It is with deep appreciation and sympathies that we share that Dr. Lewis Hicks has gone home to be with Jesus. Dr. Hicks was our 2015 Wayne B. Smith Power of One Award recipient and, if Wayne Smith was our founding pastor, then Dr. Hicks was our founding physician. They were friends and co-laborers in this battle since before our ministry was founded. In fact, after the 2015 banquet when Dr. Hicks was honored, I received a letter in the mail from Brother Wayne saying, “You picked the right man to honor!”
Before our founding, Dr. Hicks was among the group who called themselves the Committee for Life and prayed for God to raise up people to do the work the Assurance team does now. He worked tirelessly to educate pastors, physicians, and anyone else he could get the ear of about the realities of abortion and the need to instead provide truth and support to those facing crisis pregnancies.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said “Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act!” Lewis Hicks spent much of his life speaking out against abortion while at the same time acting in care and support of those facing crisis pregnancies. A gifted OB/Gyn physician, when he saw a need in our community to serve those who were considering abortion, he dedicated his own practice to doing just that. There was a time before Assurance when he sought out the opportunity to care for anyone facing a crisis pregnancy and often facilitated adoptions right in his office.
In an interview with the Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine during the early years of his efforts on this front, Dr. Hicks recounted what it is like during the conversations with abortion-determined clients. He said, “I continue with the conversation for as long as it seems to take. It is almost like watching a boxing match… the Holy Spirit almost palpable as He works. There is a tremendous struggle going on…. Most of them keep their infant. We then talk about plans for prenatal care.”
Although the technology available to us now is more advanced and our approach has changed over the years, those that meet with our clients now can still attest to the fact that there is a palpable spiritual battle going on for the life of that baby and the health and wellbeing of the parents.
Even once our center was open and successfully serving clients, Dr. Hicks continued to be instrumental in their care. Before we became a medical clinic and were blessed to add on-site ultrasounds, we would take our clients to his office where he would perform ultrasounds for us.
One former Assurance client recounted to me in vivid detail the difference the ultrasound and her conversation with him made in her decision. She still remembered 28 years later the exact words he said to her during that appointment. She went planning to abort and instead chose life! We can only imagine the number of babies alive and parents spared the trauma of abortion as a result of God’s work through Dr. Hicks.
On behalf of generations of families throughout our region who live today due to Dr. Hicks’ care towards life and Assurance’s Staff and Board of Directors, I offer our unending gratitude for Lewis Hicks. Our deepest sympathies go out to his precious wife, Phyllis, beside him every step of his stand and practice for life and the rest of his family. Please join us in praise for a life well lived for life and in prayer for comfort in this time of grief.