A Baby Born, A Baby Saved. The lives of two unborn babies intersected with mine this week. One of them was an unborn girl who is as well known to me as an unborn baby could be to her grandfather: Honor, to whom Macon’s wife Kellsey gave birth on Thursday.

The other unborn one is still unborn today, but the baby is well too. She came close to dying this week, but my friend John Ensor helped her mother make a decision not to abort. And because I am on the board of a foundation that gave John’s organization a grant to help starts its good work in Miami this year and because Carol and I give a little bit to his organization each month, I feel a sort of “ownership” of that little life too.

John, a Baptist minister from the Boston area, has been detailed by Heartbeat International to Miami-Dade County to breathe some life into the pale pro-life efforts of Christians in this area. Our churches here are pre-occupied with themselves staying alive, without much attention to spare to those outside of their core congregations, as if God would let any of his local churches prosper when they were pre-occupied with themselves. John’s organization sent him down here because Miami has one of the highest abortion rates in the country, maybe the highest ratio of abortion parlors per thousand in the country, and probably the lowest ratio of women’s pregnancy counseling centers. He has pulled the fragmented pro-mother efforts we do have in this area into an affilated oranization called Heartbeat of Miami.

John had spoken at one of our Wednesday night suppers about six months ago, which is when I first met him. And he was back in town this week and came by for supper at church this past Wednesday. He told us this story.

That very morning, he received a telephone call on his cell phone from a local church that he had visited during an earlier visit. It was the church secretary who told him of a young, pregnant woman, a woman who already had several little children, who had called the church, weeping, and said that she needed to talk to a minister because she had an appointment at a pro-abortion center to set up the termination, and didn’t feel good about it. All of the pastors of that church were out for the day, and so the church secretary called John.

He spoke and then met with the young mother. She told him that she had been driven to her decision by the fact that her landlord was going to evict her within a day or two; she had no money, and felt that she could not handle the rest of the pregnancy or deal with her already born children and face homelessness. John asked her how much she needed not be evicted, and she said (as I recall it) around $280, one month’s rent. John said that he would get her the money. He immediately called the landlord, who was unmoved by the fact that John said he was a minister and would write him a check for what was due. So John made arrangements to wire the funds to this man, despite the best efforts of Western Union to frustrate his efforts. The young woman was not evicted, and John no doubt will connect her with some believers who will help her further.

It was a great week for grandfathers.