Serve, Work and Transform: PPL November 2022

Compelled by the Gospel, PPL equips Presbyterians

to champion human life at every stage

PPL ENEWS

ABORTION RECOVERY

November 2022

Out of Darkness Into Light!

by PPL Board Member, Stephanie Johnson and Rev. Stan Johnson

As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us…Psalm 103:12

Scott Klusendorf, President of Life Training Institute, points out that women ages 18-24 are the most vulnerable and most likely to have an abortion. In my life before knowing Christ, I made two of the worst decisions of my life, when, at age 18 and again at 24, I chose abortion over life.

I was 17 when I met my ‘first love” - a handsome Pastor’s Son. For my 18th birthday, he gave me an engagement ring, and on that same night I gave him my virginity – and got pregnant! I felt like I had no voice and no choice because no other options besides abortion were given. I was told that the baby was just a blob of tissue anyway…and I believed the lie. The abortion was performed in the hospital – even though it was 1971 and Roe v. Wade wouldn’t make abortion legal until January of 1973.

Afterwards, my abortion was never talked about by my family or my boyfriend –it was as if it never happened. It caused our relationship to end, which left me heartbroken and my innocence shattered. I stuffed my feelings of anger, grief, guilt, shame and regret. These deep wounds took my life in an entirely different direction than had I done things God’s way.

Women Over 60 are Most in Need of Abortion Recovery Ministry

By PPL Executive Director, Deborah Hollifield

Women who were aged 18-30 in 1973 are now between the ages of 67 and 79. In 1973, we were the first ones lied to about how a fetus was “just a clump of cells.” We were the first ones to be told that sexual promiscuity was actually freedom and now that abortion was legal and readily available, there would be no consequences. We would be able to have an affair, keep our secrets, stay in school, have a career and still wear white in our weddings, because who would know otherwise? Some of us marched for abortion or volunteered for Planned Parenthood booths on our college campuses. Others cheerfully counseled their pregnant friends that their problem could be easily – and affordably – eliminated. Some of these women had multiple abortions, until abortion became a reliable form of birth control, replacing the Pill and its side effects and the inconvenience of a condom. Still, some knew that their abortion – or at least the extramarital sex that led to pregnancy – was morally wrong, and so kept it to themselves, keeping it a secret from parents, close friends and often, their husbands.

PPL'S ABORTION RECOVERY RESOURCES

PPL's web page has resources to help women and men heal from abortion-related emotional trauma. There are links to healing retreats and book studies for both men and women. Browse our recovery resources here and our men's related resources here

MEET PPL BOARD MEMBER, Rev. Justin L. Marple

Justin and his wife, Shelby, are licensed foster parents with Niagara County in western New York. Their children include Sahara, Josiah, Arwen, Chloe, and Lilly. He is a graduate of Gettysburg College, in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and Westminster Theological Seminary, near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Baltimore on October 9th, 2005, at Christ Our King Presbyterian Church in Bel Air, Maryland. And he has served as the called and installed Pastor of Peter Creek and Shepard Memorial Presbyterian Churches in eastern Kentucky and Niagara Presbyterian Church in western New York, and recently accepted a call to be the Pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Chittenango, New York, in the Presbytery of Cayuga-Syracuse. In Western New York, Rev. Marple was twice elected as a teaching elder commissioner to the General Assembly of the PC(USA) and served as the moderator of the presbytery’s Committee on Preparation for Ministry. He has served on the Board of Directors of PPL since 2008 and PPL’s Executive Committee since 2012.

Read more about our other board members here.

Will you click the donate button today?

PPL has started a new fundraising campaign with a goal of $100,000. With rising costs of almost everything we know our actual expenses will hover around the $80,000 mark. That's the bottom line. We have added to our goal, funds to re-publish one of our most popular resources: Pregnant With Promise, a 2010 Bible Study by Marie Bowen on the character of God as shown through the pregnancy stories of the Bible and funds to convert the Baby Chris blog series by Deborah Hollifield into book format.

Why the name "Baby Steps" campaign?

Many people feel a small gift is not enough to make a difference and wait until they are able to make a larger contribution--and that day never comes. Will you take a "baby step" today and make a gift of any size? Choose an amount you know you can give every month and set up a recurring donation. $10 a month for 12 months is $120! $100/month will be a major gift of $1200 by the end of the year. Baby steps grow into giant leaps empowering PPL to equip the church to champion life! Click the DONATE button to learn more about this campaign. (Don't worry, you can exit without making a donation if you really want to do that!)

Other ways to give

To donate via text from your phone: Text "give" to 1 (717) 537-0909. Follow the prompts on the page that opens to make a gift to equip Presbyterians to save human lives!

To donate by check, simply mail your check to: PPL, PO Box 5239, Lancaster, PA 15606-5239.

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