Today I once again had the opportunity to visit Southwest Women’s Surgery Center (SWSC), an abortion center in Dallas. I wrote about a previous visit back in 2017, but it has been a while, and I wanted to put something a little more recent out. I also wanted to write something consolidated for all the people who were kind enough to pray for me knowing I would be going out today.

But first let me take a step back.

I first visited SWSC to participate in “sidewalk counseling” back in 2015. I’ve visited a few times since then, but have not been back at all in the last couple years. This is worth addressing. Abortion is something about which I have felt very strongly for quite some time. It is one of the great evils of our time, and has resulted in the deaths of over 60 million babies in the US since 1973. While I have been involved in the fight in other ways, I have had this nagging feeling that I should also be physically at the abortion clinic, attempting to confront people going in face-to-face – not to start a fight or make them feel bad – but to warn them of the terrible mistake they are considering, and try to convince them not to do it.

As the years have passed the pull to answer this call has grown. I know the need, and I know God has laid this on my heart, but still I have been slow to reengage in this particular area of the fight. I certainly have my reasons: work, family, too tired, not enough time, blah blah blah. My goal here is not to get onto an overly self-depreciating tangent. What I want to emphasize is that in my flesh I am too lazy and selfish to go out and do the work of God on my own. God, in his perfect grace has been patient with me, and has continually been softening my selfish heart.

As a result of the good work God has done in me lit occurred to me that President’s Day was a holiday for me, and that the very least I could do would be to give the day to God by visiting SWSC once again. I talked with my wife, Cherie, to see what she thought because after all it wasn’t just my day – it was hers and my kids as well. We all look forward to extra days off for me because it means extra daddy time for everyone. To her credit she was immediately supportive and encouraged me to do it.

In addition to the verbal support, Cherie ended up prepping a lunch for me the night before and getting coffee/breakfast ready for me this morning (Proverbs 31 wife).

And now to a description of the day.

I arrived on site at about 7:55, a few minutes before the facility opened. In the first hour I saw two patients enter the building.

Given that the abortion center does not approve of people trying to convince their customers not to enter, we are clearly not welcome on the premises. As a result the closest we can get to the door is the sidewalk next to the street, which is public property. The patients park in the parking lot on the other side and approach from afar. Typically I have like a 15 to 30 second window in which they can hear me if I yell loud enough.

Often I have to yell in a particularly loud voice, because directly behind me is Greenville Avenue, a busy street in which a large number of cars typically drive by at 35 to 50 miles per hour.

Both of the above photos were taken from the same spot this morning.

I don’t see all the women, because some enter on a different side of the building where I’m not able to access.

Most of the time the women entering the building rush as fast as they can to try to avoid hearing everything I’m saying to them. And what do I say?

I certainly try different things – some of it depends on how receptive they appear to be. If they are rushing to get in I simply want to ensure that I have given the truth that I had the capacity to give in the moment: “Don’t go in there – this is a place of death – they only sell regret, and guilt – you don’t have to do this – you have other options – come talk to me.”

If they’re looking my way I might lead with, “Come talk to me,” or something to get them closer so we can engage in real conversation.

In total I saw a total of 11 women entering the facility. Only one ended up coming closer to speak with me. She was black, with an accent that sounded African. I asked her how old she was and she said 21. She told me she had an abortion 3 or 4 months ago and she was coming back because she still felt bad [physically] and she was still bleeding. I told her I was sorry she had an abortion and she left before I could say anything else.

Later a young woman and young man walked up together. I told the young man to come speak to me, and to not be a coward. I’d never tried that type of phrasing before, but was hoping it would get a rise out of him so he would come speak to me, but it didn’t work. He refused to make eye contact or engage. Oh, and he was wearing a cross necklace.

From an individual perspective a slow day can be kind of discouraging in that you’re mostly sitting idle, waiting for someone to come, and hoping that when they do they will engage with you. As people trickle in and most of them choose not to engage you start to question whether your time there is being put to use effectively. Am I making a difference at all? But those are tricks of the mind. It ought to be encouraging, because God is doing the heavy lifting. It’s not uncommon for 30, 40, or more women to walk through those doors in a day. I’m not sure why today was slow, but I praise God for it. On a great day I might speak with 3 women who choose to walk away and not have an abortion, but God just keeps dozens of them from coming at all.

God controls the outcome, and our job is to obey him regardless of what we see at our level.

For the most part the rest of the day was uneventful, except for one thing. At 11:40 a woman driving by on Greenville Ave. rolled down her window and yelled, “Hail Satan!” at me.

Christian, do not be fooled: The abortion battle is not some ambiguous, morally grey area where we are trying to parse between the lesser of several evils. It is a struggle of life and death, good and evil, and the battle lines have been drawn quite clearly. If you’re ever in doubt about whether the fight you’re fighting is the right one, and the people on the other side start saying “hail satan,” hopefully that will give you some clarity.

I have mine.

To everyone who prayed for me and my task today: Thank you very much. Each day I am more and more convinced of my own inadequacy and of the truth that God is sufficient, and he has commanded us to pray. Prayer works.

Please keep praying:

• Pray that I and other steadfast brothers and sisters in Christ will continue to have the time, the will, and the discipline to keep visiting this and other abortion clinics around the country to deliver the truth
• Pray that the women (and men) we speak to will listen, and will choose not to abort their children
• Pray for revival and the end of abortion in our land – they can only come hand-in-hand

My desire is to be more consistent in visiting SWSC physically, and will try to put updates about it on here as well.

To God be the glory.