Dear Fam,
This weekend, churches across our country recognize the sanctity of human life. We mourn over 40 million babies aborted since the Supreme Court legalized the killing of unborn children. Abortion is a monstrous evil—who knows how much blessing would have been brought on our culture had these lives not ended prematurely. Below the update is the story of one child whose parents refused to abort.
• Congrats to Seven Rivers Christian School—the following teams are among the top academic teams in our state in our classification.
Girls Cross Country: 2nd place (out of 130 schools) / 3.86 GPA
Girls Volleyball: 6th place (out of 73 schools) / 3.62 GPA
Boys Golf: 12th place (out of 243 schools) / 3.47 GPA
• Congrats to our own Karen Wright—teacher of the year at Floral City Elementary.
• Looking for a good read? I just finished Hellhound on His Trail, the electrifying account of the largest manhunt in American history, by Hampton Sides. Read this book in three days, couldn’t put it down.
• Looking for a one-verse gospel summary? Philippians 3:9 summarizes our security— “that I may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith.”
• The Edge for grades 3-5 begins this Sunday at the 10:50 service!
• Would you pray for me—I’m speaking Friday night at the Gospel and Men Conference in Orlando.
• This weekend in worship, we’re back on the “One Story” sermon series. I’m preaching on Romans 1:18-32. Let’s pack the house!
Ray
More than 24 years ago, Pam and her husband Bob were serving as missionaries to the Philippines and praying for a fifth child. Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, an infection of the intestine caused by a parasite found in contaminated food or drink. She went into a coma and was treated with strong antibiotics before they discovered she was pregnant.
Doctors urged her to abort the baby for her own safety and told her that the medicines had caused irreversible damage to her baby. She refused the abortion and cited her Christian faith as the reason for her hope that her son would be born without the devastating disabilities physicians predicted. Pam said the doctors didn't think of it as a life, they thought of it as a mass of fetal tissue.
While pregnant, Pam nearly lost their baby four times but refused to consider abortion. She recalled making a pledge to God with her husband: If you will give us a son, we’ll name him Timothy and we’ll make him a preacher.Pam ultimately spent the last two months of her pregnancy in bed and eventually gave birth to a healthy baby boy August 14, 1987. Pam’s youngest son is indeed a preacher. He preaches in prisons, makes hospital visits, and serves with his father’s ministry in the Philippines. He also plays football. Pam’s son is Tim Tebow.
