Today is Monday, October 13th, 2008; Karen's Korner #1421
Recently I volunteered to be an ambassador for our local Christian radio station. All three KJYL staff members were unable to visit Kamrar Community Church's mission Sunday. Would I be available to be their representative at the celebration worship service?
I was happy to attend on the station's behalf yesterday.
Another of the ministries supported by the church, "Lighthouse Center of Hope" located in nearby Iowa Falls, was represented at the service and with a display in the fellowship hall. Candi Twedt serves as its director and was happy to tell the congregation of the center's work.
The mission statement on the Lightouse's summer newsletter states: "to nurture respect for human life, mentor Biblical manhood and womanhood, and provide care for mother and child."
So what types of things does the ministry provide?
"We work to strengthen families," said Twedt. "We want to equip young men and women to develop moral character, self-control, and respect for human life. We provide physical, emotional, and spiritual support. We provide non-judgmental counseling."
Twedt said she likes talking to school and church groups illustrating what casual sex is like. "I like to use a piece of tape and put it on someone's arm," she said. "They are asked to remove it and put it on the person next to them. Eventually, the tape won't stick to anyone. It just falls off. It illustrates what happens when we choose to have sex with multiple partners. Sex is the glue which holds a relationship together. It is something which you can give to your spouse which you give to no other person. Our society says to use a condom, but it isn't possible to put a condom on your heart." The good news is some of the education is working: increasing the number of high school students choosing to abstain from sex, moving from 50% to 67% in a decade plus.
So what happens to people who choose otherwise? The Lighthouse is there to provide encouragement and support. "If someone comes to us who is pregnant," said Twedt, "we let them know that God has given them the gift of life. Now they have to decide what to do with that gift. Is that gift for you? Or for someone else?"
If someone has chosen an abortion, the Lighthouse ministry works with parents and grandparents who grieve the choice of an abortion after the fact. "Satan tells us to get rid of the problem," Twedt said, "and then condemns us after we have made that fateful choice. But God forgives us for the mis-choices we make. 2 John 1:5 says, 'God is Light and in Him there is no darkness.'"
From their summer newsletter:
When citizens of a foreign war
kill each other,
the news calls it 'civil war'.
When it happens in America,
the news calls it 'choice'.
~ quoted in a Focus on the Family publication
~~
As we were standing in front of Candi's display, three-year-old twins began handling some of her props: 10-week and 15- week fetus models. They oohed and aahed, saying, "A baby! A baby!", as they took turns holding the smaill infants.
Too bad the tots can't teach some adults, what the two instintively knew: at a few weeks after conception, a baby is........a baby!
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