An Empty Picture Frame.......Remembering Lives Lost

On Thursday night, September 11, we had our biggest fundraiser of the year for our local Sav-A-Life crisis pregnancy center. We had a wonderful crowd of over 300 present at our banquet. It was deliberately set for this date. There were American flags flying on the stage in remembrance of the more than 3,000 who lost their lives on September 11, 2001, in the horrible terrorist attacks of that day. In her ministry update speech Thursday night our Center Director brought out the fact that although we were remembering the 3,000 + lives lost on 9/11, she also wanted us to be aware that there are over 3,000 would-be Americans murdered on a DAILY basis through the hideous process of abortion! These unborn Americans should be mourned too!

We started the night with a delicious meal. A salad that was as good as it looked, stuffed baked chicken breasts, green beans, twice baked potatoes, homemade bread, iced tea and lemon cheesecake. We had lots of ladies and a few young men from local churches and colleges that did the huge job of cooking and serving. What a wonderful blessing they were!

Our theme for the night was An Empty Picture Frame. Toward the end of the banquet a DVD was shown on the screen onstage. It was a song called "Blue Eyes Like Janey's" (click HERE to watch it sung on YouTube) and told about a couple who, as teenagers, had their baby aborted and on the way out of the abortion clinic heard the nurses talking and saying "It was a girl". The man singing says he often wonders if she would have had blue eyes like Janey's and brown hair like his and that he keeps an empty picture frame on his desk to remind him of the terrible thing he had done. Each table had two empty picture frames sitting on it to remind us of the lives taken every few seconds in abortion mills throughout the country.


Our guest speaker was Tim Wildmon, President of American Family Association and American Family Radio. He is also co-host of the national radio program "Today's Issues". Mr. Wildmon did a great job speaking! He brought out many great points about why people should support Sav-A-Life. One of our center's counselors had given her testimony immediately prior to Mr. Wildmon's speech and had told us about a recent happening at her church. A few weeks ago her church had a "lock in" for the youth. After the worship service an invitation was given for the youth to come to the altar if they needed to accept the Lord or if they just needed to pray. They had over 100 young people there that night. Many of them went to the altar to pray and many of the adults in attendance went down to kneel by the young people to see if they could pray with them or lead them to Christ. Our counselor went and knelt by a 15-year-old girl that she had never seen before that night. The girl was sobbing. When asked if she wanted her to pray with her about something special the girl said "Yes!." She then said, "I have committed a terrible sin! I had an abortion in February!" A. was able to talk with her and tell her that she knew just how she felt but that she also knew that if she brought it to the Lord He would help her to find a peace in her heart through forgiveness. (The mother of the 15-year-old girl had taken her to the abortion clinic!) We are hoping that the mother will agree to letting her daughter come and take the 12 week post abortion counseling class at Sav-A-Life or even privately.

When Mr. Wildmon got up to speak, the first thing he said was....."How true what A. said is! Abortion is a terrible sin! It's not a "mistake"....it's a terrible sin! And the sooner we start looking at it for what it is the better off we will be". And had this young girl known about Sav-A-Life, she might have come there for her pregnancy test and she might have been able to convince her mother to listen to advice from the staff there! Perhaps a life could have been saved. A picture frame could have held the image of a precious child....and not have to be just placed on the desk empty!

A huge Thank You to all of you who were praying for the banquet! Please continue to pray for....not only our local pregnancy center....but others all over the USA and even the world! Because of people like you these centers ARE making a difference in women's lives!

"And life is worth the living...just because HE lives!"

Marilyn