Three Planned Parenthood locations are leaving Michigan for good.
Warren. Livonia. Lansing.
Closing permanently.
Andrew Belanger, who stands on the sidewalk in Flint, praised God for that news. And in the same breath he asked for more prayer. Not less.
That is the tension. And it is also the mercy.
Three doors closed. One sidewalk got heavier.
Planned Parenthood of Michigan announced the permanent closing of those three locations. They said they would concentrate what remains at fewer sites. Flint is still one of them.
The mill on Beecher Road is still open. It still murders pre-born neighbors. Mothers still drive there. Fathers still park there. Children are still carried through that door.
Andrew cannot stand at Warren, and Livonia, and Lansing, and Flint. He is one missionary on one sidewalk. When those mills close, the mothers who would have gone there still go somewhere. Many, he reported, are forced to his location.
As a ministry, we see this as wonderful opportunity for mothers to hear the Gospel, and have more chances to save babies.
He praised God. Then he asked you to pray.
Andrew did not post a complaint. He posted worship, and then a request.
Praising God that 3 Planned Parenthood’s are closing. With that though, there’s more than likely going to be an increase here in Flint. Please keep us in your prayers!
As you can tell, he is glad the doors closed. Death lost three addresses. That is worth praising God.
He also knows what follows. The work does not shrink when a mill closes if the mothers relocate to a mill where a missionary already stands. The work gets weightier and the days can get longer. The conversations multiply. The pleading multiplies. The prayer must multiply with it.
This is how a closed mill becomes a wider door.
Not because abortion ended in Michigan. It has not. Because God placed a missionary where remaining traffic is now more likely to come.
Weightier. And praiseworthy.
The world will call a closing a loss of “access.” We call it what it is. Fewer places to murder our pre-born neighbors.
But death only reroutes as signs comes down in Lansing. Flint remains one of the mills still committing abortions in Michigan, including inside the building that One Life For Life’s missionaries serve in front of.
So the increase is both things at once:
More cars. More appointments. More mothers who have already made a plan.
But…
More Gospel. More saves. More opportunities for God to change mans plans.
This is a gift, if we will treat it like one. More souls within earshot of the Gospel. More babies who might live because someone stood in the way and told the truth.
Paul in 1 Corinthians knew this very well when he wrote “But I will stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, for a wide door for effective work has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” The open door and the opposition arrive together. The right response is not to back up. It is to walk through, and to ask the church to pray.
The team in Flint is already asking you to pray through the mornings coming.
Ways to Pray
- Pray for the team in Flint. Specifically More mothers are likely coming to his mill. Pray he has strength for the longer days, and that every conversation ends in Gospel and life.
- Pray for the mothers and fathers with appointments in Flint, in Orlando, in Grand Rapids. Pray they hear the Gospel before they reach the door.
