Posted on 09/06/2012 3:26:54 PM PDT by NYer
MANKATO, Minnesota, 5 September, 12 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Rachel remembers being excited as she purchased a red Bound4LIFE bracelet with the single word LIFE engraved on it. Wearing the bracelet wasn’t a fad or fashion statement for her, but a sign of her commitment to pray daily for the ending of abortion.
But one day, as Rachel was loading groceries into her car from Walmart, the LIFE Band inexplicably slipped off her wrist and landed on the parking lot, without her even knowing it had happened.
“I looked everywhere for it — in my car, my bedroom, everywhere,” said Rachel in a testimony obtained by LifeSiteNews. “I finally decided that it must have slipped off while I was carrying those groceries to the car.”
While being perplexed about how the bracelet could have fallen off her wrist without her knowing it, Rachel nevertheless hoped that “somebody who needs it will find it.”
Not many months later, Rachel began a job as a server in a local Olive Garden restaurant. One day a mother and her newborn baby came in and were seated in her section.
Rachel greeted the woman at the table and remembers her being “very pretty” and “probably in her mid-20s.”
“She seemed a bit shy, but she smiled as I greeted her.”
Rachel served her a drink, took her order, and made some small talk about how the woman’s baby was beautiful and seemed so peaceful as she slept in her baby seat.
As Rachel talked to the woman, she caught a quick glimpse of a red bracelet wrapped around the woman’s wrist with the distinctive word LIFE engraved on it.
“You have a LIFE Band, huh?” Rachel ventured.
The woman was at first confused about what Rachel was referring to, but then clued in.
“Yeah, I found this in a parking lot,” the woman replied.
The woman, noticing that Rachel was curious about the bracelet, mentioned that she had a peculiar story about the bracelet that she would not mind sharing. Rachel was all ears.
The woman recounted that a few months previous she was dismayed to find herself unexpectedly pregnant. She had gone out shopping to distract herself because she had just scheduled an appointment to get an abortion and was terrified about it. The appointment was two days away.
As the woman walked from her car into Walmart, a red bracelet lying on the ground caught her eye. She picked it up and saw that it had the word LIFE on it. She quickly stowed the bracelet in her purse and continued with her shopping.
That night the woman sat in her room crying, filled with an awful dread about what she was about to do. She was worried about what her parents would think and felt the need to “get rid of the problem.” As well, her boyfriend had abandoned her, making abortion seem like the only choice that was left.
At this point in the woman’s story, Rachel could not hold back her tears any longer. She completely forgot that she was supposed to be working and that she had other tables to serve.
The woman recounted how at this bleakest of moments, she suddenly remembered the bracelet in her purse. She pulled it out and held it in her fingers until she drifted off into a troubled sleep.
At one point she suddenly awoke in the middle of the night with the word “LIFE” surging through her mind and heart.
In the morning, the woman canceled her abortion appointment.
“I was stunned,” Rachel remembers about hearing this incredible story. “All I could do was cry. This beautiful baby girl that was sitting in the carrier was her almost aborted baby. I just couldn’t stop crying.”
Through sobs and sniffles, Rachel told the woman how she had lost a LIFE Band in the very same parking lot, not many months ago.
“I told her the meaning behind the band and what the word LIFE on the band actually meant.”
Now both women were crying, with tears of joy and gratitude streaming down their faces.
Through her sobs, the woman managed to whisper to Rachel: “Thank you. If you hadn’t lost this bracelet, I wouldn’t have my beautiful baby next to me.”
Lou Engle, preacher and co-founder of The Call, related Rachel’s amazing story during a sermon at Bethel Church in Redding, California a week and a half ago.
“God is in the business of rescuing life,” he proclaimed to an enthusiastic crowd. “I tell you, nothing has encouraged me like [this story] in this whole movement.”
Engle mentioned that he loves telling Rachel’s story because it gives him faith to keep praying the prayer of intercession connected to the LIFE Band: “Jesus, I plead your blood over my sins and the sins of my nation. God, end abortion and send revival to America.”
Matt Lockett, director of Bound4LIFE, which makes and distributes the LIFE Bands, told LifeSiteNews that Rachel’s testimony is “extraordinary” since it exemplifies how God can “triumph” through a humble piece of rubber.
Carrie Konig, a mother of five who brought Rachel’s story to the attention of LifeSiteNews, pointed out that “God can use anything, even a red bracelet with the word LIFE on it, to save an unborn baby from being aborted.”
Konig said that Rachel’s story dispels criticism that the red LIFE Tape and the LIFE Bands are useless gimmicks in the fight against abortion.
“This testimony has assured me that, as God’s word says, “He uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise (1 Cor. 1:27).”
Rachel says that she will “forever remember” the woman with her precious little daughter.
“Losing that Life Band was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. Ultimately, it was the best thing that happened to this mother and her baby girl who is alive because God intervened in a parking lot one night.”
Ping!
Got me.
nice story but is sounds hokey
It’s an awesome story, and nowhere near something that the Lord cannot arrange—because there is NOTHING the Lord cannot arrange.
Those who would call this story “hokey” are jaded and cynical, and while that’s is their prerogative, it’s really too bad that so many people lose their wonder in this world.
Could the story be fiction? Of course. But, it could also easily be true.
I hope this is a true story. If so it is powerful testament. If not the person who contrived it should be shot
It’s possible something along these lines happened.
Nice!
These stories make me teary, but I’ll admit they seem contrived. Maybe the moral is greater than its veracity. Or something.
Oh ye of little faith
Not when you recognize the hand of God in it.
There’s nothing wrong with Christian fiction stories as a genre, but they should be identified as such. When they are presented as factual accounts it disrespects the Lord.
But it could well happen this way, a teen girl being pressured to have an abortion she really didn’t want (and that happens a lot) might see something that she understands to be a sign from a kind and loving God, that pushes her moral courage to the point where she can stand fast and say no to that abortion. These girls usually don’t want to be fed with excuses. They want the courage to refuse the abortion in the face of social pressure.
Yeah, because human life is hokey. /s
I guess capitalization, correct spelling/words and punctuation are also hokey.
I agree. I don’t doubt that it could have happened. I just know that if such a story is NOT true it hurts us rather than helps us....as you say unless properly labeled
Agreed, I badly wanted to post a picture of the “Cool Story Bro” meme.
This story sounds incredible, but could entirely be plausible. People do win lotteries even if the chances are 300 million to one. In fact, that happens every week!
That being said, no offense to anyone, but I just don’t buy the argument that God saved this baby. God didn’t do jack, it is the involvement of the woman whose LIFE band saved the baby. If God could save 1 baby from being abortion, why let millions of babies be murdered? If anything, abortion tells us that God doesn’t do jack.
Oh ye of little faith
Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Mark 9:24
We all have our weaker moments. God bless you both. ~ R
During a really desperate moment in my life, God got through to me by a handmade sign in the back window of a pickup truck while I was sitting behind it at a stop light.
A significant amount of “coincidences” were required to get that sign/message and me to the exact same intersection, at the very same moment when I was contemplating something quite terrible.
God loves everyone. He is constantly looking for ways to reach folks, especially at their most desperate times. And quite frankly, its the simple things - a sign, a wrist band, or a call from a friend, that can have the most impact, cutting through the mental clutter and reaching the heart.
I find the story quite plausible because of my own experiences, and of similar testimonies others have shared with me over the years.
God has different purposes for everyone. The people who were healed during Jesus’ time on earth represented only a small subset of all human illnesses. But the healing did happen to those few, as a signpost to the rest of us, that God was indeed interested in our lives, and had the power to address all our problems.
The death of Jesus was according to God’s purpose as well. It is not in our power or right to take an innocent human life. But as God is the author of all life, he has that power and that right. But God outdid Himself in this masterstroke, because even in the death of Jesus God was opening the door to a much grander life, an eternal life, created through forgiveness of sins and the healing of souls, not just bodies.
The resurrection of the glorified Jesus only happened to one man, yet so as to be a prototype of the amazing life that awaits all those who put their faith in him. By that one life God demonstrated he had the power over life itself. We are uninformed as to all of God’s dealings, and how could it be otherwise. But when he does step down into our life to show us his love in a direct and personal way, there is nothing wrong with being happy about that, and grateful to know him better.
Peace,
SR
“People do win lotteries even if the chances are 300 million to one. In fact, that happens every week!”
Naw, the chances of someone winning the lottery are 100%, it’s just the chances of you winning the lottery that are 300 million to one.
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