but she had actually made an adoption plan earlier on in her life, and so she has that background herself.
56:10
And as she has joined our team, has wanted to continue to invest in women that are walking through that as well.
56:18
And so she has gotten to come alongside and be a part of the support group as well.
56:25
But I think it's great. Love that. Two more questions. Well, one of them is not really a question.
56:32
Let's do, what's your favorite client story? I know you've told us some of your favorite stories today, like at church and stuff, but I didn't know if there's one that stuck out particularly.
56:44
It's so hard to pick one because there's just so many times we see the
56:51
Lord at work. I don't know. The reality is when women come in and our advocates are sitting with them and they're hearing their stories, we're in this fight.
57:08
It's spiritual warfare, right? And so we are constantly praying over our centers and our clinics that the
57:16
Lord would just go before us and prepare hearts to receive the truth of the gospel and the freedom that comes from that.
57:27
And I think I mentioned this story earlier, but part of our post -abortion healing program is our
57:40
Hope Retreat. And this last one that we did in February, we were really feeling a lot of that spiritual warfare as we were prepping for this because obviously the enemy does not want these women to walk in freedom and forgiveness.
57:55
He wants them to stay just in chains and shame. And so we were prepping for this, and I think
58:03
I was literally just unloading groceries, and my boss and I both were just kind of outside of this place that we were having this retreat, and we both just stopped, and we were like, we just need to pray.
58:15
We just need to pray. We feel the weight of this. And so we stopped, and we did.
58:21
We just prayed so intentionally over the weekend and the women that were going to be there participating in that.
58:30
And it's so interesting because that continued to be the theme of the weekend. It's just like the spiritual warfare was fighting against the spirit of darkness, right?
58:42
And so before one of the last sessions, one of the women that was attending basically was like, this is so heavy.
58:52
I can't do this. I'm ready to leave. And one of the women that was there leading it was like, what's going on?
59:01
Can we talk through this? Where are you at? She's like, I don't think I'm ready to take this next step.
59:08
I don't think I'm ready to let go of this. And she was like, you know, that's okay.
59:15
You don't have to be ready. If you're not ready today, we're not going to force you. We can't.
59:21
That's something you do on your time, right? And she was like, but you've been invested in this this weekend.
59:29
You've walked through this with these other women. And I think to walk away would really impact these women that are ready to step through this.
59:38
And I think if you are there and you're supporting these other women that are ready, then that will be helpful for them.
59:47
And she was like, okay, I'll come back in and I'll sit. But I'm not sure if I can do that.
59:53
So they come in and they're finishing up this last session. And one of the leaders was kind of just keeping an eye on her.
01:00:03
And she could just feel this woman just wrestling, sitting in this session.
01:00:09
This last session is one where they really talk about the freedom that comes from the truth of the gospel.
01:00:16
And so as she's kind of sitting there wrestling with it, this leader was also sitting in her chair wrestling, like, do
01:00:25
I go over there? Do I talk to her? Do I just let the spirit move? What do I do? And then at a certain point, the spirit just propelled her to this woman.
01:00:35
She went and knelt before her and held her hand. And she's like, the Lord just is laying it on my heart that you're wrestling with this.
01:00:43
And I just want to provide this opportunity that if you're ready for this, I want to walk through this with you.
01:00:49
And so she was like, I just want to pray with you. If you're ready to pray and accept Christ, let's do this.
01:00:55
And so they sat there and prayed together. And she experienced salvation for the first time. And that, to me, is one of the greatest wins in our ministry, is when we have women that are experiencing life -changing salvation.
01:01:13
Like, baby, things will come and go, right? Meeting a knee right now is great, but the gospel is the only thing that lasts, right?
01:01:22
And so that's why that is the most important thing that we can do. And so I think that that's probably my favorite.
01:01:28
I love that. So I know that you said, like, you know, things will come and go, but I was going to ask if you guys needed, like, you said your baby boutique is, like, overflowing right now.
01:01:40
So I don't know if you need any donations, but are there, like, a list of donations where people can go to donate or look to donate?
01:01:47
I always tell people, because it's like, we never know, like, when we might have an influx and we need to give away a lot of things at a certain point.
01:01:55
But sometimes I feel like it's, like, loaves and fishes, that that room just multiplies without us even seeing it happening.
01:02:06
But I always tell people, like, if you're going through your kiddos' closets and you have baby clothes that are in pretty good condition still and you just want a good place to donate those, you can always drop those off with us.
01:02:20
We always have an Amazon wish list running. You can find that at the link in our bio on our
01:02:25
Instagram. And we try to keep that pretty up -to -date on things that we are maybe lower in and need more of.
01:02:33
But sometimes when I'm thinking about it, if I'm, like, making an Amazon purchase, I'll, like, go and, like, add something else to my cart just for funsies.
01:02:44
But honestly, so, yeah, baby items are great. But realistically, the ways that you can partner with us,
01:02:54
I think prayer is one of the greatest things that you can do. I love that you said when you drove past our building, you prayed for us because I think that that is, gosh, that's how the
01:03:03
Spirit just moves, like, it's through the prayers of His people. So praying and partnering with us in that.
01:03:12
And then if you feel led, and this is something that is something to pray over and figure out, but as you've learned about the ministry and you feel like it's important, like, financially supporting is great, too.
01:03:27
And so between that and being able to donate baby items and things, like, the
01:03:36
Lord is just so kind to be able to allow us to do the work that we have been doing.
01:03:42
We're coming up on 40 years of ministry in a city like Memphis that, again, has some of the highest abortion rates in the state, in our country.
01:03:51
And so I think that the Lord is just super kind to us to direct the ministry and provide for our ministry.
01:03:59
What a blessing. Did you all have any other questions for Sarah Grace? No. Okay, well,
01:04:04
Sarah Grace, thank you for coming on. We appreciate all the time. I mean, you pretty much spent all day up here with us, so we literally got sacrificed to you today.
01:04:12
Where can we go to find you guys, like, your website, Instagram handles, like, all of that?
01:04:18
Yeah, absolutely. So on Instagram, we are friends of LC Memphis, Facebook Life Choices in Memphis, and then lcfriends .com.
01:04:31
Okay, awesome. Well, again, thank you so much for coming. We very appreciate it. We do. Thank you so much for having me.
01:04:38
I appreciate you guys. Very good. All right, y 'all. Until next time. Deuces. All right.