WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:10.020 Well, I'm just going to look at some notes. The only way I can do this, I am the founder 00:10.860 --> 00:21.520 of the Parenthood Resource Center. So that's that. That's all it is. 00:21.520 --> 00:26.980 So how does the Lex Specialty Clinic now? 00:28.140 --> 00:34.260 What I'm trying to, what I want to do is tell you how, how that happened. 00:35.980 --> 00:46.560 And way, way back, probably maybe 40, 50 years ago, I had some prophetic word given to me 00:46.560 --> 01:00.360 by a prophet, which was Luke 418, which are those famous words that God commissioned his 01:00.360 --> 01:12.480 son Jesus to do, and then later on Jesus commissioned the disciples to do, like, you know, go, I forgot 01:12.480 --> 01:23.160 what I should have written this down, but restore the church. What it did to me was I commissioned, 01:23.280 --> 01:34.660 I made my own for myself from that, and I said my life passion is to restore to wholesomeness 01:35.580 --> 01:47.140 every wounded, broken person. And that's really what was on my heart for getting the Parenthood 01:47.140 --> 01:56.560 Center going. I mean there's an infinite number of things around that, but that's, that was 01:56.560 --> 02:08.040 my reason. And we were all concerned about abortion, but the young ladies were victims. 02:08.380 --> 02:12.260 They're just out on the street and everybody was saying, oh, you're pregnant, well you 02:12.260 --> 02:18.560 should better, you better have an abortion. I mean, they just got so much wrong advice, 02:18.760 --> 02:26.440 and they were hurting as it was, and then people started pushing them. Well you can't 02:26.440 --> 02:36.820 carry that thing around. So I thought, I have got my passion for them. That's where it was 02:36.820 --> 02:47.920 at that time. I really, I was part of the group, part of the group. So we did abortions, 02:48.100 --> 02:53.600 so that's just what we did. I kind of almost felt the same way. That's the way it 02:53.600 --> 03:00.880 is. And God had to put it on my heart then, that's not a good thing. So he did, but he 03:00.880 --> 03:07.380 started with putting on my heart. The young ladies are victims here, and we need to do 03:07.380 --> 03:16.640 something. So that's what I did. They were just, yeah, they were just victims, and 03:17.140 --> 03:29.960 they put, I put them on my heart so deeply, but so I decided the thing to do is write 03:29.960 --> 03:39.620 a tract, and take that tract down to Dayton's and stay it on the corner, and hand it out 03:39.620 --> 03:46.620 to young ladies who are mine. Because the world was not telling them that. The world 03:46.640 --> 03:52.100 might be doing that. They'd be handing out trucks, going and having abortions. You don't 03:52.100 --> 03:58.120 need to suffer with that thing inside you. Go and have an abortion. Well, I wanted to 03:58.120 --> 04:04.700 tell them, no, that's life inside you. God put that little one in there. Even though 04:05.060 --> 04:12.200 you didn't obtain it in the proper way, that's life that God put in you. So you 04:14.660 --> 04:20.360 need to do that. So I thought, all right, so how do we do this? We've got to have some 04:20.360 --> 04:27.100 place where these young ladies could go. They can't just do it on an individual basis. 04:27.660 --> 04:37.580 So let's form what we can call a pregnancy resource center, where if they have questions, 04:38.250 --> 04:45.340 they can come. And somebody can talk to them, try to give them the true story, the true 04:45.340 --> 04:52.540 story of what they're really doing and help them with their problems. And so, that's 04:57.560 --> 05:08.940 kind of what really, what got the center going. Yeah, it was the... they were so 05:09.040 --> 05:17.940 intense, so on my heart that I had to do something for them. At that point, I wasn't even thinking 05:17.940 --> 05:25.280 so much about the babies. I mean, because I was in the same culture as everybody else. 05:26.180 --> 05:32.140 They're babies, okay? So they're going to have an abortion. It was the same others. 05:32.340 --> 05:38.140 It didn't mean that much until God really got hold of me and then I knew what was 05:38.140 --> 05:47.800 going on. Anyway, I think our country, not the whole world, really, was still exploiting 05:48.360 --> 05:54.800 these vulnerable young ladies. Every time I see one, I think, oh my God, now what's 05:54.800 --> 06:08.120 she going to do? So that was... there were some other people helped, but that's 06:08.120 --> 06:16.140 1985 was when we opened, wasn't it? May of 1985, they opened doors. 06:17.260 --> 06:25.480 We went, yeah, so people came to help. There was a lot of people who helped. It wasn't 06:25.480 --> 06:33.460 just all me and some people, some of you got people with you, Steve Newton, Bob 06:33.460 --> 06:40.600 Venerman, Pastor Venerman. They were not necessarily in the formation of the center, but they 06:40.600 --> 06:52.260 helped this whole thing. They were working with these ladies before that. So it just... 06:52.460 --> 06:59.980 that's the way it went. And then we needed somebody to help run this thing. So how 07:00.900 --> 07:09.340 do we do that? I thought, well, I can do it. So I just went to a couple of... I think 07:09.340 --> 07:14.900 it was two young ladies, I think. I'm not sure it was for this, or I think it was 07:14.900 --> 07:24.100 for this. Two young ladies I met. And I said, we're starting a ministry to help 07:24.100 --> 07:29.080 young ladies make up their mind about their babies. Would you want to help us get 07:29.080 --> 07:38.180 that going? And both of them said, yes, we will. So we got it started. And then many, 07:38.300 --> 07:43.960 many people came on board. We had prayer meetings for weeks and weeks and weeks. 07:45.280 --> 07:57.460 And that was all God's work then. So it was just God. Well, just a sharing with 07:57.460 --> 08:08.140 the pastor with Vern as a pastor here last night gave an awesome sermon on saying, yes. 08:10.020 --> 08:17.680 And that's not what we did. When we started seeing what was happening, God put on our 08:17.680 --> 08:24.040 heart, hey, you got to do something. I don't know what to do. But I said, yes, God, 08:24.040 --> 08:30.240 whatever, I'll do it. And that's the way it happened. And we had three or four 08:30.240 --> 08:38.960 different directors that came and Gina came and Gina. And then I didn't leave. And then 08:38.960 --> 08:46.000 I didn't leave. I came and she didn't leave. So she's still here. You want to kind 08:46.640 --> 08:53.760 of pick it up from there. Gina's done a fantastic job there. So I don't know if it's 08:53.760 --> 09:01.260 anything you need, you want to say? You know, I was just sitting here and looking 09:01.260 --> 09:05.400 at my timeline. You know, we had a little timeline on our website. So I printed it 09:05.400 --> 09:10.260 off for Bob and I to look at before we came and kind of remind us of some of the key 09:10.260 --> 09:17.740 dates when things happen. So as Bob was recounting the Lord speaking to him on 09:17.740 --> 09:25.160 this issue back in the early 80s and they actually opened their doors in May of 1985. 09:26.220 --> 09:32.360 And so I'm sitting here looking at this and I realized just in this moment that 09:32.360 --> 09:45.060 in May of 1985, on May 23, 1985, to be exact, my son was born. And God used my 09:45.060 --> 09:52.300 pregnancy with my son on this very issue. It was a difficult pregnancy, blah, blah, 09:52.960 --> 10:00.600 lots of difficulties. I worked in health care and worked in a clinic for those of you 10:00.600 --> 10:07.940 who are a little older and remember group health, which is now health partners. And 10:07.940 --> 10:14.840 back in those days, it kind of got referred to as group death because it was one of 10:14.840 --> 10:22.860 the HMOs at the time that was really providing a lot of abortion services. And in May of 1985, 10:23.840 --> 10:33.560 I worked for group health at one of their largest OBGYN clinics in Como. And I had 10:33.560 --> 10:39.240 a difficult pregnancy and I had no plan to tell you all this tonight. Bob and 10:39.240 --> 10:42.700 I had agreed that whatever the Holy Spirit led us to tonight was what we were going 10:42.700 --> 10:49.140 to talk about. And so I'm sitting here looking at this May 1985 going, oh my goodness. At 10:49.140 --> 10:56.980 the same time you were forming this place and opening doors was the end of a culmination 10:56.980 --> 11:01.260 of a long pregnancy, a difficult pregnancy and a lot of bed rest. And because of that, 11:01.360 --> 11:05.900 I had to sit in the back every day with my feet propped up because my insurance 11:05.900 --> 11:10.980 was paying for this baby. And in this large, one of the largest OBGYN clinics 11:10.980 --> 11:20.000 in the metro and prep charts for seven months. I went through every woman's chart. And in 11:20.000 --> 11:24.360 those days we had paper charts and you had little sheets that you had to prep the 11:24.360 --> 11:28.380 chart for the doctor with and stick it in there and put in all the pertinent 11:28.380 --> 11:34.780 information on the heading. And that's what I did for seven months because I 11:34.780 --> 11:38.660 couldn't get up and run around. I had to sit at a desk, my feet propped up, 11:38.660 --> 11:43.940 people brought me charts and I couldn't do anything else. And I had to go through 11:43.940 --> 11:49.240 all those charts. With this baby, I had my first ultrasound too. So I had three 11:49.240 --> 11:54.880 year old twins, but I didn't have an ultrasound with them. And it was new, 11:55.240 --> 11:59.060 you know, ultrasound was new. I had my first ultrasound with him at 10 and 11:59.060 --> 12:04.240 a half weeks when I started having difficulty. And they determined that I 12:04.240 --> 12:10.000 had a twin pregnancy again, had lost one of the babies. And I saw him at 10 weeks 12:10.000 --> 12:15.660 perfect on this ultrasound, whole baby sucking his thumb. And I was raised in 12:15.660 --> 12:19.500 a liberal home and I was a Christian by now, but I was still wishy washy on 12:19.500 --> 12:22.900 this issue. Like Bob just said, it was just kind of how it was back then, 12:23.500 --> 12:28.840 you know, like, uh, abortion sounds ugly, but you know, just is and 12:28.840 --> 12:35.200 didn't have a strong opinion and seeing that baby. And then spending all those 12:35.200 --> 12:39.420 months in those charts and almost every woman in that clinic had one or two 12:39.420 --> 12:46.380 abortions. And I remember one who had had 11 elective abortions. And God 12:46.380 --> 12:53.120 used that pregnancy and that timeframe, Bob, that exact timeframe to 12:53.120 --> 12:58.940 change my mind on this issue. And to make me walk away from that place, I 12:58.940 --> 13:05.580 quit after he was born. And to make me change my mind entirely and leave 13:06.200 --> 13:10.280 knowing after all the ultrasounds I'd had during that pregnancy and 13:10.280 --> 13:15.660 everything I'd seen that I needed to make sure that women knew the truth. 13:15.860 --> 13:20.660 And that was my determination point was right when you were opening 13:20.660 --> 13:25.420 doors. That's crazy. I didn't even realize that till I'm sitting here 13:25.420 --> 13:33.980 looking at May 1985 going. Yeah, that's pretty wild. It is God. That's 13:33.980 --> 13:40.760 God. That is, that is he got a hold of me. Not a coincidence. No 13:40.760 --> 13:49.360 coincidences. Yeah. And I didn't come to the center until 2004. So a 13:49.360 --> 13:55.260 long time later, I volunteered in the mid 90s, though, right when we added 13:55.260 --> 13:59.920 care net as our national affiliation. I was in the group that took the 13:59.920 --> 14:03.820 first volunteer advocacy training under the care net moniker with care 14:03.820 --> 14:19.340 net training. I was in that group and volunteered. But that's wild. That 14:19.340 --> 14:26.900 is because, well, we had to have a place to go. Now, I don't remember for 14:26.900 --> 14:32.500 sure, but it seems to me we use the first place we had was the old 14:32.500 --> 14:37.760 phone company office. The US West building. Yeah, then the quest 14:37.760 --> 14:41.960 building for the first 19 years. Yeah. That's where I started as 14:41.960 --> 14:46.960 volunteer was in that location. And I think your husband and some 14:46.960 --> 14:54.500 other people from church came and, you know, modified that not 14:54.500 --> 14:58.600 that location. Tom didn't help with that location. He did. He's 14:58.600 --> 15:03.320 done a lot in the other locations. But yeah. But yeah, they it was a 15:03.320 --> 15:08.360 crazy office too, because it was kind of a 1970s feel where it 15:08.360 --> 15:11.520 had the open tops, you know, the 70s thing where you had the 15:11.520 --> 15:14.100 walls, but you had the open tops, you know, it was all about 15:14.100 --> 15:18.300 that in the schools and public places. And our counseling room 15:18.300 --> 15:22.520 in there had the open top. I remember talking very quietly to 15:22.520 --> 15:25.920 people in that room because the waiting room was right on the 15:25.920 --> 15:31.060 other side of the wall. It was a crazy little space, but we 15:31.060 --> 15:31.980 were there for a long time. 15:32.640 --> 15:39.720 Yeah, that was good. I remember we need to get when 15:39.720 --> 15:44.000 we started forming and doing things the way we should. We needed 15:44.000 --> 15:53.120 to have a dinner for us. And actually was our first pregnancy 15:53.120 --> 15:59.520 resource dinner. We had it at the Catholic Church in Cambridge. 15:59.960 --> 16:00.800 The Parish Hall? 16:01.140 --> 16:07.260 Yeah. Yeah. And we brought our own paid plates, paper 16:07.260 --> 16:10.560 plates. We made our own food. 16:11.200 --> 16:15.640 Spaghetti dinner I hear. The board made spaghetti. We did use 16:15.640 --> 16:20.580 their cooking stove, I think, but we did all our own and 16:20.580 --> 16:25.820 turned out good. Yep. And so that's a lot. I think that's 16:25.820 --> 16:30.400 the last time that happened. But if you haven't been to 16:30.400 --> 16:33.340 our dinners, they're not quite like that anymore. But 16:34.300 --> 16:36.800 they're a little different now. But that was the 16:36.800 --> 16:45.020 beginning. So that was our first lunch. Yeah. Yeah. One 16:45.900 --> 16:50.760 other thing I wrote down here. Well, it has expanded. We're 16:50.760 --> 16:57.120 all aware of what's called the Lex Center south of here 16:57.120 --> 16:57.760 a little ways. 16:58.620 --> 17:02.700 Yes, we have two locations now in Cambridge and East 17:02.700 --> 17:08.820 Bethel, both. And when we named them, we rebranded and 17:08.820 --> 17:13.880 named them Lex specialty clinics. We did that behind 17:13.880 --> 17:18.220 Bob's back because he did not want something named after 17:18.220 --> 17:21.380 himself. He's the most humble man I've ever met in my 17:21.380 --> 17:27.700 life. He has been just at a personal level. I'll try not to 17:27.700 --> 17:33.200 get teary. He has been the most amazing person to get to have 17:33.200 --> 17:39.200 in my life. I adore him. He's like the father I never had. He's 17:39.200 --> 17:42.800 the most kind, gentle, giving person. And a lot of times when 17:42.800 --> 17:45.140 you have an organization like this with a founder who's 17:45.140 --> 17:49.380 been involved all the years, they can kind of take it 17:49.380 --> 17:53.840 over and own it, you know? I've never seen Bob try to 17:53.840 --> 17:59.400 own this ever. It's always been the Lord's and he's been such 17:59.400 --> 18:03.700 an amazing mentor to me in that way to know that no matter how 18:03.700 --> 18:06.900 long I'm there, whatever I've done with it has nothing to do 18:06.900 --> 18:12.560 with me. And because that's the legacy he's left is he's all 18:12.560 --> 18:17.060 about it being what God has done. And so we named it 18:17.060 --> 18:21.600 behind his back and then told him he didn't get a choice. 18:24.000 --> 18:30.520 One of the things that is happening, I see in the news 18:32.900 --> 18:39.280 that pregnant abortions are on the rise. Very much. 18:40.060 --> 18:43.460 Yeah. In our state. We stopped it all over again. 18:43.920 --> 18:48.980 And they got the same stuff going on where the young ladies 18:49.440 --> 18:54.180 are being exploited. They're saying, well, we do it. It's easy. 18:54.400 --> 18:58.820 Now all you got to do is take a pill or something. And so the 18:58.820 --> 19:03.160 devil is having a great time. We need to get some more prayer 19:04.340 --> 19:08.660 and get this thing worked out and get the devil kicked out of 19:08.660 --> 19:13.300 there. So, yeah, it's always, it's always got to be 19:13.300 --> 19:20.660 sustained, my prayer. Yeah, that is the number one thing we need. 19:21.180 --> 19:25.440 There's lots of needs in a ministry. The number one need 19:25.440 --> 19:31.180 always for us is prayer because it's, you know, this is the 19:31.180 --> 19:33.060 kind of work that the enemy hates the most. 19:34.320 --> 19:38.400 Because we're not just saving lives and unborn children 19:39.140 --> 19:41.860 there. It's like Bob said, his heart originally was 19:42.400 --> 19:45.860 what about what's happening to these women who are being exploited by this 19:45.860 --> 19:50.660 thing called abortion. And so we're there to save the unborn and bring them to 19:50.660 --> 19:53.860 life. But we're really there to save the 19:53.860 --> 19:58.140 souls of everyone, including the adults, so that those children have a better 19:58.140 --> 20:02.560 life and creating family and creating support and creating 20:03.140 --> 20:05.640 knowledge so that they can go forward and do it well. 20:06.600 --> 20:14.580 And the enemy hates it. He just hates it. So, lots of prayer coverage 20:14.580 --> 20:18.740 is needed all the time. All the time for everybody there. 20:20.600 --> 20:26.900 Yeah, I'm trying to, I thought we had a list of the names of the people. They were 20:27.720 --> 20:34.860 probably a dozen people in our prayer group. And we prayed at least once a week 20:34.860 --> 20:42.020 for two or three months to get that thing going. And that's the way it works with God. 20:43.700 --> 20:49.000 It was over. We had no problem. We knew. Keep praying. It'll happen. 20:50.500 --> 20:54.540 And in the original documents, it was in the original 20:55.320 --> 20:58.460 organizing documents in the Articles of Incorporation. It was 20:58.460 --> 21:04.340 a lot about doing Christian social services. And that was one of our names. 21:04.340 --> 21:13.100 Cambridge Christian Social Services. And starting a Christian adoption agency and 21:13.100 --> 21:18.240 things like that. And it really morphed over time as they worked and prayed. And 21:18.240 --> 21:25.140 over time, God changes that to his plan. And it became the pregnancy center. 21:25.540 --> 21:29.880 And that's really where it landed was that's what we need to do for people 21:30.680 --> 21:34.220 in the community and provide these services. 21:36.560 --> 21:45.740 Pastor Venderman from South Isayne Baptist, I think he went to abortion centers 21:46.420 --> 21:54.360 and stood out front or kneeled out front and prayed for them. And so, yeah, 21:54.980 --> 21:58.400 that was a lot of people needed to be doing that. 21:58.960 --> 22:08.260 And Steve Newton, I don't know if he did that, but I know he was the pastor of the church then. 22:08.880 --> 22:15.120 So, the church supported us. Most of the churches around here did support. 22:16.000 --> 22:23.040 There's a couple that didn't. I mean, I don't remember what church it was, 22:23.040 --> 22:29.620 but I got thrown out of one church. I could guess, but I won't say. 22:32.100 --> 22:34.500 So, it doesn't always work just right. 22:38.800 --> 22:45.200 Yeah, I don't know. I don't have much more to say. Anyone has any questions? 22:45.700 --> 22:48.060 Yeah, we're happy to take questions and 22:50.200 --> 22:56.820 a couple of things some of you may or may not know, but in 1995, when I think that was about 22:56.820 --> 23:07.740 the time I came in as a volunteer, we formed a center in Moira. And we started that center, 23:07.960 --> 23:16.380 and that center was a piece of us until probably about four or five years before they 23:16.380 --> 23:21.860 were ready to file their own 501c3 and go on their own. So, we planted the Moira Pregnancy Center. 23:22.380 --> 23:29.960 So, that's kind of fun history. And then in 2016, we opened our East Bethel location. 23:30.680 --> 23:37.560 And that one we're keeping, it's just part of us. So, yeah. So, that's some of the history too. 23:37.860 --> 23:44.080 We've had a lot of name changes also. In 1985, we started out as East Central Crisis Pregnancy 23:44.080 --> 23:50.660 Center. And then we changed our names. Well, we did an affiliation in 1990 with New Life Family 23:50.660 --> 23:57.400 Services for a few years. And we're under their auspices. So, we were a new life. And then 23:57.400 --> 24:03.360 in 1993 was when we filed our own certificate of incorporation and became Cambridge Christian 24:03.360 --> 24:10.580 Social Services. And then in 1994, we changed our name and became Cambridge Crisis Pregnancy 24:10.580 --> 24:16.720 Center, which was a name that was used a lot for pregnancy centers back then. And then in 24:16.720 --> 24:26.280 1995, we did the Care Net affiliation. In 1995, we opened Moira, the Moira Center. In 2002, 24:26.800 --> 24:31.080 we changed our name again. We became the Pregnancy Resource Center of Cambridge. 24:31.860 --> 24:36.440 And that was happening all across the country for pregnancy centers to get away from the crisis 24:36.440 --> 24:44.940 name. And then we moved in 2004 to where we are now in City Center Mall in Cambridge. We had 24:44.940 --> 24:51.620 been in that little tiny 500 and some square feet space for 19 years. And we have been now, 24:51.720 --> 24:59.800 you know, in our space for 21 years. We'd like a new space in Cambridge. We'll get there. 25:02.680 --> 25:10.160 And we added the East Bethel location in 2016. We actually added the Name Lex Specialty Clinic 25:10.160 --> 25:16.400 in about 2008 when we added medical services. We just never really used it. But in 2016, 25:16.400 --> 25:21.160 when we opened East Bethel, we decided we wanted a name that worked for both. So we took it 25:21.160 --> 25:27.500 up and actually started using it at that time. So, and here we are today, our 40th anniversary 25:27.500 --> 25:37.160 year in 2025. So we'll have our fall events coming up in October. I have invites out there. If you 25:37.160 --> 25:42.240 haven't been invited, please come. It's going to be a celebration year. So we're going to have a lot 25:42.240 --> 25:55.570 of fun. Oh, there was a couple more things. I was going to ask you a question. I can't 25:55.570 --> 26:00.330 remember what it was right now. Does anybody out here have questions? 26:01.910 --> 26:05.850 One thing you've got to keep in mind, 26:08.050 --> 26:17.670 this whole thing is a God issue. I mean, I can still picture the young ladies, they're going 26:17.670 --> 26:23.010 to have an abortion. They're walking down the street heading for the abortion clinic. I'm 26:23.010 --> 26:29.730 thinking, what the world are they doing? They didn't know what they were doing. They just 26:29.730 --> 26:40.030 didn't. They needed someone to guide them. And they were being guided now by the wrong principles. 26:41.010 --> 26:49.010 They needed someone to come in and God said, it's time. It's time to do that. So that's 26:49.010 --> 26:59.510 the way the center came. I always say that abortion is an evil tool of the enemy. It 26:59.510 --> 27:07.070 really is. It does so much more than just the loss of that unborn child, everything it does to 27:07.490 --> 27:13.850 a woman, a man, a family, you know, parent, grand, potential grandparents, etc. 27:14.650 --> 27:19.590 It just affects so many lives in so many ways. It's so destructive. 27:20.930 --> 27:26.910 And of course, we've all seen over the years how devaluing life that way 27:27.650 --> 27:32.490 devalues life in all ways. And we get to kind of where we are today, where people cheer over 27:32.490 --> 27:41.870 the death of someone publicly. And that's that devaluing of life across time. And abortion 27:41.870 --> 27:50.770 does that. It devalues life. It ruins the lives of those who are the exploited victims, women and 27:50.770 --> 28:02.410 men, and destroys families. So it's an evil tool. So it's almost like we're not quite there, but 28:03.730 --> 28:11.070 at the same spot again, with more abortions happening, we've got to step up a little more. 28:11.910 --> 28:18.070 In our state, of course, as you all probably know, it's a different area right now with 28:18.070 --> 28:25.930 our current laws. And we have the most progressive abortion in the country in Minnesota, 28:26.670 --> 28:32.890 our laws, our current laws. And we're right up there with North Korea, China, Canada, 28:33.910 --> 28:42.330 with allowing it all nine months and even after in certain ways. And it, you know, 28:42.330 --> 28:48.750 it's kind of crazy in that way. But an abortion is up somewhere between 40 and 50% in our state, 28:48.830 --> 28:54.210 but that's because we're attracting from other states. We're a sanctuary state for it. We won't 28:54.210 --> 28:59.550 help prosecute even if it's illegal to bring them here. Our government won't help with any 28:59.550 --> 29:06.290 prosecution in the other state. So we're a sanctuary state. And that means people are 29:06.290 --> 29:13.210 coming here for the service as well as our own. So we are in a difficult spot right now as far as 29:13.210 --> 29:20.050 that goes, but God is more powerful than this evil. And there are more pregnancy centers in Minnesota 29:20.050 --> 29:25.710 than abortion facilities. And so we just have to keep marching on and doing what we're doing. 29:25.990 --> 29:31.790 We have to keep getting the message out. We have to keep providing the services that allow 29:31.790 --> 29:37.290 these women to come in and get these free services that are attractive, even in their 29:37.290 --> 29:43.970 circumstance, and help them see life. And that's what we do. 29:45.550 --> 29:51.370 Bob, did you say it was Luke 4.18? That's the, is that the scripture that? 29:51.750 --> 29:52.010 Pardon? 29:52.270 --> 29:55.530 Luke 4.18. Is that the scripture that? 29:56.070 --> 29:56.290 Yes. 29:56.810 --> 29:57.830 Okay. Let me read that. 29:58.150 --> 29:58.590 Okay. 29:58.590 --> 30:05.130 Says the spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. 30:05.910 --> 30:11.550 He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, and that the blind will see, 30:12.030 --> 30:16.990 that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord's favor has come. 30:19.150 --> 30:21.490 That is beautifully perfect. 30:23.250 --> 30:25.130 Well, of course there's more questions. 30:25.130 --> 30:26.250 Okay. Questions? 30:30.350 --> 30:35.450 I don't know how long ago it was. You got the ultrasonic, ultrasonic machine. 30:36.030 --> 30:39.010 And I've heard that it's had a great success. 30:39.370 --> 30:47.490 Yes. We started doing ultrasounds in 2007, 2008. That was when we added medical services. 30:48.730 --> 30:54.890 And the statistics nationally are somewhere between 85 and 95 percent of women will change 30:54.890 --> 31:02.210 their mind when they see their baby on ultrasound. Our success rate within our clinics has always been 31:02.210 --> 31:10.270 between 95 and 99 percent successful. It's highly successful with good counseling around it. 31:10.850 --> 31:17.210 And we work hard to have really good training for our advocates and our nurses, 31:17.210 --> 31:22.670 so that they're getting that full holistic support around that ultrasound. 31:23.330 --> 31:24.230 Thank you. 31:27.220 --> 31:34.860 This may be a difficult question for you, but how many people do you feel are gals and 31:34.860 --> 31:42.240 husbands and everything rolled together? Do you think you've helped you and the Lord? 31:43.300 --> 31:44.400 I'm not sure I heard all. 31:44.820 --> 31:52.560 How many people do we think, all together, with the women, men, etc., do we think we've helped 31:52.560 --> 32:01.840 in 40 years? I guess I would have to say, well, I would have to say 32:03.660 --> 32:11.180 conservatively, based on our annual statistics, I would have to say conservatively 32:11.860 --> 32:18.620 5,000, but I bet it's way more because I'm being really conservative in my mental math right now. 32:19.540 --> 32:26.300 Over 40 years. It's probably much higher than that, but yeah, yeah. 32:26.860 --> 32:32.460 It really is amazing, effective work. If you're going to pray for us, one thing that we need a 32:32.460 --> 32:37.260 lot of prayer for right now, well, lots of things, but let me give you the highlights, 32:37.940 --> 32:41.900 would be how suppressed we're being and getting our message out. 32:43.780 --> 32:48.840 Almost no matter how we work to use today's tools for marketing, 32:50.040 --> 32:58.140 we get tamped down in the background. It's very challenging. So we added Google ads in June 32:58.140 --> 33:02.600 of this year. We've been working for two years on some electronic stuff, a new client website, 33:03.080 --> 33:09.340 SEO, all the things you need to do proper online marketing today, taking it up a notch, 33:09.340 --> 33:14.860 spending money on this. We got our Google ads live in June. We had all our other things in place, 33:14.860 --> 33:24.860 and we added Google ads. And our our pregnancy tests more than tripled in the first month. 33:25.800 --> 33:29.480 The next month, they went down a little bit and now they've dropped right back down to 33:29.480 --> 33:33.860 where we were. We're working with our marketing company saying what's going on in the background 33:33.860 --> 33:40.460 of our Google ads, because we used to do Facebook marketing a lot. And then they were, 33:40.760 --> 33:45.560 we'd pay for ads. And then they were, our ads weren't really showing up, even though we were 33:45.560 --> 33:49.100 paying for them. Finally, they told us we just couldn't advertise because we didn't meet the 33:49.100 --> 33:55.520 standards. And then so we started boosting posts on Facebook, paying to push them out more. 33:55.940 --> 33:59.360 That worked for a while till they caught up with that. And then they said we couldn't 33:59.360 --> 34:05.360 boost. You know, we didn't meet some standards, so we couldn't boost. So everything on Facebook 34:05.360 --> 34:10.200 is now organic, which is fine. It's it's more for our donors now than clientele anyway. 34:10.900 --> 34:16.840 So we have to push into some weird spaces like TikTok and Snapchat. So we're looking at that now 34:16.840 --> 34:23.380 for social media. But even Google is, which isn't shocking, right? But Google ads are used 34:23.380 --> 34:27.040 in a lot of centers. So we're trying to figure out what's going on right now there. 34:27.040 --> 34:32.480 We need a lot of prayer for these things because this is where the enemy really tries to work, 34:32.540 --> 34:38.620 is to keep the message down. When I started, I don't know about you, Bob, long ago, because 34:38.620 --> 34:42.940 you probably went and spoke in a bazillion churches at the beginning to get the message out 34:43.520 --> 34:51.800 about the center. Yeah. And when I started 20, 21 years ago, I was out in churches all the 34:51.800 --> 34:58.460 time. And now I rarely get invited to churches. So that's a problem too, is we can't even get into 34:58.460 --> 35:04.100 churches or church youth groups to speak to them on the issues. So it's getting more challenging in 35:04.100 --> 35:09.620 many, many ways to get the message out. And so we really need ambassadors and helpers in that 35:09.620 --> 35:15.480 area to just speak about us and help us get into spaces that are harder to get into. 35:18.010 --> 35:24.030 Yeah, I got a question or a comment. Why don't we jump on the Charlie Kirk deal? There's a lot of 35:24.030 --> 35:29.490 young people out there that are really going out for Christ right now. And what a perfect 35:29.490 --> 35:34.830 opportunity to put the word out between them, you know, there's openings all over the place 35:34.830 --> 35:40.170 going on. I don't know how you would do it because I don't know. That's a really good 35:40.170 --> 35:46.130 thought that we'd have to think of, like, how do we jump on that in the young space? Yeah, 35:46.130 --> 35:49.830 when you talk, let's talk about any ideas you have Sabrina on that, because 35:51.070 --> 35:59.250 obviously we've all seen what has happened since that assassination of really spurring people to 35:59.250 --> 36:07.750 speak and to stand up and to be more bold. And that's a really good idea to think about. 36:07.930 --> 36:14.250 How do we tap into some of that young population? Because that's what it really 36:14.250 --> 36:20.210 takes as them pushing in their own spaces, campuses, schools, you know, we can't just walk 36:20.210 --> 36:27.810 into a campus or a school. We have to be invited in. And that takes the students who are there 36:27.810 --> 36:33.010 to make it happen because they're there and they do have a right to have those types of things come 36:33.010 --> 36:39.190 in. But that the schools are doing a really good job of tamping down so that they don't even 36:39.190 --> 36:46.610 know about us. We used to go in to the schools and present. And we can't now. We can't go into 36:46.610 --> 36:52.710 the schools and present. So it's a challenge. We've got to change that and figure out how to 36:52.710 --> 36:59.490 get back in those spaces where we've kind of been pushed out. And it's super important because 36:59.490 --> 37:09.090 of how this is affecting our young people and our college students. College age are the 37:09.090 --> 37:19.850 24. I think the Charlie Kirk thing is going to have a lot to do with what we're with besides other 37:19.850 --> 37:28.410 things, what we're doing now. Because the young people now are not susceptible, like they used to 37:28.410 --> 37:37.110 be, to the stuff the devil is issuing. They're looking for godly stuff. So I think that I'm 37:37.110 --> 37:44.330 just expecting that the abortion rate is going to start going down. I don't know. 37:44.770 --> 37:54.150 I think the way Charlie did things and his ability to reach the youth and do it through 37:54.150 --> 37:57.870 social media, you know, social media just like anything can be used for good or bad. 37:58.510 --> 38:04.990 And he utilized it for good messaging. And that's one thing we're really looking at right 38:04.990 --> 38:12.810 now is how do we utilize short clips of staff, of even client stories. We've been very protective of 38:12.810 --> 38:19.370 our clients always and, you know, don't even ask them to speak about their stuff. But we realized 38:19.370 --> 38:24.350 as a team recently, after all this happened, you know, they live online. They share everything 38:24.350 --> 38:29.110 online. And we need to just ask and get permission and have them sign up and do a short 38:29.110 --> 38:34.590 blip of what our place has done for them in their own words to share with others their age. 38:34.970 --> 38:39.870 Because we have to get away from that thought of never show a client, you know, 38:39.950 --> 38:45.350 once a year at banquet, we get a client story. We have to think differently 38:45.350 --> 38:51.650 and get out of the box because they live differently. They don't live that way. They 38:51.650 --> 38:56.650 share everything online. And so we have to be willing to change our minds that not 38:56.650 --> 39:03.570 to abuse that, certainly, to be very careful. But with permission, etc., they're probably way 39:03.570 --> 39:11.150 more willing than we even want to think. So we have to do more of that too and do those little 39:11.150 --> 39:17.970 blips in the right social media spaces like he did to get the message out. 39:20.150 --> 39:23.470 God has protected us too. As far as I know, 39:24.250 --> 39:30.530 there's been no break-ins, no broken windows, no broken windows, no vandalism. 39:31.290 --> 39:39.650 What we did do when we started, we anointed the door frames with God. And I think 39:40.370 --> 39:43.690 God has used that to protect us. Every location we have done that. 39:43.690 --> 39:50.330 And when we opened that, I prayed not only that God would protect it, but that as 39:51.030 --> 39:57.570 each worker came through that door, that it's like a trick that kids used to do, 39:57.730 --> 40:04.010 put a bucket of water. Well, we put a bucket of Holy Spirit so that when they walk through, 40:04.330 --> 40:08.830 the Holy Spirit would fall upon them and then be so happy to be there. 40:09.630 --> 40:17.830 And our team meets as a whole unit every Tuesday for 30 minutes of prayer for the ministry. 40:19.670 --> 40:26.230 And that's always one of our prayers is as people come in the door, they feel 40:26.230 --> 40:30.910 the power of the Holy Spirit as they enter, that they know they've entered a different space, 40:31.890 --> 40:36.250 even if they don't understand it, which many would not, but they feel it. 40:36.250 --> 40:41.550 And that's our prayer is as people walk in the doors, no matter who they are, 40:42.370 --> 40:52.550 doesn't matter who they are, staff, volunteers, clients, anybody, that they feel the 40:52.550 --> 40:55.990 difference as they walk in our door and the power of the Holy Spirit present. 40:56.750 --> 41:05.130 So, and Bob made sure that every door and window was blessed and we prayed over them. 41:06.050 --> 41:11.130 So General Motors called me a couple of weeks ago and they said, wow, 41:12.010 --> 41:19.810 we would love to hire Gina. Would you let her go? We said, not in a million years. 41:21.030 --> 41:25.450 God is good. He's so gracious and the work is hard. 41:25.990 --> 41:33.010 As Bob knows for many, many years, it's hard work, but God is good and gracious and 41:33.010 --> 41:41.110 He has blessed this ministry beyond all we could ask or imagine. And we know He's fixing to do 41:41.110 --> 41:48.310 something again because we always have certain, certain markers that kind of happen to us 41:49.670 --> 41:54.330 that tell us something's right about, right around the bend. And the thing is, 41:54.330 --> 41:58.930 we don't always know what that is. Like we literally are like, we don't know exactly what's 41:58.930 --> 42:04.230 coming, but we all feel that right now. And we don't know exactly what's coming, but we know 42:04.230 --> 42:11.030 God's about to do something else. And every time He has just really expanded the ministry in a way 42:11.030 --> 42:18.430 that that we couldn't have even thought of ourselves. So He's got something up a sleeve. 42:19.970 --> 42:21.630 So someone else had a question. 42:24.330 --> 42:28.650 Is there a resource center like yours in Princeton? 42:29.230 --> 42:37.130 There is. So Malacca has a pregnancy center called Rum River Life Choices. And in Princeton 42:37.130 --> 42:42.950 is their satellite center, much like we have in East Bethel. So there is a Rum River Life 42:42.950 --> 42:50.030 Choices in Princeton now. And I know the director over there, Ann, and she's amazing. And they 42:50.030 --> 42:57.070 run very similar services. Everything's run very, very similarly. They are a care net affiliate as 42:57.070 --> 43:03.730 well. So they kind of use that as they're overarching. And yeah, they do great work over 43:03.730 --> 43:13.830 there. So there is. And because there's service area between us, you know, we're respecting 43:13.830 --> 43:19.670 of one another. And we just let churches are kind of in between choose. We don't care. 43:20.030 --> 43:27.270 We're not territorial about that kind of thing. We know God will do it all. You know, a cute story 43:27.270 --> 43:31.590 about the territorial thing. I have met directors who can get a little territorial. I've never been 43:31.590 --> 43:35.770 territorial because why would you have a territorial or something like this? To me, that 43:35.770 --> 43:40.210 seems silly. But it's all God. I don't care where they go. I just want them to go to a 43:40.210 --> 43:45.930 good place that gives them the help they need, saves their child and helps them find the Lord. 43:46.610 --> 43:49.770 And we were looking for our first satellite location. 43:51.170 --> 43:57.730 And we first looked towards Princeton. We thought, ah, Princeton had had a center and it had 43:57.730 --> 44:05.230 closed. Didn't make it. And we thought, you know, maybe that'd be a good location. And I got 44:05.230 --> 44:10.350 a call from Ann and she's like, we're going to open a branch in Princeton. I'm like, great news. 44:10.350 --> 44:15.890 Now I know we're not going there, you know. And so then we started looking at North Branch. 44:16.310 --> 44:20.570 And we thought, you know, it's on the 35th corridor. It's very underserved over there. 44:20.650 --> 44:27.370 There was a center down in, um, Lake Shasago, um, Center City, or Shasago over there in there. 44:28.030 --> 44:34.670 And, um, so we were really looking at that. And then the Lord, um, 44:36.350 --> 44:39.590 I got a phone call from the Shasago Center and they said, 44:39.590 --> 44:42.830 we're going to pull up stakes and move to North Branch. Would you meet with our director 44:43.350 --> 44:48.990 and give her some advice and direction? And I said, absolutely. And so I met with her and, 44:49.010 --> 44:53.350 and then they were doing their first banquet over in North Branch. Now we had a bunch of churches 44:53.350 --> 44:59.510 in North Branch supporting us because we were serving their community. And, um, 45:00.390 --> 45:05.250 so we talked and they really needed help to get it going and revitalize. They had 45:05.250 --> 45:12.270 kind of been dying over in Center City and Shasago. And so, um, I said, I'll tell you what, 45:12.330 --> 45:17.450 I'll come to your first banquet. I'll tell my story. I'll be your speaker for free. And, um, 45:18.350 --> 45:22.630 and then at the end I'll tell all the churches to support you. And that's what we did. 45:23.210 --> 45:27.710 And that's what the majority of the churches did. And I had a few directors tell me, 45:27.810 --> 45:34.190 you're crazy. Like, that's a huge chunk of your support. And I said, they're not my churches. 45:36.910 --> 45:45.510 And after that, we grew exponentially. And the Lord plucked us in East Bethel where we 45:45.510 --> 45:49.790 didn't, we weren't even looking down in Enoka County, which desperately needs way more than 45:49.790 --> 45:56.510 even our one. We could easily put another location down in the Blaine area. Um, easily 45:56.510 --> 46:01.650 I mean in the sense of service need, not easily in the sense of many other things it 46:01.650 --> 46:09.270 takes to do that. But, um, I just mean in the need of, of people in Enoka County. So yeah, 46:09.510 --> 46:17.070 God is good. He just leads, provides. It's His. It's not ours. And you don't have to worry about 46:17.070 --> 46:23.990 it. He'll take care of it. We have not, not closed our doors yet. 46:26.690 --> 46:34.670 I got a question for Bob. So your first, your first couple months, well first six months, 46:35.530 --> 46:41.190 what, what services did they provide when you started? And how did people find you 46:41.190 --> 46:50.570 when you started in 1985? We had a, I think it was like word of mouth, mostly. 46:51.970 --> 46:58.010 Because it was kind of discouraging. Oh, use the microphone. Use your mic. It was kind of discouraging 46:58.010 --> 47:04.750 because people would come up to me and ask you what you're doing while we were with the 47:04.750 --> 47:11.890 pregnancy resource center. And they would say, what's that? They still do. They still do. They still do. 47:13.730 --> 47:17.410 But it was just kind of more like people just knew 47:17.410 --> 47:24.550 the word gets passed. And we just provided at the beginning 47:25.570 --> 47:34.510 free pregnancy tests and counseling and a, like a baby closet, like a free material baby closet. 47:39.350 --> 47:45.930 Sometimes in the tough days after I was director and we were adding medical and doing all that 47:45.930 --> 47:52.050 at the board, Bob sometimes would say we'd be talking complex things. And Bob would say, 47:52.310 --> 47:55.150 can we just go back to doing pregnancy testing, counseling? 47:58.630 --> 48:08.770 Incidentally, Gina talks about board members. We had phenomenal board members. Man, I'm telling 48:08.770 --> 48:20.570 you, we still do. They could just do anything. God is really good. So Bob, could I maybe invite you 48:20.570 --> 48:26.330 to come to our Lions meeting one of these days and maybe ask for a little help being that you're a 48:26.330 --> 48:32.650 Cambridge office? Would you be willing to come in and just talk to us for a little bit and ask 48:32.650 --> 48:38.610 for your donation on Monday? No, no, one of the I'll tell you when we you and I get together every 48:38.610 --> 48:44.410 week, but I'll let you know. Would you be willing to do that? I'll come. Okay. Very good. Thank you. 48:45.910 --> 48:48.450 I don't have the same stuff that she has. 48:48.450 --> 48:54.530 We have to do a D there. Any other questions? 48:56.270 --> 49:03.970 Anyone? Anybody? How about Bob? Do you happen to remember what your tract said 49:04.530 --> 49:09.350 when you were passing out tracks at the very beginning? Like, what was it? I never wrote it. 49:09.930 --> 49:14.190 It was something that you purchased? I just had a plan and I said that's what I'm going to do. 49:15.730 --> 49:23.530 But somehow or another during that time, somebody told me about something that was going up in Duluth 49:24.310 --> 49:29.270 and so I called somebody up there and they kind of told me no, you don't want to do that, what 49:29.270 --> 49:38.510 you're doing. And then we talked about Steve Newton or somebody said there's something going 49:38.510 --> 49:45.490 on in Minneapolis that you should know about. So I thought about them and then that encouraged me. 49:45.670 --> 49:50.130 Well, that's what we need to do for the startup center. 49:54.350 --> 50:00.990 But Bob's so humble, he won't tell you that he still goes all over and hands out his book he wrote 50:03.010 --> 50:10.350 and your book, you go around and hand out your book. No, it's not, but he's humble. He goes out 50:10.350 --> 50:15.470 and hands out his book he wrote in restaurants. He just waits for the right person to come along, 50:15.530 --> 50:24.510 the Lord to tell him I need to do that. And he's done amazing things like smuggle Bibles into China 50:26.950 --> 50:34.510 many times. He's an amazing person, so he's very brave, doesn't shy away from tough things. 50:34.870 --> 50:38.050 So it doesn't surprise me that he found it this place.