What our life has been like...Part 2

Can you believe it is 2011 already?! It is incredible to me that in just two days it will be the 20^th which marks one year from the time my husband began to court me and he has been courting me ever since! :) I hope you all had a blessed New Year. We were sick for a while with colds, then just as we recovered from that we got two bouts of food poisoning from two separate sources. Talk about NO fun! But the Lord took us through it and we are doing much better now and praising the Lord for health! How good our dear Lord Jesus is to us! One thing I am thankful for, among many, is the way sickness draws us closer to the Lord and to each other. There is such a joy in serving my husband, just being there for him in his time of need. How wonderful our Savior is to bring things into our lives, that though they are not fun bring glory to our Lord.

In July 2010 we took a trip down to Charlotte NC for the annual Operation Save America event. That is the event at which we had met the year before, in Las Vegas. It was so much fun to be there this time together as a young married couple! A dear family that was out of town let us stay at their house for the week we were there, which was a blessing, especially since I was going through morning sickness. We enjoyed seeing old friends, meeting new ones, and ministering on the streets of Charlotte.

 Traveling :)

 Holding signs

 We were part of the setup and take-down team for the American Holocaust Display. Setup on Charlotte's square, it presented excellent opportunities to share the gospel.

 There was open-air preaching as well throughout the days of the event.

 We handed out countless tracts....

 

 We were very happy to see my sister Bonnie and brother Michael who traveled by bus to get there!

We had a memorial service for a precious unborn child who had been killed by abortion. Here is the processional.

 The service was very good, calling for repentance and had a time for everyone to view the little one.

 There was a large crowd watching.

 At one point the display had to be dismantled in a down pour!

 It was coming down hard!

It was a great trip and the scenery there and back was wonderful!

Since then we have been keeping very busy. From scrapping cars....

to tearing down a modular home....

Ministry on the streets...

 Having fun...yes I rode it too! :)

spending time with our growing nephew Josiah and the rest of the family...

...meeting our Midwife appointments and enjoying preparing for our little one who will be here very soon! :) ...and a host of other things that fill our days. How good the Lord has been to us and continues to be! Keep praising our dear Lord Jesus, He is worthy of all praise, no matter what!

OSA 2009, July 21 and 22, Tuesday and Wednesday

If you have not already read the introduction to this mission trip report please read it, Here.
Read Day 1
Read Day 2
Read Day 3
Read Day 4
Read Day 5
Read Day 6

On Tuesday morning, my brother Michael went with a team to a hospital which claims to be pro-life, but has an abortionists on staff. I went with the Yoders', and a large team to an abortion clinic called "BCC". This murder mill is at the end of an alley, and to get there you have to drive past a church (which was very supportive of us) and a crisis pregnancy center. "Our people" had set up, in the parking lot of a business building, some of the signs which we had used on Fremont street, and a sound system from which to preach. The clinic was open and mothers were going in escorted from their cars by clinic workers. There were a several ladies sidewalk counseling, and I joined these to offer literature to the mothers as they drove down the ally. It was very saddening to see those mothers going into that place of death despite the cries for mercy that they heard. I am sure that there were many more mothers who decided not to go in because we were there, and when that happens they are more likely never to come back. We pray so.

As I waited for cars to come, an older man road up on his bike and stopped when I offered him literature. He kept glancing at the large signs of babies killed by abortion, so I asked if he had seen those pictures before. He said no, but he did know that abortion was very bad. I then asked him, "Do you know Jesus?" He said, "No, but I know I need to." So I began to reason with him about the Law, Righteousness and Judgment, explaining sin, and our need for a Savior. He agreed about his need and seemed truly broken and tender hearted. He said, "I wish you had talked to me two days ago. But, I guess it's not too late for God." I told him, no it was not too late, but he needed to repent and cry out for mercy now and not wait. I asked if I could pray for him, he agreed and told me his name is Dennis. When I prayed, God broke my heart and I began to cry out to God to for Dennis. He began to cry and say "thank you God, thank you God." He did not own a Bible, so I ran to get one from one of the ladies there who had several to give away. As I walked back to him, I saw that it was in Spanish, oops. But instead of going back to see if she had an English one, I handed it to Dennis and asked if he knew Spanish, he said "yes". Then I realized he was of Mexican decent, I had not even noticed! After thanking me, he turned back the way he had just come and began to ride away, he said "I will not forget you."

Please pray for Dennis. I pray that the seed fell on good ground that day and will bring forth much fruit.

After this we met back up with Michael and his group, then headed off to Planned Parenthood. Our leaders thought that we would not be able to stay very long, because this PP is in a mall complex and we set up with our signs on their property.


PP shared a balcony with a coffee shop called "reJAVAnate", and many of our people went in to buy lattés. (Michael and I had one of their slushies and it was really good :) The manager was very friendly, saying that he did not like having PP as a neighbor, and set up extra tables and chairs for us. One PP worker came out with a vest that said "Escort".
Soon the police arrived. We expected to be told we were trespassing and needed to leave, instead they just stood around and watched us.

We stayed for a whole hour! I remember looking at some friends as we exclaimed to each other, "Can you believe what we are doing?" It was absolutely incredible.

Some mimes who had been doing their acts at other place with us, began to do their skits right there. It was amazing. I still can not get over the fact that we were allowed to stay!

After lunch, and a cool down, the Yoder "kids", Zastrow "kids", Michael and I gathered in the park by our hotel for a good old fashioned game of "Prisoners base". We had a blast even though it was around 115 degrees!

The Zastrow family

The evening rally was a time of rejoicing, and sadness as we said goodbye.

As I looked around that night at all those people whom I had come to love, my eyes filled with tears. Yet we all rejoiced at the thought that there is coming a day in Heaven when we will not have to say goodbye any more!
Michael and I met a dear brother from Jamaica who encouraged us in the Lord and invited us to visit him in his country. Wouldn't that be neat? What a blessing to fellowship with the brethren, I do so love the family of God.

Michael, brother Levi, me

At 3:00 am, Michael and I both got up to say goodbye to the Yoders' as they left for Missouri, it is hard to say goodbye. We were taken to the airport around 9:00am with Mr. Tuttle and made an uneventful flight back to Minneapolis MN airport where our Mom picked us up.

Mr. Tuttle waiting at our gate; notice the slot machines behind him.

From the Las Vegas airport, I love those mountains.

Here are some pictures from the plane...

Las Vegas from the air.

Leaving Las Vegas.

A storm over Minneapolis, our flight was delayed for five minutes because of it.

It was good to come home, and we do not miss Las Vegas! :-)

We praise God for a wonderful trip, safety, and pray that He was glorified in it.

Check out Michael's blog for his take on the trip.
Check out our Picasa Web Album for many more pictures, too many to post.
Also check out Ken and Jo Scott's Web Album for more pictures.

And Jesus came and spoke unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
(Matthew 28:18-20)

OSA 2009, July 20, Monday

If you have not already read the introduction to this mission trip report please read it, Here.
Read Day 1
Read Day 2
Read Day 3
Read Day 4
Read Day 5


Early Monday morning we went out again as part of Mark Holick's team, to another abortionist's home. This one was also in a gated community.

The day before, Mr. and Mrs. Holick had gone there to check out what it was like. They had driven in behind someone else, like we had done on Saturday. There seemed to be no problem, so they thought it would just be a repeat of Saturday. But, when we all arrived, there was a guard stationed at the gate, and a security truck driving around. So we congregated at a park which was right there, and scouted out the area on foot. Then Mark Holick called us all together. "We found a way that we can get in on foot." he said. "But the police are going to come, and the abortionist's home is on the opposite side of the community from us here. There is no way that we can get out before the police come, and it is very likely that we will be arrested for trespassing. So, anyone who does not want to come with us is welcome to stay." (Not an Exact quote, but as close as I can remember).

Most all of us decided to go ahead and go in anyway. Later, Mr. Holick said he was very surprised that so many were willing to go in. By twos' and threes' we walked through the place they had found, and we were in. Quickly we spread out and began to place the literature on doors. Now this gated community had no sidewalks, people just don't walk around in there, I guess. So, imagine what it was like for the driver of the security truck to suddenly come upon group after group of people, walking quickly down the streets, some wearing our red t-shirts, and going up to door after door. His reaction? Smile and wave, and give us the peace sign!

We finally reached the opposite end of the community, no police yet and the end was in site, another entrance/exit gate. A car pulls up near me and I hear a voice say "hello", I turned and a camera snapped. The driver continued to drive up to each of us and snap pictures. She asked Ken Scott (from Denver CO) "How did you get in?" he answered, "By the grace of God!" She did not like that too well! I was not with the small group that went to the abortionist's door, but I think they said that there was no answer to their knock.

Soon we stood before the gate, and tried to open it, but it would not budge! There we stood, looking up at the eight foot tall gates, wondering how we were going to get out. Our God is so merciful, He thinks of everything! Along came a car to pull in, the entrance gate opened, and we walked out. Mr. Scott held it open for our other people coming out, and we all made it out! We were praising God!

We were regrouping at our vehicles in the park when a man with a clipboard began writing down our license plate numbers. Then the lady with the camera found us and took more pictures. We drove away, and passed the police on their way in.

At a gas station we took a group picture, but it turned out very blurry. Though it may not appear very bad in this small form, it is terribly blurry in the larger format.

We then went back to the first abortionist's home that we had gone to on Friday, to do another literature drop in his neighborhood. The first time we did it, our literature had many typos and things wrong with it, so we did it again with the fixed version.

From there we made our way to Fremont street, where we planned to hold an aborted baby memorial service. Somehow Operation Save America had found a real aborted baby boy, and we wanted to give him a proper funeral and burial.

The procession started at one end of Fremont street and went to the other end. It was very moving.
The bagpiper flew in at his own expense just for this purpose.

At the place they had set up to hold the service, the casino owner turned up his filthy music as loud as he could. So, our people turned up our PA system so that we could be herd above the din. It was deafening, but at least we could hear our leaders preach.

Flip Benham preaching

Christine Odell, who had an abortion when she was young, gave an incredible call to mothers who have had abortions and all others involved in one. She said "If you have had an abortion, say it, '"I am a murderer."' If you have taken a woman into get an abortion, say it, you are an accomplice in murder." She then went on to explain how there is hope only in Jesus, in the work that He did on the cross for us.

Rusty Thomas stood up to lead us in prayer, saying "I think it is entirely appropriate if we get on our knees right now." We all went to our knees, and the blaring music stopped. Rusty Thomas lifted up his voice to God in repentance over the innocent blood that is being spilt in our land, and we wept before our God.

* see bottom of post

As we knelt there in the midst of the reviling filth of Fremont street, I felt the presence of the Lord very strongly. As one preacher had put it, we don't want God to deal with our nation as it deserves, history shows that He is very heavy handed when after great mercy He finally brings justice. Take Sodom and Gomorra as an example. So we stood in the gap, repenting and crying out to God for mercy on this nation which has rejected him. Maybe He will hear our cry, or maybe the innocent blood which cries out to Him from the ground has a much louder voice.

The police came and asked some of our leaders, "Why didn't you tell us that you were going to do this?" They explained that they had not planned it until the night before. The police said "You should have told us, we would have escorted you." ! And they said that the music thing "Will not happen again." ! It was incredible the amount of favor God gave us in the eyes of the Las Vegas police.

Procession reflected on the windows across the street

That evening at the 6pm rally, Michael and I sang two hymns with the Yoder family as part of the worship time. Also, Skip and Isaac Yoder played some hymns as a piano, violin duet.

We had another service for baby Able, that is what they named him, and they opened the casket for us all to see him.

Oh, I cannot describe what it is like to see a child who has been murdered in such a cruel way. Should we even dare to ask God to have mercy on our nation?
As one preacher said, God said to Cain after he had killed his brother, "Where is your brother? What have you done?"


And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon.
(2 Kings 24:4)

*This photo courtesy of Ken and Jo Scott, click on their name to see their Picasa web album of the week with OSA.

A report on day seven coming soon....

Day 7 and 8

OSA 2009, July 19, Sunday

If you have not already read the introduction to this mission trip report please read it, Here.
Read Day 1
Read Day 2
Read Day 3
Read Day 4

Me, Flip Benham and Michael

Sunday morning we were able to sleep for thirty extra minutes! Part of the fun of being with Operation Save America is lack of sleep. :-) We moved our morning rally to the shade of one of the hotel buildings. From there we divided into three teams, one team to go to Freemont street, one team to go out in front of a Homosexual "church" in order to witness to them, and our team to go out in front of a large Evangelical church. It is a mega church which claims an attendance of 1500 people. They do good for their community, feeding the homeless and such, but they were completely ignoring the fact that there are six abortion mills in the city of Las Vegas.


We went out there to say, "we are repenting, we ask you to repent with us." We had a banner that said "Church, Help Us Save Them", and we passed out a tract called "Sing a Little Louder". It is the story of a church in Germany during WWII that sat close to some train tracks, every time a train went by carrying Jews, the people of the church would sing louder so they could drown out the screams coming from those train cars. The question is, Will you sing a little louder to drown out the screams of little boys and girls being ripped to pieces in their mother's womb? Or will you DO something about it?

It was a very hot, dry morning, and they had three services, so we were out there a long time. Some of our people went into the church for one of the services to see what it was like. The pastor told his congregation that the people out there were not invited, the police had been called and anyone trespassing on church property would be taken care of. He also told them not to stop and talk to those people because it would hold up traffic, and that's what they want. !! A few did take literature, and a few actually asked why we were there. A few cursed at us, two men tried to take the sign from one of our twelve year old girls. Most ignored us. It was very sad.

This was my, and I think all, of our least favorite things to do. It is not fun. It hits close to home, since you think, "what if some one did this at my church, how would I respond?" One man responded in the way that I hope all of us would respond. He talked to us, then came to the 6pm rally to see if we were real, then he joined us. He got together a cell group of people in his church who had been awakened to this life and death issue, by our presence. They are discussing what they can DO. Praise God!

For the rest of the day on Sunday we visited with our friends, and later in the afternoon the Yoders' organized a hymn sing. Down by the hotel's pool was a nice room for gatherings and such, so we set chairs around, invited all the OSA people we could find and sang hymns for a while. It was a real blessing and a special time.

At the 6 pm rally, Flip Benham preached a powerful sermon on abortion and the spiritual effects it has on a woman. Also, there was a woman who came up to the front to show us her baby and share her story. Pam, who is holding the baby, has a life care center in her travel trailer and one day received a call from this very distressed woman. She had just taken the chemical abortion pill RU-486, and then realized what she was doing and wanted to keep her baby. Pam was able to direct her to a doctor who did something (I'm not sure what) to keep the baby, and now she has a beautiful little girl. Praise God!


Deliver those that are drawn toward death, hold back those that are stumbling to the slaughter; If you say, Behold, we knew it not; does not he that weighs the heart consider it? and he that keeps your soul, does not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works? (Proverbs 24:11-12)

A report on day six coming soon...

Day 6
Day 7 and 8

OSA 2009, July 18, Saturday

If you have not already read the introduction to this mission trip report please read it, Here.
Read Day 1
Read Day 2
Read Day 3

Saturday morning we went to down town Las Vegas and divided into four "overpass teams". Each group was assigned a pedestrian overpass on which to stand with signs and literature. Our team had the Bally's to Caesars Palace overpass.

An overpass from the street level, notice the Eiffel tower replica.

We placed some signs against the plexiglass facing out for the traffic to see, and some facing in for pedestrians. We passed out literature and gospel tracts, sang songs, and talked to people going by.

Many people heard me tell them, "think about eternity". It is surprising how hard it is to open my mouth to say something like that, but as people are hurrying by it leaves them with something to think about, and maybe God will use it to get them questioning.

Michael and Caesars Palace, it really was an amazing place to see.

View of the strip from our overpass.

Downtown Las Vegas, as we saw it many times from the highway.

After two or three hours on the overpass, we regrouped and headed out as part of Mark Holicks team again. We went to an abortionist home in an apartment complex. No one answered the door, so we just passed out the fliers and held signs for a while beside the busy street. The police arrived before we were out of there, but basically said, 'are you leaving now?', 'yes', 'OK'.

We enjoyed a great lunch, then drove a good distance to arrive at another abortionist home. This time in a gated community.

Across from the entrance gate was a little park, where we pulled up in a line (four or five vehicles) and waited. Soon a car pulled up to the gate, a guy got out and typed in his code, the gate opened and we all drove in behind him. Mr. Holick told us later that he was thinking, "Now that I have all of these people in, how am I going to get them out?"

Another car had come in with us when we all drove in, and upon arriving at the abortionist home, we found it was his wife! The garage door was open and his daughter opened the door to our knock.


She got her mother, who told us she was calling the police and shut the door. Mr. Holick turned to us and said "Go, get the fliers out as fast as possible!" We ran down those streets, putting the fliers on doors. One neighbor of the abortionist was upset with us, and another neighbor across the street called out to her, "It's OK, I've called the police, they're on the way." We passed out 150 fliers in less then fifteen minutes! Jumping into our vehicles, we headed out. Later Mrs. Holick told us that they were praying "Lord, how are we going to get out?" We rounded a curve in the road, and the gate was standing open, no one was in sight, it was just open! We all pulled out onto the road and watched as the police passed us on their way in. We could hardly believe that we had made it out.

We then went to a church where Cal Zastrow and others were giving instructions on how to start Personhood amendments in each state. After that, a quick stop at the hotel, and back to another church for the 6 pm rally.

That evening was very windy, as a storm blew through the area with lightning and Hot wind.

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. (Titus 2:13-14)

A report on day five coming soon...

...Edited to add...
Day 5

Day 6

Day 7 and 8