Standing up for the unborn in the name of God is not easy. The spiritual battle over abortion is enormous and the powers of darkness are all around.

Mobile pregnancy center ministry isn’t easy either. It is distinctly different than traditional brick and mortar pregnancy center ministry and being different presents the opportunity for greater effectiveness and better results. But greater effectiveness and better results will make the spiritual warfare far worse. The evil one doesn’t like seeing babies saved from abortion. The evil one also doesn’t like to see women, sometimes entire families, surrendering their lives to Christ.

Throughout our Fleet, each day brings a new battle. Thankfully, the battle is not ours, it is God’s. He asks us to GO out and meet the enemy though. Sometimes, we forget that.

King Jehoshaphat found himself face-to-face with a battle much like this. A huge army marched toward Jerusalem and the outcome did not look promising. By the time that army would reach Judah, the problem would be enormously difficult to overcome. In 2 Chronicles 20:3 we read King Jehoshaphat was “Alarmed” and “resolved to inquire of the Lord”. He looked right past the trouble. Faced with a challenge that seemed destined to destroy Judah, the king turned to Someone who is never overwhelmed.

For those of us in the midst of pro-life ministry, and ministry is MUCH different than pro-life work, our prayer should be like that Jehoshaphat’s: “Lord, we know you’re in charge. So, we choose to recognize this trouble, all these difficulties, as your problem, not just ours. We admit that we can’t handle this situation, yet it needs to be resolved. What do you say, Lord?” (2 Chronicles 20:5-12)

What should we expect when we do this?

It is critical to notice how God responded to Jehoshaphat’s prayer. God answered, but He didn’t promise to help Judah win the battle. Instead, He said He’d fight for His people. Could the King have anticipated this answer? Can we? There are times in our lives as well when God’s good answers surprise us. But notice, Jehoshaphat still had his marching orders. He still had work to do. God told him not to be afraid (not once, but two times), not to be discouraged (also two times), to march out, to take positions and to GO out and face the enemy (2 Chronicles 10:17). By the time the people had completed God’s instructions, the battle was over. God had won.

Did you see that word GO again? We use that word a lot at ICU Mobile. In one word it succinctly sums up what we do and how we partner with pregnancy centers to go to women in crisis rather than wait for them to come to us. It is simply obeying the great commission (Matthew 28:19), imitating Christ (John 4:4, Ephesians. 5:1) and following the Lord’s instructions to GO and face the enemy (2 Chronicles 10:17).

The battle is not ours, it is God. He calls on us to GO out and face the enemy knowing He is with us. GO to abortion minded women. GO save the unborn. GO make disciples.

Will you GO with us?

If you would like to financially support the ministry of ICU Mobile, please click here to make a one time donation or commit to monthly giving. Every dollar matters. You can GO with us into battle to serve women, save babies and share the love of Jesus.

Who says we can’t overcome our past?

When Asa assumed the throne as the King of Judah, he also inherited a terrible family tradition. For three generations his family had led the nation in the practice of pagan worship with all its sexual immorality and moral and spiritual decay. Asa knew that changing these long-established practices would alienate him from his relatives. He determined that pleasing God was more important than pleasing his family. So King Asa destroyed all evidence of idol worship in Israel and repaired the altar of the Lord.

He even removed his grandmother from her powerful and influential position as queen mother. Imagine the grief he received after that decision!

Most important, Asa led Judah back to worshipping the one true God (2 Chronicles 15:1-19). He changed the course of his own personal life and in the process changed the course of the nation he led for as long as he held his position.

Such is the case with the clients we reach every day in our fleet of mobile pregnancy centers. The teams that staff the Mobiles come face to face with women and their friends and families who often have inherited patterns of behavior that they know are wrong and aren’t pleasing to God. Some of them come from families that have ignored, or even ridiculed, the practice of worship and the presence of God in the family’s life. Still others come from a past of abuse, neglect and unfaithfulness that prevent them from becoming the woman God wants them to be.

Many of them are under great pressure from boyfriends, parents, friends and other family members to have an abortion. Often, choosing life and honoring God means alienating relatives. This is why ICU Mobile is not just about saving babies and pro-life work. We can’t be. It would be irresponsible of us. Simply saving the unborn without addressing the pattern of behavior, hurt and pain in in the lives of our clients would only be setting them up for a return visit to the Mobile – or worse.

Enter God through the ministry of ICU Mobile and the Mobile Teams who serve women in crisis. Every mobile pregnancy center in our Fleet offers hope, encouragement and love. We not only use an ultrasound to reveal life  growing inside of our clients, but our counselors invest time in showing these women and their families they do not have to continue these negative traditions. They can make different decisions; they can change with God’s help. This change in their heart and life can have a long-lasting impact on not only themselves but on the lives of those they influence on a daily basis; namely, the unborn child in their womb. Talk about breaking generational sin!

Is such transition for these women easy? Not usually. But we know that almost all of them are receptive to changes in their life. They want hope for a future and that hope is found in God through Jesus.

If you would like to financially support the ministry of ICU Mobile, please click here to make a one time donation or commit to monthly giving. Every dollar matters. You can GO with us to serve women and help them break the past.

When my daughter Lexi was a little girl (she is now 13) we used to go on Daddy-Daughter dates. Her favorite place was McDonalds. It was a special time – just me, her and Ronald McDonald. I remember once when she was pleasantly enjoying her Happy Meal, and the incredibly cheap toy that accompanies it, and I reached over to snatch a french fry. Special time or not, Lexi moved my hand away, encircled her Happy Meal with her arms and said, “Daddy, you can’t have one. Those aren’t your fries. They’re mine.”

I remember thinking to myself, “I drove her here, I ordered the food and I paid for it. So, whos fries were they, really?”

I think God may have similar thoughts toward us when we become possessive. We sometimes push Him away, throw our arms around our possessions and say, “This stuff is mine!” Yet really, whose stuff is it? God owns it all. He gives all good things in life. He gives us the strength to work, healthy minds and bodies and the motivation to achieve. He gave us this wonderful ministry at ICU Mobile, He built it, He has sustained it and He alone has grown it.

In 1 Chronicles 29:10-20, David’s prayer for the gifts that God’s people gave to build the temple reflects this truth. David understood that each of these gifts truly came from God, not the people themselves.

Thousands of years later this truth remains the same. Everything we have comes from God. We are managers, not owners, of what God places in our trust. The days we live, the positions we fill, the people we influence, the homes we inhabit, the money in our accounts – they all belong to God.

I was once asked, while standing next to one of the mobile pregnancy centers in our Fleet, “whose RV is that?” As I was about to launch into an explanation of ICU Mobile and what we do, I was stopped in my tracks. I paused, thought for a moment, and replied, “Well, this is God’s RV, it’s His mobile pregnancy center.” ICU Mobile is the pioneer and leader of mobile pregnancy center ministry. We do not say that to boast, except to boast in what God has done to make that statement true. He did it all and He alone deserves the credit.

Of all the things we have, perhaps acknowledging that our money belongs to God is the hardest. I rememember a quote from Martin Luther on this. He wrote:

“There are three conversions necessary: the conversion of the heart, the mind, and the purse. Of these three, it may well be that we find the conversion of the purse most difficult”

Recently, a donor made a significant financial gift to the capital fund of our ministry. This fund is restricted for the purchase of the mobiles, equipment and preparedness of the mobile pregnancy centers in our fleet. The donor, a strong Christian man, clearly understands that the money in their account is not theirs, it is God’s. They also understand that the Mobile’s in our Fleet are not ours, they are also God’s. Connecting the two enables us to honor and glorify the Lord by serving women in crisis, saving the unborn and sharing the love of Jesus with a hurting world. Their generosity and commitment to the Kingdom is humbling and convicting.

God doesn’t need our money. He wants what our money represents. He wants our heart. We shouldn’t build a barricade around possessions and money to keep God away. Give Him our heart and watch how He orders and provides all that we need.

If you would like to financially support the ministry of ICU Mobile, please click here to make a one time donation or commit to monthly giving. Every dollar matters. You can GO with us to save the unborn and share the love of Jesus.

You know you have a great friend when you can let your guard down. This kind of friend stands with you, regardless of how badly you have may have messed up, and is willing to go the extra mile for you.

If you think about this kind of friendship for a minute, you’ll realize that you probably value a friend like this because they are loyal. When this friend sees that you need help, they are the first to volunteer and they don’t care what the task is.

Who cares if it is traveling, at 5 a.m. in the morning, for three hours to spend an entire day packing up a 4 bedroom 4 bathroom house and then driving back that night to offload everything into a storage unit in the wee hours of the next morning? That’s what loyal friends do.

I use that example because, in the midst of a very serious personal life crisis, I had a group of friends who did just that for me. It was a painfully long, hot and laborous day and one of them even got hurt in the process. That’s what loyal friends do.

Here’s the amazing thing. God is just that kind of friend.

In 1 Chronicles 17:1, David is feeling guilty because he is living in a palace made of the finest materials and built with amazing craftmanship while the ark of the covenant – representing the very presence of God – is in a tent. God reminds David, through the prophet Nathan, that a house could never contain His presence. Instead, God’s heart is to dwell with His people and to do life with them. God is faithful, reliable and willing to help.

The evidence that God is willing to help is everywhere in the Bible. In Genesis, God gets his hands dirty and creates humans out of the dust of the ground. Though we fail Him, He chooses a family line to represent Him on earth. He intervenes in amazing ways in this family’s life and in Exodus miraculously delivers them, now numbering in the millions, from slavery to the Egyptians. The rest of the Bible continues this amazing account of  God coming down to work in the lives of His people.

Jesus provided the most astounding proof of this truth. He left heaven, certainly a home far nicer than the cedar palace of David, and came to earth as a man. He was God in human flesh. He got his hands dirty with his fisherman friends. He kneeled down to heal, to restore and to inspire hope. He fed the hungry, He cared for the poor and He loved.

What did He get for this? He was beaten and killed, fulfilling the destiny alluded to in the Old Testament. And when He rose from the dead, He conquered death and restored our broken relationship with God. Only the most loyal friend would suffer unjust persecution, beating and death for another. Make no mistake about it: God is still the best friend we could ever ask for.

Have you spoken to Him lately?

I arrive at the ICU Mobile office early every day, usually before 7:00 a.m., to pray and do my devotions before the work day begins. This morning, my devotion focused on 1 Kings 18:16-39.

No matter how you would have looked at the odds, they didn’t stack up in Elijah’s favor. He was just one person standing up for God against not only the 450 prophets of Baal but also a teeming mass of godlessness consuming his own people, the chosen children of Israel. The people, seduced by the idolotry of the culture around them, knew better. Yet, when Elijah confronted them about their disobedience, they remained silent.

How could this have happened? The same way it happens to us. Whether we call it groupthink, conformity, peer pressure, compliance, inclusiveness, tolerance, mob mentality or whatever, if a group doesn’t temper its course with godly wisdom, the results can be dangerous. An issue can become culturally mainstream, but that doesn’t necessarily make it good or right. It’s just common. Prevalent. Yet for many people, when it becomes common it becomes normal and acceptable.

And so it is with abortion. Abortion isn’t good and it isn’t right. It’s just common. Prevalent.

How could it be that the United States could become the kind of nation that kills unborn children? Certainly, we ought to know better. The answer is found in the Israelites of Elijah’s day. Surrounded by peer pressure to conform to a godless and idolatorous culture, Americans have given themselves over to a culture of death and destruction of unborn children. This isn’t just an American issue by any means. Globally each year, 42 million pregnancies end in an induced abortion. Humanity, on a global scale, has also succumbed to the conformity of abortion think.

Speak up against it, and the masses will call you intolerant, a religious zealot and disprespectful of women. Stand up for the unborn and you will be labeled as out of step with the mainstream and branded devoid of common sense. Abortion think has consumed our world.

To the people around him, Elijah’s beliefs and actions seemed culturally out of step and devoid of common sense. Like an Old Testament Jason Statham, he took a stand as an individual, respresenting God instead of giving in to the group think of the culture.

Throughout Scripture, the strength and value of well-tempered individuals shine through. Our reaction to abortionists and the cultural elite that demands our conformity can’t be riddled with hate, vitriol and radical reaction. It must be well-tempered, filled with love and, above all else, glorifying to God.

At ICU Mobile, that is exactly what we do. Our fleet of mobile pregnancy centers, the Fleet for Little Feet, serve women facing an unplanned pregnancy with love, grace AND the truth. We GO to where they are rather than wait for them to find us. We stand firmly on the Word of God in a sea of abortion think conformity and ask Him to use us an an instrument of His will to end abortion.

Instead of seeking serenity, maybe our prayer should be, “God grant me the determination to know your Word, the courage to confront those who distort it and the wisdom to know the difference”

You can support the mission of ICU Mobile, and stand against the conformity of abortion think, by donating to our ministry here.

An ICU Mobile pregnancy center has helped to close down the notorious Rockford abortion clinic.

Though this story is still developing, our Fleet for Little Feet Affiliate at TLC Pregnancy Services played a significant role in helping to close down the notorious Rockford abortion clinic known as Northern Illinois Women’s Center.

The ICU Mobile, operated by TLC Pregnancy Services, consistently and faithfully parked in front of and near this abortion clinic offering love, grace and truth to women in crisis and planning to have an abortion.

Providing free limited obstetrical ultrasounds to confirm pregnancy, TLC provided women an opportunity to see their baby in the womb and lead them to a life affirming decision. not only that, these women heard a message of love and hope through the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 This ICU Mobile pregnancy center was a beam of light in the shadow of darkness cast by the abortion mill.

As you may recall, the abortion clinic became so disgruntled by the presence of the Mobile that they fabricated stories about the staff, the Mobile and the work that was being done to save lives. Our global ministry office has even been involved in a recent parking matter that was initiated by the abortion clinic.

Thanks to God, those that stood in front of the abortion clinic praying faithfully and the faithful and committed work of the Mobile team and leadership at TLC Pregnancy Services this abortion mill will not longer take the lives of unborn children and stain the hearts of women in crisis.

Please join me in praising God and thanking the staff of TLC Pregnancy Center for allowing the Lord to use them in such a direct way.

There are two facts about our ministry that may suprise you.

First, while the vast majority of pro-life organizations support what we do, there are a few that do not. It’s not the part about saving babies they don’t like, it’s that we don’t just save babies. I recently fielded a phone call from a pro-life leader that complained, “I wish you wouldn’t share the gospel on the mobile. I wish you guys would just save babies.”

The second fact you may not be aware of is that we have had to deny some pregnancy centers affiliation with our Fleet because they wouldn’t agree to share the gospel with their clients if they went mobile with us. While we appreciate and are thankful for what they are doing to save the unborn, we cannot in good conscience agree to that conciliation. It’s just not how our ministry was founded and goes against our mission and values.

Some pregnancy centers have asked, “Do we have to share the gospel with everyone? Our answer is, “yes” for the following reasons:

1. We are called to share the truth of Jesus Christ. This is our highest calling as God’s children.

2. Save the woman, save the baby. Abortion is often a symptom of a much greater spiritual problem. Women are likely to repeat an abortion without knowing God.

3. Often, we will only see our clients one time. We have to assume that this may be our only opportunity to share.

4. It works. It’s proven. Around 40% accept Christ as their savior aboard the mobiles in our fleet. It will continue to as long as we continue to be bold.

5. Women in these difficult circumstances are highly receptive to the gospel.

6. Regardless of timing, sharing the gospel is better than not sharing at all.

7. There may have been other believers that have already laid the seeds before us.

8. We don’t need to “break the ice” before engaging in the gospel. Remember, they are coming to us in a time of need. Barriers are already broken down to begin with which makes it appropriate to share the gospel at first meeting.

9. It’s beneficial for staff to share each time. They don’t have to think twice about sharing or not, and it keeps them spiritually ready and mindful of Kingdom work—not just saving babies.

10. People/churches outside the “pro-life” arena will be more likely to support the ministry if sharing the gospel is a necessary part of what we do.

We are doing this work first and foremost to be obedient to God. Saving lives is a close second. This is how ICU Mobile was founded and God has honored these motives for the past decade. We cannot just save babies. This is a ministry and we are thankful for those that stand firm with us.

Pastor Adam Barton

Akron, Ohio

Secrets. We all have them, don’t we?

Tucking my son in at bedtime has become quite the confessional. It all started when he remembered taking a pen a year earlier from his teacher’s desk in hopes of surprising his sister later on the bus. Then, as if the dam had broken, a few nights later he remembered “picking up” a box of crayons and putting them in his backpack. I wondered if my usually buttoned up son was on his way to a life of kleptomania.

Another misdemeanor for a second grader but significant, nonetheless. More importantly, the beauty of these precious talks was his heart of brokenness. He confessed through tears that “it feels good to get the junk out.” What came next was most unexpected.

“Mom, have you ever stolen anything?” “Hmmm…actually, yes. When I was younger, I’m sure I snuck a couple things. But I can’t really remember details.”

Then, I confessed that even as a frugal adult—the type that double-checks every receipt to be sure I wasn’t get double-charged—I’d sometimes notice I was undercharged for things but never go back and pay the difference. I felt such shame in that moment. I had never confessed that out loud before. What does that say for me? That I have a heart full of deceit? As tears streamed down my cheek he hugged me saying, “It’s okay mom, we all sin.” My eight year old showered me with grace.

This instigated a discovery in the days that followed. I quickly realized, that most secrets don’t come out this easily.

There are secrets we become slaves to that affect the trajectory of our lives. Deep, painful secrets that we keep for self-preservation or for the protection of others while we endure the painful aftermath. Some reside so deeply that they are blocked from our memory. Others so painful that when triggered, we run the opposite direction. The shame buries us. The guilt leaves us paralyzed.

Do we really believe the truth will set us free?

We often don’t. So, we binge and we purge. We have an unplanned pregnancy. We abort. We are sexually abused. We abuse others. We aren’t attracted to our spouse so we fantasize or have an affair. We drink too much. We flirt too much. We yell at our kids, or stay out late enough to avoid the interaction all together. We covet the lifestyle of others or flaunt our wealth with arrogance. We gossip to make us feel better about ourselves. We keep our friends close, and our enemies even closer.

We become slaves to our secrets.

The thing is, Satan DWELLS in the secret, in the haunting, hidden brokenness. The longer we keep that secret, the more power he has  to speak lies into our own identity. We have a crisis of faith; we don’t truly believe that God will hear and lavish us with his love upon our confession. We don’t REALLY believe that we will be made new. So we keep it and hide it and cover it and die from it.

A friend told me recently that she kept her secret of infidelity from her husband for 3 years. Another woman told me recently, she held her secret for 5 years. Another discovered her husband’s secret after 10 years. And yet, another after 18. Overtime, life becomes more about keeping the secret than saving the soul.

The secret often wins.

Perhaps a new day is dawning. Perhaps walls are coming down. Tears are streaming and confessions are starting to pour out like hope reborn. Do you know the main catalyst for this revolution of the heart? 

You guessed it. Someone shared their secret.

Someone gave voice to their secret and in doing so, gave permission for another person to share theirs. Naming the one thing that held them captive for years rendered the secret powerless. All at once, the church at large is beginning to echo the chorus of confession. We all begin to bear witness to the bondage that is breaking by secret-sharing. The naming is bringing healing, and healing is bringing freedom. A freedom many of us are experiencing for the very first time. This secret-telling is what’s actually saving us. And this new normal is exactly what will keep us in the light.

But we ought to have another motivation for telling our secret. In Let Your Life Speak, Parker Palmer reminds us:

“Many young people today journey in the dark, as the young always have, and we elders do them a disservice when we withhold the shadowy parts of our lives. When I was young, there were very few elders willing to talk about the darkness; most of them pretended that success was all they had ever known. As the darkness began to descend on me in my early twenties, I thought I had developed a unique and terminal case of failure. I did not realize that I had merely embarked on a journey toward joining the human race.” 

Did the generation before us share their secrets? Did you grow up in the midst of secret tellers? Of truth tellers? Of confession bearers?  We, as a human race, are simply that—human. And our humanity yields brokenness to the core. The sooner we recognize our profound shadows and shout them from the rooftops, the sooner we find kindred spirits of deliverance and rescue.

Its been said, “If you don’t expose your secret, your secret will expose you.”

Will you be a secret teller for the next generation? Will you show your own humanity for those that are looking up to you? If you did, I’m quite sure the person you are telling would love you more and show you the same grace my son showed me.

Sometimes we forget that we are loved to the level that we are known. Let us be known.

One of the fundraising platforms we utilize at ICU Mobile is something we call, My Birthday for a Birth(day). Typically, how this works is one of our supporters offers to use their birthday to raise funds for the ministry. They throw a birthday party for themselves and instead of recieving presents or gift cards, they ask their friends and family to make a donation to ICU Mobile in order to help a baby experience an actual birth(day).

Last week, Pastor Don Rohrbacher of Maranatha Bible Church (Akron, OH) came up with the great idea to celebrate Christ’s birthday to help save the unborn. Why didn’t we think of that?

Nearly 100 people from his Adult Bible Fellowship showed up for a pot-luck dinner at the church. The dining hall was decorated like a birthday party with balloons, streamers, and birthday cake. “Happy Birthday” was sang to Jesus. It was a nice twist on the usual Christmas party. We gave a brief presentation about the ministry and brought an ICU Mobile for people to tour. In the end, the people of Maranatha Bible Church gave $3,400 to the life saving ministry of ICU Mobile! That’s enough money to save over three babies! (It takes around a $1,000 to save a baby according to our ministry effectiveness data).

How fitting what happened that night. The birth of Christ celebrated and honored by giving life to 3-4 unborn babies that will be saved by our fleet of mobile pregnancy centers in the coming year. Babies that will someday grow up, likely be told by their mother how they were saved and thank the the Lord and the supporters that made the ministry of ICU Mobile possible.

Perhaps you would like to donate your birthday so that a baby can live? Let us know if you would like to help.

Pastor Adam Barton

Akron, Ohio

Our guest author today is Sue Smith, Mobile Manager of ICU Mobile Pittsburgh

Recently, Millie (a member of the ICU Mobile team in Pittsburgh) and I went into the abortion clinic to hand out cards for a free ultrasound on the mobile. I was surprised at how easy it was to get in. Our hearts sank when we saw how full their two waiting rooms were. The carpet was old and threadbare and not even clean. Magazines were thrown everywhere without an attempt to be orderly. The young women and men would not meet our eyes; they just sat staring into space. There was a palpable feeling of oppression in there.

Shortly after our visit to the abortion clinic, we had a mother and daughter come to the Mobile. They told us that the abortion clinic sent them down. Imagine that, a referral to an ICU Mobile from an abortion clinic! They told her they couldn’t help her (she had two negative test results but was convinced that she was pregnant) but that maybe we could. We could hardly hide our excitement as she filled out the intake sheet. Our test showed a negative result as well, which is always good news, especially since she was only 16 years old. By the time they left, they had heard a wealth of information about not only abortion, but fetal development, STD’s, birth control, abstinence (she agreed to commit to this) and the Gospel. They both wanted Bibles to read.

This family had driven up from West Virginia that morning to get an abortion. Her mother explained the abortion clinic told them her daughter was too far along to get the abortion at this clinic (19 weeks is the cut-off) and that maybe we could help them. The ultrasound revealed her beautiful and very active 24 week old baby! The abortion clinic doctor didn’t show them the ultrasound he had performed, so they had no idea what they would see. Tears ran down their faces.

When they left, we provided referrals to their local pregnancy care centers in West Virginia and we told her how important it was to see her doctor. We gave vitamins, pictures, educational materials about adoption, and a teddy bear. They heard the Good News of the Gospel, they both wanted a Bible and allowed us to pray with them.

The Team of ICU Mobile Pittsburgh

As we were closing the door that day, a nurse dressed in scrubs walked out of the abortion clinic and came to the Mobile. I invited her in and I asked if she was the one who referred the two clients to us. She said she was. She was agreeable and admitted that what we were doing was a good thing. I thanked her again for referring clients to the mobile pregnancy center and I asked if she would continue. She said she would and even took some of our ultrasound cards to hand out!

It turned out she was pregnant with her third child and interested in getting an ultrasound from us in a couple weeks. She shared with us that the ultrasound machine in the abortion facility is very old and used only briefly to get an idea how far along the client was.

I wish things like this happened every. Unfortunately it doesn’t. The Lord never said it was going to be easy. God heard our prayers and answered them in a very unique way that day. Please keep praying that the Lord would continue to open the door to more opportunities like this.

Please keep praying for the ICU Mobile Fleet for Little Fleet that serves women, saves babies and shares the love of Jesus all over our nation.

The mission of ICU Mobile and it’s Fleet for Little Feet™ can’t be accomplished without your help. We are a non-profit ministry driven by donations from people just like you. Would you help us continue to expand the fleet and save even more babies? Click here to donate to this important mission now!