The Day the Lights Went Dark

Read Part 1 of “Foundations” here!

Tracing back in time before the job in the streets, I can remember a distinct moment in my parent’s kitchen. It was around 2021. I was standing there and I heard God almost audibly say “You’re going to see Roe v. Wade overturned.” My first reaction was: well when I now live to be 100, I will see a law overturn. Then, suddenly I was canvassing in the streets. I was attending a Pro-Life prayer meeting that a friend started. Then, I was attending yet another Pro-Life prayer meeting a different friend started and I was there the night the news dropped!

I’d stepped into my car and heard on the news that a leak of a Supreme Court decision had been made & Roe v. Wade would be overturned. Quickly, I jumped out of the car and ran back inside. Stood there and was the first to deliver the news to my fellow fighters that the battle had been won. This was so special to me for several reasons.

Number one was knowing I heard God’s voice and that God overturned a sinful law! Number two was my friend Howard. He is such an incredible man and there is no one else on the planet I would have wanted to share that moment with as much. He’s from England - an introverted pastor with a crazy, passionate congregation & a zeal that makes him fight like crazy for unborn babies. We met because he was on the Board of a pregnancy clinic I worked with. The day I met him I was in awe because he had a five-fold ministry church and some friends & I thought we had made up that idea. From there, he was a steadfast cheerleader in my life.

He committed his Thursday mornings to come & pray with all the staff at the center when he had time. I attended his church for a season. There were times of coffee & discussing business. Then, there was learning about the five-fold ministry in his home with his wife and others. When I had questions about women & ministry, he & his wife took me out to dinner to discuss all my questions. Throughout this, he became a spiritual father, brother, & friend.

One day, as we talked, I discovered how his pro-life prayer meeting started. It started in October of 2016 - the same month & year God called me into the city of Milwaukee for a mayor’s meeting. That month and year - the Democrat, the pro-choice mayor called a meeting of the churches to do something about the infant and mortality rates in Milwaukee. Barely any churches attended & this pro-choice mayor was wondering why he was trying to quote the Bible to the church in Milwaukee and tell them what it says. He issued a call for help to the churches - and received no response.

After that meeting, I went to find a quiet spot for lunch - and I found a beautiful, old park. That day I started praying for the city of Milwaukee, for race issues, my future marriage & family, and the pro-life movement. It just so happened that same month, God inspired a former rocker, a British man of Trinidadian descent to start a prayer group for the pro-life prayer meeting for his church. We’d never met each other - but years later our paths merged so we could celebrate our answered prayers together.

The other people there that night were a married couple from his church who were also an answer to prayer. I stepped out of the pregnancy medical clinic because I believed God wanted to do something new - He wanted married couples and men elevated in the movement. When I stepped down as executive director, this couple felt called to stand together for life and run the center together. They didn’t even know about my prayers or reasoning! Getting to celebrate with people who have believed in faith for the impossible is a special experience.

It’s also extremely special when you’re normally inside a building or a client’s home and find yourself knocking on doors the moment Roe v. Wade was overturned. There was celebration, anger, disgust, and wondering what was next. It was the most amazing opportunity to see firsthand what people thought. There is something extraordinary about talking to people in real-time and not on social media or the news.

Another really special moment was the day the lights went dark. You see - I spent years believing and working toward a law being overturned. What happens when you see your mission to completion? When the law you were fighting is overturned, what are you left to do? These thoughts hadn’t even crossed my mind when everything in my life shifted.

The day I went to a different Pro-Life prayer meeting at a church, there was a shift. My car, the love of my life (if you know me in person, you know just how much I loved my car), started to break down. The faithful vehicle that drove me multiple times a year to Kentucky, drove me across the country, sleepless nights in the city, and even to Canada - suddenly failed. I had a friend who knew cars and he got me & the car to the church building. The pastor I’ve known for years walked out, looked at my bumper sticker, and said it was time for a new one.

That pastor had commented for years on that bumper sticker. It said “Love them both” and referred to loving moms and babies in the pro-life movement. He’d even told me in the past that it would change. The pastor was right. I had to say goodbye to fighting for a cause that needed me, goodbye to the car I loved that got me from Wisconsin to Kentucky and back, goodbye to my job that required a car, and goodbye to my freedom.

Having a car might not be a big deal to some people, but for me it is. My entire life my family traveled. We moved from state to state and visited family. I have a fond memory of driving from Missouri to the Grand Canyon and seeing so many states. I can move all the time, don’t care that much for clothes, and don’t require a lot of material possessions. But I love my car. I pick cars that fit my personality, take me on adventures, and feel like a friend to me. They’d take me from state to state and across the state every week.

Suddenly, I was moved back into my parent’s house and carless. But…God always has things to learn in each season. This was the season the lights went dark on all the stages, platforms, and arenas so I could prepare a foundation for my future.

Stay tuned in January for Part 3!