Tuesday, June 9, 2015

The Journey Begins

Hello everyone! My name is Sarah Contreras and I am from El Paso, Texas but currently living as a student in San Antonio, Texas. I will be spending these next two months in New York City as an EMC intern and would be happy for you to join me on this mission to help bring Love and Life into the lives of these gorgeous NY women!

What you will read below is what I wrote my first day experiencing the life of a New Yorker and working in the pregnancy center in the Bronx earlier this week on Tuesday, June 2....here we go!


Today was my first day as an EMC Frontline intern and I must say... what a day! Making my way to the Metro station was a journey in itself while I relied on the direction of my fellow intern who is four days new to the city and in fact new to America. While my visual sensory was being overstimulated by all the new sights before me, I managed to make it to the station without tripping or being careless with the passing vehicles. A women I met at the airport the night before said "be careful with those cars, they'll hit you if you're in their way!"

Arriving to the Bronx office was quite confusing when I found myself entering a door with a huge tattoo sign printed above it and various tattoo pictures once inside the hallway. Atop the staircase I realized that the EMC center was located  adjacent to the tattoo parlor and was pleased to see a warm little office. I met Kathy, the director of the Bronx office and she was so kind to get to know me a little and share her pro-life wisdom throughout the day.

It was 10 a.m. when the center's first expecting mother of the day came through the door - this would be my first time shadowing a counseling session. She seemed so sweet and already had two children but this third child just wasn't in the plans for her. Burdens that affect the majority of us from day to day such as financial struggles and timing issues were the very factors convincing this mom that this gift from God needed to be rejected. She believes in God and knew that she would be offending Him by going through with the abortion but in her words, nothing was going to change her mind. "I just can't do it," she repeated while shaking her head and hiding behind a smile. The session continued and I found myself in shock when she left. I knew how these types of conversations went based on other counselors who have told me but I didn't know what it would feel like actually experiencing it. To see a women, who already knows what the love of a mother is like, to say she "doesn't want it" with such ease saddened me and not so much for the baby but for her. She feels so helpless that she can only fathom the thought of getting rid of her child when she's aware that she will deliberately harm her baby and herself. Where has our world gone so wrong to convince women (and men) to work against mother nature's design to give and nurture life? We have made it way too easy for women to give in to the temptation of being so selfish to the point of self destruction... literally. By the time I finished listening to the second women's story of how she must choose abortion, I was in pieces. I want so badly to free these girls from the traps the world has set up for them. They are like precious seeds that try to blossom only to find themselves choking from the overabundance of weeds in their way. They are in desperate need of a Gardener who will help them to live without so much pain. EMC is the tool with which the Gardener gardens to reveal the beauty of these women and their ability to conceive and bring new life into existence.

Pray for us as we go into the dirt of New York in hopes of revealing the true beauty of this garden that these young and broken mothers posses so that their co-creations with the Gardener may have life and live it abundantly.

Sincerely yours,

Sarah



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