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| 2003 - 4th Quarter JERICHO MISSION Reports |
|
2004 - 4th Quarter
JERICHO MISSION Reports
Fort Worth, Texas
Street Report for October 2nd-21st:
Here are the totals for the nine days we were out in October so far: There were four babies saved, seven mom's who were turned away, and 117 babies who died at the Westside Clinic. Sometimes I get discouraged and grow weary of doing well, and then God sends an encouraging word like the one we posted below this. The following is the testimony of Brother Donnie Halbgewachs Jr. I know it will bless those of you standing in the front lines.
Carole
Until the bottom of my shoe actually touches the top of the sidewalk my heart stays hard toward child killing. That is what I tell my friends and family about the Bible's simple command to, 'Go and do thou likewise...' Luke 10.
I was raised in the church. I come from a strong Christian family and a rich Christian heritage. My father pastored a small church in a farm community in Nebraska for twenty-seven years. We are just simple hard working people that love our wives and kids, go to church and try to be good citizens. But something rattled my cage. The evil of institutionalized child killing.
When I was in college I found out about abortion, I saw the pictures for the first time and simply jumped into action. But I went political and got burned out. After three years of bake sales and organizational meetings I realized we had not saved one baby's life. I said this is crazy, I didn't start abortion, I can't stop it, so I quit. I still loved people so after getting my teaching certificate I helped start and run a children's home.
Then an amazing stirring returned. I had pushed frontline prolife ministry almost out of my mind until Missionaries to the Preborn came through Nebraska . I thought, 'Don't those people know when to quit?' I was invited to stand with them but thought it was a waste of time. But it got the ball rolling in my mind. I started digging back into the fight; this time I knew it had to be a Gospel concern and not political activism.
Meanwhile God was calling me to be a minister. As I studied the Word, passages like Luke 10:30, Matt 25, James 1:27, Proverbs 24:11, Isaiah 1:17 etc. started jumping off the page and condemning me. I was very wary of getting back into prolife work because of the burnout I had experienced. I started searching the internet, and discovered a totally different view of this battle. I started reading about Christians preaching on the street and accounts of babies being saved. Night after night I would read and weep. I would go to my father and say look at what God's Word says about abortion, look at what some Christians are doing about it, give my one Biblical reason why our church should not be out there with those frontline ministries. He would look at me like I was speaking a foreign language. This kind of ministry wasn't even on the radar screen in our little religious world.
Finally, I said we have got to meet some of these Christians on the street. OSA Wichita was about 5 hours from our home so I wrestled my reluctant pastor/father into the car and off we went. Words cannot express the blindness we both had to the reality of this war. As we drove we didn't even want to talk about it, it simply didn't fit into our definition of Christian ministry. About an hour north of Wichita I finally exclaimed, 'Dad, we are coming down here because of abortion, don't you think we should talk about our Christian duty to fight it!'
The next morning we pulled up to Tiller's clinic. We were shaking with fear. We found a place to park and put one reluctant foot in front of the next as we made our way to the Christians on the sidewalk. As we got closer it was like we were walking on the surface of the moon. I had never seen evil so manifest as I looked at the deathscorts, and then I realized the Christians were out here having church. Daniel Thompson was preaching and praying, Donna Lippoldt was sidewalk counseling, someone had a guitar and a group was singing. People were quoting scripture. My mind was reeling. Then I saw something I'll never forget. I saw a car coming into the mill and I looked into the eyes of a young mother coming to kill her child. Nothing I had ever seen could compare to that expression. And my hard religious heart broke. I looked over at my father and tears were in his eyes. At the end of the day we grabbed each other and embraced with all our might. We couldn't believe how blind we had been. Dad grabbed my shoulders looked deeply into my eyes and said, 'Thank you son, thank you for sticking God's Word in my face, thank you for rattling my cage, thank you for wrestling my into your car and bringing me out to the street.'
We don't live in our little farm community anymore. Dad sold the farm and resigned from the church. The Lord led me to Texas to work with Dan and Carole Lafreniere in Jericho Mission. Now we see the faces of those mothers every week. And Dad is rescuing those drawn unto death in the Philippines . Recently he found out they do abortions in the city where he is doing missionary work. That day while driving home after ministering to the destitute a bus came out of nowhere and ran head on into their vehicle. Thankfully Dad and Mom weren't killed but it broke his leg and one of Mom's ribs. The enemy doesn't like it when invade his realm and go for the crown jewel, murder of the innocent.
I can barely remember our old life. The joy our family feels as we minister at the gates of Hell indescribable. It is joy unspeakable, peace that passeth understanding, and the knowledge of Christ that passeth knowledge. But what a long and winding road it took to come out of the darkness of squeaky clean American religion. I believe religion is the most deceptive sin there is.
Ironically, two years after Missionaries to the Preborn came through Nebraska they came through again. And by God's amazing providence I was back home on a visit. Now I was used to being on the street every week, we had just been to an OSA event in Tulsa , and had been with the folks in Wichita . When I found out Missionaries to the Preborn were in my old home town I hopped in the car and found them. I grabbed a handful of flyers and hit the median on the busiest intersection in town. As usual people yelled at us, laughed at us and cursed us. Then others would honk and give us the thumbs up. The Lord had taken me a long way in two years. I believe sprinkled throughout the churches of this country are people just like me. People with hearts that long for the Savior but are blinded by religion. Please pray for them and keep up the fight frontline ministries. Now I know a little bit how difficult and lonely street ministry can be, but you have no idea how greatly God uses you. All I can say is thank you.
Donnie Halbgewachs Jr.
ARCHIVES
2003 3rd Quarter July - September
