In each of our newsletters, we share a client story for your encouragement and to bring glory to God, the One who reaches, rescues, restores, and redeems. I speak often of the miracles we see Him work time and again in the lives of our clients. I heard it said once and wholeheartedly agree, “If you have any doubts as to whether our God is still working miracles, spend some time at a pregnancy center.” If you only look at the client stories, however, you will miss an even fuller picture of the “Only God!” moments around Assurance.
So, this time, I am going to point you to where you can hear from three families we had the privilege of serving in our most recent video and then tell you the backstory for a detail you will otherwise miss from our amazing God. First, go watch the video https://vimeo.com/752575315. Pause and praise Jesus. Then come back to finish this story.
Did you see the bracelet Jamika was wearing as she shared her powerful testimony of how God brought “beauty from ashes”? That “all [she has] known is grace and mercy” as the Lord brought healing and redemption from her abortion? I’m going to tell you the story of that bracelet.
Several years ago, when Jamika’s ReKnew group was approaching their last session, Janet Harris, who has coordinated our ReKnew ministry for many years, went shopping for a small token gift we could give each of the participants on their last night. If you know Janet–and many of you do as she has served at Assurance for 26 years now–you know that she works hard to stretch every donated dollar as far as she can to make the most difference for our mission. She returned from shopping and reported that some costume jewelry at a Christian bookstore really caught her eye, but it was more than she thought we should spend, and she decided to just look for something else. The clock was ticking though, and we had no gift to give. Janet kept looking, but nothing else she saw felt right, and she could not get that jewelry out of her mind.
Enter Linda Leugers, long-time supporter, past Board Chair and Clinic volunteer, and current Chair of our Prayer Committee. Linda also happens to handmake beautiful jewelry. I would like to tell you that we thought to contact Linda and ask if she would make something for the women in ReKnew, but we did not. Although she didn’t know the identity of any of the women participating in the class or that we were in need of gifts to give them, she did know that we had a group going through ReKnew and had been faithfully praying for them. Linda arrived at our office saying, “God told me to make some bracelets and take them to Assurance.”
Janet and I were understandably blown away once again by how the Lord provides for even the smallest of details in our ministry. That very evening, the women were presented with the bracelets Linda made in obedience.
Fast forward to this summer, Jamika agreed to share her story for our video. I would like to tell you that we remembered that Jamika was in the group that received Linda’s bracelets and that we thought to ask her to wear hers. We did not, but Jamika wore it. I would like to tell you that we gave Jason Parmer, who creates our videos, a heads-up about the story behind the bracelet and asked him to get footage of it. We did not, but he zoomed right in on the bracelet. That imagery survived as five hours of footage was cut down to seven minutes for the final video.
Then, on September 26, 2022, years after Linda faithfully made bracelets without us asking for a group of women she did not know, Linda was sitting at her table at the banquet, watching along with the entire audience as Jamika shared her God story. And there it was. The bracelet she made. While the Lord was giving us all a glimpse of the difference He makes through our investments in Assurance, He gifted Linda personally with a face, a name, and a story to go with a woman she cared deeply for but did not know. What a beautiful moment of encouragement, affirmation, and blessing.
Brothers and sisters, I think a quote from John Piper rings so true here. “In every situation and every circumstance of your life, God is always doing a thousand different things that you cannot see and you do not know.” How precious it is when He reveals even a taste of that to us. God is so good.
