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Showing posts with label Life Uninvited. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life Uninvited. Show all posts
Monday, January 15, 2018
My Mom Wanted Me to Live; I Want The Same For Her, by Travon Clifton
This is an urgent prayer request, published with permission from Travon Clifton, and as you read it, you will see that what Travon has to say is quite profound. I hope it will move you to prayer, as it did me.
-- Rebecca Kiessling
I'm reaching out to inform some and update others on my mother's health. For the last 8 months, my mom has been battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and it has taken a toll on her little frame. Only last week, we bid a fond farewell to my maternal grandmother Isabel Williams (78) and that caused further trauma to my mother's emotions. Some of you may recall that my grandma was an unwed teenage mother, giving birth to my mom at age 15. This had a huge effect on my mom's decision to choose life for me at age 19 when she conceived me during an awful rape.
My mom asked me to preach my grandmother's eulogy, and at first I declined her request. However, the Holy Spirit impressed upon me to say yes. It was in that moment of obedience, I could really see the magnitude of her decision and my grandmother's influence as I looked into my mother's face, telling the story once again. I could also see the endurance, perseverance, and her joy of seeing me share the love of Jesus and her mother's legacy. This was the first time many in my own family heard me tell it (and more) outside of the Compassion Project commercials and the Life Uninvited documentary produced by Right to Life of Michigan and aired on state-wide television. Because my mother so courageously stood with me from the womb and chose life for me, I am compelled to do the same for her as I advocate with the doctors and intercede by faith on her behalf. What I know is that I cannot bear this load alone, which is why I'm coming to you asking that you join me in prayer for my mother's complete healing.
Since I know her eternal home is secure in Jesus Christ, I can afford to be so bold in my faith and ask the Lord for this miracle. I want to see my mother rise from her death bed and go forth in ministry, telling her side of the story so that other mothers won't feel the need to carry the shame of being raped and loving the child who they didn't ask to be conceived.
My mom wanted me to live. I want the same for her.
Will you pray with me for the healing of my mother Victoria Forté and share with other prayer warriors? Thank you in advance for your commitment.
You can follow updates here: https://m.facebook.com/TravonPClifton/
You can follow updates here: https://m.facebook.com/TravonPClifton/
BIO: Travon Clifton is a daughter, a wife, and a mother of two. She's also an international pro-life speaker and blogger with Save The 1. Her interview, Conceived In Rape, will be re-airing with Dr. James Dobson on Family Talk Tues - Th, Jan. 16-18th.Thursday, January 14, 2016
Further Traumatized by Abortion After Rape -- Sheryl's Story, by Rebecca Kiessling
After sharing my conceived in rape story a few years ago at Lake County Right to Life’s annual
fundraiser in Indiana, a sweet woman came up to me and through tears, shared
her own story of having endured a forced abortion after being raped while in
foster care. We’ve maintained a
friendship since then, with Sheryl Williams attending our Save The 1 speaker training at the Right to
Life of Michigan legislative office in Lansing, Michigan a year and a half ago.
It was there that Sheryl got to meet RLM President Barb
Listing and producer Jim Hanon, who then collaborated with several Save The 1 speakers on 4 TV ads and 5-minute short story videos called
their “Compassion Project,” and now a 30-minute documentary called “Life Uninvited,” to be aired all across Michigan the
weekends of Jan. 23-24th, and Jan. 30-31st. Sheryl’s story is
included in both and I know you’ll want to share her important story.
Sheryl and her sister were raped by their own father as young children, and by their grandfather.
When they told their mom and others, they weren’t believed, and the abuse
went on for several years. Finally, at age 13, they were taken to foster care. However, Sheryl was raped by a teenaged boy while in foster care. Again, she was afraid to report the rape,
saying “I definitely didn’t tell anybody. . . .
Mom didn’t believe me way back here with all of this, then clearly this
is gonna sound totally crazy.”
Then Sheryl explains, “I was placed in yet again another
foster home, and I started getting sick.”
She says the foster mother asked if she was pregnant, and Sheryl was
shocked by the question, not having considered such a possibility. The young man who raped her was then
questioned and he denied everything – even denying having had intercourse with her at
all, which completely surprised Sheryl.
But then she thought to herself, “You know what, with or without him, I
can do this.”
She shares how she already began to bond with her baby: “As time went on, I felt it kick, and I
could connect, like 'Okay, I get it!' I
was just so excited -- you know, about being a mom. In my mind, this was something nobody could
take. It’s me, it’s part of me. I was just excited. . . .”
However, everything changed in an instant when she thought
the foster mother was taking her for a checkup:
“The next thing you know, I’m in an abortion. I don’t even remember whose decision. I don’t even remember any of that. I just remember the table and being on that
table. I don’t even remember driving
there. I don’t think I understood that
that’s where I was going.” Sheryl says
she felt hopeless, like “I don’t matter. My voice
doesn’t matter. What I think doesn’t
matter. My feelings don’t matter.” After the abortion, things really went
downhill for her: “I was already a
loner, and I pretty much went on total shutdown.”
Reflecting on how things could have been different for her,
Sheryl explains, “I wish back then when they thought they were so-called
‘helping’ me – I wish they would have gotten me counseling. I wish I would have been able just to say,
‘Hey, here’s what happened,’ and felt like I would have been believed. There was no security blanket.”
Sheryl wants other young women to know this: “You have
choices, and if you don’t give it up for adoption, give it to an aunt or
uncle. Just don’t do the abortion thing
– that will haunt you.”
She then explains how different her life is now – that she
sings in a church choir, which is where she met her husband. Her marriage has helped her to see the true
character of God. She says she learned
“This is what you really look like Lord.
You don’t hurt people. You do
help.” Sheryl says her husband
represented that, which has brought her healing.
But Sheryl still struggled with forgiving herself for the
abortion which was perpetrated upon her.
She knew that God forgives and wants us to forgive, “But then I realized
I had to forgive myself, and I hadn’t done that – not by a long shot. I just wish society realized the long-term
effect emotionally and mentally that this has on women, and that abortion
should never be an option, even in the case of rape. To further traumatize the woman the way I’ve
been further traumatized -- I just don’t want this to happen to anybody else.”
Sheryl will be attending the March for Life in Washington,
D.C. for the first time this year, and we hope you’ll come by and see her at
our Save The 1 booth at the Expo, and thank her for sharing her story when you
see our pink signs at the March. Please take the time to watch and share the moving 30-second ad and the 5-minute video of Sheryl's story here.
BIO: Rebecca Kiessling is an attorney, writer, pro-life speaker
and founder and President of Save The 1.
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