As told by John Barros

I don’t even know where to begin. There has been such joy and such sadness.

This morning I was blessed to have Matt, Beth, Donna, and Luke come down to serve. It was pretty chaotic. As the people were arriving, Luke approached a young couple. They listened to him with interest but unfortunately she went inside. The day went on with prayer and preaching. Some were very angry.

The morning crew left and I was alone a bit but then the Lord blessed by having John Crawford and his family come down all the way from the Promised Land. (The other Promised Land: Gainesville.) They jumped right into service. After lunch Luke came back after a meeting. By then I found out that today was his birthday and he wanted to spend as much time here as he could on his birthday. A while after he came back Lilly, the girl he had been speaking to in the morning, came out. She saw Luke and came to him with a huge hug. She had in fact changed her mind! It was so beautiful. He was able to spend a lot of time with her before her ride came. Can a man ever get a better birthday present than this? God is so good.

John and his wife Tina worked so hard in the hottest time of the day. John was speaking with one guy who was pressuring a young lady harder than I have ever seen. She said she didn’t want to do it at 8:00 and kept saying it all day, but wouldn’t break away because she said her mother was also pressuring her. John got so upset that he almost lost it. The scene with these two down here today was beyond sad. They came outside one last time and spoke with everyone. She sat on the bricks and he stood. When she saw that Lilly chose life she looked at her coward with longing eyes. He went on about their situation. When asked what was in their life was too big for God to handle, he was speechless. It looked like a light went on. He said, “You got me on that one. I don’t even know what to say.” It looked like he was going to repent but then put more pressure on his lady to get inside. She sat there crying and went inside crying. They went through with it.

The Crawfords are such a wonderful family. John is an elder at an OPC church in Gainesville. Tina preached and told all inside how she walked out of an abortion clinic 22 years ago. She shared the joy that her son has been for all these years and now he is getting married. Tina has a massive heart. I wish I had one like her but I wouldn’t be able to take the pain she feels. Their children are incredible, calling folks to come talk to their mom and dad.

There were so many stories here today. One last beautiful one was when another worker quit and came over for prayer. God is really working down here; please continue to pray!