Meet Serena Dyksen

Dannah Gresh: Serena was sixteen and pregnant. She turned to an abortion clinic for help.

Serena Dyksen: They said, “You’re young, you’re poor, and you’re in school. You should abort this baby.” And I knew that I would never do that again!

Dannah: Her then boyfriend, now husband, was with her.

Serena: He said, “I don’t know how we’ll figure this out, but we’ll figure it out.” And we chose life in the parking lot of Planned Parenthood.

Dannah: This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of Brokenness: The Heart God Revives, for January 15, 2021. I’m Dannah Gresh. 

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: If you’ve ever felt like you reached bottom and the only way you could possibly go was up, then you’ll understand where our guest today found herself. You know, it’s often at the moments of our deepest desperation that the Lord reaches down to grab us! Maybe you’re there right now.

Serena Dyksen is going to share her story with us today. She understands how Jonah must have felt when he was sinking down, down, down . . . and then when he finally cried out to God for deliverance!

Dannah: Yes, we’re bringing Serena’s testimony to you today in observance of Sanctity of Human Life Day here in the United States, typically the third Sunday of January. Ultimately, because of Jesus, Serena’s story is one of hope, joy, and beauty.

Nancy: It sure is! And how else could that be possible apart from Jesus and the gospel? Also here with us today is Cheri Gamble. Cheri serves as the Outreach Ministries Director for our local pregnancy care center here in Berrien County, Michigan. It’s a wonderful ministry; I’ve been familiar with it for many years. It’s called LifePlan.Welcome to Revive Our Hearts, Cheri!

Cheri Gamble: Thank you very much! Thanks for having me.

Nancy: And Cheri, I am just so thankful for the ministry that LifePlan, this local pregnancy care center, has had in our community for so many years! On your website, LifePlan’s mission statement says, “We exist to spread the gospel by helping people choose life and live a Hope-filled life.” 

Can you unpack that for us a little bit? How do you explain what the work of LifePlan is, as you share it with others?

Cheri: Yes, absolutely! First of all, the first part of our statement: “We exist to spread the gospel . . .” We really feel that all the problems that we have, there’s no solution for them apart from the gospel and the transformation of Jesus Christ. So that’s what we ultimately want to give to our clients and to everybody who comes in.

And how we do that is the next part: by helping people choose life. That covers our services to pregnant women, to people who find themselves in unexpected pregnancies—the whole family. We want to walk along with them and help them choose life ultimately and live a Hope-filled life.

And that covers our services that we have to the whole family: the material supplies that we give, the classes we give, the support. And it’s always fun to note that our Hope is with a capital “H,” because we believe that it’s the Hope of Jesus Christ that we’re giving to our clients!

Nancy: Amen!

Dannah: Wow, I love that, Cheri! That’s beautiful! Well, every year LifePlan—as many other pregnancy care centers do around the nation—hosts a fund-raising banquet. And this fall, your banquet was a little different because of COVID, but you were still able to hold one.

Nancy: And, Dannah, the keynote speaker for this year’s event was a woman named Serena Dyksen. I wasn’t able to be at the banquet personally this year, but somebody sent me a link to the program. When I heard Serena’s amazing story of God’s grace in her life, when I saw in her the Hope—with a capital “H”—that Jesus offers, I said to our production team, “We’ve got to share this with our Revive Our Hearts listeners!” 

And, Cheri, on the night of that banquet, you were the one who actually introduced Serena to the audience, so why don’t you introduce her today to our Revive Our Hearts friends?

Cheri: Absolutely! First, I want to share how I actually met Serena, because this in itself is a God-story. I met Serena last summer when I was representingLifePlan at a community festival for families in a small town here in Michigan.

I was getting ready to tear down our booth when this lady came up to me. She wasn’t even there for the festival. She was looking for somebody else and just happened to see our booth, and she asked me what we were all about. So I started to explain to her who we are and what we do.

And she said, “I’ve got a friend, and you’ve got to meet her!” Then she pulls out her phone, calls her friend, and hands me the phone. Serena’s on the other end of the line. So I talked to Serena then on the phone a little bit. When I got back to work the following Monday, I did what we all do when we meet somebody for the first time, right? I Googled her!

When I Googled her, Serena’s story had just come out; she had just started sharing that. I thought, This is a person I need to get to know! I emailed her. We became FaceBook friends, and then she actually brought a group to LifePlan to do a service day.

It happened that in October, we had our banquet speaker planned. And you know that, Nancy, because it was to be your husband, Robert. We were really looking forward to having him come, and then . . .

Nancy: And we were looking forward to being there. But he wasn’t able to, yes. 

Cheri: Yes, and then when we found he couldn’t, we needed a speaker . . . and there was Serena; we had just met her. God had brought her at just the right time! Her story is such a beautiful story of how God can take something that can be so ugly and traumatic in our lives and redeem it, and turn it around and use it for His kingdom, which is exactly what He is doing with Serena and her story.

Nancy: Yes, as I’m hearing you talk about the hope and the transformation in her life, and as I recall listening to her testimony, it gives me goosebumps! It really is such a beautiful, powerful demonstration of the gospel of Christ!

Now, I want to mention a couple of things before we actually listen to Serena’s testimony. First of all, today’s program does touch on some themes that are of a mature nature. If you have a little one nearby, you might want to see if you can occupy your child or get them out of earshot for a few moments.

If you’re not able to do that, remember that you can always go back and listen later through the Revive Our Hearts app or at our website, ReviveOurHearts.com. And then, just another point of explanation: Serena’s about to mention a man named George Klopfer. Cheri, this was an abortion provider who actually lived in Illinois, but he performed abortions in Indiana. 

We’re here in Michigan, so this is just over the border from us, so I remember this was big news when it was discovered. But for those of our listeners who may not have heard that name before, can you just explain who he was and what the situation was?

Cheri: Yes, absolutely. Well, after he died in 2019, it was discovered that he had literally thousands—over two-thousand-four-hundred—baby remains from aborted babies on his property; most of them were in his garage, in the trunk of his car. He had those.

If you can imagine how traumatic that would be to find out that those babies were there, if you were one of the women who had had an abortion by George Klopfer. It really brought back a lot of tough feelings for those people, too, so it was a really big, big discovery.

Dannah: Cheri, I want to be sensitive to say that, as the media did create some triggering events for those women who are still in the process of healing from their abortion, we want to be careful to say that this program does contain references to issues like sexual abuse, rape, and abortion. 

If you’re not fully through some of your significant healing, maybe consider if you need to listen to this with someone else—someone who’s helping you through your healing process—or even save it for another time. 

But I do think this is a very important story for many of us to hear, so let’s listen together. Here’s Serena Dyksen.

Serena: Tonight, I have been asked to share my story. When I was thirteen years old, I was sexually assaulted. I was taken for an abortion in South Bend, Indiana, to George Klopfer’s clinic. I grew up in a very dysfunctional poor family. Nothing was stable at all! 

I didn’t grow up in the church; I didn’t know Jesus. I literally did not hear about Jesus until I was in third grade. We had rented a farmhouse and a man named Mr. Whistler faithfully picked us up every Sunday to take us to a church. But, I still didn’t know who Jesus was.

I was asked to be Mary in the play, and I had this plastic doll. That really did not mean anything to me. I had no idea! But He planted a seed in my life. By fifth grade, we packed up in the middle of the night . . . because my parents, when they couldn’t pay their bills, they would move.

So, it was one night we moved in the middle of the night, and my parents dropped me off at my aunt and uncle’s house, and they went off to North Carolina. Eventually, they came back and picked us back up and we moved to North Carolina with them. But it was just a short little stay. 

We came back, and we moved to Middlebury, Indiana, to probably the rattiest place. I can tell you, it was the worst place that I ever lived in, in my life! About that time, we had an uncle that started coming around to our house. We really didn’t spend time with family, so this was kind of unique. I was super-excited when I got asked to babysit. That was a big deal for me as a thirteen year old!

The first time I went to their house, that was when I was sexually assaulted. I didn’t want to tell anybody what happened. I wanted to forget about what happened. So then, the following week, my uncle showed up again. He wanted to take my sister. I knew that I was not going to send my sister!

So I went again, and I was sexually assaulted again. The next day came back. I didn’t tell anybody. I wanted to forget what happened! I knew that I needed to tell what had happened; I knew I was in trouble. I knew I did not want to go back to their house.

I ended up telling an older student on the school bus that I needed help, and she ended up reporting at my school what had happened. So my parents got a phone call to come to the school, and they learned the devastating news that I had been assaulted and that I needed to go get checked out.

Now, my parents had no relationship with Christ, no foundation, nothing, and walking in complete crisis. So we get to the doctor’s office, and it’s confirmed that I have an unplanned pregnancy. That was the first time I had ever heard the word “abortion.” I had no idea what that was.

The doctor just asked my mom if that was something they wanted to do, and I just remember my mom saying, “Yes.” Before we even went to the clinic, we were told that the people outside the clinic hated us and to make sure that we walk in quickly.

I’m a sidewalk advocate; that was not the truth. They had already planted that lie. I just remember my mom being angry about that. On the day that we went to the clinic, which was February 14, there was no one standing outside. 

We went into the clinic, and they ended up separating me from my parents. They do that so they won’t change their mind. I was taken back to a room. They talked to me about a clump of cells, which, I had no idea. I thought I was at a doctor’s office. I thought that they were there to help me.

And so, when they asked if I was ready for the abortion, I just said, “yes.” The first time I had ever met George was when he walked in the room. He just said, “This won’t take long,” and just smiled at me.

I won’t go into any of the details of what happened, but what I will say is that it was the most excruciating pain that I had ever felt, and I felt like I was violated all over again. Years later, I would find my mom’s journal, and she wrote that she could hear me screaming, but they wouldn’t allow her to come back and help me.

So, after the abortion, I was taken to a recovery room. They try to sell it as it’s this health care. Well, there was no privacy. There were just recliners. There were other women. We didn’t say anything to each other. When it was time to go, I stood up, and I hemorrhaged everywhere! No one checked on me; they just sent me out the door. My dad had to pick me up, and he had to carry me out the door. 

And we left that clinic; we wanted to forget what happened! We didn’t want to remember that! My mom ended up checking herself in; she had a mental breakdown. My dad eventually left our family. I would have emotional, spiritual, and physical scars that I would carry for a long time.

By the time I was sixteen, I got pregnant again. Planned Parenthood had been in our school. So, where did we go? We went to Planned Parenthood, because we thought, They’ll help us. So we went to Planned Parenthood. They confirmed that I was pregnant, and they said, “You’re young, you’re poor, and you’re in school. You should abort this baby.”

I knew that I would never do that again! We went out to the parking lot, and my husband [to be], who I’ve been married to for twenty-seven years, he looked at me and said, “What do you think about abortion?” He had grown up in a Christian family, but they never talked about abortion. That was the first time he ever heard my story. I shared my assault and my abortion. 

He looked at me in the parking lot of Planned Parenthood, and he said, “I don’t know how we’ll figure this out, but we’ll figure it out.” We chose life in the parking lot of Planned Parenthood! A few months later, March 14, we gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.

In June, we got married. We got married at ten o’clock in the morning, and my husband graduated high school at seven o’clock that night. I don’t recommend that! But you don’t know what you don’t know, right?! Two years later I was pregnant again, and I walked across the stage, pregnant with my son.

By the age of twenty-three, we bought our first house. We thought, We are doing good! We’re beating the odds, right!? A couple years after that, I had a miscarriage, and I fell in a deep hole. I could not get out of that hole! I was depressed. I was upset with my husband. I felt like I wasn’t a good mother. I felt like I wasn’t a good wife, and I began to struggle.

A couple of years after that, my ovary ruptured, and I nearly lost my life. And then, by the age of twenty-nine, I had a complete hysterectomy. And no one ever asked me if I had an abortion, nor was I willing to talk about that. We didn’t want to talk about that. 

By the time my kids were in middle school, we had another family crisis, and it became clear that I was not okay. I was not doing okay. I began drinking every weekend, I was partying. I had surrounded myself with people that just said my behavior was okay. I ended up moving out of our house.

I just felt like I was the worst mother and wife imaginable, and I couldn’t get out of the pit. One night I had gone out with some friends, and it was another night of a lot of drinking, using drugs. I knew that I was too impaired to drive home. I began texting people, but no one would come and get me. I had burned my bridges.

And so, I got in my car. At this point, I was running from God. I was so angry with Him, and I had just stopped going to church. I got in my car, and I just began to weep and I began to cry. I just said, “God, You’re all I have right now! I have nothing! No one’s coming to get me; I have nothing but You!”

And that night, God met me in my car. He lavished me in a love that I had never felt in my life! I knew that I needed to go home both physically and spiritually, and by God’s grace, I made it home. 

My husband met me at the door, and he welcomed me back in. We began counseling. First, it was marriage counseling, and then it was my counseling, to just heal from my wounds. But I still didn’t talk about my abortion. I just talked about my assault.

I was feeling like I was in a pretty good place, and I began just sharing my story, but I still had a lot of hate and bitterness in my heart. And God met me in my living room . . .

Nancy: We’re listening to the beautiful, redemptive story of Serena Dyksen. She says that God spoke to her that day through the words of Lamentations chapter 3. You may remember, that’s where the prophet Jeremiah cried out and said, 

“I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit; you heard my plea . Do not close your ear to my cry for help!’” (vv. 55-56)

And then Jeremiah goes on to say, “You, Lord, took up my case; you have redeemed my life” (v. 58 NIV). Well, as Serena read that Scripture, she knew that the Lord was speaking to her personally.

Serena: I felt the Holy Spirit say, “Did I pull you from the pit?” I knew God had pulled me from the pit! And He said, “Did I take up your case?” And I knew God had taken up my case! That word, “case,” just penetrated my heart!

Then the Holy Spirit said, “Did I redeem your life?” I knew God had redeemed my life. I knew it! It was like the Holy Spirit said, “Would you get out of the way and let Me do what I’m going to do?” And that was the day that I just surrendered all my hate and bitterness at the foot of the cross; I left it there.

At that point, I was still drinking alcohol every day, all day. That day I went in my kitchen, and I went to pick up the wine bottle . . . and I couldn’t do it! God had set me free from that. It was done. It was complete. I continued to just share what God was doing in my life.

Nancy: A friend invited Serena to watch a movie with her. You may have seen that film, it’s called Unplanned.

Serena: I had no idea what this movie was, no idea! So I said, “Okay, I love a good Christian movie. I’ll go!” So I get to this movie, and it was like watching my life unfold in front of my eyes!

Nancy: Once again, Serena sensed the Lord prompting her to act. It was if He said to her, “Now is the time to tell the rest of your story.” I was like, “I don’t know where I’m going to tell my story. I have no idea!”

So, me being pretty clueless, I reached out to Right to Life. . .which, I did not even know about their organization. I laugh all the time, because I’m like, “God, You have picked the most clueless person ever!” So we know that it’s the Lord moving!

I reached out to Right to Life and I asked then, “Hey, do you ever try to reach women before they go into an abortion clinic?” 

South Bend has an unlicensed abortion clinic, and it was just opening. Right to Life said, “Yes.” So I went to sidewalk counseling. I began going to the abortion clinic, trying to reach these mothers.

I felt like the Lord laid it on my heart to do a memorial service for post-abortive mothers and fathers. I didn’t know what that looked like; I had no idea. But I just wanted to be obedient to the Lord. And so I felt like the Lord laid it on my heart September 12, which turns out that that’s the National Day of Remembering the Unborn. 

Once again, I had no idea, but God knew! I started planning this service, and the night before the memorial service, I picked up my phone, I checked my social media, and that’s when the news had broken that George Klopfer—the abortionist in South Bend—had been hoarding two-thousand-four-hundred-and-eleven babies. That was the abortionist I had been taken to.

And so, that night I crawled into bed,and I just began praying and crying out to the Lord. I asked the Lord, “Was my baby one of those babies in the garage?” It was like the Holy Spirit said, “Your baby and all the babies are with Me!”

Dannah: That reminder was such a comfort to Serena! As I listen to friends and to women that I’m meeting for the first time share their account of healing from abortion, one of the significant turning points in their story is an understanding that their baby is, in fact, with Jesus. Well, as Serena’s story continued to unfold, she pushed forward in obedience to the Lord.

Serena: Since then, God has birthed my ministry, She Found His Grace, and women around the world, around the country . . . Especially when COVID hit, everything was shutting down, but ministry was still happening. I would get these messages from women around the country, around the world, who were thinking about having an abortion.

I was their initial contact of “talking them off the ledge,” loving them, meeting them with the love of Jesus, finding out what that crisis point was. And because of places like LifePlan . They’re the “feet on the ground.” They’re the local help that I need to do the ministry that God has birthed.

I love LifePlan. I can love these women from afar, but I need LifePlan to be there with them. So I have just been honored to be able to get to knowLifePlan. One thing that I love is that—I think it was after Christmastime—I brought in a group from YWAM (Youth With A Mission), and we wanted to volunteer. 

What I loved about LifePlanwas that I saw them meeting with the whole family, and I loved that! They were meeting with the whole family, and they were sharing Jesus with this family.

Nancy: You know, sometimes those of us in the pro-life camp get super-excited about the thought of someday overturning the infamous Roe v. Wade and making abortion illegal. Praise God for many who are working hard to make that happen! But you know, whether that ever occurs or not, Serena knows the Source of true transformation.

Serena: It’s going to be Jesus! He’s the changing factor here; that’s what’s going to change the hearts and the minds of people!

Nancy: Amen! I’m so thankful for the many pregnancy care centers around the nation—like LifePlan here in Southwest Michigan—that are pointing these women to Christ and seeing their lives transformed by the gospel. I also appreciate the way that organizations like LifePlan are doing all they can to minister to the whole family! Here’s Serena. 

Serena: I absolutely love their vision; I love what they’re doing! I love that they’re pouring into fathers! When I have a woman reach out to me, there are so many times when they’re saying, “I really don’t want to have an abortion, but he doesn’t know what to do!” He just needs a man to walk alongside of him. He probably came from a home that didn’t have a strong male figure in his life.

I love that they’re pouring into men, because we want those men that say, “I don’t have it figured out, but it’s going to be okay.” 

That’s something Bruce and I tell these couples, “It’s okay you don’t have it figured out. We didn’t have it figured out either. Our daughter is twenty-seven and she’s doing fantastic.” At the end of the day, we want to be pro-life. 

But LifePlan has it right: it’s eternal life. That is the bigger picture here, and that is the beautiful picture, because at the end of the day, that’s what is going to end abortion!

Nancy: Wow! I love hearing the stories of people whose lives have been transformed by the goodness and the grace of God! That’s all of our stories, right? Apart from God’s grace, where would we be? We’d all be desperately stuck in bondage to sin and to selfishness.

We’ve been listening to one example, one testimony of transformation, from Serena Dyksen. I love that she can point to that specific passage in Lamentations chapter 3 as the very words that the Holy Spirit used in her life to wake her up and set her free!

Maybe you can identify with what Serena shared today. Maybe you feel like you’re at the bottom, completely hopeless! I want you to listen to me . . . there is hope! There’s hope for you, and it’s found in Jesus! If you’re suffering from the pain, the guilt, of a past abortion, turn to Jesus. If you need freedom or comfort or rest, turn to Jesus.

If you don’t know how to do that, I want to encourage you to look for a Christ-centered pregnancy care center near you. They have counselors and other resources that can help you in the process.

Dannah: Yes, Nancy; in fact, the ministry Serena mentioned near the end of her message is the local pregnancy care center in Southwest Michigan called LifePlan. You might recall Cheri Gamble is the Outreach Ministries Director for LifePlan, and she’s herewith us in our virtual studio.

Cheri, ministries like LifePlan are really such an important part of the process of helping women in distress. Serena mentioned pregnancy care centers are like the boots on the ground, doing face-to-face ministry day-in and day-out. Is that what it feels like for you?

Cheri: Yes, absolutely! We see so many different people who come in with so many different needs. Just to have the opportunity to be able to minister to them and to share Hope with them and to see lives transformed. It’s amazing, it’s such a blessing!

Nancy: Cheri and Dannah, even as you’re talking about this, I’m thinking of a precious friend of mine who is now in an unexpected pregnancy and was just at her wits’ end about what to do The Lord has been using a pregnancy care center in the area where she lives to help walk her one hard step after another.

One of the counselors there has been texting with her just to say, “How are you doing?” to check in. I don’t know how this story is all going to end up. It’s still very much in process, but I’m so thankful for this pregnancy care center there in that part of the country that has reached out to my young friend.

Dannah: I’m so grateful that that pregnancy care center is there for your friend, Nancy. It makes me think this: How can we help? What part can we play? Help us get practical, Cheri. We’re talking about Sanctity of Human Life—all people, born or unborn, they matter—so how can we make a difference for life? What are some ways our listeners can support their local pregnancy care centers?

Cheri: Yes, well I would say the very first, most important, way to support a pregnancy care center is to pray! This is a war that we are in, and we need all the prayer support that we can possibly get! A lot of pregnancy centers will have prayer lists that you can become a part of. 

We have a prayer team, and when we have a woman who walks in or who calls us who is seeking an abortion, we immediately contact that prayer team, and they pray right then and there! 

Dannah: I’m actually on a list like that. I receive texts when there’s a crisis pregnancy in our community.

Cheri: Yes, and nothing is more important than praying for that local pregnancy center.

Nancy: As people pray, they’re going to want to be aware of what the needs are related to these centers, and there are financial needs. The testimony we just heard was a woman sharing at a fundraising banquet that LifePlandid in our area, so giving financially is a really important part of supporting this work as well.

Cheri: Yes, absolutely! We do not get taxpayer dollars; we are not funded by the government—unlike Planned Parenthood. We need donors who can come and support—either on a monthly basis or through a one-time gift.

Here’s a fun thing you can do with your family. A lot of pregnancy centers have what is called a Baby Bottle Campaign or Baby Bottle Drive, where you just get a baby bottle and you fill it up with loose change, cash, checks, whatever. When it’s filled up, you give that money to the pregnancy center.

It’s such a fun way to get little kids involved. How many times do you find change? I had change on my counter today that someone set there. I’m like, “No! It goes in the bottle!” to help change lives! 

So, definitely giving, and not just money. People can donate baby supplies. When you go to the store, pick up an extra container of formula or a package of diapers and donate that to your local pregnancy center. That will get to the women that we are supporting and helping, and help them out.

Nancy: I love that! I know that a lot of pregnancy care centers have special events for the community. We have them here with LifePlan. That’s another way that people can engage with that ministry in their community.

Cheri: Absolutely! Participate in those events that the centers have, but not only that, you can create your own events, and this is where it gets really fun. So, you’re only limited by your own creativity! We’ve had a church in the past that did a rock-a-thon for us. They brought in rocking chairs and they sat in the rocking chairs and they rocked, like they were rocking a baby! And they had people sponsor them and then gave us that money.

Nancy: Wow!

Cheri: We’ve had people who make pies and sell the pies and give us the money from that. We had a twelve-year-old girl last summer who had a lemonade stand and donated that money to us. And what was really fun about that was, when we found out about it, we put it online. Through people making online contributions, she was able to raise around three-hundred dollars for us—just a twelve-year-old girl doing that. 

So, come up with your own events to help raise awareness for life and for your pregnancy resource center. I’m sure no pregnancy resource center will turn you away if you do that!

Nancy: That’s great!

Dannah: I have a number of friends that volunteer at our local clinic, and it is one of the greatest joys of their life! How can people get connected if they feel like they might want to give some of their time?

Cheri: Volunteering is extremely important for pregnancy centers. We rely on volunteers to do a lot of stuff! Really, whatever your skill is and whatever your talent is, God can use that in a pregnancy center. You could help out with mailings. You could help out with cleaning, sorting clothes for the boutique. You could help answer the phone as a receptionist or schedule appointments.

You can help be the women who meet there and who meet with women and who help them, who do peer counseling consultation. Also, let me put a big plug in for anyone who is listening who is a medical person—a doctor or a nurse. Pregnancy centers can use those skills.

If you can donate a day, half-a-day, a couple hours in an evening or a weekend to come in and help do ultrasounds and pregnancy tests and sexually transmitted disease testing, for ones that do that, that is so important and so valuable!

So, basically, any skill that you have, God can take that and use that at a pregnancy center. Just reach out, contact your pregnancy center. Say, “Hey, I want to help! These are the skills I have. What can I do? How can I help?” They would be thrilled!

Nancy: Thank you, Cheri. I know right now, the Lord is prompting many hearts to take a step and get more involved. If the Lord is putting that burden, that passion in you, don’t let it pass once this program is over. Just respond to what the Lord puts on your heart.

Cheri, thank you! Thank you for your ministry here in Michigan. Revive Our Hearts does support monthly LifePlan, our local pregnancy center here. We’re so thankful for the work that you’re doing in our community! So on behalf of this ministry and our listeners, please thank them.

As you’re listening to this program, I don’t know what the name is of your pregnancy center in your area, but thank them. It’s thankless work they’re doing, so let them know that you appreciate and value it.

Thank you for the way, Cheri, that you and so many others like you are spreading the Hope of the gospel to women who are in their most vulnerable—but maybe also their most open—season of life. In fact, I’d love to just take a moment and pray for the work that these pregnancy centers are doing.

Lord, as we’ve been listening, I’ve been thinking about how my sweet husband—many times as we pray together at night and we pray for our nation—he will often say, “And, Lord, we pray for the babies. We pray for the babies!” I know his heart cares so deeply about this! 

Our hearts care deeply. You care! And so, Lord, we do right now pray for the babies; we pray for them to be spared, for their lives to be spared. We pray for the women who are carrying them and, for whatever reason, may have found themselves in an unplanned, unexpected, unwanted pregnancy—through any number of hard circumstances, sometimes their own sinful choices, sometimes the sinful choices of others, sometimes just not thinking. 

Yet, here they are, Lord. I pray for these women, some listening today, who are thinking, I just don’t know that I’m ready or that I can go through with this pregnancy, or I don’t know what to do! My sweet friend has said, “I’m not going to abort the baby,” but she’s having to make some tough choices to know what to do when this baby comes a few months from now. 

And so, Lord, we pray for these mommas; we pray for them to sense Your presence, to connect with places like these pregnancy centers that can love on them, can encourage them, can give them practical help and counsel and resources. Oh, Lord, would you link together these moms with these organizations? 

Thank You for these pregnancy centers in so many of our communities that have sprung up, thousands of them over the years! I pray that You would encourage them in the hard—but good—work that they are doing! And help them as they provide the combination of giving practical, timely help, but also giving women the hope that they need, that can only be found through Christ.

So, Lord, we lift up this work! We pray for the overcoming of evil—the death culture—in our country for, now, decades as it relates to the preborn, the unborn. And we pray, Lord, that there would be a revival of life! I pray that we would choose life in this very difficult time, in this time when our nation has in a greater way now than ever been authorizing and legitimizing . . . not only in the United States, but how our country is now funding abortions in other parts of the world. We pray, Lord, for this to stop! 

We pray that You would come in might and power in individual lives, and then also in a collective sense in our country. We pray that You would make a sweet, beautiful culture of life! Thank You that You love the babies, and help us to love them as You do!

Thank You for Cheri, thank You for Serena, thank You for the ministry that You’ve entrusted to them. I pray You would encourage them and so many others like them. I pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

Dannah: Amen! Oh, I don’t know about you, but my heart is stirred! Nancy, as you were praying, I just thought, What can I do with the little time that I have? I went back to something Cheri said, “Buy something.” I just bought diapers for my granddaughters the other day: fifty dollars! I almost fell over!

If you can’t invest a lot of time, at least when you’re at the grocery store this week, buy some diapers, buy some formula, drop it off at your local pregnancy care center. If you’re looking for where to drop it off, ReviveOurHearts.com has a link to reputable pregnancy care centers around the entire nation. Just visit that today.

And if you help out at a pregnancy care center in your area and you’re interested in connecting with Cheri and the rest of the team at LifePlan to share ideas, you’ll find a link to their website at ReviveOurHearts.com as well. Of course, you can always call us at 1–800–569–5959. 

Nancy: Thank you, Dannah, and thank you again, Cheri, and all the folks at LifePlan. We’re so grateful for you! And please let Serena know how grateful we are for her testimony as well! This is one time when I’m really excited that Robert wasn’t able to speak as planned because the Lord definitely had it on His heart for Serena to share—not only at your fundraising banquet locally here last fall, but now with our Revive Our Hearts audience.

Well, next week we get to hear another story of transformation, and this time we’re going to be looking at a Bible character named Ruth. Ruth experienced the transforming power of redeeming love. 

We hope you’ll have a wonderful weekend, and join us again on Monday as we ask the Lord to revive our hearts.

Committed to the sanctity of all human life, Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

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