A Brooklyn Rescue

On Monday, I was able to go the Brooklyn clinic. At one point during the day, a woman came in bawling with her sister. Linda, the director of the clinic, led the women to me and said, "This is Brian, he will take care of you now."

I immediately took the women into one of the counseling rooms and asked her what was wrong. She continued to cry her eyes out as her sister told her to "get herself together." I couldn't get the girl to stop crying. Finally, the sister said she had to go to work and told the woman to call her when the procedure had been finished (the sister assumed that she had taken the woman to an abortion clinic). After the sister left, I said, "I can tell you don't want to go through with this. Have you ever thought about keeping?"

The woman looked up from her tears and said, "I can't. I can't keep this baby." When I asked her why she couldn't, she replied, "I almost died during my last two pregnancies. Almost died. The doctors could barely keep me alive. They said if I tried to give birth again, I wasn't going to make it. I don't want to die..."

She then began to bawl again. I didn't know what to say at first. I prayed to the Holy Spirit to guide me. I was still thinking of what to say when she whispered, "I don't want to go to hell." I immediately looked up. "So you are a Christian?" I said. She nodded. "I was raised Baptist all my life. I don't know what else to do, but I don't want to go to hell."

I immediately felt at ease. I knew exactly what to say now. I explained that God does not give us anything we can't handle. Yes, at times things could be challenging, but if we trusted in Him, he'd lead us through all of our troubles. I told her about my favorite verse, Jeremiah 29:11 in which God explains that he has a prosperous future planned for all of us. I told her that God would not abandon her. She couldn't abandon God, either.

After talking with her for some time more, she finally looked up. She asked if she could make a phone call. As the phone was ringing, she told me she was calling her mom to ask what she should do. I remember, at that moment, I spoke to God saying, "Lord, I got her this far, but it is up to you. I can't do this alone. You said knock and I shall receive. Well, I'm knocking!"

Well, she talked to her mom, and her mom miraculously said, "Come on home. Bring the baby with you!" The woman was so overjoyed that her mom would help her raise her unborn baby. She had decided to keep her child! She turned to me and said, "Thank you for everything!" She then left. I texted her later that night and she said she was doing well. Praise God!