The pregnancy clinic is in Chatanooga, Tennessee. It's called Choices now. It used to be called AAA Pregnancy Clinic (or something along those lines) so that it would be first in the phone book. Many years ago there was a free-standing abortion clinic and they decided to open the Pregnancy Center across the street. Multiple times women who thought they were going to their abortion appointment ended up in the pregnancy center. They didn't realize where they were until they had missed their appointment. Some of them changed their minds and ended up keeping the baby. I believe that this was in the 70's and maybe 80's. Many people stood outside on the street frequently protesting and praying for the women going into the abortion clinic. At one point the pregnancy center was contacted because the building that housed the abortion clinic was going up for sale because the owner was going bankrupt. They raised almost $300, 000 in cash in a very short time and bought the building. Then they kicked out the abortion doctor and turned the area into their new pregnancy clinic. The best part was that they tore down the building and turned that area into a memorial for all of the babies that had been aborted there. It's called the National Memorial for the Unborn. In the courtyard there is a large area covered with rocks. This represents the approximately 35,000 babies that lost their lives through the years at the abortion clinic.
Check out the virtual wall on their website. Reading the plaques is what made me cry. It's so sad to think about.
http://www.memorialfortheunborn.org/
After spending some time at the memorial, we continued working outside weeding, etc. When we were done we returned to campus for dinner in the cafeteria (they had Coke!) and then we went to the evening session of chapel. We learned that we need to follow Christ's orders. Following Him might be uncomfortable, but He has amazing grace and a compassionate heart. He has our best interests in mind and his orders are good for us.
During worship, Hadriel sang "If Our God is For Us". This song reminds me of my friend Summer. Summer and her husband Sean were having trouble getting pregnant and had been talking to fertility doctors. They tried a pretty basic fertility treatment. The doctors said that there wasn't much hope because there was only about a 7% chance that it would work. We listened to that song at Life Group and then we prayed over Summer as a group that God would perform a miracle. And He did! Summer became pregnant! This week I knew she would be having her baby boy any day, so when I heard this song it really hit me how amazing God is and how powerful his miracles are!
After this we had our first real huddle time as a church. Monty is the youth director. Sam and I were the female leaders. Makenna, Madison, and Courtney were the girls that came with us. John, James, and Adam were the boys that came along. Of course, the leaders were the main ones speaking the first night. However, we did start to form a good bond as a group.
After huddle time we had some free time. Most of the youth went to play sports in the gym. Madi and I went down to watch, but after both getting hit by different balls we decided to find something else to do. We started walking back up the hill to the lounge in the dorm to play some games. That's when......
To Be Continued....
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