“My heart has never been so broken.” – Passion Part 4
Emma Wiltshire is a pro-life Christian who labors with the fine folks at the Athens Pregnancy Center in Athens, GA. She also attended Passion 2014. In fact, she is the bold young lady who gave an impromptu sidewalk speech to her fellow conference goers, exhorting them to put their faith into action for preborn babies! (Passion Part 3)
Emma penned some excellent observations about our outreach at Passion:
I have worked at a pregnancy resource center for a little over six months. But after this weekend, my heart has never been so broken over abortion.
I attended the Passion Conference in Atlanta where 20,000 college students gathered to proclaim the name and fame of Jesus Christ. I watched people surrender their lives to their maker and accept the love, forgiveness and freedom of being in relationship with Him. It was an unbelievable experience. As we flooded the streets of Atlanta for our evening dinner break, I saw extremely graphic pictures of aborted babies at just ten weeks, posted on signs. The images were disturbing, but what was more disturbing were the reactions of my peers to the people holding the signs. “No thank you, I’m pro-life already.” or “No I don’t want any brochures or papers.” The majority of students didn’t say anything at all; they simply ignored the display and the people all together.
I spoke with one of the [CBR staffers] and he was astonished by the students lack of participation. He said, “Surely students coming out of a Christian conference would be more receptive.” There is a difference between saying you support a cause and actually doing something to support it.
I was tormented for the rest of the dinner break, just thinking of the students who carelessly walked past the exhibit. Were they turned off by the graphic images? Did they not understand that it was a plea for help and not a protest? My mind was spinning as I walked back into the arena for the last session. I looked around the enormous room packed full of 18 to 24-year-olds, 20,000 of them to be exact. Then I had a vision of what it would look like to save an empty seat for every aborted person in the state of Georgia last year alone … 33,000 silenced voices … 33,000 empty chairs. Even though the room was packed full, all I saw was a vacant building.
I haven’t been able to get this image out of my head since Saturday. I know that abortion is seen as as political issue that is highly controversial. But I also know that it robs humans of life and haunts post-abortive men and women. It doesn’t matter how a person was conceived; they still have a right to exist.
Please hear me when I say I am in no way condemning those who have had abortions before. Because I am a Christian I believe there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and that the blood of the cross can wash away any transgression. God’s redemption knows no boundaries, and I know many women who are post abortive that He has healed and made new.
That being said, lets put an end to it. Let’s not tiptoe around the issue anymore, let’s be bold in our faith and our convictions and speak the truth about abortion. Education is the only way we can shed light into a very dark aspect of our legislation.
If you find value in these words or agree with me, please don’t just like this post. Share it. Start a dialogue with friends, classmates, co-workers and family. Don’t condemn those who have had abortions but love on them and show them that their story can help another person from making the same mistake. I know my words are probably going to offend and maybe enrage some people, but I just felt I had to speak up for the 1,388,937 people that would have been my age if they hadn’t been aborted in 1991.
Thank God for brave Christians like Emma! My prayer is that the young people of Passion, like Emma, will rise up and be “in it to end it” for the victims of slavery and for the victims of abortion in their own backyard. Both are important to God’s heart (Proverbs 24:11-12).
Submitted by: Lincoln Brandenburg
Tags: 268 Generation, abortion pictures, Atlanta, Emma Wiltshire, Passion 2014
This entry was posted on Thursday, February 6th, 2014 at 7:35 pm and is filed under Matthew 28:20 Church Project. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.