Provoked: Learning How to Rescue Babies From a Master

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Brothers, what we do in life echoes in eternity.

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

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This is where we hold them. This is where we fight. Officer, you need to repent of your lawless conduct.

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You don't know the law, and yet you pretend to represent it. That's not law enforcement, sir.

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

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

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Nobody gets saved by being treated nicely. They get saved by hearing the gospel. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the

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Word of Christ. If we don't open our mouths and commend Christ, we're not loving

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Him, no matter what we're doing with our hands. Hey, what's up everybody?

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Welcome to another show of Provoked. It's been a minute. I have not been on the show for a while. So it's good to be back.

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My beautiful, tiny, red -headed sister is not on the show with us today, so I miss her.

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She's been dealing with a couple of health problems, but she's fine, so keep her in prayer.

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But I am happy to have Mr. Zach Conover on the show. How's it going? Yeah, good, man. It's great to be here.

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Thanks for having me on. And the one and the only Scott Hoard. Awesome to be here, brother. I cannot believe this is the first time that you've been on the show.

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I was thinking about this this morning, thinking about the show. I'm like, why have we not had you on? It's great to be here.

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I'm glad you're here. So he's our guest today, and we're going to pick his mind all things abortion clinic ministry.

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So I'm excited. What you've got to do, and it would be so helpful for us as we just head on into the future with what

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God has for us, is go to apologyatstudios .com. There's so much there. There's so much. I mean, you could spend a lifetime.

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Maybe not a lifetime. A lot of hours. A lot of hours. Thousands of hours of sermons of people who really know what they're talking about.

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In so many different fields. So that's going to give you the education, the ongoing education. Somebody once told me, always be learning, right?

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Always be learning. Sometimes we just feel like we need a degree, and then we're done. But especially in the pastorate, you have to always be learning.

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And it's such an incredible way for that to continue and to happen in your life. And the education that you can give to your posterity for a spiritual inheritance.

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So much there. And then you keep the lights on, these incredibly bright lights in our faces that make us look pretty.

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We need these things to stay on, and we also just need the support to keep going. And to, as Pastor Jeff always said, preaching the gospel around the world.

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Saving as many babies as possible with the breath that God gives us. And doing all things for the furtherance and the advancement of the kingdom.

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So that's where your money goes, and we need your support. So please go there. Become an All Access member, and that would be sweet.

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Hey, so we brought you on the show because you have an amazing ministry. What's your ministry called? Well, it's called

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Operation Saving Life. And I have another nonprofit called Scott Horde Ministries. Oh, right on.

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Cool. Two of them. And so, yeah, we like babies around here. And we want to bring people into our kind of culture and into our habitat.

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Into our family that know how to do it well. And that have their kind of heads screwed on the right way.

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We feel like you do. And I think the proof is in the pudding, you know, with what God has done through you and through your ministry.

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Appreciate that. So just tell us what you do. Well, I really want to get into your testimony, but tell us a little bit about the ministries and what you kind of do.

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Yeah. You know, it's interesting. You opened up just talking about the resources that Apologia Studios produces.

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The way I got connected with you guys was, gosh, maybe 10 years ago.

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I was getting over -inundated in my community by Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons.

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And I felt like I was doing okay, but wasn't doing great with them. There was a car wash I'd go to, and I'd go to this car wash, and they'd always approach me at a car wash.

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And so I began to watch them. Eventually, I knew they were coming. By the time they came to me, I had my Bible open.

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It was that strange. But I began to research on the Internet and found Jeff's videos.

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Some of it was just audio stuff of him engaging with Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses, and that's what sparked my interest in Apologia Studios at that time and began to listen to Jeff.

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And then we connected eventually through this abortion ministry and eventually came out to that first conference you all did.

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So it's definitely the fruit of that. That was 2017, I think. That's right.

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The conference, the first one. Yeah. And so it's definitely helped me out big time.

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But my journey, I've been doing this for seven years, around seven years. And for me, even it goes back maybe a little bit further, and I've told this story several times, that for me,

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I think the spark goes back to Louisville, Kentucky, where I was at a men's conference, and there was 10 ,000 pastors.

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We were worshiping. We were hearing the word. It was called Together for the Gospel, T for G. And they dismissed us for lunch from this big arena, and I thought, well, this is interesting, 10 ,000 men are getting ready to walk through Louisville.

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Something's going to happen. We're Christians. We just came out of worship. And I was probably midway through that group, and we were walking down the street, and I was just observing.

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I wanted to eat lunch, but I was just kind of watching what was going on, and we passed a lady, and she was praying.

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And I thought, well, that's intriguing. She's praying. We're Christians. We're pastors. And I passed her and just kept going, and eventually

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I was like, I need to go back and ask her, so I did. And I said, why are you praying right here? And she looked at me and said, they kill babies right here.

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And that just slammed me so hard. Was that at the clinic there?

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Yeah, it was. There was only one. Right. Yeah, and I was like, man, 10 ,000 pastors just walked by and didn't see it.

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And it really made me think internally about what I believe, and I realized

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I've been the one that hasn't seen it. I've proclaimed it, proclaimed to be pro -life, but I really don't see what's happening with abortion.

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So that was a spark. What you guys and what Jeff was doing and beginning to do in the abortion ministry was a spark, and it brought me to basically seven years ago,

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Ferguson, Missouri, the riots, the racial tensions, very similar to what we're experiencing now.

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But I was asked a very poignant question, hey, what are you going to do as a pastor? And people were really challenging the church, and I think in that day, everybody was like, well, do we go unite with an

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African -American church? And people were really trying to think of ways to connect with the

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African -American community. And my answer to this young man was, I'm going to share the gospel.

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I'm going to continue to be an evangelist. And he put his finger in my chest. He was an African -American young man.

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He said, it's not enough. I said, well, what do you want me to do? And he goes,

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I don't know. I said, you want me to hold a sign? You want me to go march? I said, I'm not that guy. And he goes,

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I don't know, but you're not doing enough. And it really made me angry, and I carried that anger for 24 hours.

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It led to me sitting in a Starbucks the next day, angry, pondering the question. I was trying to get into the

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Word. I couldn't get into the Word. And I said, Lord, I'm angry. I don't want to be bitter.

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You take this and give me something in return. And through some intense prayer in a

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Starbucks on Sam Ridley Drive in Smyrna, he gave me two words, and he really burned it in my soul that day, and it was engage abortion.

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And so everything, Louisville came back together, what Jeff and you guys were doing. I had

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Apology of Church with abortion. It all came together in that moment. I was like, all right, where is it happening? Is it happening in Smyrna, Franklin, Tennessee, Nashville?

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I didn't know, so I Googled two locations, found one. It was called the

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Welshwood Abortion Mill. And so I said, I'll go, and I'll just go. I was going to play it safe, sit in my car and pray.

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And it didn't. It led to more. So I went.

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I was scared. Anybody there? Yeah, there was a mom and a young girl, and there was a guy named

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David that was there as well who's been encouragement to me. It was intense because a young man was really coming after this young girl, and I needed to get out and really engage the situation to protect the young girl.

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And it led to a two -hour real intense situation where a guy was threatening me, and I just kept logically and spiritually cornering him.

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He kept getting frustrated. I de -escalated and then continued to attack him logically in the situation.

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But he killed his child. I left there that day. My hands were shaking. I was really shook up. I said,

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Lord, is this what you want me to do? And, man, he confirmed it. He said, yeah.

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And I realized, okay, I'm going to go back, but I need to understand the environment. I realized that they killed babies on Tuesday and Friday.

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That was the kill day. So I said, okay, I'll go on Tuesdays and Fridays. Didn't tell anybody what I was doing. Told my wife.

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That was about it. I didn't know what I was doing, really. And so I went, and I said,

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Lord, you show me. Give me the right words. What do I need to possess to be effective in this ministry?

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Help me to understand the environment. And the Lord basically learned that the hill was called

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Hell's Hill. There's two apartment complexes on either side of the abortion facility. It's quite appropriate.

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Yeah. Yeah, it's filled with drug dealers, prostitutes, homelessness, just everything.

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And the Lord said, take the hill back. And I said, okay, you show me how to do it. And he really burned three things in my heart that day.

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He said, carry humility, love, and truth. Don't compromise any of them. And I said, okay,

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I can do that. And I just began to go with what I call that friend face and began to -

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Yeah, I want to ask you about those. Yeah. Because I missed last night. So I want you to talk a little bit about the faces. Yeah, so I just began to address people with love but not compromising truth because I realized not everybody needs a hug going in there.

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And people began to respond. And all of a sudden, I got my first rescue, a young lady named

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Tina. And it just drove so much confidence and encouragement into my heart.

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So I came back with more confidence, more boldness, realizing a person can make a difference down there.

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And one turned into 10 and then to 20. And I realized these moms have big needs.

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Maybe there's no food. They can't pay their electric bill, light bill. And I was like, well, I want to do that.

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And I began to do that. And I realized I'm not wealthy enough to do that. So I came back to my church and told them about it.

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And it was kind of a shock. I think three families left that day. Oh, really?

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Yeah. I didn't realize. I didn't know how many people were affected by abortion, the pain of it.

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And there's tons of people in our churches that have aborted, the pain that's suppressed there and the shame that goes with it.

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I didn't address any of that. So I made a big mistake that day. But the church eventually got behind it, and I blew up their benevolence budget.

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It went from $12 ,000 to about $40 ,000 that year because we were helping so many moms, and so many moms were keeping their children.

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And, you know, as the church, we're called to make disciples, not just rescue children. We're called to make disciples, and that's our commitment to the process to go the distance with them.

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And it's costly, not only of your time, of yourself, but financially. So the church looked at me and said, hey, you've got to get out of here, and this has to be bigger than just us, and you need the help of other churches.

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And so I began that journey of inquiring of other churches, and I realized a lot of churches really didn't want to talk about it.

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The good thing that happened in that time was Governor Cuomo, former Governor Cuomo, thank goodness, lit up all the buildings red.

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A pink. Yeah, a pink in celebration of killing children full term. And that sparked a fire in a lot of pastors, and pastors were now being challenged on abortion, and they didn't have an answer where I had an answer.

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And so it began to open doors for me to speak, and so I began to see amazing things happen. Where I was standing,

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I began to see God work in a phenomenal way, and we took the hill back.

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We closed that place. It was open 33 years, killed 77 ,000 children, and we took it back.

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And now I'm focused on Planned Parenthood in Nashville, 412 D .B. Todd, and we're going to do the same thing.

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Because it shut down, right? Yeah, it shut down. Yeah, it shut down. So there's only one in Nashville, and we're going after it.

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And so when I went out there, there was really nobody going out there. It was kind of a quiet place that was just killing children right in the middle of our city.

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And so they looked out the window one day and saw this crazy pastor out there talking to people out of the parking lot and saw people leaving, and they began to understand who

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I was. And they built a fence and put a tarp on it and brought out death scores.

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And now they've planted bamboo, and they've done all kinds of crazy things to try to keep us out.

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But we're still getting lots of rescues, and we're going after them. And you know what's one thing

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I would just point out about that? It's a powerful thought, really. You mentioned the pastors not having the answer, knowing

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I need to be involved, we need to do something. And even the challenge that the young man presented to you, you need to do something.

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This is about justice. The world right now is crying out, justice, justice, justice, give us justice.

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But he didn't have an answer for it. He had no practical step. And then the

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Lord gave you Engage Abortion. This issue is a premier justice issue, and that's what we're calling for.

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When we go out to these places, do justice to the fatherless. Don't put the innocent to death.

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That's the king face, but you can talk about that later. That's the king face, yeah. And think about how it is connected to his challenge of me.

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What are you going to do about racism? And he didn't know what he was doing. The issue, I mean, come on. And I was mad at him, and little did

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I know that the Lord was really just using him as a pawn or whatever to spur me into this ministry.

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And what do I do now? I'm at the heart of racial reconciliation. I mean, 346 rescues.

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What, 280 are probably African American. All these families that are coming together with black families, white families, brown families.

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We're all coming together and having baby showers and doing life together. And these people,

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I call them a family. We call each other family. You're at the forefront of fighting against injustice.

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Yeah. Or racial injustice, if you want to add the adjective, right? Yeah. So it's full circle.

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Yeah, it's full circle. So about 280 out of 346. I would guess, yeah. Or brown skin or black skin.

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Yeah. I don't know if I can remember a baby that she held that wasn't black.

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And I keep up on you almost daily. Yeah. Yeah, I can look back and see one probably in the last year.

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Abigail's white. Right. Yeah. So what I've learned, I've learned so much from you in the last couple days.

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And feel free to jump on whatever you want. You know, when it comes to, I guess everybody out there is thinking about, how do

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I save babies effectively? And that's all I want to do, save babies effectively. Like you said, and like what you just put it, not compromising on truth, humility, or love.

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We never think about compromising on humility. It's always like we better not compromise on the truth.

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But maybe we can be, and I've been very guilty of this, compromising in the love area or the compassion area.

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And just coming at them like a bull in a china shop. So I think what

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I've seen in the way, what you've been teaching us and showing us is you have to have a strong, competent leader out there.

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And I think what you said last night is we need full -time missionaries at every single clinic in the nation.

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So I kind of want to ask questions, a couple with Zach's questions here, based upon people who want to get into this full -time.

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So not only get into this with their church, but also, guys, which I just talked to one today, James, he wants to be full -time.

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He'd be awesome. He'd be awesome. Awesome. He's got the heart for it. Yeah. So I kind of want to ask questions surrounding that and kind of what

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I think people are thinking about when it comes to kind of picking your mind about the ins and outs.

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So maybe we'll just start, you know, what's your, okay. So when God gave you the burden, it's so funny because I prayed for six months for direction and God dropped the word abortion in my mind and I hadn't even been thinking about it and it changed my life.

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But when you came home, how did your wife take all this? Because I think this is what guys are thinking about.

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How is this going to affect my finances? What's my wife going to think? I really want to get into the cost and kind of what path you took.

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Yeah. So when I formed Operation Saving Life, I was a full -time pastor being paid by a church in Smyrna.

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And so I did that full time for, so I've been doing this seven years or five and a half years.

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Well, I pastored for 10 years. I'm getting my math messed up. But in the midst of that,

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I began this journey and began to go to the streets on Tuesday and Friday. And it caused tension in the church because you're like,

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Hey, are we paying you to do this? And so I just kind of threw the question back.

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What are you paying me to do? And so it opened up a discussion.

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And I'm going to the streets. I'm evangelizing. I'm shepherding you away from the pulpit, out of the pews to the street.

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Are you going to follow me? And so it created some good tension, some good conversation.

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Did we pay you to take the gospel out of the church? So it's really interesting. And so when you find somebody that's a strong evangelist in the church, the church, a lot of times, doesn't know what to do with them except push them out to form them to do a parachurch because the church just isn't ready.

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They don't know how to handle it. And so I love my church. I'm still connected and involved in the leadership there.

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But that's every church too, almost. They just don't know what to do with people like us.

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And so for a long time, I did it part time. And I just lived in that tension. And people kept asking me,

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Hey, are you going to do this full time one day? And I said, No, I'm called the pastor shepherd of church. I'm always going to do this on the side.

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But it began to grow. And more and more rescues, more and more people began to ask questions.

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And it came to a year and a half ago where I was going into the woods to pray for five days.

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That's what I do, a backpack. I go on the Appalachian Trail. It's in Virginia. And the Lord spoke very clearly, and he said,

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Resign. Resign, be a missionary full time. And so that began five days of intense prayer of saying,

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All right, Lord, how am I going to do this in the midst of COVID when people are trying to hold on the jobs, hold on to the income?

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How am I going to do this? And so I came out pretty confident that the

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Lord had spoken very clearly to me. And so I spoke with my wife, and she just kind of reiterated,

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Hey, are you sure? I was like, I'm sure. And so that's what's amazing about Lindy is she's like,

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If you're sure, I'm 100 % behind you. Let's go. And so she's always been that way.

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And so she was behind me, and we stepped out in faith and began to do it.

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Initially when I began to go in and do this, she would hear all the stories.

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And she's like, Hey, I don't want you to do this. And I said,

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I get it. You think I'm going to get hurt or get killed? And she goes, Yeah. And she looked at me and she goes, But you're called to do it, aren't you?

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And I said, I am. And she looked at me and she goes, Okay, I'm behind you. And so I've had that conversation with my children.

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Hey, I'm doing something that's different and can be very dangerous because people begin to pull guns.

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Six guns so far. Yeah, six guns, yeah. And so I had to have that conversation. Hey, I need you all to be good, good with the

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Lord. Yeah. We need to be good together with the Lord because we're stepping into the heart of darkness, into something that's really evil.

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Yeah, it's risky. And he's going to begin to recognize our works. And so a year and a half ago

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I went full time, and I formed Scott Horton Ministries, and I needed to do it real fast.

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So I don't have that whatever it takes to go form a nonprofit.

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I know there's lawyers and accountants and stuff like that that do that stuff, but I didn't really have time for it.

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So I went under an umbrella ministry that allowed me to come in super fast and coach me and take care of all the legal stuff that allows me to focus on what

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I'm good at. And that's where I've been for about a year and a half, and it's been amazing. It's a tremendous blessing.

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And so, yeah, I can't believe there's not more out there.

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Like there's enough people out there that hate abortion. There's enough churches, businesses, individuals. There's no reason we can't put a person at every

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Planned Parenthood in our country full time that is fully trained, building teams. And if you're out there and you're listening to this, just like last night, our brother

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James. Man, may there be more

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James like that. So, yeah, this is what I want to do. So we're launching two in our area right now, one in Nashville and actually one in Memphis, and I'm showing them how to build this up.

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And so there's a lot to it. Yeah, because I can think of you. I can think of John Corris Barrows.

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He's the godfather of it all. There's Stephen Smith. There's Andrew Bellinger.

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Justin Phillips. Do you know of any more? Yeah, in Atlanta. Is it Cantrell? Jason Cantrell.

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Yeah, he's full time. The guys in South Carolina are doing incredible work. Matt Brock. Seven. We haven't come to ten yet.

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And he's got several guys with him that are full time. It's a team of full time guys. Yeah, that's true. So he's got some.

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So we're maybe looking at, you know, conservatively a dozen or a dozen and a half.

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And it's important. You pointed this out. You know, why aren't more groups or individuals doing this? Like this isn't just like activism or like in an office or like marching with signs.

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Like this is front lines work. This is front lines work at the last resort.

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This is nothing between this baby and executioners. It's ground zero darkness.

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If you want to hit the greatest injustice in your city, it's there. And you might as well hit it with somebody that's full time that can build a team and begin to train people in your city.

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And so even tomorrow, you know, I'm going to be back in Nashville tomorrow. I've got people coming in from Terre Haute, Indiana.

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I think four different cities. They're coming in from four different cities tomorrow to stand with me in 55 degree weather.

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And it's going to be raining. It's going to be rough. We'll miss this weather, man. You going to bring an umbrella? Oh, yeah.

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Yeah. Umbrella's the way to go because you use an umbrella for the rain and then the cars that try to splash you. So it's, you know, that emotion.

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There you go. Got really good at it. You got the shield. It's just so crazy because we're mid -20th century

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Germany and somebody, you know, we can go back in time. You think all of us would say, I think I'd spend all of my time trying to rescue

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Jews or during the slave trade. You know, I think I would spend much of my time during that time trying to save the slaves, you know, trying to rescue them and get them out of their situation.

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But now we have this Holocaust and we have this great wickedness that really is so much larger in its capacity, its destructive capacity, than Hitler's Germany and the slave trade.

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Way bigger. And we have not a lot of people that want to get involved with it. Well, at least that are aided by the local church.

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That's the thing. These are sent out. These are saints. These are Christians sent out by local bodies of believers.

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Well, if you think about, I mean, to be honest with you, the church is scared.

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Predominantly, the church is afraid to come out. I mean, I've got people that have taught years

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Sunday school classes that are honest with me and saying, I want to come, but I'm going to be honest with you.

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I'm scared to death. I had a pastor of a big, big church who's over the mission side of the program, and he just looked at me point blank.

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He says, what you do scares the hell out of me. I'm not coming. He's the missions.

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Yeah. He's the missions pastor. I'm like, well, how do you see missions like?

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Are you just doing Bible studies and Sunday school classes in Peru or something and painting furniture in Ecuador?

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I don't know. But we're in a day and time where the church now has to engage or subside and just fade away.

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I think the blessed church of this day will be the one that engages in these difficult times.

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That will be the blessed church. Of course. Yeah. That's important. I remember I was afraid too in 2012.

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I started listening to a guy named Tony Miano, and he was going out. Oh, yeah. Man, the first time

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I went to a Planned Parenthood, I just drove around in circles just scared out of my wits, and I left.

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Until finally, God gave me the courage to go, and it grew from there. But then I see my kids go to the mill, and they have no worries whatsoever.

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I mean, they come in the car. They want to go. Dad, I want to go. I'm like, I've got to go to school. You can't go.

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You've got to do your schoolwork. Well, we'll do it. But they get upset that they cannot go to the abortion mill, and it's so crazy.

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And it's because they have a strong leader who's leading the way. And so when you're talking about the fear of the local church, it's because the pastors are too afraid to put the boots on the ground and lead their people out.

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If only they would lead a strong leader, a fatherly, pastoral figure would be out there.

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It would absolutely nullify the fears, mitigate that fear issue. But it's only in the wake of pastors doing what

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God has called them to do and leading with courage. It's so true. The only reason that we have gone out there is because we've seen other men do it.

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Right. That's what got us involved. Exactly. Courage is contagious. And at some point, you have to face it.

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You just have to face it. There's no way around it. You have to face it and step into it, and it will subside.

28:12

It'll come back in different ways, but eventually it just kind of fades. Somebody asked me today about dying or on the street or doing this job, and I'm like, is there a fear there?

28:25

I'm like, no, there's really not. Even when I see guns, there's no fear.

28:30

When somebody's running at me and threatening to tackle me, whatever, punch me, it's just not there.

28:36

So I don't know if I'm absent of something or if the Lord has done something. I picked on him last night when you said,

28:43

I'm sorry to interrupt you, but when you said, I'm ready. You were talking about intense confrontation with this dude, and you said,

28:50

I'm ready in that moment. I think you were saying, if the Lord wants to take me in this moment, I'm ready. Yeah, I am.

28:56

And I'm ready for whatever. I've already determined my behaviors before any situation has happened, and I've tried to envision every situation.

29:06

And so if somebody pulls a gun, I know how I'm going to respond. If somebody gets in my face and spits in my face,

29:13

I've already determined my response. I'm not waiting to determine in that moment, because if I do, we're in trouble.

29:21

He's in trouble, I'm in trouble. I don't know, somebody's going to be in trouble. And so all that has to be predetermined.

29:27

If not, you're going to be in trouble. Yeah. Yeah, you're going to get hurt. That's preparation right there.

29:32

Yeah. Well, we could literally talk for four or five hours on this. But I really want to focus on the guys that want to go full time.

29:40

And then I want to leave it to you, and I know you want to talk about the faces issue. But OK, so James wants to go full time.

29:45

I know a lot of guys out there, they get the zeal. They look at Jeff, they look at a guy like you and Zach.

29:52

I mean, how do you not become zealous? Even after your talk, so many people came up to me and were like, where are we going tomorrow?

29:59

So it's this excitement. I mean, you're saving human life, babies from dying. And so they have all this passion and this burden.

30:07

But then they really need to know what they're getting themselves into. And so that's what I want you to touch on is, OK, how should the full time guy who really wants to step over the line, step up to the plate and go full time, how should he start preparing himself to do so?

30:22

What does he have to look forward to? Yeah. First and foremost, you have to go and you have to have some kind of history of engagement with it.

30:31

So I went five and a half years. And in that five and a half years, there's testimony.

30:38

There's just a collection of things that came together. And I use social media. We all use social media.

30:44

I use predominantly Facebook to share my testimonies. And that brought together a collection of people from across the world to watch and observe what

30:55

I'm doing and to rejoice in the testimonies. And so first and foremost, you've got to go and you've got to know that you're called to do it.

31:03

You've got to go down there and get punched, you know, figuratively, hopefully not literally, get kicked around in the gut and understand how hard it is.

31:14

And can you do this day in, day out? I mean, I have people that come down once a week and are like, how do you do it five days a week?

31:20

What's your motivation? What keeps you down here? You've got to understand the motivation behind it. And can you wake up every day and go and step into an extremely hostile place that in any situation, in any moment, anything can happen?

31:34

You've got to be tested there. And once you're tested, if it's in your heart to do it and you've got to and the

31:42

Lord has seared that in your heart, then you can move towards figuring out how to do it full time. And then it's semantics from there, how to form a nonprofit, how to utilize and the resources that are around you, the relationships that you've built.

32:00

You know, as people stand around me, I build relationships with everybody that stands with me. I know everybody on the street.

32:07

If you're walking up, I'm going to get to know who you are, where you're from, what church you're from. What brought you here?

32:13

Tell me what your motivation for being here. Are you coming back? Why aren't you coming back? You know, and so I'm building these relationships.

32:23

And everywhere I go, I'm talking about it. One of my best volunteers, Glenn, I walked into Panera Bread and I had my shirt on.

32:32

And he was sitting in the corner kind of looking at me funny. I thought, well, this guy's looking at me funny. I'm waiting in line to get food.

32:37

And he pointed at me and he told me to come here. And I did, and he said, what's that? And I told him about my shirt.

32:44

And he goes, man, I just retired. I was COO of a corporation. He goes, I want to do that the rest of my life. I'm like, great.

32:50

He's there Monday, Wednesday, Friday. He's there right now. Wow. What was on the shirt? Just your name and your ministry?

32:56

Operation Saving Life. That's it. He goes, I want to do that. And so that's what I wear every day in engaging conversations every day with people and get them on board either to stand with me.

33:08

And the truth of the matter is, yeah, we need people on the street, but not everybody can go.

33:15

But if you own a construction company, you have the resources, and God has called you to use those resources for His glory.

33:24

And it has to start with the greatest injustice that's out there, and that is the killing of these children.

33:31

And so if you can't go, you still need to be leveraging every gift that you have and your resources to go towards ending this injustice.

33:41

It starts right there. And so I have people that are connected with me, deeply connected with me, that have never stood with me that are building buildings across Nashville and doing their own businesses and stuff.

33:54

But I keep them connected, keep them in the loop, and just remind them of how the church functions in this.

34:00

And so you've got to build that network. You've got to build that network, and that's key. There's enough people out there that really hate this, in that if they see your love of the

34:11

Lord and your hatred of abortion, they're going to get behind you, especially if you have some testimony.

34:19

I mean, there's a ton of people waiting for that person to knock on the door. And so there's enough people out there that hate it, that have the resources to put behind it, to put a person at every

34:30

Planned Parenthood in this nation. Right. So the guy who wants to go full -time, he's thinking about, man, this is a huge decision.

34:37

I'm going to go away from maybe an industry or a trade I've known my whole life.

34:42

It's what feeds my family, puts food on the table, and I need to know I'm making the right decision.

34:48

So you said, firstly, you have to know that you're called. So the guy is going to ask, how do I know if I'm called?

34:54

What would you say? How can I know that I'm called to this? I think it comes down to a hard issue.

35:01

You're going to either know it or not. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt. For me, when

35:08

I'm at 412 D .B. Todd, it's my place of rest. As crazy as it sounds, it is where I belong.

35:18

It is the sweet spot of God's will in my life, and it's a place of rest.

35:26

If I'm not there— Which is the address of the clinic? Yeah. Okay, that's crazy. That is, for most people, like, no, this is chaos.

35:33

I'm like, no, this is where I was made to be in this moment. I don't know how long this season is, but for right now, it's 412

35:40

D .B. Todd. So if I'm not there, I'm not resting.

35:49

It's chaos. It's not chaos, I'm just not comfortable, but that's where God has called me.

35:55

There was a point when I was standing at the mill, and I was facing just all kinds of threats that day, and I was by myself.

36:01

I was just getting pummeled. I looked back at my car, and I felt like the Lord said,

36:06

Yeah, you can go. I looked at my car again. He goes, Yeah, you can go. You can go sit in Starbucks and be really comfortable in 10 minutes.

36:15

He said, But you won't be comfortable. I'm going to make you so miserable that you left this place, because I've called you here.

36:22

You can go and have your Starbucks, or you can stay here and maybe die, but your fulfillment will be here, because I've called you here.

36:31

It was a defining day where I went home and told my wife. I was like, This is it. This is where I'm called to be.

36:37

That's awesome. Then I would also say, and I know you agree with this, just with pastoral oversight, making sure you got your elders and wise dudes in your life speaking into your life.

36:47

For sure. Kind of confirming that call. It's kind of the internal call of the Spirit of God giving you that burden and the external,

36:53

Okay, this is what you want to do. I had so many people that already spoke it to me before I even acknowledged it.

37:01

Hey, when are you going full -time? Wow. Yeah, you're going full -time in this, right? I was in denial for years.

37:07

No, never. No, I won't do it. But after so many times. You're going to hear that too.

37:13

You're going to know it in your heart. People are going to see it. You don't want to go down there and manufacture this, because you'll be extremely ineffective.

37:21

It's a dangerous place to go if you manufacture this in your flesh just because you want to do something that's different.

37:26

Right. To be honest with you, it's not a place where you want to go when you manufacture it.

37:32

It just won't work. Yeah, it's important. Yeah. What was

37:39

I going to go to? I just had it on the very tip of my tongue. It stinks getting older. That's all right. Everything just falls out of your mind.

37:45

Once you understand the calling, then. It's the cost. Yeah, the cost. Well, I mean, it's not normal to get up every morning and to go to a highly hostile place.

37:58

And feel at rest. Yeah, and feel at rest. It's not normal. And so people, they come to the mill and they blow up on you.

38:05

We've had it happen many times. I'm going to be here every single time you're going to be here. And I immediately say, no, you're not.

38:11

You're not going to come. Because having this level of hostility that you're actually starting and perpetrating on me, the human being does not like that.

38:22

We want to get to the closest place of comfort. We acclimate to comfort. And so going to a place like that, it's not natural for us.

38:32

It's not natural for us to say babies because babies shouldn't be dying.

38:38

So it's an alien type of environment in and through it. And it's really costly. I mean, you go and you get spit upon.

38:44

You were telling me today you've gotten hit by every single fruit. Yeah, every fruit in the fruit group.

38:50

Every colored slushie at Sonic. Oh, man. And breakfast burritos and cheeseburgers at McDonald's, cheeseburgers from Crystal's, and pretzels.

38:59

Like wrapped or unwrapped? Wrapped. Oh, okay. Well, at least they get lunch for later. Catch some of them.

39:06

So it's funny I've gotten good. I can see it coming. The Lord's feeding you through your enemies. So the thing is when you go there, it's draining.

39:14

It's physically draining and it's spiritually draining. And I think these guys that want to go full -time need to understand that.

39:20

So the question is how do you deal with that on a day -to -day basis? How do you make sure you don't get so physically and spiritually depleted that it wears you down to nothing?

39:29

Or bringing all of that garbage home into the family. So there's got to be balance. Where it becomes all you talk about all the time.

39:36

Well, you know, we haven't talked about the four faces, but you have to wear the warrior face well.

39:45

And I was created to fight.

39:52

I mean before I was saved, I was fighting. And it was unjust.

39:59

It was unrighteous. It was wrong. And I did it for the wrong reasons. And at the same time,

40:06

I was a peacemaker. And so I could love you one moment and then hit you upside the head the next moment.

40:11

You'd hit me too. And so that was kind of, it's in my soul to be that.

40:22

And so it is a burden. And it really checks your guardrails of your life to make sure you're doing your best to walk with the

40:34

Lord. I can't afford to live in hypocrisy and do this ministry.

40:41

I'm not saying I'm perfect or whatever. I have my own issues. But when

40:46

I'm out of balance, I stop. I stop going. When I'm not walking in the spirit of God that He calls us to walk in daily, to keep in step with Him.

40:59

When I'm not in step with Him, I stop. And then I pull back and get back in step.

41:06

And so it might mean me turning around as I'm pulling up to get out of my car. It might be me waking up and realizing

41:14

I've been out of step. I'm not who I should be in the

41:20

Lord. And so I pull back and get right and go. And I'm constantly walking in that tension because of the realness of the battle that's there.

41:30

I can't afford to go down, get out of my car, be in the flesh, and be approached by somebody with my background.

41:38

And knowing that I'd really rather hit you than speak truth to you. And that's the realness of what

41:47

I battle. It's like, oh man, there's part of me that's like, I can really take that guy out. And that's my old flesh speaking.

41:54

I'm like, I can't. I can't do that anymore. And so I have to walk in great balance. And there's a time where you have to decompress.

42:02

And there's a time you do that in the day. And then there's a time you have to do it for a week and step away.

42:10

It's just like mission trips. You go on those long mission trips and you have to decompress or you kind of go weird.

42:16

And so you have to get back into a familiar environment and decompress so you can go back into the discomfort or the situation, the environment.

42:26

So it's that all the time. That's awesome. That's just so cool to know that you used to be real scrappy, scrapper, just fighting all the time.

42:35

To who you are now and seeing God's sanctification and the compassion.

42:41

Because that's what I see in you and the way that you teach and the way that you train out there like you were training today.

42:48

It's this level, high level of love for people and compassion. You're not coming at them just to drill into them the truth.

42:58

And I think that is one of the huge keys. Because like you said last night, if we don't got compassion, we might as well not go, right?

43:04

Yeah, I mean it comes back to the Good Samaritan story, right? The Levite and the priest go by. The guy that's beaten, left for dead, but it was the guy that had compassion that stopped, that went the distance.

43:17

And if you don't have compassion, don't go. If you're going to check something off the books.

43:23

There's people out there today that just go on our side, that are just checking something off a book. And they want to tell people,

43:29

I go and this is what I do. If that's the reasoning, then don't go.

43:35

But if there's a true love for people, I mean all people, even the person that wants to kill you.

43:41

If you can't love that person, then don't go. And compassion is more than just a feeling.

43:49

It's something that, it's a gift of the Lord that allows you to love somebody so deeply that it will possibly cost you everything for the betterment of that person.

44:01

Not only finances, time, blood, whatever.

44:07

But you're willing to go no matter what. And so that is a gift of the Lord. If he's giving you that, he's giving you a deep well of it, then in that willingness to fight, then that's a good combination to go.

44:20

But don't go to check it off a list. A lot of people do. That's a good general rule for all spiritual discipline and all that.

44:28

Don't do it for the list. Don't do it to check a box. I love what you said, man, about fighting and also being a peacemaker.

44:37

Blessed are the peacemakers, not the peacekeepers. This is a design feature that God has built into all men.

44:46

We go to war in order to bring peace. That's what Jesus did. He went and fought for his own in order to bring peace.

44:54

So Paul says at the end of Romans, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. So the

45:00

God of peace will crush. He goes to war in order to bring peace, which is what leaders, men, shepherds do.

45:09

They go to fight in order that those whom they love and in particular the innocent may have peace.

45:15

So I love that. It's a design feature that all of us forget. But in terms of your overall engagement, one thing that I appreciate too, maybe you can steward this into the three other faces besides the warrior face.

45:28

One thing I just appreciate about your approach, brother, is when I first started doing this, it's the nature of what you're facing out there.

45:37

It's so serious. Like what could be more serious, heartbreaking, somber? You kind of go out there trudging in a melancholy type of way.

45:47

And it kind of colors the whole way you react and do the ministry. But one thing I noticed about you is like I told myself watching yesterday, like it's okay to be joyful out here.

45:57

It's okay when you're bringing the love and the light of Christ out here to smile. It doesn't negate the seriousness of what's going on, but it does affect the way that you're able to connect with people and have conversations.

46:11

And I just think there might be a dichotomy in some people's minds about what's possible out there.

46:17

How should we approach it? Should we approach it in sullenness and sour and just the awfulness that it is?

46:25

Or is there a way to do it and be balanced and say we can be joyful, we can have compassion, and we can do it with a smile on our face, knowing that we can have cheerful joy and faith in what

46:38

God is doing. That's what we're doing. We're trying to go forward in faith. So that's one of the biggest things I've noticed is it's okay to smile out there.

46:46

Like it's okay to do that. And you can do that and not compromise the issue, the injustice, the truth.

46:54

Yeah. And so, yeah, it's easy to get wrapped up, especially I see new people come down.

47:00

They've already put on this real mantle of heaviness, and it gets really difficult.

47:06

And so the warrior face is important, but it's the king face of knowing who

47:13

Jesus is. What he's done is amazing. What he's going to do is amazing. And what he's doing right now is just as amazing.

47:19

And how we're deeply connected to that. And what I said last night, it propels me, it sustains me, and it empowers me to keep coming back.

47:31

People ask me all the time, do you ever think about cashing it in? I'm like, no, because there's a fight.

47:38

There's still a fight, and the Lord has not returned. And so we've got to keep going.

47:46

And so that king face does all that. And when you couple that with the warrior face, it's just really good.

47:52

But on top of that, you're right, the friend face, it just we're talking about today how it cultivates something in the culture down there, in the environment that you're standing, that will open the doors for all kinds of beautiful things to happen.

48:08

I call it the Truman Show effect at the abortion. If you've ever seen the Truman Show, it's predictable.

48:14

People are paid in the movie to go certain ways, to do certain things, to ride the bicycle at this time.

48:20

And so that's my environment. And so I know my environment. I know the Truman Show actors in my environment.

48:28

And so a lot of those people agree with me. A lot of them don't agree with me. But some of them have been driving by me for years.

48:37

And the ones that disagree with me have to look at me every day and be convicted because I'm there.

48:45

If I'm not there, they can focus on something else. But I'm there. And so they have to look at me and determine if they like me, hate me, if they agree with me or disagree with me.

48:56

And so when I wave at them, it adds another element. And so they have to deal with that.

49:02

All right, here's this guy that's not loving, who's judgmental, that's hating people, and he's waving at me, telling me to have a nice day, and he's praying for me.

49:10

And it drives them crazy. And so the situation just recently, a girl finally stopped after two years of holding bitterness towards me.

49:22

Never met her, but she held bitterness towards me for two years. And finally she said, I've finally got enough courage to stop, and I have to talk to you.

49:32

And we talked for two hours, and it broke her of two years of bitterness that she held towards me. And she's now on her side.

49:38

Because I wave at her every day when she drives by, and I speak things into her window when her window's down.

49:45

That's awesome. And just for a point of clarification, everybody who's listening, is he's talking about the four faces of an effective sidewalk counselor and effective abortion clinic ministry worker.

49:55

And so you're talking about these faces of king face, warrior face, friend face, and servant face. So these are the attitudes and the demeanor that you're to have.

50:04

And this is given what the moment calls for. Exactly. It is. It's a balance of all, and you don't compromise any of them, and you lean on each one depending on what's happening.

50:16

There's a moment where, yes, somebody needs a hug. That's all they need.

50:21

They don't need a warrior, and they don't need any more scripture thrown at them.

50:27

They just need to be held. And that's that friend face rises up.

50:33

You've held a lot of people out there. Oh, man. It's been crazy. Men, women.

50:39

I mean, I've had people in one moment threatening to kill me. I mean, big, strong guys, intimidating guys threatened me in one moment.

50:49

In the next minute, we're hugging, and we're crying. How many men like that never had a father? True. True.

50:55

You're being the incarnation of that in a sense. And so I can't tell you how many women have gotten out of the car and said, or you remind me of my father or something like that, or I didn't have a father.

51:09

And as I'm talking to them, presenting the king face and the friend face, they just say,

51:14

Hey, can I get out and give you a hug? Oh, yes. I mean, hundreds and hundreds of times that has happened.

51:24

And so you've got to discern through the moment and read the moment and know how to be balanced in them but utilize them.

51:33

And, again, not everybody needs a hug out there, but not everybody else out there needs to be pounded. There's a time when you're strong in the warrior face, and it might sound to a normal church -attending member, it might sound offensive if they're not used to that kind of intensity because children are dying there.

51:54

It can get brutally intense. And so it's a time that you do wear that warrior face, and then there's a time you switch really quick and you de -escalate with the friend face, and then you let those two allow the king face to come in, and then you bring in the servant face and you walk with them.

52:13

That's awesome. You've got to have a balance. Balance and the level of engagement and the need to read the situation demands a present -mindedness.

52:23

You have to be present, not just in body, but present in listening, present in being prepared to respond based on the need of the hour.

52:31

Yeah, and that's probably the biggest thing that I notice is that the greatest amount of saves is determined about the smallest things that you see and respond to.

52:40

It's all about the small things. It's not about the big things. See the simplest of things and see it never.

52:51

We were talking about yesterday, you can hold a sign and just get kind of locked in. I'm constantly on a swivel.

52:57

I look, I look, I look to my left, I look to my right, I look behind me, I look over here. I look to my left,

53:03

I look to my right, and I'm noticing cars, I'm noticing patterns, and I'm trying to see everybody that comes into my area.

53:12

Everybody. Even if you're just driving by, I'm trying to see everybody. Everybody walking down the street.

53:17

I'm calling out, hey, there's a guy on a bike coming towards you. There's a kid walking towards you back over here,

53:22

James. You see him? We're pointing those things out constantly and staying completely in tune to anything because it's in any moment that anything can happen.

53:32

You've got to be ready. With the king face, the warrior face, the friend face, or the servant face.

53:37

But that friend face is so important to open the doors because if you can't connect out there, you're not going to get conversations.

53:45

And if you don't get conversations, then you're not going to get salvations, and you're not going to get baby rescues.

53:54

You might, and you might hear about it later, but you're going to get a lot more if you cultivate that friend face down there.

54:02

So I literally, and I saw it today, it seemed like everybody was waving. And I don't know if that's...

54:08

No, it's not normal. Yeah, it's immediate change for the kid. And so the community all of a sudden, instead of just looking at y 'all like, there they are holding the baby killer signs and looking mad at the world.

54:19

Well, it's what Zach was saying earlier, is we've been taught that any smiling out there is not appropriate, right?

54:24

And so it's kind of bursting our understanding of what we need to be. And like you said, there's nothing wrong with being joyful, and you have to have...

54:33

Nobody wants to talk to a guy that's walking up with just a mean mug. Well, Christians are supposed to be cheerful.

54:41

We're the ones that are supposed to know where the joy comes from because of who our God is and who our king is and what he's promised to do in the world.

54:48

Which goes to what you were talking about. Faith in not only what he's doing now, but what he's gonna do in the future. That's where the confidence comes from.

54:55

I've seen him do this. Here's what I see him doing now, and I know what he said he's gonna do. And so it comes back down to, it's about rescuing babies, but it's bigger than that.

55:04

We wanna see this city won to Jesus. That's a great commission. It's discipling the nation.

55:10

Yeah, and so you start all that by wearing this strong friend face. How many people, maybe 20 cars today, we stopped and prayed with?

55:18

We prayed with people with all kinds of injuries that were battling things mentally. We prayed for family members.

55:24

A finger? Yeah, finger, knee, you name it. And even a guy that was just post -abortive, who was brokenhearted, who might end up in this church.

55:34

I think you got his number, right? And so you're gonna realize that half your ministry doesn't have anything to do with abortion, and that's okay, because it's kingdom.

55:46

It's kingdom stuff, and what you're gonna see is not only are we rescuing babies here, but all of a sudden you've prevented 10 suicides over here because you waved at somebody, you smiled, you were persistent, you got them to roll down the window and you prayed with them.

55:58

They let you into their life just a little bit, and then all of a sudden something beautiful, God takes that and he cultivates that, just boom, and he presents you something incredible.

56:08

Awesome. Okay, so you gotta get on a plane pretty soon. But if you were to, I want you to kind of squash down for the last little part of this episode, squash down what you really think, as condensed as you can, and just maybe a couple paragraphs.

56:23

What are the non -essentials? What are the keys to an effective abortion ministry? And I know you're gonna probably repeat yourself, but just in a few words, what are some key components that lead to saves?

56:35

Yeah, know your environment. Know your environment. Know what's going on.

56:42

Know the tendencies. You have to be gospel -centered.

56:49

There's nothing canned that I do, but everything that comes out of my mouth is

56:55

Scripture. It's Scripture -based. I'm not giving you probably a number or a verse, but you're gonna be able to connect it to Ephesians or Colossians or something in the

57:07

Old Testament, Psalms, whatever. That's your foundation. And then wear those four faces, the king face.

57:19

Your understanding of the kingdom now is important, and understanding where is

57:27

Jesus and how is Jesus operating right now is huge. Wear the warrior face.

57:34

Know that you're in a battle. Never neglect and get down there and get comfortable and just let it become a place where it's a place where you just go down and talk about what happened over the weekend with your friends.

57:46

You're in the middle of a battlefield. The friend face is huge. Our world has already stereotyped us as being bigots, racist, judgmental, extremely hateful people.

57:57

Go down there and turn your city upside down and wave at everybody. If a window's down, you're speaking the gospel into that window within two to three to four seconds every time.

58:07

The last is serve well, the servant face. Basically, you have to have the heart of a servant and you have to be willing to go the distance.

58:19

If you're just down there handing out information and you're just there to rescue babies, and that's great.

58:27

That's all good things, but we need people down there that are willing to go the distance and make disciples.

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The church has made discipleship about just coming to the pew and sitting in the pew. That's beautiful, but discipleship is so much more.

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It extends into Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. Are you willing to journey with those people?

58:49

I think those are the things that you have to possess to do this effectively.

58:55

Awesome. Thank you so much, man. Thanks, guys. I appreciate you guys. You've only been here for 48 hours, but you've been a blessing.

59:03

Yeah, you've certainly launched us forward. Bring me back in a year. I've got it marked on my calendar. Well, that's what we wanted you to come out to give us, to really look at our operation and give us some insight and wisdom.

59:12

You did that, so I appreciate it. Where can people go to support you? Yeah, if you want to support me personally being on the street, it's

59:21

ScottHord .com. It also, through ScottHord .com, we've expanded to Memphis.

59:26

All the rescues that we're getting there, that money is helping John, who's on the street, who

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I'm coaching right now, to be a full -time missionary. Until he gets on his feet, I'm going to help him.

59:40

The other is OperationsSavingLife .org. That helps our moms and our babies.

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We're getting anywhere to three rescues a week, sometimes five. These moms have needs.

59:53

Just today we were buying phone cards for a mom that her phone went out. We bought her a phone at Walmart so she could communicate with us.

01:00:01

Her months ran out. Glenn, who's down there in Nashville, went to Walmart and got her two months. Because people give,

01:00:07

I can do that. That's the servant face. Servant face, that's it. Yep. Thanks for being my co -host.

01:00:12

Thank you so much, man. Thanks for being my co -host. You're not as pretty as Desi. No. You're smarter than me.

01:00:17

I always bring him on because he's smarter than all of us. He is. Too kind. Hey, thanks for tuning in.

01:00:23

We hope this is a blessing. This guy has been a blessing to us. If you want to support somebody who's really saving babies effectively, you need to support this guy.

01:00:33

And like you had started out with, you just got to go. You got to get out there. We want you to be under the covering and leadership of your local church.

01:00:41

That's the issue. But you got to go talk to your pastor in love, not like a bull in a china shop, not like a jerk.

01:00:47

You're saying, hey, these babies need to be saved. I need to do it. I need your help.

01:00:53

That's the best way to start. But we have to get out there and do all that we can to save babies. So thanks for watching.

01:00:59

Go out there and put on all the faces you need to put on to be an effective abortion clinic minister.