Listening In: Justin Reeder

WARREN SMITH, HOST: I’m Warren Smith, and today you’re listening in on my conversation with a pro-life activist and the leader of an innovative pro-life ministry called Love Life. That pro-life leader’s name is Justin Reeder.

Nearly a million abortions will take place in America this year and since 1973 when Roe v. Wade effectively legalized abortion nationwide, we’ve seen more than 50 million abortions in this country alone. Given the daunting and tragic statistics, is it possible even to dream about ending abortion in this country? Well, Justin Reeder, who leads Love Life in Charlotte, North Carolina, says yes. He says the mission of Love Life is to unite and mobilize the church to create a culture of love and live that will result in an end to abortion and the orphan crisis.

In order to do that, he and a small team have mobilized more than 100 churches and over 23,000 people in the last two years to significantly reduce the number of abortions in Charlotte. And as you’ll hear later in the program, he now wants to take this innovative program to other North Carolina cities and ultimately to cities around the country. I had this conversation with Justin Reeder in the offices of Love Life Charlotte in, of course, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Justin, welcome to the program. I’ve been an admirer of yours and of Love Life Charlotte for, I guess, several months because that’s really all I’ve known about you as several months. You guys have in some ways come out of nowhere, at least to my perception. You’ve been in the newspapers here in Charlotte. You’ve done some big events here in Charlotte, but I know in fact you didn’t come out of nowhere, that you’ve been at this for awhile. Tell me about Love Life Charlotte. What you’re doing now and the beginnings of the genesis of this ministry.

JUSTIN REEDER, GUEST: Sure. First, great to be with you, Warren. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, we’ve actually only been doing this for two years, so it really hasn’t been that long, but the whole mission for Love Life is to unite and mobilize the church to create a culture of love and life that will result to an end to abortion and the orphan crisis. We believe that God’s called the church shape the culture. Politicians, legislation will follow the culture. So we’re believing for a culture shift in our city. Where families stop running to the local abortion clinic for the answer and begin running to the local church. So that’s what we’re after here in the city.

SMITH: Well, you know, what you just said already deeply resonates with me and and those of us both at WORLD and the Colson Center. I know Chuck Colson was fond of saying that politics is downstream from culture and our mutual friend Flip Benham is fond of saying that abortion exists in this country with the permission of the church so that it really does take the mobilization of the churches if we’re going to end abortion.

REEDER: That’s right. Yeah. We believe abortion will and not through a politician or legislation, but through the Church of Jesus Christ. We believe Matthew 16:18 that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. So that’s why we’re calling the church to get involved with this. The issue is not the darkness. The issue is the absence of light. And as the light gets brighter in our city, then families will start running to the local church because they see it as a real place of hope.

SMITH: Well, I’ve been at this a long time. In fact, 15 years ago my wife led the March for Life here in Charlotte, which was 10,000 people lined up along Sharon Amany Road here in Charlotte. So I know that this is not the first effort, pro-life effort here in the city of Charlotte and I also know that it’s kind of easier said than done to mobilize the church. What you guys are doing though does seem to be a little different than all of those past efforts. What is it? What’s different about Love Life that’s really caused you guys to have an impact here in the city? 

REEDER: Yeah. I think one thing that’s different is that we do this over 40 weeks. We do it 40 weeks because that’s the time from conception to birth and so it’s not a one day event where people are coming out maybe for headline speaker or a big name band and not that there’s anything wrong with those things, but this is week after week we have the church coming together across denominational lines, Baptists standing next to the Presbyterians, next to Pentecostals, next to Nondenominational. It’s John 17 literally being played out in our city week after week. I think that’s one of the things that makes it unique, again, is that it’s happening every week. It’s clear, actionable steps, not just for the church to come out—that’s one of our steps—but to get connected beyond that, through our mentor program, Orphan Care Ministry. And that’s really the Good Samaritan piece of the ministry of getting into the ditch with these families.

SMITH: Well, it’s a little bit more about coming together because I know you did do a big event a few weeks ago here in Charlotte in front of one of the abortion facilities here. Several thousand people showed up and it made headlines and all of that, but when you say come together every week for 40 weeks, explain what that looks like and how you make that happen.

REEDER: Yeah. So we have something that we call adoption week. And we walk these churches through four simple steps. We want them to hear, pray, go and connect. This is how we mobilize the church. And the hear piece is all about educating them about what’s happening right here in our backyard. And that happens on Sunday of that church’s adoption week. As a church hears the tragic truth about Charlotte, that abortion’s a leading cause of death in our city. We have the largest abortion clinic in the southeast right here in our backyard. As the church is educated on these things then they’re call to action. Step two is prayer and fasting. On Wednesday, during that church’s adoption week, the whole congregation is called to pray and to fast that day as we align our hearts with the father’s heart. Step three is go. That’s where they go out to the abortion clinic on Saturdays with us. Again, this is all happening week after week. Churches coming together to do this. We do our prayer walk out there on Saturdays for two hours at the abortion clinic. Step four is the connection though, and that’s where we say, Warren, we say, look, it’s great that you’ve gotten this far, but you can go beyond the prayer walk. Get connected to building this culture of love and life and get plugged into our mentor program where we’re walking side by side with these families that are feeling hopeless, get involved in foster care or adoption. We will walk with you. We will train you, we will equip you, we will help match you. Get involved in frontline ministry. So it’s just giving people a vision for it and real actionable steps that they can take to get involved.

SMITH: So if I’m a pastor of a church here in Charlotte and I hear about you guys for the first time, I’m not one of the churches have been involved with you for the last two years. Do I plug in where you guys are in that 40 week cycle or do I start at the beginning? And so every churches at a different spot? What does that look like?

REEDER: They just take a week. So if you’re a new church, you want to get involved, you tell us what week works for you and we plug you in that week and that is your week. That is your week to own as a church. That is your church’s adoption week. Now, chances are there’s probably also three or four other churches on with you that same week, just depending on the week that you pick. But that’s the beautiful piece. You might be a Presbyterian church and when you come out that Saturday, you’re going to be standing next to a Baptist church, next to a Pentecostal church, next to a Nondenominational church. But that’s the beautiful part of it. So we do it over 40 weeks. We’ve had over a hundred churches that have partnered with us during those 40 weeks and over the last two years we’ve had over 23,000 people that have mobilized for our prayer walks on Saturdays. 

SMITH: Do you all do the Latrobe Facility?

REEDER: Yeah.

SMITH: For listeners who don’t know Charlotte, Latrobe road is a road or drive — which is where this large abortion facility is. And I’ve been out there, you know, over the years from time to time and it can be a little daunting to be involved in, for somebody who’s never been involved in the pro-life movement to show up and do sidewalk counseling and other kinds of things. But you guys kind of make it easy, right? Because you’re bringing lots of people there at the same time, several churches, and you’re also basically just saying, do prayer walking. You don’t have to do sidewalk counseling. You don’t have to hold signs. You don’t have to do all other kind of stuff. Is that accurate?

REEDER: That’s right, yeah. So when they come out on a Saturday, it’s actually part of our code of conduct that we all read and we all agree upon together that we’re not here to engage with anybody at the abortion clinic. We’re here to pray. So we have a time at our launching spot where we kind of get our hearts prepared. We spend time in prayer and worship and then we begin the walk together and it’s all done together. Our volunteers do an amazing job of greeting you as you come in and help you get your cars parked. I bring my family out there with me every single Saturday. My wife and my two kids, we have lots of families out there every single Saturday and we do it together. We do the walk together and, again, it’s a prayer walk. We’re not there to do sidewalk counseling. We’re not there to engage with people. We leave that up to those who have been trained and those who are equipped to do so. But our call is to come out there and to pray.

SMITH: Well, Justin, I hope you’ll forgive me for being a skeptical journalist because that’s kind of my role in this process. But, you know, tell me how you measure results. I mean, that’s great you got over 100 churches. That’s an accomplishment. That is a result to get, you know, more than 100 churches working together in a common call. 23,000 people from those churches. That’s a metric. I understand that number. But, you know, at the end of the day you’re trying to reduce the number of abortions. You’re trying to care for these women who might be abortion-minded, who because of your work or other work choose not to have an abortion. How do you measure the results on that side of the house and what are you trying to create there?

REEDER: Yeah, great question. So, in the last two years, we’ve seen over 800 families now choose life at the abortion clinic, meaning that they showed up for an abortion. They were scheduled for an abortion that day and they chose life.

SMITH: How do you know that? How do you figure that out?

REEDER: We have frontlines ministry partners, Cities for Life and Hope Pregnancy Center of Monroe, that are out there. They’re out there right now. I just spoke to them this morning. And so they’re out there doing sidewalk counseling right now as we speak, offering hope to these families, letting them know that there are churches, there are mentors that are ready to walk with them, to get in the ditch with these families. And so those are real touches. Those are people that they’re talking to that are coming onto the mobile unit that’s parked outside of the abortion clinic. They’re seeing their baby through the free ultrasound and they’re making the choice for life. And once they make that choice for life, then they’re offered the mentor program saying, can we follow up with you? Can we walk with you? And if they say yes to that, then that’s when we jump right in. And we love doing that. And not only that, but we’ve seen over a 70 percent drop in abortions on Wednesdays and Saturdays, the two days of concentrated prayer in our city.

One example is on Saturdays they were averaging over 50 abortions. Every Saturday. It was the busiest day at this abortion clinic. That number has fallen to around 20 or below. When we had our last per walk of 2017, we had around 5,000 people there for prayer walk and only five people showed up for an abortion compared to the average of 50 two years ago. When light shows up, darkness has to leave.

SMITH: Well, Justin, Love Life — I call it Love Life Charlotte. You’ve said Love Life a couple of times. Are you doing that because you want other cities to take this on? Would you like to see a Love Life Knoxville? A Love Life Nashville? A Love Life LA?

REEDER: Sure. I mean, we believe that this is something that will start here in Charlotte but was spread across the nation. So this year we actually have plans to launch in the Triangle and the Triad here in North Carolina. And once we’re in those three areas, we’ll be where 85 percent of all the abortions are happening. And what happens from there that, you know, that’s up to the Lord.

SMITH: Yeah. Well, one of the things that has happened as a result of what you’ve done here in Charlotte is that you’ve created a little bit of controversy that there have been I think it’s been city council. I don’t think it was county commissioner. I think it was city council meetings where they’ve come and tried to get the law changed so you guys couldn’t be out there. There’s been newspaper articles, most of them I would have to say have been fairly positive, but there’s also been some negative voices. So tell me your posture, your attitude, whenever that kind of controversy shows up. Is that par for the course? Is that what you’re hoping for? Is it something that you are not hoping for but you know you have to tolerate?

REEDER: Yeah, we expect it to be honest with you. We’re not surprised by any of it and it just tells us that what we’re doing is having a great impact. So we pray for our city leaders, we pray for our city officials, we invite them to come out to the prayer walks with us. We want them to really see the heart behind all this, but our battles are not with flesh and blood. This is a spiritual battle. We understand that. So we pray for the abortionist by name. I’m telling you every single day our team is praying for the abortionist by name—Ron, Jimmy, and Susan right here in our city. The three main abortionists. We’re praying for the Snyders, Stewart and Lois Snyder, that people that own this abortion clinic. It’s a privately owned business bringing in around $4 to 5 million a year doing nothing but abortions. And we know that our battle is not with them. This is a spiritual battle and the real miracle that we’re praying for, Warren, is not just for an abortion clinic to close is for hearts to be turned to the father.

SMITH: Well, I appreciate you sharing that because I’ve often or sometimes heard it said that, you know, the abortionist is not our enemy, but the abortionist is in bondage to our enemy who as you say, our battle is not with flesh and blood, but it was spiritual forces with Satan, so to speak. And those forces that are kind of aligned against you though sometimes do show up in the newspaper and other and other places. You’re going to encounter this as you continue to grow as well. What’s your strategy for growing? You mentioned going into the Triad which is through Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem area and the Triangle here in North Carolina, which is Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill. How can you create an infrastructure in those cities that is as robust as the infrastructure that you have here in Charlotte? What are the necessary and sufficient conditions for success if somebody hears you, Justin, and says, you know what, I like what I’m hearing. I want to do this in my city.

REEDER: Yeah, well, first off, we stay focused on our mission. We don’t become distracted by what Satan is trying to get us to be distracted with, so we stay focused on our mission. We drowned out the noise of the world and we try to turn up the volume of heaven. And honestly, we do that through our time with him, time in prayer and fasting and staying locked in on a mission that he’s called us to do here on earth, which is to bring heaven to earth. His kingdom come, his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And so we stay focused on that. And like Nehemiah, God gave me the story of Nehemiah to really confirm  the mission of Love Life in my heart. Nehemiah was asked many times by Sanballat and Tobiah and other people to come down off the wall, to meet with them. And he knew it wasn’t genuine. And so therefore, he denied their request. And of course, if anyone genuinely wants to meet with us, you know, if it’s media or whatever it is and genuinely wants to know the story, then we will sit down and talk with them. But for the most part we’re going to stay focused on our mission at hand and stay focused on that.

SMITH: Your passion for the life issue is — obviously we can hear, I can hear it in your voice and I’m sure our listeners can as well. Again, as I’ve mentioned to you, I’ve been involved in the pro-life movement for many years and sometimes, often whenever I talk to someone like you who’s a leader in the movement I ask them or I discover because of them telling their own story, that there was moment, that there was kind of a precipitating event where, yeah, they may have been Christians, they may have been sort of vaguely pro-life, but there was something that happened that crystallized that belief for them. Was that your experience?

REEDER: Absolutely. Yeah. My background is I’m a business guy. I still do own a business here in the city and across the southeast and been in business for 12 years now. But back in 2012, I had some other business friends here in the city that invited me out to the abortion clinic on Latrobe Drive just to come and see what was happening in our city. And that’s really when it became real for me. It became personal for me. I like yourself, Warren, always would have considered myself pro-life. I grew up in a Christian home, gave my heart to the Lord when I was 11 years old, but really wasn’t doing anything about it, to be honest with you. In fact, I was doing business with a company right across the street from the abortion clinic for almost 10 years and never knew this place ever even existed.

So at that moment in 2012, when I came face to face with it, when I heard the tragic truth about Charlotte, when I began to really hear that abortion is a leading cause of death, we have 150 to 200 abortions happening every week. We have the largest abortion clinic in the southeast right here in our backyard and we have more churches per capita than anywhere else in America. My heart broke. My heart broke, and I saw the faces of the moms pulling into this abortion clinic. They were crying as they were going in. I see moms getting out of their car in the parking lot, walking into the abortion center, and then coming back out and getting in their car and doing this multiple times back and forth. I see this. I can see it and I can sense the spiritual battle now that is being manifested in the physical right in front of me.

And I was forever changed after that moment. I again, first was convicted of my lack of action, but also just was looking at this and saying, man, we could do so much better than this. Praise God for the faithful who had been out there to do sidewalk counseling. But again, over a thousand churches in our city, God started to plant seeds in my heart of mobilizing the church out here, just seeing the church out here on their knees, crying out to God and believing for supernatural shift in this place. So that was my initial moment.

SMITH: So that was 2012 and it’s 2018 now. That was almost six years ago. What happened immediately after that? God convicted you, but you still got a business to run. You’ve got a family to raise. What were some of those early steps of getting this ministry off the ground?

REEDER: So, first off, I believe there is no separation between marketplace and ministry. When you have Jesus in your heart, it’s always full time ministry. So we have been doing ministry in the marketplace and that was really my passion. That was my call. But after I came face to face with this, what I did is just took my office staff out there. I came back to my office that day shaken up, really shaken up and say, man, you guys got to come out here and see what’s going on. So we took our staff out there and we just spent time in prayer. I didn’t know what else to do, to be honest with you. Just took people out there just like my friends had done me and shared with them about the tragic truth. And we spent time in prayer. I took my pastor out there, took other friends with me that would go.

But the Lord was stirring my heart. I got involved financially with some of the, some of the pro-life ministries here. But it wasn’t fast forward until 2015, at the end of 2015, my wife and I, we just celebrated 10 years in the business. We were seeking the Lord and what he wanted us to do next. We knew his shift was happening and during that time of seeking and prayer and fasting, God spoke very clearly to me during my time of prayer. He said, I’ve called you to the least of these and I’ve called you to be a voice for the voiceless, and over the course of a week, God literally sort of waking me up in the middle of the night with a heavy burden on my heart. Started downloading a strategy and a plan to unite and mobilize the church in our city. And so that’s really where it started being birth than me. And then we launched it in 2016.

SMITH: And so now, as I’ve already mentioned, you know, here we are 2018. You’ve been at this for a couple of years, we’re in these beautiful offices here, Justin, as you and I are having this conversation, what’s the state of the ministry today? Obviously you just had this big event that you mentioned a few moments ago. Thousands of people showed up. You’re doing the 40 weeks with churches. You’ve got 100 churches, more than 20,000 people. How many staff do you have here?

REEDER: We have four staff members.

SMITH: Four full time staff members.

REEDER: Yes, sir.

SMITH: And if you grow, are you going to grow the staff here or are you going to look for people in other cities?

REEDER: Mainly other cities. We’ll have to grow some here that will offer support for the other cities. But, yeah, we really believe that this is just the beginning. This is not the end. And so we start another 40 weeks happening on February 17th. That will be our first prayer walk. That will be week one of 2018. And so we’d go another 40 weeks and we’ll look to launch the Triad and the Triangle as well this year and they’ll match up on the same weeks as what we’re doing here in Charlotte. And what the Lord does beyond that, you know, that’s up to him.

SMITH: Justin, you’ve said that orphan care is going to be an important emphasis for Love Life in 2018 and possibly beyond. Say a little bit more about that. What are you going to be doing and why?

REEDER: Yeah, so it’s part of our connection pieces, but we just believed that caring for the orphans as a whole is a huge part of making this shift to a culture of love and life. Psalm 68:5 says, “A father to the fatherless, defender of widows is God in his holy dwelling. He takes the lonely and he sets them in families.” It doesn’t say orphanages. God isn’t calling us to build more orphanages. He’s calling us to adopt more kids, so really calling the church into saying, look, it’s not up to the state to bring an end to the orphan crisis. God’s calling the church to bring an end to the orphan crisis.

And in the state of North Carolina, we have 10,000 kids currently in the foster care system. Two thousand of those kids are clear and free for adoption right now. They’re just waiting for a mom and for dad and there’s zero cost financially for us to adopt these kids. A lot of times we’re always thinking to costs 30 or 40 grand for an adoption. And that’s true for international or private adoption. But when a kid is a ward of the state, there’s zero cost financially and we’re just looking for families that are willing to bring these children in and bring them home, to bring the kids home. Because again, these are our children. These are our kids. My wife and I are on this journey right now along with, we have about 30 Love Life families that are in the process of adoption here locally.

But we want to see an end to the orphan crisis here in our city and that’s what we’re after.

SMITH: You know, Justin, one of the things that resonates deeply with me is a story, whenever I can hear a story about a life that’s been changed. I’m reminded of Mark 4:34. Jesus did not speak to them except in parables except in stories. So stories were a powerful strategy. I mean the facts and the data and the logic and all of that is great and we should have that on our side as Christians, but the culture is often impacted so much. Any particular stories that spring to mind for you about the work that you’ve done in the impact that it’s had on people’s lives?

REEDER: Yeah, I mean really, there’s so many to tell. You know, we’ve had over 800 families that have chosen life at the abortion clinic. But one just real quick story that I think captures the heartbeat of over really what we’re after as we say, you know, we’re not just praying for an end to abortion or for an abortion clinic to close. Yes, that’s part of it. But the real miracle we’re praying for us for hearts to return to the father.

So we had a mom that came out on a Wednesday last year at the abortion clinic and she was feeling hopeless but she chose life, praise God, because our sidewalk teams were there. But it was also a Wednesday where we had churches that were praying and fasting all across our city as their day for prayer and fasting. That mama chose life that day when on board the mobile unit, found out she’s pregnant with twins, and gave her heart to the Lord on Thursday. Was partnered up with one of our mentors on Friday. And was that the prayer walk on Saturday now standing in the gap for other mamas to choose life at the abortion clinic that she came to for abortion now was on the opposite side of the street praying and believing for other moms to choose life. And then was in church on Sunday and that’s the miracle that we’re really praying for here. The transformation in that and you know, we say a lot that we believe for families to stop running to the local abortion clinic and begin running to the local church. That’s really the shift that we’re after. And it’s been really interesting to see as we now have that had over 20 abortion workers that have quit this abortion clinic—over 20 in the last two years. One of them being the manager of this place for 12 years just recently in the last three months quit.

She was sitting in this office, the very office that we’re in just about three weeks ago with us. She’s now walking with Jesus. And come to find out that her niece came to this abortion clinic back in 2016 where she was managing and she chose life and she was one of the very first ladies that ever entered into our mentor program. And she has been now being mentored over the last year and a half by an incredible couple here in our city that has been walking side by side with them, helped them move into new housing, helped them get a new car. The church threw a baby shower for this family and just so happens that this manager of the abortion clinic, who is this lady’s aunt, came to the baby shower, came to the baby shower at this church and experienced the love of Jesus being poured out on her niece. And then goes back to managing at the abortion clinic and starts pointing people to the local church from within inside of the abortion clinic saying, I have seen it with my own eyes. I’ve seen the love of God being poured out on my niece. I was there. I was at the baby shower. I’ve seen it firsthand. You can go to the local church. They will walk with you. It’s even invaded the abortion center.

SMITH: Well, you know, it’s funny you should say that, Justin. I’ve got a friend who’s now their kids are grown, but they went to an abortion—this was 30 years ago—they went to an abortion facility and had one of the abortion facility workers, it was a Planned Parenthood facility, recommend that they go to a crisis– And that’s a story that I heard the first time probably 10 years ago, whenever I met my friends for the first time. It highlighted for me what you just said, that a lot of these abortion clinic workers are deeply convicted. They’re under a lot of — They’re in a lot of pain themselves and know, I think somewhere in their heart of hearts, that what they’re doing is wrong, but often don’t have a way out.

REEDER: Right. Absolutely. I think it’s deception. They’re deceived. However they might have got in there from the first place. You know, each story’s a little bit different, but a lot of times it might’ve been the only place they could find a job. But that’s why I think it’s for us to see these as people, see these as real lives, and be praying for them. Praying for them by name, if we know their names like we do with the abortionist, praying for them by name, believing for that Saul to Paul moment. I mean, listen, if God did it was Saul he can do with anybody else and so what we’ve been saying a lot is we believe for one day for the abortionist to be leading the prayer walks with us across our nation. And I want to tell you on week 40, we had that manager leading the prayer walk with us at the very same place that she was managing for 12 years and that’s the miracle that we’re really after here. And we’re believing for.

SMITH: An amazing story. A couple of amazing stories, Justin. So thank you for sharing those with me. But again, I’d like to pivot back to something I mentioned earlier or asked you about earlier. There might be folks listening to this in cities that are not Charlotte, North Carolina. In cities that don’t have people like you or maybe those people haven’t been yet identified. What can they do to get started in doing something like this? I mean, this is a nontrivial enterprise that you’ve put together here. I mean, it’s been a big job to mobilize churches. You got thousands of people. You’ve got now a staff of four. It’s going to feel pretty daunting to someone listening in another city to say, if they said, well, I believe God is calling me to do something like that, but where do I get started? What would be the first couple of steps?

REEDER: First thing I would say is everyone can do something. Everyone can do something and you know, the only difference between the Levite, the priests and the Samaritan is that the Samaritan took action. He took action. He wasn’t thinking about what will happen to me if I stop. He was thinking, what will happen to them if I don’t stop? And that’s the question we as Christians really got to ask ourselves. What will happen if we don’t take action? Well, there will be millions more that will die and there will be moms and dads that will live with this guilt and shame that Jesus wants to set them free of. And so we must take action. And again, I’m a business guy. I’m not a pastor in the city. I’m a business guy. I went to this place, my eyes were opened. I saw the need in and began to pray and ask the Lord, what does that look like for me? How do I take action? And so I just say, you know, listen, no matter what you are, if you’re a business guy, if you’re a student, if you’re a stay at home mom, if you have Jesus in your heart, we’re all called to full-time ministry. And when Jesus was asked about who is my neighbor, he gave the story of the Good Samaritan. He could’ve given many different stories, but he chose to give the story about a man that was in the ditch and that it was going to cost us something to get in the ditch with that person. So I’m just going to say it will cost you. It’s cost me a lot. To be honest with you, the longer this thing goes on, the more it cost me financially. My business sows into this to help fund this movement. I don’t take a dime from the ministry. I give 95 percent of my time to this ministry. Praise God I’m in a position where I’m able to do that because of my business, but it cost. It cost. So I just want to say that it will cost you something to do this, but it’s worth it. This is what God has called us to do. And I just want to say that this is our time. God put us here for a reason in this city, for this specific time. Nehemiah’s day has come and gone. Joseph’s day has come and gone. Esther’s day has come and gone. But this is our time. This is our city. This is our generation and these are our children. And we have to start viewing it as that, that these are our children.

(Photo/Love Life)

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