How To Stay Engaged on the Sidewalk

0:00 We think about the rapture in the blast of the trumpet when Jesus Returns. But what if it's a boring day on the sidewalk of an abortion center? Nothing's going on, you're thinking, Oh Gosh, why I'm even here, and all of a sudden you hear the trumpet blast and Jesus Returns. We're better to be found right and standing in front of an abortion clar yeah, I mean can the with the son of man when he returns? Will he found faith on the earth? Not? Will he find excitement and enthusiasm and you know somebody that can argue a good point with a pro board, but will he find faith? I Am Yours, I am yours, I am yours. And Me, Lord, I am yours, I am yours.

0:44 I'm welcome to the Gospel Center Pro Life Podcast, a podcast designed to equip, encourage and challenge you in pro life ministry and always were the focus on the Gospel. Stay tuned. I felt show passish, touch your heart, use me love. Hey, they're welcome to the Gospel centered pro life podcast. We are here with WHO? I'm here with Daniel Parks, who, Yay, is back in Charlotte. Yes, happy to have him back and, as always, this subject which was one that kind of arose from practical things we experienced while being out on the sidewalk. One of those is is that there are many times when you see nothing happening, no fruit, apparent, apparently no fruit you yourself or in a position where there's not many women coming in and out, no one's talking to you. Frankly, it's boring.

1:53 Yeah, and so how do we stay engaged during those times? Because those times are going to come where there's not a parent action and I think it is very we just we have lost people. I no doubt they've told me we've lost him because they're bored. Yeah, which kind of boggles my mind. But I think because I do have the perspective of being out there for many years and it's never boring for me, and I hope that we will give you an idea of strategies in this podcast for how you can stay engage. So that really isn't the thought that comes in your mind. I'm so bored, right. Yeah, yeah, I mean most people are thinking about especially if you haven't ever been out to an abortion center and you're thinking about going out there, your concerned probably is like I'm going to be overwhelmed because they're going to be so much stuff coming. There's going to be you hear US talking about these pro abortion people out there yelling at you. You maybe got the women coming into the abortion centering droves and you thinking that's going to overwhelm you. And all this stuff is happening in certainly that can be the case. Yeah, but there are also times when there's not a whole lot going on. Yeah, there's no real interactions with anybody. Maybe the parking lot's kind of barely full, or maybe it's really I mean there are days where the parking lots really full, when there's just no engagement, no one stopping and talking right, no one's even cussing you out. Yeah, and so there are times when it's just there's a temptation at least, or

3:25 you're just bored. You're just you feel like you're just standing on a sidewalk in in front of a building and there's not a whole lot of act that things happening. And you know, could be the position that your team has placed you. And we do have positions that I guess are technically more boring. There just they're up the street cars may or may not stop for the people, and so they will have long periods of time of just zero interaction and they don't see a soul. So what what do we do? And I do want to make the point that first of all, we admit it's not easy. It is not easy when you're not in getting any kind of traction, you're not getting any engagement with anyone. And and all of us want to be heroes, I think bottom line, we do. We want to be a hero before God, we want to be used by God and and we want to be where the action is. And I just I want to say it is okay to desire that. But what do you do when, in the article that I put out, I said when, when the sidewalk ministry in your area is more of a slog than a jog, in other words, it's just it? And there are some whole areas sometimes, I mean there are some of our sidewalk missionaries that really are in a very quiet, small abortion center where it's hard to reach the women. Yeah, and they really do have minimal interaction. Yeah, I'll tell you, sometimes it's well, for me at least, it's easier when it is loud and

4:58 rock us out there and I'm getting yelled at by pro boards. Then when there's nothing going on, yeah, and I'm up the street holding a sign or offering literature and there's no engagement, it's like yeah, for me that that's a time of testing. It is, and by God's grace of pass the test, I've learned to be faithful. I'm not sure how practical we're going to get in this, but I'll get real practical right now, okay, and just say sometimes I'll put my air pods in and I'll listen to some preaching, I'll listen to the word of God and I'll pray. Yeah, now I'll keep my eyes open, of course, when I'm praying and I'm ready. If there's somebody that's going to stop and take my information, I've got it in hand. I'm ready to go. And I think the main point of this, of this article and of this podcast episode is going to be to they focused and really you being there is obedience to the Lord and it's important that you're there. You're holding up a standard of truth, you're shining a light in a dark place, even if there's not a lot of activity there, and the moment that someone approaches you or that someone who needed to hear your word. When they're there and you're there and you engage with them, it is all worth every moment of of no interaction. I will tell very briefly story that just happened where woman's was called me and was

6:31 very upset, in fact suicidal post aboard of and said that had there been anyone on the sidewalk when she went to kill her baby in an abortion, she would not have and and now she deeply, deeply regretted it. And that story went. It was so sad, but it really pointed out to me the necessity of us being there and if we're not there through the boring moments as well or the less exciting moments as well, we might not be there when women like that show up. And then who is going to speak on behalf of of her, of her baby, and Pointer Back to God?

7:14 So some of the practical things I do, because you're right, Daniel, this is more almost like the philosophical underpinnings of how you endure ministry when a whole lot is in going on. But one of the practical things I do I also pray. I I also will read scripture on my either on my iphone or I'll I've got my Bible sometimes with me, not always. But one of the other things I do is I pace, I walk back and forth, and that keeps me moving, just the fact that I'm moving. First of all, it saves my back. It hurts to stand still for three hours and I think that's true of not only old people but also but also very young and it's still hurt your back. So I'm always doing something and and I'm trying to focus on God at God while doing that.

8:05 But that does help me. That helps me rather than just standing there, yeah, waiting for something to happen. But I do think, looking biblically, is there anyone in the Bible that we could look at who had a ministry that maybe could be described as not a whole lot of action happening and kind of boring and in some ways, the Ministry of Jeremiah? Yeah, it fits the built. So Jeremiah ministered for forty years and saw almost no fruit. Yeah, almost none. He spoke to people who ignored him or they did do things exciting like throw him into assister and and, you know, and and wait for him to like drown in the mud or or starve to death. So there were moments that were, I guess, exciting for him, but a large part of his ministry was just speaking to people who ignored him. Yeah, who didn't listen to him. Yeah, proclaiming the Truth and not really getting a response from the people. Yeah, now I'll say all the Bible tells us, and Second Corinthians five or seven, we walk by faith and not by sight. Yeah, great, first a lot of times we want to see the results of what we're doing. We want to see that their interactions. Think was John Wesley, great revivalist preacher in England who actually even came to America, who said he would much rather someone be cursing him, spitting at him and throwing things at him, because at least he knows that they hear what he's saying. Yeah, then someone to

9:37 ignore him. And I think that's the same for us as we're out there on the sidewalk. But we have to remember, and I'm going to say this and I hope for you guys listening it, it actually will sting a little bit, okay, because it's intended to you're not out there for you right, you're not out there to feel needed. You're not out there to feel important, you're not out there just to engage people. You're out there because God called you to be out there. If indeed he did call you to be out there, and I believe that that he did, if you're out there, yeah, and so think of it in those terms. Let that sting you a little bit. You're not there for you. You're important, you're made in the image of God, you're Christian, you belong to him, you're important to the Lord Right, but at the end of the day, you're not out there because you're important. You're out there because God called you to be out there. Out there to shine a light, and I just want to inject also just a little bit of faith. Maybe this, hopefully this, will help you. I think it will. Again, we walk by faith and not by sight, and if we believe, and I do believe that, as believers, we are a city set on a hill, we are a light. Jesus said, you're the light of the world. You have a light that you're shining whether whether people are looking at that light or not, or appear to be looking at that light or not, you're still shining a light. You're standing there in faith believing that God is honoring what you're doing. Listen, faithfulness is tested not when it's fun and exciting. Faithfulness is is tested when it's not fun and it's not exciting, when things are kind of boring. Right. Faith is tested when we're

11:09 in the desert, we're in the valley, our faithfulness to the Lord and what he's called us to. But again, I want to encourage in your faith that, even though you don't think anything's happening out there on the sidewalk. A story that I share oftentimes is a story of a friend of mine who, in this was I mean probably I think twelve years ago or something, as I remember, but a friend of mine. We were it was one of those kind of boring days with not a whole lot was going on on the sidewalk and a friend of mine named Brett just to at it. He was going to pace the sidewalk and just pray. And this brother knows how to pray and say he's not just praying like quietly to himself, although if you do that that's fine. I think it's past that that he's prying out loud. He's pretty but there's no outward nothing happening right, nothing really going on. Right. Well, we find out, like I don't know how, how many weeks or so later, that actually a young lady inside of that abortion center was in the waiting room and she peeked out of the blinds. I don't know if you sometimes, if you look at the abortion center on Latrobe and you look at the blind sometimes you'll see the blinds come open. You'll see just like a little gap in the blinds got I've recognized that now. Back then I didn't, but you paying attention to that.

12:22 But apparently she did that look through those blinds. She saw him out there on the sidewalk praying and that's what encouraged her to choose life. She said, I knew that guy was praying for me and for my baby, and she chose life. She got connected in some way. I don't know all the INS and outs of the story. That was one of those kind of boring days and he just decide, you know what, I'm out here, there's death going on in there, this is a dark place. I'm going to shine the light. I'm just going to pray. Right. So what was he doing? He was walking by faith and not by sight. We could have packed it up and said, you know what, there's nobody's listening to us. Let's just knock the dust off off of our feet and let's just go on. Yeah, we didn't do that that day, praise God. Yeah, we decided to. He decided to pray and to press and walk by faith. And I'll say it's helpful again, practically speaking. This is why we say if you're going to volunteer, it's good to have kind of a set time. If you're organizing teams on the sidewalks, good to have a set time. For us it's three hours, nine to twelve.

13:20 I think it's really helpful because when you get into those boring times, at least you have a time. Okay, I'm going to be here until twelve o'clock, whether I see out results or not. And if you're maybe the team lead is given you a particular position to stand in and it's a boring position. Press into that, be faithful, to stay that three hours, and I might even just intentionally put my flesh in check by saying, okay, I'm supposed to be here till twelve, I'm going to stay till o one, right, just to tell my flesh, yeah, you're in subjection to me. I'm going to stay by faith. So again this want encourage you guys. Like God's doing some stuff. You never know what God's doing behind the scenes. Like that story I shared. There are women that come to the abortion center. They're driving up to you know, wherever you're at on that that road, you don't see it, you don't know about it, but they see you out there praying. They see you out there just bored out of your mind, maybe listening to some scripture, but you're out there praying. They see you and they know why you're out there, and so they keep driving and you won't find out about that life that was saved and that mother, possibly who came to the Lord. Maybe she went to church that next Sunday and got saved. Who knows? Yeah, again, we walk by faith and not by sight. Yeah, you won't find out about that story until you stand before the Lord. So encourage you guys.

14:31 Be Faithful. God's called you there. It's not about you, it's about him, and it walk by faith in that here. Yeah. Yeah, so and and Jeremiah, when he was clearly called by God. He's spoke with God and God said he was calling him to this ministry and told them exactly what he was going to do. And Jeremiah even tried. He kind of fought it. He said, I tried to be silent, but then in that verse where he talks about being silent, he said it would in my heart. It becomes like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I'm weary of holding it in. So he did press through that and and speak anyway. And to your point again, just a couple of days ago a very similar thing happened. Where we've been out there, of course, sometimes totally ignored apparently, and and we just continue to do our thing and a woman drove by and stopped who told me that she has just over the many, many weeks that she had been going to a chiropractor up the street.

15:31 She had heard and seen these people, but she didn't know, she didn't even know what was an abortion center. She didn't know what it was all about. And said I'm just wondering what's going on here, because I've been wondering for weeks. I've seen you guys out here for weeks and and so I told her and then I told her, you know, one and four women have have had an abortion and here's here's some information that that you could share. If you ever know someone in a and I'm playing pregnancy and she started crying and for thirty years she had carried the secret of her own abortion. This was the first time she had spoken to someone about an abortion she had thirty years ago, and I was able to point her on a path of healing. It's because we were there and seeing. So sometimes it's just you showing up. Is that is what God has called you to do, and then you know, give the results to him. Yeah, another thing that that Jeremiah realized as as he was ministering, when the fruit was seemingly absent, was that the what you what you said earlier. The absence of visible fruit is not surprising to God and very may well may have a divine purpose. So so God himself tells Jeremiah and Jeremiah D and twenty seven.

16:47 You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you, and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. He's warning Jeremiah. Yeah, but God, all his purposes, always prevail. He wasn't just doing that, putting Jeremiah in front of people who would not listen just to frustrate Jeremiah. There was a purpose in that. JEREMIA didn't discover what that was necessarily until the end. But but there is a purpose, sometimes even in silence. Yeah, and even in the lack of the visible fruit. Yeah, absolutely. And again it kind of gets back to that principle of Jeremiah's call in his ministry was not about him, right, it was about the Lord. I think of I think of Noah mmm, who God called to build the arc. And and of course we know that part of the story, but we don't realize that from the point that God called him to build that arc and again, a boat in the middle of a desert, he never seen rain, as we've seen rain, right. It never seen water in abundant yeah, and the time frame from when God called him to do that to win it actually reigned was like a hundred and twenty years. Wow. And this man was called not just to be a builder of ships but actually a prophet, like he was prophesying and warning the people that God's judgment was coming. And in the middle of the desert, watching a man build a boat. Yeah, and you can imagine the mockery that this guy's under and all this stuff, but for the most part people were just ignoring the guy. Yeah, but he did what

18:18 he did because God called him to do it. He was faithful in it and God honored him and saved him, not just him but his family, from the judgment that was to come. Right, Bible says, I'm paraphrasing a little bit because I can't uote the scripture exactly, but Jesus said, when the son of man returns, will he find faith on the earth? I want you to personalize that. When the son of man returned. Me Think about that. Okay, this is this is cool to think about. We think about the the rapture and the trumpet and the blast of the trumpet when when Jesus Returns. Okay, the exciting stuff. We can we can in the air with him, we can debate about when all that takes place.

18:59 But what if it's a boring day on the sidewalk of an abortion center? Right, nothing's going on, you're thinking, Oh Gosh, why I'm even here, and all of a sudden you hear the trumpet blast, right, and Jesus returns. We're better to be found right and standing in front of an abortion clear. Yeah, I mean can this with a son of man. When he returns, will he find faith on the earth? Not. Will he find excitement and enthusiasm and you know somebody that can argue a good point with a pro board, but will he find faith? and faith is tested out when we don't feel like it, when we don't we're not excited. It's really when faith is tested. And certainly our faith can be tested in the fire of opposition and all that stuff, but some of the most difficult times of testing for me is when I'm bored, when I'm in the desert. Yeah, you know, Paul talks about US redeeming the time, and that's why I would give you guys this encouragement. If you're in that scenario, get some podcasts. They can help you grow in the Lord.

20:06 Some messages, some preaching, some things that you can put on your air pods. Maybe this one. Yeah, yeah, maybe play our podcast. Why? You have there on the subtle maybe now's the auld. That's right. You can get caught up on some some episodes of the podcast. Listening to the scriptures. Redeem the time. But you think about that, if the Lord returns and you're there on the sidewalk, you're not going to be sad that you are fade fill in that and I believe God's going to honor that in either way. The eye of the Lord is in every place, like he sees you there on the sidewalk. He's with you there and in you're holding up the light of who he is. The truth of just your presence is holding of the truth that abortion is wrong. Yeah, to those who are going inside of that place. And I love that idea of redeeming the time because that goes right into one of the next things that I think is a key point that Jeremiah discovered is during that time of waiting, of apparent inaction, Jeremiah was told to tell the people that they were to seek the welfare of their city when they were in exile, while they're waiting to return. Desperately. They all want to return to to Jerusalem, and he's saying, but you're not, you're not going. You're not supposed to just sit back and wait doing nothing. Your to build your houses, bare children, Plant Gardens and seek the welfare of the city. So He's saying just what your are saying during that time, during the periods of waiting for

21:36 the action to begin, redeem that time, use that time wisely and seek the welfare of the place where you are planted. Yeah, so, whatever position you're in on that sidewalk, use that time as best as you can to fulfill what God has put you there to do. There is a purpose for you and and use that time wisely. Yeah. Yeah, and you can use that time if you're maybe you're on a busier street just you're not getting a whole lot of interactions with the abortion center, but there's a lot of people, foot traffic or whatever that's coming by. Maybe get you stuck a tracks and just hand out some Gospel tracks. I mean, certainly you're there because they're murdering babies inside of that building, so you don't want to lose your focus on what's going on inside of there, but if you've got some Gospel tracks you can hand out, hand out some Gospel tracks, take time to pray. Pray for the course, the people going into the abortion center, the people that work there. But even as cars are passing by, maybe you see one person you recognize that car. Maybe they're they're the person that flips you off of every day going to work or whatever. Maybe they're just somebody that God's put on your heart to pray for. Pray for that person. Just take that time to spend in prayer. Redeem that time as a lot of ways you can reading that time. Yeah, I will say this is something I wanted to mention earlier and just kind of get a little side track. Didn't mention it, but if you've been maybe your team lead is told you, Hey, I want you to hold this position.

23:07 You know, I know in at one of the abortion clinics in southern California there's folks that minister on the Front side of the parenthood building and then there's folks that minister around the backside, because people go in and out both both areas. Mostly they come out in the back and in the front side and you know, maybe on the front side there's not a whole lot of interactions at the end of the day. You know in most the interactions happen around the back. The temptation can be, even though you've been asked to be out in front, is like I'm bored here, so let me go around back. And for me, because that is a temptation for me, if I'm maybe up the street a little bit on the trobe and there's action taking place down there, I want to I want to abandon that post, yeah, and go down where the action is. Often Times, though, as soon as I band in that post, as soon as I go around behind the build instead of in the front of the building where I was asked to be, inevitably a car pulls up. I'm miss an interaction. Exactly what?

23:59 Don't let that be you take take me as an example not to follow. Stay firm. Now, God has taught me. Stay where you've been asked to be. Yeah, be there, unless, of course, you got to go to the bathroom or something like that. Right, but be there. Be Faithful in that. You can. God will honor that. Yeah, especially if you're you know you've been asked to be there. It's they didn't ask you to stay in that position just to be mean to you. It's because it's a necessary position. So stand firm and what your leadership is told you and asked you to do and with the Lord has called you to do, got to honor it. Yeah, that's great and and of course, one of the most famous verses and in Jeremiah, think it's in Jeremiah twenty nine, for I know the plans that I have for you to clears the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope, and I think we apply that often times to the people that were ministering to, but I think we also need to apply it to ourselves. God has a plan for us. In the position that we're at, we he has planned that are again to to work out his good purposes and the we should be faithful to trusting him that wherever he is placed us is where we're supposed to be and something wonderful will happen if we remain true to that. I know what I tell the people that go up the street. We often give that example here at the trope. That's maybe the boringest, yeah, and maybe not, but I actually like it.

25:21 It's one of my favorites. But I what I will tell them. As you may have not a single person stop. You may have zero interactions, but the one that does is going to be critical because if someone stops up there, it often is a safe so maybe you're going to wait three months before it happens, but when it happens it's a really important place for you to be. Yeah, absolutely. Does you know don't lose sight of that. Yeah, he's always there. Here is another key point. That God is there, he's always working and his plan will not fail. and One day the fruit of faithfulness will be revealed. You know, you said, well, we walk by faith, not by sight. That is very true, but one day there will be sight. Yeah, one day it will be revealed and one day we're going to find out that all those people that never spoke to us, that still saw us, that there was something planted in their life that later turned them towards the Lord, so that there is a hope in a future also, and we will get to see, yeah, the the results of our faithfulness one day. Yeah, absolutely, and I think kind of as we wrap this up, another practical tip for you guys in the practical thing that you can do is encourage each other. Yeah, because it can be so easy to get discouraged, and a way that we've encouraged the teams that are under us to do this is to create a

26:52 social media group or some way of communicating with each other where you can share scriptures, you can share encouragements and, you know, maybe you're you're at one of these kind of boring scenarios you have some of these boring days you can see what God is doing and some of the other days during the week or some of the other abortion centers in your city. It's a way for us to all stay connected in it and it's not easy always to remember because we deal with our own discouragement. It's not always easy to remember that we need to be encouraging each other because we want people to be encouraging to us right. But you know, sometimes we're encouraged in our spirit is lifted. I can say that way when we lift the spirits of others, when we encourage others, sometimes we're encouraged and you know, we kind of create this culture within our sidewalk teams of encouraging each other, of Hey, I see what you're doing, I see your faithfulness. God sees it, but I see it too and I'm blessed by it. Yeah, and you know, I'll say practically speaking and kind of give a shout out actually Elijah, who's over the window over abortion clinic, which is one of these abortion centers that's really boring here in Charlotte. It's really hard. It's high traffic area, the building is far away from the sidewalk right and it's it's really hard to engage. They do have some engagements from time to time, but it's really hard to sign. Ministry there is one of the most important. But I will say just that brother's faithfulness and being there for a long time really in Charlotte, that kind of has been the hidden the hidden place of darkness in

28:26 our city. We all know about pretty see. Yeah, and we didn't really know that until we had a liesh out there. Yeah, I know you'd person centers kind of like you know, it's the monstrosity, is the giant, it's the Goliath, it's mocking the children of Israel, right, like that story goes. The window is kind of hidden over to the side. Yeah, and this brother has really been faithful over the past couple of years being out there, being that standard, that that that light shining. And I'm telling you, I know practically, but also in faith, that there are babies, I don't know how many babies that are saved. Yeah, because of course the signs that are out there, but just his presence out there and the presence of the team God's build a team, slowly but surely, out there on that sidewalk. Gosh, we're going to hear when we stand before the Lord. We're going to hear if babies that were saying.

29:17 We're going to hear if people maybe they weren't even coming to the abortion clinic. Yeah, but we're just driving by and never, never even knew it was an abortion clinic. Right. But women that are considering abortion, maybe they're on their way to their job or whatever, and they see elies out there, they see his team out there, they see the signs that are out there and they turn away from abortion before they even for they even really know that they were even planning on making an appointment exactly. And again, that's that's walking by faith and not by sight, and that brother doesn't he does it well, and so just wanted to give a shout out to him because of that as a blessing. It's an encouragement for all of you guys across the country. You're there, maybe you're one of these abortion centers like latrobe, where it's crazy and you're intimidated by that and that's getting a little discouraging, or maybe kind of the opposite end of the spectrum, mirror, one of these abortion centers where, you know, maybe patients are just trickling in. There's not a whole lot of places or times where you can engage with the people going in what God has called you to. Be Faithful in it. God will honor it. Do it by faith and put it in God's hands and don't give up. I think the final lesson that all of us have to remember is don't give up. Don't don't quit because it's not the exciting, you know mission that that you thought it would be, or for any reason. Don't give up. Don't quit. Jeremiah did not, and in the end he he was faithful through all those years, and

30:48 that that should be us as well. Don't, don't give up. Finish the race that God has called you to, no matter what. Yeah, Amen. Yeah. Well, guys, we appreciate you listening to this podcast episode. We'd appreciate if you would share this episode. Maybe it will be an encouragement a challenge for someone. Maybe it's an encouragement and challenge for you and you know that someone else will be blessed by it. Share it with your team, if you have a sidewalk team where you serve and reach out to us if you have questions. Maybe have other subjects you'd like for us to cover. We'd love to try to cover those subjects. You can reach me, Daniel at Love Life Dot Org. You can reach her, Vicky at Love Life Dot Org. And until next time, God bless God, bless Y'all our love for love. Give me our love for gratitude. I know it will cost me my life. Nothing's too precious in some you