How I Became Pro-Life - Daniel's Testimony

0:00 I Am Yours, I am yours, I am yours, s and me, Lord, I am you're welcome to the Gospel Center pro life podcast, the podcast where we talk about pro life issues in light of the Gospel. In this episode I'm going to share my testimony and how I got involved in the pro life movement. Hope you're blessed. Is You listen, stay tuned. I felt show passish touch your heart. Welcome to the Gospel Center pro life podcast and video. Appreciate all that you who are watching and who are listening. The purpose of this podcast is to encourage you and to just help those who are maybe getting new and newly involved in the pro life movement and those who are maybe long time in the pro life movement, to help you talk about pro life issues and think about pro life issues in light of the Gospel, to emphasize the point that pro life and the issue of abortion is not a political issue, is a gospel issue, and so that's that's our heart, that's our desire for you understand that and we've wanted to share in the past. The previous podcast we talked to Vicky and she just shared some of her testimony how she came from being pro choice to being pro life and becoming a Christian and just wanted you guys to see our hearts, where we come from. And No, you know, we're just just like many of you. The Lord has done a work in our hearts to bring us to

1:33 some of the conclusions and the callings that he's put in our lives. And this podcast we're going to share, I'm going to share my testimony and Vicki's going to ask me some probing questions hopefully spur some thought and some conversation and spur you guys to seek the Lord and where he would have you to be involved in the pro life movement. So with that, Vicky, you just fire away. Well, first of all, who are you? Okay, what do you do right now in the pro life movement? So currently I am the executive director of cities for life here in Charlotte, North Carolina, and we know we're locally. We're sidewalk counselors here with a heart to reach the abortion minded women that are going into the abortion centers and offer them help and hope in the name of Jesus, and so that's my current role here.

2:19 God has called me to ministry in this capacity full time and my family, my wife being a nurse, she does ultrasounds on board of Mobiultra Sugn Unit with a partner ministry help pregnancy center, and she works in a couple of pregnancy centers and as a family we serve together on the sidewalks on Saturdays and in our kids are out there, you know, holding signs and we're all trying to reach the moms together. So volunteering on the sidewalks, but executive director of cities for life also. Yeah, okay, so you looks like, you know, one of these pro life heroes and sun who's really kind of an important figure in in the pro life movement, and I'm wondering you must have been pro life your whole life, right and and and been a strong proponent of of life. Is that true? Is that where you started off? Well, not really, sort of, I guess. Early in my life my parents were were believers and I remember some of my member some conversations that my parents had about pro life things and it really had to do with politics. Really they were Republicans and they believed that you should vote for Republicans, and so there were some talk about that. was that because of the pro life stance of Republicans or no, no, it was you probably just in general, you know, far in that line of thought.

3:44 It had a couple of factors. Had to do with being repubably. Wouldn't just pro life, but pro life, and being pro life was was part of that, but not really, you know, a major infasis, I guess. And you know, as your kid and your parents have certain convictions, you pretty much just by default, I guess, jump on board with those convictions. And so their convictions were were prolife, you know, generally and maybe nominally in some ways. Mainly politically, though, I think. But as I grew and came into my own, I guess you could you could say and and really never rejected God as far as like. I never was an atheist. There's never a time where I didn't believe in God, but I really didn't walk with God on in my high school years and you know, I began to embrace just the idea that, you know, it's a woman's right to choose to do what she wants to do with your body and you people are basically good. So people are going to do the right thing, even if it maybe is something that others might not think is the right thing, and so I just kind of, I guess, kind of to that default position of well, you know, pro choice, I guess, because it's not my body. As I came into, you know, early adulthood, I guess you could say, yeah, yeah, and did your did your parents ever have discussions about, you know, but if you ever get a girl pregnant, don't ever consider abortion or HMM, did?

5:08 Did you ever have any search of those discussions with friends or anyone? I don't know that I did. To be honest with you, I don't. I don't recall having those kind of discussions. I'd certainly don't recall having those discussions with my parents. I think I knew, just because of their convictions and maybe just by, you know, the the truth of God in me, even though I was not walking with the Lord. The Bible says the Law of God has written on our hearts. I think I knew that abortion was wrong and I think that I would know what their stance would be if that happened. As a matter of fact, we'll probably talk about that a little bit. That actually did happen as part of my testimony. Yeah, yeah, so, yeah, so now you were raised roview aid was already that had already been decided. Yeah, I'm very I'm very young. So tell so. So you were raised, I mean your entire life abortion was legal. And did did you ever was serve her part a point in your young life, before we get to, you know, maybe your later teenage years, where where you thought this isn't what should be as far as the abortion? Yeah, said here's the law of our you're raised in a Christian home and the law of the country is that it is legal to take the life of a little human being. Did that cause any angst or any you know, crisis of faith or anything that you know? You know, I don't know that I really thought about the issue of abortion a whole lot when

6:43 I was younger, although now I do remember at one point, if I'm not mistaken, as I remember back, my mom was involved in some sort of political action thing to do with with pro life stuff. At one time she was involved with Pat Robertson, if you know who he is, but he he very I think early in the early S, early mid s own into the S, was a you know. I think he ran for president at some point and he had a strong pro life stance. And so I think she was in with some of that that maybe even then with his campaign, but I don't know that I thought it through. The short is like a in my mind, there's sort of a macro view of abortion, sort of a national view in this national conversation, I guess, and it's more political, and then the sort of the micro view of abortion, like how it happens individually and how it affects individual lives. And I think maybe my view, if any, was more of the macro rather than the micro view in my young years and on into, you know, early teens, I guess. Yeah, so you get into your change and you alluded to so you you had a girlfriend, hmm, Courtney, at the time and and things didn't go quite as you hoped, yeah, with that relationship. So can you talk about what would happened there? And Yeah, so, so we were high school sweethearts and were introduced to each other by a friend and we kind of right away just I don't know if we fell in love,

8:15 whatever you want to call it, but I mean I'd say I did at least them. I hope she did. But anyway, and of course we know, you know what's right and what's wrong. Even though I wasn't a believer, I had been in church some and my parents kind of fell away from going to church in my you know, I guess tween years or whatever, maybe a little before that. And so as a as an early adolescent and on into teenage years, believed in God. Wasn't really exposed to a whole lot of church, so to speak, but I knew what was right and what was wrong, and so we began, you know, in the early part of our relationship, we began to do it we knew was the wrong. I have sex outside of marriage. That temptation was was there, like it is with with so many young people, for sure, and I don't think there was a whole lot to discourage us from falling into that temptation, though. Her parents, you wonderful people, Godly people, went to church, heard her convictions were in line with their convictions, and so I come along and pull her out of those convictions and we begin to do the things that we knew were wrong. And so in that season of our lives, really she walked away from the Lord and I had really never given my life to the Lord. And and then we find out, you know, seventeen years old. She's sixteen years old, she's pregnant and I remember, I'm remember the day that that was, that was revealed. She kept it

9:45 hidden and, as a matter of fact, you know, share with you a little bit yesterday as we talked through kind of my story, that I think she kept it hid, hidden from me, for it was one of the reasons because at that time I was a selfish little punk, yeah, living for myself and didn't have a whole lot of concerning I loved her whatever, but had no real desire to be a dad or to start a family. And at Seventeen, who does? But but really just party in and do all that stuff. And I would have certainly, in my sin and in my rebellion against God and the mentality that embrace that time, it was all about me, I would have taken her to have an abortion. Yeah, and you know, she possibly could have circumbed to the pressure. We see it on a daily basis almost at the abortion centers here in Charlotte, where we see these young men who were scared like I was. You know, I was scared, I was selfish to yeah, it was more about I was afraid of what was going to happen to me and it was what was going to happen to her or anything like that. And and fear, oftentimes we'll drive us to do things you would otherwise do. So I could, I could see me taking her here to latrobe maybe at that time, and driven her right into that place. Was it ever a discussion? Did you ever did when you actually which told you she was pregnant? Did did abortion ever enter the discussion? No, no, because at that point when it came out, and it came out and sort of a weird way where we're sitting on the couch in her parents living room and we're, you know,

11:15 just kind of shooting the breeze, sitting around, and her mom just kind of comes out and says, so when we're going to stop the Non Reality? You're pregnant. Yeah, really, yeah, wow, so her mom knew her mom. Yeah, and it was sort of like, you know, I knew and was almost like one of those willful ignorant sort of thing. Yeah, if you don't say it, it's not really yeah, I mean really, when you're a young person in that again, and that's how, from my perspective, I can speak to the young man who are going into the abortion centers and I can speak to young men about that prolife issues, because I know the fear that comes from having an unwanted pregnancy and being a dad at a young age and and so you know, when that come, when that came out in the way that it came out, the first person I blame, which is really funny, and this is human propensity, I believe, is rather than blaming myself or even blaming her, I blame God. That's he's the first person I blame. He could have stopped it right. He's exactly life. Yeah, and it kind of takes me back. As I look back, it kind of takes me back to a story in the Bible of our first parents, Adam and Eve, and how the Lord comes after you know, the Lord had told Adam don't eat of the tree or the fruit of this tree, or you'll surely die. Well, Adam falls into the temptation because of his wife Eve, and I'm not blaming Courtney for this, but I am saying that WHO's the first person really the Adam blames, because he says, when the Lord comes and says, what are you? What have you done? You've basically you've eaten of this

12:46 tree. And what does he say? He doesn't say, well, I'm sorry, I was responsible. He says, no, it was the woman that you gave me, you, he gave me to. The accusation was not even against Eve. Accusation was against the Lord. And that's how it was for me. I was I remember like praying and saying God, why did you allow this to happen? I remember saying God hates me because the way God orchestrated this thing, he hates me. And and it was a it was and and that was my fear. This is the end of end of my world, this is the end of life for me. So you're being all deflated as you're sitting here discovering she's pregnanted. Courtney fest up right away? Or Yeah, Oh, yeah, I mean it was obvious. Yeah, okay, it was the elephant in the room. So okay, all right, okay, so your world falls apart. Coordiney is had a little bit more time to to deal with it. So did you talk about marriage right away or what was Oh, you know, I think right away the conversation was around the around the baby, and thankfully her parents were, you know, godly people who I don't know that abortion would every even enter into their minds. I mean, I don't I don't know that and I certainly wouldn't wouldn't be accusatory if it did, but I would doubt that it ever even did. It was the right away. What can we do to make sure that courtney is taken care of and make sure this baby is taken care of? And then, you know, later on there was some conversations and I did end up, you know, I knew what the right thing to do was, even not being a Christian at that point, sort of

14:18 having a you know, as the Bible says, I had a form of godliness, but now, in the power thereof, it's like I had this form of godliness. I read my Bible even I read my Bible at that time almost on a daily basis. You know, for whatever reason I had actually a false conversion, spear experience. It's a little bit after, a couple of days after it, we found out she was pregnant. I remember just feeling the pressure of the circumstance and the guilt from it. But it was not guilt really that I felt that I had sinned against God. It was more that I had sent against her parents and so I went down front at a church service and gave my life to Jesus, and I put that in quotes, not because that can't happen. Certainly someone can go down front and give their life to Jesus, but I, you know, even though I wept and cried, it was it was that worldly sorrow. I'd been caught in my sin and I was not converted, my heart was not changed because I continue to do the same things, to think the same way, but I did make a profession of faith that was not real. At the time I thought it was because I checked the box. You know I'm saying I did the stuff that I was told to do, but it really again, it was it was a worldly sorrow, it was a brokenness over I was called on my sin rather than I had sinned against the Lord, and I share that just because it actually took so from that time. So our daughter was born in in ninety eight, one thousand nine hundred and ninety eight, and I was eighteen years old and it took from that time, from being eighteen years old till twenty one years old. In that three year or so period, the Lord working on my heart and just really showing me that

15:52 to be the father that I'm supposed to be, because you know, as parents we have to make sacrifices sure to fruch child. Yeah, and the parental role is actually a good way. It's in your testimony. It's kind of what the Lord used to bring you to himself to your first son was born. We understand the heart of the father when we become parents and we understand, understand what it means to sacrifice and how he's sacrifice and how he was forbearing with us and patient with us, because we got to be patient with our kids. And so the Lord be in his patients, in His grace. For that that three year period was really working on my heart and just showing me, you know what, you're not right, but you can get right. You need the grace that is available. You don't have it, but you need it. And then two thousand and one, maybe getting a little ahead of myself in this, but in two thousand and one I realized that I needed I was not saved, that I needed to be saved.

16:52 And and so at that point, so we had, you know, I'd proposed to her I think the Christmas of that year, when we found out she was pregnant. I had proposed to her and plans was, you know, it's a five year plan, right, and my mind at least, I'm going to work and save up money and have this and have that in place before we get married. And that's, you know, that shows just the worldliness of my mentality. When I got saved in two thousand and one, I knew right away that even though we stopped having sex outside of marriage, because I knew, after my heart was changed, that was not okay, it still didn't look good to have a baby's Mama. And you the Bible says we should stay away from even the parents of evil. So as I'm testifying what God has done in my life and I hear I have, you know, a child outside of wedlock, it just didn't look good.

17:37 And and the Lord was just calling me and calling her to trust him and to scrap our five year plan or whatever plan we had, and to put our trust in him. And so six months later, after I was saved in two thousand, early part of three thousand and one, we were married. We were getting married and stepping out in faith in that way. Right, right, and and she also went back to school, right. I mean she graduated. Yeah, yes, she kept you. Yeah, kept right on. So a great testimony to so many of the women that we encounter in the in the pro life movement who say that their life stops. Like what you what you felt, your life stops when you have a baby. Well, that's not certainly not easy when we don't follow God's plan, but it is possible. Yeah, it's. Well, you know, I cheered when I first found out that she was pregnant, that it was end of the world for me, right, and it really was. Yeah, but that was a good thing actually, because what was my world at that time, right, was Daniel in the center and everything else revolved around it. And that three year time period is when the Lord really showed me this is not about you, life is not about you. My world came apart, came unraveled, you know, the partying and all that other stuff, you know, necessarily had to change, because I'm a dad now.

18:51 Right, it did immediately change. It wasn't immediately that I repented of all that stuff and, you know, became him a the dad that he was calling me to be to again, about three years I'm still not, I think, the dad that he's called me to be, although now we have eight children. Our daughter from that unplanned pregnancy is twenty one. She's a blessing from the Lord and she comes out and comes on the sidewalk in front of the abortion center with us and I can testify. You know, I've been where you've been and the Lord is faithful and here our daughter is, is a testimony to that. But my world was over, yeah, when I found out my girlfriend was pregnant, and that was a good thing. Yeah, and so I want to piggy back off of that thought, because something that I hear often from moms who are are abortion minded is is, well, God will use the death of my child, the abortion, to bring about, you know, the changes that are necessary my life whatever.

19:48 Yeah, and so you're not saying, and I I know you're not, I know you well enough. But but I want you maybe to expand on that, that that having sex outside of marriage led to a pregnancy, which led to your world changing, which led to you finding God. You're not suggesting that that people should go have sex outside of marriage or have an abortion in order to find God. So do you see what I'm saying? Yeah, could you talk about that a little bit, about you know, maybe there's something about that. God has used something, but that is that God's plan. Is that right desire for your life, the way, the plan that you took? Yeah, well, so I would say that in the midst of our sin and our sinful decisions, though we can't always know, God does. He knows the end from the beginning, and we can't always know what the results will be. God, in his wisdom and his goodness and His mercy, can navigate through even our sinful choices to bring about something good. You know. Yes, and so though you know, we can't always explain all of that stuff and all the INS and outs of how God works, and I'm not going to pretend to try to expound on that and get into the permissive will of God and the perfect will of God and all these other things. I'll just say this. We are called to trust the Lord and we're called to do things God's way. And when we mess up, like having sex outside of marriage, like they say, two wrongs don't make a right right. A Sin does not atone for a previous sin.

21:21 Right exactly. So it's never that, you know, God isn't. It's not God's will for people have children outside of wedlock. I don't believe. You know, however you theologically phrase that. I don't believe it was God's perfect will for that to happen. I will say this that it was God's perfect will for us to have our daughter absent and she is a blessing from the Lord. Yeah, but certainly sin is destructive, but God is a redeemer and I oftentimes look back at my testimony and look back at what the Lord has done in his in his great mercy, and I'm marvel and I think some sometimes God's working in our lives and how God navigates, for lack of a better term, through the stuff and the junk of our lives to bring about redemption is astounding to me. It amazes me and I think it's in one sense it's designed to to to have us on our faces before God and say, in the midst of my sin, how you took the sinful choices and decisions. And though God, the Bible says God doesn't tempt anyone with sin. God's not the tempter, and yet he's able to use that for his glory and for our good. It's, I think, almost uncomprehendible.

22:37 Right in a side so that background and having now that this this story of you know what you went through as a young adult at the same age of many of the people that we will encounter who, yeah, who think that abortion is the answer, just it affect how you then operate, for lack of a better word, as a prolife advocate. Yeah, in your interactions with with others, specifically with the MOMS and the DADS who are coming to abortion centers. Yeah, I mean certainly, again, I can not for not every circumstance, but I can certainly speak from some of the circumstances are at least from that perspective at and know what it feels like to be afraid to be a young parent. Yeah, and it gives me a burden really to speak to those dads and to call them up. You know, I had people calling me up as as a young father, calling me up to do what God has called me to do, in the sense that deny yourself and put your trust in the Lord. And so I can speak from that perspective. I can, you know, also speak to the perspective of the women as well, because me and my wife are, you have a close relationship and and we've talked through these things and I kind of kind of can feel from that perspective of a young lady, not entirely, but at least can talk from that perspective a little bit and and speak really to that that fear. Yeah, it is fear. A lot of times it jobs people to an abortion center. I agree. So, so, now, so you're a young family starting out, you get married, you you've got,

24:11 you know, a child, and what brought you from that moment in your life to being out as a very vocal prolife person on the sidewalk up an abortion yeah? Yeah, because, you know, we acknowledge that it is sort of a maybe a weird thing to be in front of an abortion center. People do it? How many people do it, although I think more people should. I agree. Yeah, that's that's another podcast. I yes. So, basically, I say the Lord set me up. You know, when I first was saved I was astounded by the mercy of God and by the goodness of God that he would save a rat like me and it was my heart to one of the things I prayed when I first got say was Lord, don't let me, don't let me live long enough to do nothing. Okay, if I, if I am not involved in kingdom work. If I am an apathetic Christian, just kill me. I would rather die than be an apathetic pew sitting Christian. And so I was always in my heart to be evangelistic, to share the Gospel, to seek after the Lord, to seek to know him more, to dig in his word.

25:15 It was just in my heart because I'd been a false convert and apathetic Christian. I've seen a lot of apathy in the Christian in the Christian realm, and I didn't want to be like that. So I'd always been sort of evangelistic. Well, not sort of, but really evangelistic. You shared tracks and cheering the gospel, that kind of stuff. And and so anyway, you know, done some street preaching and that sort of thing and and some one on one evangelism. And actually early part of our Christian lives we me and my wife and our family, we just were seeking after the Lord and we ended up going to a church and concord because my brother went to the school of Ministry there. It was fire church, okay, and they have fire school of ministry there. And so we were going there and at that time there was a group that had come and shared about the issue of abortion and the national sin that abortion is and they had encouraged the church to bring children out to the abortion center. And actually there were some that were already out there, flip Bedham, who was already out there as the the abortion center in South Charlotte here on Hebron Street, and at that time there was not a big nout. Now there's a big fence and you can't see to the front door, but at that time you could see right to the front door. And so we went. I went as a chaperone to the children's groups. So the children were going to come out. My daughter was eight years old at that time and she was going to come out with you know, the children's groups going to come out and they bust them over and they were just going to sing Jesus loves me and sing on the microphone to

26:48 try to touch the hearts of the MOMS and I was going as a chaperon. I was just going to make sure the kids were where they needed to be and weren't any kind of danger anything like that. And I say, the Lord set me up. Yeah, I had no intention. You know, I knew about abortion, I knew it was wrong, I knew it was was bad and then it was sinful. But as far as like seeing the issue of abortion where it took place, I didn't. I knew it took place, but I didn't know where to knew the magnitude of the problem until I went and I was standing there in front of that abortion center and I'm seeing a mom go in and I know she's going in with a baby. See Him come out and I know they came out. They lefted a dead child in there. At that point it's like the Holy Spirit spoke to me. A hundred feet from where you're standing, babies are dying. Yeah, right here right now, not some other time, not some other place, right here right now. What are you going to do about it?

27:37 And I just broke I just started bawling. And then I found out some of the students from the Fire School of Ministry were one out to the abortion center here on the trope drive and I went out with them and there was another brother who was involved with them who lived where I lived at the time, and we rode together and I just kind of got hooked. I guess you can say, not that it's fun to be out there, but it is. You know, it's in our hearts to serve the Lord. It's it. It blesses us to bless our father. And so I just got involved in that, that ministry, going out on Saturdays. I worked full time job doing hardwood floors at the time and so I'd come out on the weekends and bring my family. My kids are pretty much raised in this, in this thing. They're all willing. Your wife and your family's yeah, yeah, yeah, and the Lord graciously brought my wife along. At that time she was working as a nurse in the hospital and the Lord graciously kind of, you know, trimmed off her hours and she started coming out in in the capacity as a nurse, actually on board the the mobile unit and in. So here we are today serving the Lord together. And then about four years ago, you know, cities for life got started in two thousand and ten. We are already involved as a family. Our family was already out there on Saturdays and when cities for life got started, we jumped on board with that right away just as a concerted effort to get the church involved.

28:59 And then about four years ago I got a college two thousand and fifteen. So but yeah, but four years ago I got a call out of the blue from some of the folks who had originally started cities life and from David Benham, who was the he's the founder of cities for life, saying basically, Hey, we need somebody to lead this thing and we feel like it might be you. Would you pray about it? And at that time I was already pastoring a home congregation and work into and it was just like well, somebody calls me out of the blue and asked me if I wanted to be paid to do the thing that God has put in my heart. Right, like, well, let me pray about this, but I'm pretty sure this is gone right. And so me and my wife talked about it and we prayed about it and felt like it was. It was the Lord's will. So here we are now serving in this capacity and blessed to be a part of what God's doing and cheering the testimony what God has done in our lives with those who are coming to the a abortion center right and it and it's been a blessing to all of us, because I was already on board as as a volunteer and I know when when you came, things really did change. There was now, you know, an organization and ministry that we belonged to and and that was had our back. Yeah, and so that, you know, some great things began to happen as a result of you becoming the director of cities for life. So so thank you for that.

30:26 Is there anything else you want to share about your heart with? You know what? Maybe you said that there's a lot of Christians that you think are just sitting in a pew and maybe not doing what God has called them to do in terms of the pro life movement. Do you can you talk a little bit more about that? Yeah, I mean there is a need, of course, because there's abortion centers and these places that killed children day in and day out right all across this this country, right, and I of course acknowledge, like any any Christian would, that not everyone can do sidewalk counseling. Some folks are called to be missionaries and other countries not everyone is called. You know, people use that as an out. Sometimes I'm not called to do that. Oftentimes it's just they're not comfortable to that.

31:14 Yeah, but some people aren't called to do it. Right. Maybe there certainly are, though, a lot more people that are called to do it than I are. Actually doing it. And so you know, again it's it's really we're not saved to just to go up to heaven, you know, we're saved to serve the Lord and we serve the Lord out of what he's done for us. We're not out there to earn merit with God. I'm not out there on the sidewalk trying to convince people not to have abortions because I think somehow it will give me more favor with God and get me a bigger mansion in heaven or make me more saved. You know, you can't be more saved than being actually saved from your sin. We are to function, we are to minister out of our gratitude toward God for what he's done for us. We love him because he first loved us. And so my heart to and encouragement to anyone who's a believer is your called to serve the Lord and whatever capacity that is. And you know what, if you think maybe, yeah, you might be called to the sidewalks, just go out one time. That's I think. Maybe not everyone is called to be on the sidewalks in front of an abortion center, but I say this every Christian should at least go to an abortion clinic one time and see what goes on there, to see the issue of abortion where it takes place and to see it before your face and let the Lord deal with your heart in that, because it is a national sin, it's a sin issue, it's a spiritual issue and it's a national thing that we as Christians are to deal with.

32:42 This is not politicians job to deal with the issue of abortion. That's it's the church's job, it's our job to deal with issue of abortion. So, of not everyone may be called to be on the sidewalk, but it's everyone called to proclaim the prolife aspect of of God, yeah, and of his biblical mandate, yeah, to protect and proclaim the sanctity of innocent human life. And can you be a Christian and not be prolife? Yeah, I mean so. Kind of back to, I guess I shared maybe in our first podcast, that sort of very basic pro life argument that does God love every person? Does God love you? When did he begin to love you? If the fact of what by what the Bible teaches, is in is in fact true that God loves every person and that he began to love us before we're even born, really don't have an option. We really don't have an option to say that. You know what, this is not my issue, this is not my deal. Those are you know, there's a pro life Christians. I'm I'm prolive, but I can't really be involved in that or whatever. A lot of times, again, like with abortion, minded MOMS and dad's going into an abortion center, even Christians could be under a spirit of fear and and afraid of what, you know, what the Lord might do if they if they go out to an abortion center.

34:06 He might actually call them. That was kind of that's what yeah, he might actually call you to be there, and so, you know, might encourage me is just obey the Lord. Just trust in the Lord. Were called to trust God and in every and every aspect of our Christian life we've got a trust in what God's word says and what it says it's true, it's right. No matter what society says, no matter what our comforts say, we are called to do what God's word says. God's Word says on that that sign right there, proverbs thirty one versus eight nine. Open your mouth for the speechless and the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously and plead the cause of the poor and needy, and so that's our heart as a ministry. We hope that this podcast is a blessing to you toward that end. This is not just about US promoting sidewalk councling ministry. This is about US understanding and trying to convey to you guys that our pro life convictions should be carried through in light of the Gospel that we are pro life not because of politics. We are pro life because of the change that God has wroughten our heart through the power of his Gospel. So we are prayers that you guys be blessed and continue to listen these podcasts. Our website locally, here's Charlotte dot cities for Life Dot Org, a national website that we used to equip and encourage people to get involved with sidewalk counts and sidewalks for life at sidewalks and number four and lifecom and we just pray that this podcasting has been a blessing. You. Please interact with us. You can go on our website. You can get my contact info, my email addresses there, Vicki's email addresses there. The Lord bless

35:37 you guys. As you seek to stand for life, wherever the Lord has put you. God bless me. Ove for love, give me our lift. For gratitude, I know it will cost me my life. Nothing's too precious. And some met you