PSS Banquet

I started volunteering with Pregnancy Support Services, a crisis pregnancy center in Durham, NC, when I was a junior in high school. Even at that age I got frustrated at how many people were spending their time picketing abortion clinics vs. spending their time trying to actually help those women who decided to keep their babies. PSS provides the following services to the Durham and Chapel Hill area:

• Ultrasounds for women who are contemplating abortion. Seeing a beating heart lets them know that there's a human being inside them, not just a collection of cells.
• Abstinence training as part of the sex-ed courses at public schools in the area.
• Parenting classes to new mothers.
• Counseling.
• Clothing, diapers, etc. that help women take care of their newborns.

Every year, PSS has a fundraising banquet. I've gone two times in the past (once when I was in high school and once 7 years ago.) I was happy that I was actually able to be home for this year's banquet.

The speaker was William Graham Tchividjian (grandson of Billy Graham), pastor of Coral Ridge church in Florida, which he took over from the late James Kennedy. His message was that the world often sees the anger of Christians over things like abortion and gay marriage, but that God's anger is always accompanied by grief, because He loves people enough to be angry at the way sin detracts from who He created them to be. He said that all too often, the world thinks we're angry simply because we're not getting our way or our political agenda is getting thwarted. He challenged us to show the world our grief as well as our anger, so that they understand the source of our anger.

At the end of the banquet, I got a chance to speak with an old friend from high school. She herself got pregnant when she was a junior in high school and chose to give birth to her child. Her daughter was with her last night -- a beautiful, vibrant 15 year old -- and my friend now has 4 children and is on fire for Christ. I am so happy that we serve a God whose grace covers our sins and allows us to live a life full of blessing, instead of being eternally condemned to dwell in the mire of our sin.