The Lord be with you!
And the Lord be with Angela. Because Angela needs Jesus. That’s why Angela needs you. Angela just turned fifty-three. She lives in a working-class suburb of Cleveland, Ohio. She cleans meeting rooms and pushes mail bins for a national corporation.
Angela underwent an abortion in her early twenties.
The baby’s father threatened to kick her out if she didn’t. Then he abandoned her anyway. He spread rumors among their mutual friends and ruined her reputation.
Her mother begged her not to become a single parent like she had. Church-going relatives already held mom at arm’s length for her own history. They wouldn’t stand for this promiscuous relationship and its illegitimate pregnancy. Angela also enjoyed her independence and having fun. She feared poverty, responsibility, and peer rejection. She terminated her child before eight weeks. Even an ultrasound couldn’t tell the little one from a tiny mass of tissue.
Angela has suffered from depression ever since. She carries around almost constant anxiety.
Neither street drugs nor prescriptions have healed her aches. She has divorced twice even though she bore children to both husbands. Now her children are having babies of their own. Each new arrival adds to the tangle of crushing grief. In those moments when she gets exhausted or ends up alone, the compounded guilt cripples her. It comes silently, secretly, but relentlessly.
What does Angela want for Christmas? She wants grace—but she won’t tell you. She needs our Savior’s grace—and she may not even realize it. She wishes for One to say, “I forgive you, unconditionally.” She longs for a Heavenly Father who says, “I love you, entirely and eternally,” and shows it over and over until she believes it. She’s dying to hear, “I still want you. I’m staying with you. Your life’s too precious to discard. Your heart’s worth treasuring. Your experience is special enough to redeem.”
She needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She needs the communion of saints—and not just for Christmas but for good, for life, forever. She craves what you and I have in spades. She is starving for what you and I have to spare.
Will you share with her and the others like her? Will you please give a special Christmas gift?
Lutherans For Life converts your dollars into declarations of God’s truth and demonstrations of Christ’s love. We connect your generous servanthood to their desperate yearning. If God Himself has no greater happiness than spending on others, imagine what fulfillment you will find in it! Using what you’re receiving from Him won’t diminish but instead will enrich your enjoyment!
Lutherans For Life is reaching Angela. Lutherans For Life is touching thousands like her.
Millions more—some 15,000,000 post-abortive women, not to mention men and loved ones—face serious, prolonged, negative aftereffects. They hurt privately but in plain sight. They pass by us in our communities. They sit beside us in our congregations.
Our Word of Hope hotline (888-217-8679 or info@wordofhope.org) offers distinctively Lutheran Gospel care live, nationwide, and around the clock. Director Chrissie Gillet (mother of seven, deaconess-in-training, Ph.D. in psychology) answers the calls and e-mails personally, as many as three hundred a month! Word of Hope makes a difference—like this:
“I hated my body. I punished my family. I lived in denial of who I was and all I did. I gave up, basically waiting for death. I didn’t care how I endangered myself or anyone else. Word of Hope listened. She prayed with me and prayed for me. She repeated how Jesus takes away my wrongs. She reminded me how He died and rose even when He knew my past before it happened. She encouraged me that my life matters to Him and to heaven just as much as my baby’s. She studied the Bible with me to prove it. She helped me understand that God holds my baby in His hands. She even introduced me to other resources to assist my situation. I’ve started to see myself differently and feel better. And sometimes I even sense how the Lord is using my mistakes to help and save other people. Word of Hope has brought me real freedom in Christ. I can finally move forward.”
We have you to thank! And they thank you as well. Your support and partnership make this possible. These souls will celebrate everlasting life alongside you and the Almighty Maker who announces, “Well done, good and faithful one!” Please give now and extend their Christmas—and your own—well beyond twelve days!
Gregory recently graduated from university. He settled into a design management position with a supermarket chain in North Carolina. He grew up unchurched and joined the Lutheran communion after meeting his wife. Complications during delivery of their son resulted in infertility. They used the opportunity to adopt sisters, one of whom has cerebral palsy.
Gregory and his wife strive to raise their children in the love of the Lord—but he feels pressure against Scriptural beliefs from many of his lifelong buddies, especially regarding matters of sexuality and healthcare. Most of his work associates don’t hesitate to express outright disapproval toward his faith. Combined with the country’s cultural contempt for such Christian convictions, the opposition is causing him doubts of his own. He feels unprepared to answer or even address all the objections, much less to give winsome witness to the goodness of God’s ways. Gregory endures isolation stress and sadness from it almost every day.
What does Gregory want for Christmas? He wants assurance—but he’d never call it that. He needs divine assurance—and he may not even know how to ask for it. He wishes for One who says, “This is the Word of the Lord.” He waits for an Advocate to promise, “Life is God’s gift, your own life and everyone else’s, from this time forth and even forevermore.” He dreams of being told, “As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, steadfast and trustworthy, good, right, and salutary, from age to age the same, this is most certainly true.”
He needs the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He needs cheerfulness and confidence, and not just for Christmas but for all cold winter mornings and long summer midnights, for each rainy spring dusk and gusty fall day. He pines for what you and I have in fullness overflowing. He is panting after what you and I have in abundance beyond enough.
Join with us in this Christmas adventure! Get involved alongside us as we come to Gregory’s rescue. Your generous gift is going to change his life and a lot more lives as well.
Exciting opportunities lie before us! God’s given us an ambitious annual goal of $1,035,000 for 2017. What a privilege!
With only about a month left, we still have over $334,000 to go.
But Lutherans For Life multiplies your offering by adding many others to it. Together we move further and mightier than any of us could alone.
Lutherans For Life is serving Gregory. Lutherans For Life equips countless Gregorys. Our national team of twelve leads frequent presentations (over twenty states and multiple continents this year!) applying Christian faith to life issues. We engage in untold hours of conversations every day, month after month, with everybody that inquires and anyone who will listen. We write, type, print, and distribute pages upon pages of Gospel-motivated reflections and life-affirming explanations.
These personal interactions impact folks like this:
“I used to dread talking about the life issues. I tended to react all defensively. I didn’t like looking foolish or insensitive. I probably missed a lot of chances to confess Christ when someone really hungered for him. Lutherans For Life’s positive approach started making the discussions kind of rewarding. Putting things in terms of God’s gifts and Christ’s love makes so much sense. I guess I hadn’t realized how grace relates to more than just heaven and hell. It’s simpler when everything can be about sin and salvation. I find talking about life issues more enjoyable and effective, too.”
You make this happen! Be glad with us—and with them! Your giving enables us to be in the business of life and death. We are taking part in God’s own work! He Himself is collecting the returns on these investments of yours, stowing them for everlasting remembrance in heaven. Let this anticipation lead you to donate boldly today!
Paul and Evelyn retired to northern California. They moved into his family’s generations-old cottage, the one he grew up in. She hails from Kansas, where they also met. They have two children, five grandchildren, and two little great-grandbabies. After military service, they settled west of Minneapolis. He farmed, and she stayed home raising their daughter and son. When the kids entered school, she drove a bus and worked as church secretary for a while.
Their daughter still resides in the Twin Cities nearby her own kids. Their son makes his home outside Philadelphia but travels frequently for his job. Paul and Evelyn don’t see them as much as they’d like. They miss them, though they understand that they have their own lives keeping them busy.
A few years ago, an accident in the field landed Paul in a wheelchair. Now he’s developed early-stage Alzheimer’s as well.
Evelyn manages to take care of him at home, but Paul carries terrible guilt. He hates that he can’t seem to do much for himself or for anyone else. He spends his days mostly watching television, or dozing off, or staring out the window and fighting off demons. He could deal with the pain if it didn’t mean sorrow for her. He hopes he dies before he loses his mind so that she can move closer to family. She can’t stand seeing him this discontent and sometimes thinks she’s failing as his wife. Both Paul and Evelyn feel assisted suicide’s appeal. Their Christian resistance to it diminishes on harder days.
What do Paul and Evelyn want for Christmas? They want purpose—but they wouldn’t bother anybody for it. They need godly hope—and they may not have figured it out yet. They wish for the One saying, “I have not forsaken you.” They’d welcome the Lord’s affirmation, “I am not punishing you.” They deeply desire the comfort of, “I’m working my good and gracious will through this. I’m bringing about greater things like faith and salvation from this. I’m perfecting my power in your weakness.”
They need the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They need the sanctity of human life in the image of God, and not just for Christmas but for difficult Monday moments and dark Thursday hours, for every state and every stage of existence, for the very valley of the shadow of death itself. They tremble for what we possess in plenty. They thirst for what we’ve got ample and accessible supply of.
Will you make sure they receive it? Will you please send Lutherans For Life your most generous gift in time for Christmas?
I guarantee you it will go directly to work making a difference, changing hearts, saving lives, because Lutherans For Life loves to do just that and doesn’t do anything else!
Lutherans For Life is caring for Paul and Evelyn. Lutherans For Life encourages multitudes in similar circumstances. We form and support a nationwide network of volunteers in congregations and communities raising awareness and taking action locally. Our Life Teams Roadmap and Toolkit provides a proven process and system for putting the Gospel’s grace into practice. Our Mission and Ministry Director, our regional directors, our state federation presidents, and our materials assist over 150 Life Teams and Life Chapters to embrace and accompany vulnerable souls going through life issues.
These relationships matter like this:
“I had forgotten how much value my life has to others. And all the people around us, every one is truly a gift and privilege from God. The life group at our church has helped the whole congregation notice and appreciate the elderly. Group members spend time with us or help us with errands. Even folks who aren’t part of the group check in on us more now. They’ve led us to realize the Gospel is still for us too. I believe groups like this are going to be even more important as our nation is aging.”
We couldn’t do it without you! Your contributions mean more to us than we can say. And they mean even more to those we reach and serve! We look forward to the heavenly wedding feast when we will rejoice together as our Lord God commends what your sacrifices have achieved in His hands!
We’re eager to open your upcoming gift and put it to use!
Time’s running out on our 2017 opportunities. It’s going to take $334,000 more to meet our 2017 commitments, and only a month remains! Angela, Gregory, Paul, and Evelyn—and so many others—need our ministry. Will you please take a moment and send a special Christmas gift?