What happens when your soul begins to leave your body? Terry Wright knows that feeling intimately. Terry founded Lifeline Pregnancy Center, combining her nursing background with her passion for supporting women in crisis pregnancies. The center provides education, material support, and shares the gospel with every client.
While standing at a copy machine at Lifeline, she suddenly collapsed and was taken to the Emergency Room. While there, a shocking discovery was made. Her heart was failing. But why?
In this powerful conversation, Terry shares her extraordinary journey from sudden collapse to heart failure that left doctors puzzled. With no prior cardiovascular issues, she found herself declining rapidly until she was hospitalized, waiting for a donor heart while actively dying.
Terry takes us to the edge of mortality itself, describing with remarkable clarity how she felt her soul slowly separating from her weakening body. The medical staff's hushed tones told her family "this is what happens at the end of the end." As she prepared to meet Jesus, Terry's overwhelming regret wasn't about missed vacations or career achievements – it was that she hadn't done more for God's Kingdom.
Then came the miracle. A late-night call announced a perfectly matched heart was available. The emotional whiplash of moving from death's doorstep to a second chance at life led Terry to profound spiritual insights about God's authority and timing. Her meeting with the donor family – who lost their 18-year-old daughter but honored her wish to donate organs – reveals the beautiful redemption possible even in tragedy.
Her powerful testimony illustrates how God's promises become real when we fully surrender to His purposes.
Whether you're facing life-altering challenges or simply questioning your purpose, Terry's journey will inspire you to consider how you're using your own "window of opportunity." What race has God set before you? The clock is ticking for all of us – what will you do with the time you've been given?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
We normally do verse-by-verseBible study through the Word of
God, so if you're new to ourprogram, then check out our
website,reasoningthroughthebiblecom.
The main thrust of our ministryis providing free teaching
materials for small groups andchurches, so go to our website
(00:41):
and you'll learn all about us.
Today, for our regularlisteners, we're going to have
something slightly different.
We have a very interestingstory.
We've got a lady today who hasbeen through a lot and you'll
get to meet her.
Welcome to the broadcast, terryWright.
Thank you.
Terry you are.
I'll go ahead and kind of spillthe beans here.
(01:02):
You've gone through a hearttransplant operation and you've
also been very involved in thepro-life movement.
Today we're going to learn yourstory.
Tell us a little bit about yourbackground.
Where did you grow up?
What was life like?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I was born, raised and educated in Detroit and grew
up in the Detroit area.
I moved to Texas in 1981.
We were accustomed to eating,eating and we needed work, so we
moved down here along with many, many other people.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And your career was what you were in the as a nurse
right.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yes, I worked as a registered nurse and also as a
deaf interpreter.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So I know you've spent a fair amount of time
doing sign language, doinginterpretation with the deaf.
That's one of the ministriesyou do.
So you're married, got kids.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yes, I'm married.
We have two children they'regrown and seven grandchildren,
and we're very fortunate they dolive in the Houston area.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
So with that, did you have a spiritual background
when you were growing up?
You go to church when you werea kid.
What was your spiritual lifelike?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I came to faith in Jesus Christ at a young age.
During elementary school.
I did not know everything aboutGod's salvation, but I fully
understood I had sin and thatsin separated me from being with
God.
I pondered the decision to putmy faith in Jesus.
For about two weeks I didn'ttalk to anyone about what I was
(02:31):
thinking about.
I just kind of kept it tomyself in my introverted way,
but kept feeling a pull.
After about two weeks I talkedwith my pastor at my church and
he led me to Christ.
I believe in a triune God.
I have a personal relationshipwith God because I have put my
trust and faith in Jesus Christas my Lord and Savior.
I strive daily to live myday-to-day life in harmony with
(02:55):
God.
Even in my deepest struggles,my most difficult times, I know
God is with me.
There's an inner peace, like aninner joy that he gives me that
can only come from him.
I may not know what the futureholds, but I do know that my
Lord and Savior will remain withme.
He's with me now here on earth,and someday he's going to carry
(03:16):
me home to heaven.
I'm a witness that God can andwill save anyone.
I'm a follower of Jesus Christcalled to be a proclaimer of His
gospel to a lost world.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So with that you had some spiritual background, you
were a Christian.
And you said when you were asmall child right, yeah,
elementary school.
So grew up in church, went to ayouth group Again, grew up, got
married, had kids, had a career, moved to Texas and just normal
life at this point, right?
Yes, so what happened?
(03:48):
You eventually had some medicalissues, right?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Eventually.
I mean, I was pretty healthy.
I really went to the doctoronce a year for a checkup,
basically.
Then something kind of unusualhappened.
I developed heart failure andit's kind of unusual happened.
I developed heart failure andit's kind of unusual for that
type of disease to just happenquickly.
But basically I was walkingacross the room at Lifeline,
(04:12):
walking over to the copy machine.
I still remember looking downand seeing that and I lost
consciousness.
I woke up on the floor.
That was scary.
All this furniture was rightnext to my head, Just a question
At this point.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
You had not had any symptoms prior to this right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I had no cardiovascular disease of any
type and even later they stillcouldn't find a reason for what
happened.
Since I bumped my head when Ifell, I knew I needed an x-ray.
If you're older or younger, youalways get an x-ray if you bump
your head.
I called my doctor andencouraged me to go to the ER.
So I really I thought I'm justgoing to go to the ER real quick
(04:50):
and I'll be right back, justgoing to scan my head real quick
, just do a quick x-ray Went tothe ER and they x-rayed and they
found two subdural hematomas.
I had two brain bleeds in thefront.
So when I bumped my head in theback it pushed my brain forward
.
I had two bleeds in the frontand I'd also lost conduction in
my heart.
So I was in a full heart block.
(05:12):
Both of those are very critical.
Electricity to help my heart tobeat.
It was temporary, it was likethis external device and the
wire went into my heart and itjust fired my heart to beat and
I remember the doctor sayingokay, don't move If that wire
(05:33):
comes out, that's it.
So I didn't move, I did as Iwas told.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So question again up to now in life you had been
relatively healthy, no realheart issues.
Suddenly one day, just walkingto the copy machine, you
basically pass out and thensuddenly you're in the hospital
with all of these wires in youand things.
What's going through your mindat this point?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Well, I was perplexed .
I was really.
I was in disbelief, kind of indenial, because even when I woke
up and got up off the floor Iknew I'd bumped my head, but I
felt okay.
I mean to me I felt okay, eventhough my heart was not, you
know, I felt okay.
So I was in disbelief.
I really felt like, oh, they'regoing to realize everything's
fine and just send me home.
(06:17):
I'm sitting in ICU but I'mstill telling myself I mean,
actually I still had my bluejeans on under my gown.
I was just thinking they'regoing to send me home.
So I was in denial, I was indisbelief, I didn't believe it
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So they had going back to the story.
They had wires on your heartsaying don't let these come
disconnected, right, Don't move,Don't move.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Or the doctor just before he went home he came to
my room and said okay, don'tmove, or that wire comes out,
that's it.
So it's like oh, I didn't, Ilaid there.
Then the next day they did amore permanent, where you know
the placement where you keep thebox in you, and so it was more
permanent, it was working.
They figured, okay, we figuredout what's wrong.
You needed electricity to yourheart.
So then they did a permanentplacement the next day.
(06:59):
But I was still left in heartfailure and that was a mystery
to my doctors.
Up to that point I had goodcardiovascular health.
I had low everything bloodpressure, cholesterol, I ate
healthy, I was active, you know.
So I exercised, I had no socialdrug activity, I didn't smoke,
I didn't consume alcohol.
(07:19):
So the doctors really theycouldn't find a cause for what
happened.
And this isn't usually howheart failure happens.
It just a healthy persondoesn't just go into heart
failure one day, it's usuallysomething that progresses slowly
over time.
It was all kind of perplexing,kind of a mystery, mystery to
everyone.
(07:39):
My heart was pumping at about18 to 20% of its capacity.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I guess as a career as a registered nurse, you were
familiar with hospitals andmedical things, so at this point
you probably understood theseriousness of where you were
right.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I was very aware it was very concerning.
It was kind of a differentdynamic for me.
It was a different feeling tobe the one in the bed so that I
had to kind of looking at themtrying to figure me out, because
I was used to being the one onthe team giving the care.
So it was a different dynamicfor me.
I kind of had to wrap my mindaround that.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Were you still in ICU or continue with the story in
the hospital?
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, eventually, no, I had to go home.
Of course, they got my heartstable.
The bleeds on my head closed ontheir own, so I didn't need
surgery.
They were thinking I neededboth surgeries.
The heart was going to be first.
That's what they told me.
We're doing the heart first.
And even after the heartsurgery they took me to CT
immediately to re-scan and theycould see where it was starting
(08:44):
to close on its own.
Those did heal on their own.
I didn't need any surgery forthat.
That was good.
I went back home, but I wasstill in heart failure.
My condition persisted andworsened quickly.
It wasn't too long until Ifound myself on the heart
transplant list waiting for adonor.
Doctors decided this is all so.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
heart transplant list waiting for a donor heart.
And what were the doctorstelling you at this point?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That that was my only option.
They were hoping whatever wasgoing on was going to reverse,
because it happened quickly.
Well, maybe we've goteverything going on the right
track, they've got electricitygoing to my heart, maybe it was
just a conduction problem andwe've got that restored.
So they were thinking this willreverse.
As quick as it happened it canreverse.
That was the hope.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
How much time passed in between the initial again
walking to the copy machine andyou just fall out one day.
How much time passed in betweenthe initial event and here
where the doctors are nowtelling you your heart has
failed and you need a transplant.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
About a year, because you know they were hoping it
would reverse.
They even upgraded theelectrical device, right,
because, oh, this is what youneed, you need the Cadillac
version, you just need a biggerdevice.
And so we, you know, changed itout.
So in that time, maybe a year,year and a half, and finally it
was a transplant is your onlyresource, your only option.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
At this point, I'm presuming your heart is just
slowly getting worse andeventually you end up what back
in the hospital or what happened.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Pretty much.
I got worked up and everything.
You've got to kind of make thetransplant list.
Certain things have to be okay,you have to be able to go
through the surgery and recoverlist.
Certain things have to be okay,you have to be able to go
through the surgery and recover.
So they check out all yourother systems.
So I got worked up and then Iwas placed on the transplant
list.
I wasn't on the transplant listvery long until I realized I
really couldn't function well athome and my doctor encouraged
(10:38):
me to go into the hospital andjust be admitted and wait in the
hospital until a heart becameavailable.
There were medications that hecould give me that would
actually help me during theselater stages and give me a
little more time waiting.
The doctor felt prettyconfident that within three
months you should have a heart.
You know he mentioned.
(10:58):
You know we pass up a lot ofgood small hearts.
You can't put a little enginein a big truck.
So he was pretty confident withthat and felt like going in the
hospital.
I had a good chance.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So at this point you're in the hospital waiting
on a heart.
Again, you had mentioned youhad been having trouble just
getting through the day at home.
You're not feeling well at thispoint.
Your heart is slowly gettingworse.
And what's the family doing atthis point?
How is the people around youaccepting this?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Well, everyone seemed to be okay with it because
there was a lot of hope.
It sounded like a great plan.
You know, I mean really I'mgoing to go in and I'm going to
get a heart.
So I mean everyone was in on itand everyone was supportive for
it, for that plan.
So I went into the hospital andeveryone was supportive for it,
(11:49):
for that plan.
So I went into the hospital.
But while there I declined muchquicker than anyone expected.
Within 11 days I had gonethrough all the meds that were
available for me, the meds thatwere going to stretch out my
wait time.
My heart was kind of goinghaywire what it does at the end.
It was just going haywire.
My heart pattern and numbersreflected someone getting ready
to die.
I was very aware.
I knew what was going on.
(12:10):
All at once, my heart would justbe normal in a normal heart
pattern.
Then all at once it would jumpup in the 180s and 200s and
maybe do that for a minute,minute and a half and then come
back down to a normal heartrhythm again.
It was doing that.
It's what your heart does whenit's giving out.
It's very common and duringthis time I can remember when my
(12:33):
heart would race high for maybelonger periods of time, longer
than a minute, a minute and ahalf.
It would go on for severalminutes, which is longer than
expected.
With that, but during these twotimes when my heart was racing
longer, I could feel somethingslowly pulling away from my body
.
The part that was pulling awayfelt normal, like me, like how I
(12:57):
feel every day.
The part that was being pulledaway from felt this extreme
weakness like I've never feltbefore.
So it was kind of odd because Ifelt like me and yet I felt my
body was just so.
So weak.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You were very close to death at this point.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, my heart was giving out and I was dying.
My soul, my spirit, it wasleaving my dying body.
There was no pain, but I wasable to feel what was happening.
Then, all at once, when it wasup there for minutes on end,
five minutes, seven minutes itwould on its own revert back to
a what's happening.
Right, we do have a soul wehave a spirit.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
It's distinct from our body, so we have in the
process of dying.
There's part of us thatcontinues.
So you claim to be aware ofthis.
At the time you were reallylooking death sort of eyeball to
eyeball right.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
That day was Saturday , november 18th 2017.
And it was a very difficult day, physically and emotionally,
for me.
My family was there in the room.
My monitor alarms were soundingconstantly.
My heart kept giving that lastoomph right, jumping way up
there.
Oh, I got to catch up.
I got to catch up.
The nurses didn't like walkingout of my room.
(14:22):
They ran in and out of my room.
The door to my room was like arevolving door.
My trash can was full of thoseblue gloves, just from them
coming in and out, constantlychanging.
I was very, very weak.
The staff started talking to myfamily a little bit different
that day, and just a calm,reassuring voice.
I remember hearing them say tomy family this is what happens
(14:45):
at the end of the end.
So they were preparing them,did you?
get news from the doctors onthat last day there wasn't a
whole lot that could be doneright now.
They'd done everything theycould do.
Little did I know.
I wasn't aware of this, but thestaff were aware I had a heart
match.
That's why when I would go intothese patterns they would run
in to my room Because if myheart had stopped they'd have
(15:07):
started working on me to get itgoing again.
They were there to keep mealive.
I wasn't aware, but I had aheart match.
They were aware.
But the family had not signed inagreement for the organs to be
donated.
There was a motivation there.
The doctor did say one day ashe was leaving, one time Mike,
my husband, had said what do youknow?
(15:28):
What do you know about a heart?
What do you know?
All he turned and said was youknow?
Sometimes it's hard forfamilies to give up their loved
ones and allow them to donate.
I mean, those organs have to beharvested.
It takes a few more days fromdeath and they have to be cut on
and I think during theirdeepest grief and anguish it's
(15:48):
hard for them to agree to that.
It's just overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
There you were in a very large hospital, in a major
city hospital full of very illpeople, and you were in the
process of dying, very close todeath, where again you could
feel your soul, spirit leavingyour body.
At this point it was probablyfor you a real low point.
(16:12):
I would assume the spiritualpart of you says wow, I get to
see the Lord.
But you're very aware of this,your family is aware of this.
It's sort of a dark day foryour family.
Somewhere else nearby there wasanother family who had lost a
loved one as well, full oftragedy.
But out of that tragedy theLord can work, can he not?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yes, he can.
And even through all this, as Iwas kind of realizing, oh, I'm
dying, I'm leaving, because whenthe nurses were talking to my
family explaining this is normal, this is what happens.
At the end of the end I couldsee my family's disbelief.
I could see their concern.
End of the end.
I could see my family'sdisbelief.
(16:54):
I could see their concern.
I could see grief on their face.
It was hard to see that.
My immediate family was young.
We had three separatehouseholds, but we kept in
contact with each other all thetime.
So, as women, it doesn't matterwhat our stage of life is.
We love to take care of ourfamilies.
It's just something we lookforward to doing and we want to
do.
They're just so precious to us.
They're precious jewels ourfamily and so this life of mine
(17:18):
is intertwined with them.
See, I have a connection witheveryone, the older, the younger
.
In some way I'm connected withthem.
So I'm intertwined with them,and this life with them is
really the only life I've known.
So it was hard for me torealize and accept I'm
intertwined with them and thislife with them is really the
only life I've known.
So it was hard for me torealize and accept I'm leaving
(17:38):
you.
This appeared to be God's planfor me, and a plan that was
different than any of usexpected, because, you remember,
I was going into the hospitalto get a heart.
I was just going to wait on aheart.
God's plan kind of appeared tochange, although I was
personally also in my heart.
I personally felt like God,there's more work for me to do,
but according to his agenda,that day, on November 18th, it
appeared I was finishing up mywork here on earth and that God
(18:02):
was calling me home to heaven.
Like all of us, I just want tobe found faithful, walking the
path that God lays before me,the same path that God lays
before you.
Your desire, my desire, it'sthe same.
But whatever his plan, whateverhis agenda, even though it's
different than maybe what weexpect or we might want, it's
really truly what we deserve.
(18:22):
He found faithful in his planfor us.
So I was pulled.
I was pulled because I wantwhat God wants for me.
Yet I have this life now that'sinterwoven with these people,
with my family, and I'mconnected and we're together.
It's a weaving that I felt wasstrong and I felt like I was
concerned for my grandbabies.
(18:43):
They had not lost a grandparentyet.
They were all young, maybe oneor two hamsters.
That was her only experiencewith death.
I worried for the young onesand for the older ones because
the thread that was interwovenin that fabric was about to get
pulled out and things were goingto kind of unravel for them.
The situation, I realized, wascompletely out of my control.
(19:05):
It wasn't something that Icould make better.
You know, we women we like to.
When there's an issue or aproblem, we like to kind of come
in and make it all better forthat person.
I realized that during thissituation I had no control.
There was nothing I could do tochange anything.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
One of the questions that has been on the mind of all
of mankind really since ancienttimes up to now is why?
Why would God allow sufferingin his children?
Why would God allow sufferingacross humanity?
And this is a question againgoing all the way back to
(19:41):
ancient days.
People say why is theresuffering?
If we read the Old Testament,the prophets were screaming out
saying Lord, why, why don't youfix this?
And the Bible tells us that Godis good and that he's
all-powerful.
We see pain and suffering andwe wonder why, as someone, terry
, that has looked death in theeye and gone through this and
(20:05):
all of the heart-wrenchingstruggle you just mentioned, can
you sit here today and say thatGod is good and he has a
purpose and that we can stilltrust God through all this?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Absolutely yes.
Physically, what we go through,what I went through, I was weak
and emotionally spent.
I had no reserve, energy, and Ithink it's in times like that
that we truly turn, when werealize we just have God, we
truly turn to him and maybe heallows the situations of the
struggling and the despair.
So we will do that.
(20:38):
When things are going well, wecan depend on God.
But it's not the same as whenyou have no other reserve and
you just realize everything isin God's control.
I think we say that, but untilwe experience that, where we are
on rock bottom, this is it,it's all in God's hands that we
really do turn to him.
And I did that.
(20:59):
I turned to God's word becauseI saw those precious people in
front of me and I cashed in onGod's promises.
His promises are throughout theBible, right, they're just
peppered all over differentareas of the Bible.
We see God's promises, we readthem, we talk about them, we
teach them.
I've heard it say that God'spromises are like payroll checks
you work, you get paid, you getthat check, but there's one
(21:22):
more step.
Right, you have to put it in abank before you can receive the
money.
One more step, if I just ooh,gather those checks and let them
pile up on my desk.
Ooh, look, I got payroll checks.
What good are they right?
God's promises are a lot likepayroll checks we never
experience the blessing of themoney that we've received until
(21:44):
after we deposit the check.
God's promises we have many ofthem throughout the Bible.
But we have to do more thanlook at them.
We have to do more than believein them.
We have to do more than talkabout them.
Okay, we have to trust God withthem.
So I reached into God's wordand I took his promises and I
just surrendered them to him.
I trusted him fully andcompletely that his words were
(22:07):
true.
Those precious jewels that Iwas leaving behind they're his,
they're not mine.
In Joshua 1.9, he promises tonever leave or forsake his own.
Okay, he's not going to abandonthem.
He's going to be with them thewhole time, even when I'm gone.
He's going to be with them.
In Philippians 4.19, hepromises to meet all of our
(22:28):
needs.
You know what I realize?
God's going to take care of you.
Maybe you can't call me aboutsomething.
He's going to put someone inyour path, and I prayed that.
Put the person in their paththat can help them when they
need help.
Philippians 419 assured me Godcares for them, he's going to
take care of them.
God didn't take away theproblems of that day.
(22:49):
My heart continued to race.
The doctors and nurses theycontinued to run in and out of
my room all day long.
I remained in the end of theend stages that day, but what
God did do was give me just anincredible realization of his
peace.
The eyes of my soul saw thestill waters described in Psalm
(23:09):
23.
I experienced Jehovah Shalomthat day.
All the worry, the hugeconcerns, they were all covered
in an outpouring of peace, peacethat can only come from our
Lord God, from Jehovah Shalom.
It was going to be all right.
Difficult, yes, but all right.
My family had been surrenderedto God and covered, completely
(23:32):
covered, in his wonderfulpromises.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You know, we memorize passages like Psalm 23 when
we're kids and we read thesepromises of God and when we
don't have a tragedy going on inour life, then it's real easy
to say, oh yeah, well, god'sgood and he'll take care of
things.
But it's something elseentirely when, as your
illustration, we really do needto cash that check.
(23:55):
Can we take God's promises tothe bank?
He?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
gave me an assurance in my soul as I'm laying in that
bed like a dishrag.
Okay, he gave me assurance inmy soul that I can't describe in
words.
It isn't so important thateverything makes sense to us.
We don't need all the answers.
We don't need answers to allthe whys that may pop into our
(24:18):
head.
That really doesn't matter.
In the course of everything,it's really not important.
What is important is that wetrust God, that we lean into Him
, that we, like you said, wecash in His promises by
surrendering our situationscompletely to him and trusting
his word.
We can't just give it to himand take it back.
We got to give it all to him.
(24:39):
I was at a point that's all Icould do was give it to him.
I was dying.
And after we do that, he leadsus to still waters and we can
experience Jehovah's Shalom.
God is peace.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Newsflash for our audience.
You didn't die that day.
What actually did happen?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well, that day, as I struggled through and eventually
accepted what appeared to beGod's plan for me, which is what
he wants.
He wants us to accept where hehas us right, not keep wanting
different.
Oh, I want to be here.
Oh, I want before.
No, he has us here.
Okay, he wants us to accept hisplan for us, I realized I'm
(25:17):
going to see Jesus.
There was an excitement withthat.
Okay, oh, wow.
Okay, my family's going to befine and I'm going to see Jesus.
I'm going to stand before him.
I mean, am I going to do?
I mean, oh my gosh, right.
So I had excitement, but I hadregrets.
I had a sadness, not regretsfor places that I had not
vacationed to, that I'd seenmore of the world, not regrets
(25:40):
that I'd wished I'd made moremoney or maybe secured a
different job or maybe obtainedthe next degree.
Not those regrets.
My regrets was I wish I haddone more.
I should have done more forGod's kingdom work, because it
appeared to me in that hospitalbed, my window of opportunity
was closing right, my time's allused up.
(26:02):
It was pretty apparent.
It was all used up.
But late that evening thehospital phone rang.
I heard it ringing and it'sringing and I'm really I'm
laying there so weak.
It was so much effort to raisemy arm and reach over and answer
it.
So I was kind of talking myselfout of answering the phone.
I kind of told myself, you know, anyone who knows me is going
to use my cell phone so I don'thave to answer that phone.
(26:25):
They'll get tired and hang up,you know, and.
But it kept ringing and itoccurred to me a few days
earlier, a family member fromthe patient that was in my room
prior to me.
They called looking for her andI was able to help them locate
her where she was and I thought,you know, if that was a family
member, I should answer thephone because they could be
(26:45):
looking for her and need somehelp.
So I answered the phone andinstantly I heard this voice and
I thought I recognize the voiceand I thought you know a health
professional, like a doctor ora nurse.
They might use the hospitalphone because, well, they know
the number, they work there andthey know my room number.
On the other end I heard avoice that said Terry, you have
(27:08):
a heart.
You have a young, perfectlymatched heart.
This is rare to be perfectlymatched.
Your surgery is scheduled firstthing tomorrow morning.
We'll see you then.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
This was good news.
Right, it was yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It's what I came in for originally.
Right, that was the whole planin the beginning.
But my mind now my mind is okay.
I thought I was going to seeJesus.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
My mind's a little.
I couldn't even think the wordsto say the words and I thought,
oh, I need to call Mike.
And I thought, oh, I need tocall Mike, but I can't even
think the words.
I even say the words to him onthe phone In my mind.
I'm thinking I was ready to seeJesus.
(27:44):
Oh, wait a minute.
It was kind of hard to wrap mymind around, but, oh my gosh, I
have a heart, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
What's interesting is what you said a minute ago, at
the point of what you thoughtwas death.
What you really thought of wasI hadn't done enough for the
Lord, I hadn't done enough forthe kingdom.
There was a sense there of loss.
I remember a very successfulbusinessman at the end of his
life wrote a book.
He was a CEO of a hugecorporation.
(28:12):
This was after he retired.
He never met anybody that got tothe end of their life and said
you know, I really wish I hadmade greater return on
investment 25 years ago in thecompany.
But what he did is he met a lotof people that got to the end
of their life and said I wish Iwould have spent more time with
my family or done more for thecommunity things like that.
(28:34):
As Christians, I think we allneed to be aware of how am I
really spending my time?
Because all of us are walkingaround, going through, just
doing daily activities, and Ithink at some point we're going
to have to answer that questionwhat have you done with what I
gave you?
Right, that was kind of thethought, correct.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yes, that's where the regret was.
There was regret with that andthere was sadness with that.
I missed opportunities.
You know we'll rest in the newJerusalem.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
You got the call.
We have a heart for you.
Again, as we mentioned earlier,this is good news for you.
Possibly even in the samehospital or somewhere close by,
there was a family that had losta daughter and that was a great
tragedy for them.
We have these things thathappen in life and again we
always scream out why, but theLord's purposes are up to Him.
(29:27):
You go through the surgery,obviously, you survived.
What was it like after thesurgery?
You go into the surgery thenext morning and what happens?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, you know, in my mind I was thinking, oh, but
I've still got to make itthrough surgery and I'm really
sick right now.
So I really wasn't thinkingI've got an extended life, I've
got bonus time.
I wasn't thinking that yetuntil I woke up after surgery
and then I realized and it justhit me, I mean just overwhelming
God's love just poured into myheart and there were so many
(30:00):
people praying for me, prayingspecific prayers, praying
specifically, that I would get aheart.
God answered that prayer in avery specific way.
He gave me a heart.
I don't really have enough wordsto express the gratefulness
that I really feel for all thosepeople who'd stopped and took
time to pray for me.
They didn't give up, theypersevered, they did not grow
(30:22):
weary.
They didn't you know well, I'vealready prayed for that before.
No, they were praying, and Iknew that because afterwards
they'd come and tell me how theywere praying.
Right up that day, november18th, they were praying.
It's like this is all we've got.
We're going to pray.
I'm just so thankful to so manywho took the time to pray for
me.
I'm just so thankful to so manywho took the time to pray for
me.
God used them to minister to me, to minister to my heart.
(30:44):
He poured his love into myheart through their actions.
You know God does that.
So when people do something foryou, when you do something for
someone else, the love they feelcan be God's love poured onto
them.
That's what I felt.
I felt God's love poured overthem.
That's what I felt.
I felt God's love poured overme, him taking care of me.
Saying thank you is hardlyenough.
(31:05):
I'm so grateful to so many.
I have communicated with thefamily of my donor, first
through written letters, andthen we drove to a restaurant
halfway.
They lived in the Dallas area,so kind of halfway between us,
and we met for lunch.
They're lovely, lovely peoplearea, so kind of halfway between
us, and we met for lunch.
They're lovely, lovely people,and so many in their family came
(31:29):
that day to meet me.
I'm grateful to them Again.
I really don't have words todescribe my heartfelt gratitude
for what they did.
That mother in her deepestdespair, her agony, her deepest
pain, just overwhelmed withgrief.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Because this mother had lost a relatively young
daughter, correct?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
She was 18.
Yes she was 18.
But in her deepest despair, thedaughter had signed up to be an
organ donor.
But the family has to agree toit.
But in her deepest despair shedecided to allow what her
daughter wanted, and she told methat it's what she wanted and
that's why I wanted to followand support her wishes.
(32:04):
I'm so grateful to her for that.
To me, that was very selflesson her part.
Anyone would have understood inher grief.
Just let her be, Don't put moreon her.
But so it was very selfless onher part.
Can one person make adifference?
Yes, my donor did.
God used her gift to me tocompletely change my life.
(32:25):
My gratitude runs deep.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I can remember in my lifetime where heart transplant
surgeries just they hadn'tdeveloped the techniques to do
it yet.
So these are, in the grandscheme of things, still
relatively new type of surgeryand it's obviously very major
surgery.
Scheme of things, stillrelatively new type of surgery
and it's obviously very majorsurgery.
So you were at one day atdeath's door, get the phone call
(32:48):
with the heart transplant justa few hours later.
So how long was it before youwere actually out of the
hospital and back home?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I think I was in the hospital about five to six weeks
, recovering right around inthere.
I'm grateful beyond words thatGod would give me this bonus
time by allowing me to have theheart and the transplant and the
recovery is hard.
The transplant is probably thehardest thing I've ever done in
my life, but it was totallyworth it.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
You wake up the next morning with a new heart.
What happened in the followingdays?
How long was it before you werekind of up moving around?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
They start PT pretty much immediately.
Okay, so the research shows thequicker a post-operative
patient is up and moving, thebetter their recovery.
If you just lay there and donot move, you run higher risk of
developing pneumonia and that'smore of a complication on the
surgery itself.
So their heart transplant isn'tdifferent than any other
(33:43):
surgery.
They get you up right away withphysical therapies getting you
up and walking around.
You're just carrying a lot ofluggage because you've got all
these wires and tubes and allthis stuff.
So you're just kind of carryinga lot of stuff with you.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Moving on now with what you've done, since you've
been very involved in thepro-life movement, correct?
That was one of the things Ithink that was very important to
you.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yes, it was over years, I think that God kind of
laid some things on my heart.
He gave me confirmation andmaybe the first story that, or
the first experience that I hadthat kind of left me, just kind
of touched my heart in a way ofwe need to educate more on what
abortion is.
I was working in the hospital.
(34:25):
I worked on labor and deliveryunit and my patient was getting
ready to deliver and so I wasgetting the incubator already
with warm blankets for the babyto receive the baby, and the
warm blanket machine was at theend of the hall.
I was walking down the hall andthe unit did do abortions.
Usually between four and six inthe morning the doctors would
come in before they start theirday and do some abortions in
(34:47):
some small surgical suites thatwe had at the end of the hall,
and then in the hall they hadsome curtains that just divided
and they would, you know whenthe patient finished they would
move them there and recover them.
So I'm passing the area to getthe warm blankets and I hear
some light crying as I'm walkingby behind the curtain.
So I got what I needed and asI'm coming back I still heard it
(35:10):
.
So I didn't see the nurse thatwas recovering the patients
around, so I popped in just tosee what was wrong.
Maybe the patient neededsomething.
So, as I went in, the nursecame around and popped in and
said oh, I'm here.
And I said, oh, okay, okay,she's going to take care of the
patient.
So I left to go back to mypatient and as I was leaving, I
(35:30):
heard that patient say okay, Ijust realized what I've done.
I really need to talk tosomeone.
The nurse's response to her waswell, it's too late for that.
And I thought to myself oh, shedidn't really understand what
abortion was until after ithappened.
Then she realized so I thinkthat was the start of God, kind
(35:51):
of touching my heart like weneed to educate.
Oh, that was the late 80s.
During the course of the late80s and 2012, when I started
working on planting Lifeline towrite in the Articles of
Incorporation in 2013.
During that time, there weremore of those situations that
God would just put in my path.
(36:12):
That would again show me weneed to educate on this.
People need to be educated.
All the way to the lastconfirmation, lifeline was built
out.
So we've gone way forward nowto 2014.
Lifeline's built out forcebehind that.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
The idea here is not just curse the darkness, but to
go and do something positiveright.
The culture, of course, is kindof focused on death and
darkness, and there's a lot ofmoney to be made in death and
(36:50):
abortion, but setting out tohave, okay, what can we actually
do in a positive sense?
You were the founder of apro-life center, correct?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Correct.
Of course I didn't do the workalone.
God put people in my path thathelped even one person in
particular who came alongside me, jamie Porter.
I'd been working on Lifelineabout a year when I met Jamie
and she actually I didn't talkto her.
She heard from someone else andshe came and she just got
active and she told me.
(37:21):
She said, terry, when you're uphere, I'm going to be up here.
It was really reassuring.
When you plan to ministry or achurch or anything like that,
it's very isolating.
It's kind of a COVID feelingbecause you're off doing all
this work and everyone else isgoing about their way and their
life and they may come and helpyou but they go back to their
life and it's not a constantsort of help.
(37:41):
And she did that.
She came alongside Now, ofcourse, god put her in my path.
She was a retired vicepresident of a bank, so not
being a businesswoman becomingbusiness-minded, but not being a
businesswoman.
We had Jamie to set that partup for the ministry because as a
501c3, which we became we'reaccountable to government for
(38:02):
the money we take in, the moneywe spend.
So she helped to get all thoserecords in place.
That's how God worked throughthe whole planting of Lifeline.
It was like that.
But Jamie was one that I mean.
She was with me every day andright up to getting ready to
open, and the inspector iscoming and he's already come and
left a list of things that weneeded to fix that we missed
(38:24):
right.
But the person who came thistime wasn't the same one who
critiqued us the first time.
So I was kind of glad aboutthat, because the first one that
came was just wrong, wrong,wrong, wrong, wrong.
And we had, just, you know,this legal pad of things that
you know we can't get this done.
We're supposed to.
We have an open house thisweekend.
We'd already announced it andeverything, and people were
coming and churches were coming.
(38:44):
So the person who came was inhis place and it was someone
different.
It was a younger man.
So he came in and he checkedeverything we had.
He had the list of what neededto be fixed and everything was
fixed.
But he shared a story with meand it was again like, right
before we embarked on openingour doors, god one more time
(39:05):
confirmed this is right, this iswhat we need, this is what you
were supposed to do.
He came to me and he said afterhe's done doing all his
inspections, and he says youknow, my wife and I, when we
were in college she got pregnantand we really didn't know what
to do and everyone around us wassaying well, you need to get an
abortion, just get an abortion,because you know you've got to
finish school.
This is bad timing.
(39:25):
You're not married yet.
Just do that, finish school,and then you know, you can have
more children later.
So they thought about it for awhile and then decided no, we're
going to do the abortion.
He called his dad.
He know I can't remember hername, but you know she's
pregnant, so we're going to goahead and get an abortion.
And my dad said well, I guessthat's the best thing for you to
do.
And he said my son he knew hehad a son would be 20 years old
(39:49):
today.
If something like this had beenthere for us, we would not have
gotten the abortion All alongthe way, from the very start,
when God started putting awhisper on my heart that we need
education, all the way up todays before we opened the door
for the open house and the nextday we started business, god
confirmed again we have toeducate and that's what we do at
(40:10):
Lifeline we educate.
We're not just there for thebaby.
Yes, we're concerned about thatbaby's life, but we're really
concerned on the eternalsalvation of that mom, of that
dad.
Lifeline was mainly planted forevangelism.
We have a need in this society.
We have a need.
We're going to meet that need.
Since I was a nurse, we couldexpand the pregnancy center and
(40:33):
include a medical side.
We did that.
So the women can come.
They need a pregnancy test,they can see an ultrasound, they
can hear the baby's heart rate,they can see the baby on the
screen.
There was a TV we had tomonitor, you know, for the
ultrasound, but one of the boardmembers donated this.
Like this, this huge TV Takesup the whole wall.
(40:54):
Just about in that room you cansee the chambers of the four
chambers of the baby's heart onultrasound.
It's really good.
So they can see that they'rechoosing to carry the baby, to
have the baby.
We offer classes for four yearsof the child's life, from
whatever stage the mom is in.
So while they're pregnant theyget lessons on their pregnancy
(41:16):
and what's going on during thatterm first term, second term,
third term, then, as the baby'sborn, through the life, up to
four, even things, how to, whatto do with a temper tantrum or
car seat safety, all thesethings that pertain to that
level of life.
As the mom attends theseclasses, she's given boutique
(41:36):
books and those books.
She can walk into our boutique,our baby boutique, and it looks
like a resale shop Beautifulclothes for babies, everything
you need.
She can take that boutique bookthat she received from
attending the class and she canbuy things she needs for her
child.
We have everything from zero tofour years old there.
(41:58):
It allows us to, yes, educate,but also come alongside and
support.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
So much of the public discussion goes around abortion
and allowing it or stopping it,because it's such a contrast of
kind of light and dark yes, andno death and life.
Then that's the publicdiscussion.
But the real value and the realdown end of the nitty-gritty
(42:23):
where people live is people haveto.
They've got jobs, they've gotfamily, they've got money issues
and really all of the educationis part of what's driving this
kind of pro-death movementaround.
Oh, we'll just dispose of thislike it's yesterday's empty box
or something.
No, this is a human beingcreated in the image of God, but
(42:46):
we have to do something aroundhelping people to be able to
care for the baby.
When our families break apart,then we don't have like really
all of human creation.
The grandmothers were there andthe granddaughters learned from
the mom.
A lot of that's gone becauseour families have broken up, and
(43:06):
so on top of that you have thepeople just making money out of
abortion.
It's good that there arepro-life centers and crisis
pregnancy centers really allaround the world now and to our
audience, wherever you happen tobe, look around.
(43:27):
If you have anyone that has acrisis pregnancy, look around,
because there really is supportsystems all over.
Terry, can you say today thatthere's still a need for
Christians to get involved inthe pro-life movement?
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Yes, it's a pregnancy center ministry and everyone
who goes to Lifeline, when theywalk in the door, everyone is
shared the salvation message.
But they're not just shared.
The message.
God's love is demonstrated tothem as well.
They can see, they can see achange.
They can see it.
I remember one mom that I hadworked with and she was coming
(44:01):
every month and she was aboutfive or six months along.
When they first come on thefirst visit, we share the gospel
with them during the interview,when we're first letting them
know about the program, how weshow them the boutique.
You work, our program.
You can have everything youneed for your child.
By the time you deliver you'llhave the entire layout, you'll
have everything and they can seeeverything.
They can see strollers, theycan buy high chairs, clothes.
(44:22):
They can see that.
So we're providing a need forthem and we're meeting that need
with that.
We can share the gospel messageand they watch us.
And I remember this one momshe's going along in about five
or six months along and she camein one day and she was excited.
She said okay, I went home andread John.
We give them a Bible After Iwould share salvation story with
(44:46):
them.
I would say read John.
You're going to read the storyagain and more and I liked the
way John formats it and that.
And she came in, she goes.
I read John and I decided Iwanted this Jesus that everyone
here has, so we can demonstrateGod's love, we can show God's
love to them through thisministry.
But we need dollars.
(45:06):
We have light bills, we have topay rent, we have some staff,
we need money and so, yes, weneed support Lifeline.
It's nonprofit, it's a 501c3.
It's supported by churches andindividuals.
More individuals and churchessupport it.
It doesn't belong to any one itit doesn't belong to any one
person.
It doesn't belong to any onechurch.
It's God's ministry and we'rejust here to take care of it.
(45:28):
When you do support it throughfinancially, support it.
It allows people to learn aboutwhat abortion really is, but it
also allows people to be ableto hear the gospel message.
Because the main focus forPlanning Lifeline was the
opportunity for evangelism andmeeting people where they are in
(45:48):
their need.
We provide for that need andthere's a hope and
transformation that comes withaccepting Jesus into your life.
So you're supporting thepro-life movement, but you're
also you're really supportingevangelism as well.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
What we'll do is put down in the description.
We'll put a link to where youcan find out more about Lifeline
.
There's, of course, as we said,there's centers like this all
around.
Terry, you've been a greatguest.
Thank you for being with us.
Any last words to our audiencethat you want to leave with
people?
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Maybe a message for Christians today.
As Christians, we're not hereto sit.
We're not here to just ride thewave of life and pleasure or
wander around leading a lifewithout purpose and meaning.
That's not what we've been madeto do.
As Christians, we have a raceto run.
The God who made us has givenus just a window of opportunity.
We don't know when that windowwill close permanently.
(46:42):
For some, that window willclose sooner than for others.
It's important that we use thetime now, the race that we're
running, the course that God hascharted before us.
It outshines any personalpursuit or focus that we might
have.
It's God's purpose for yourlife.
That's really.
What truly matters is findingwhat is God's purpose for my
(47:04):
life.
Finding that purpose andfulfilling it needs to be, as a
Christian, a number one priority.
God calls us to run the race.
He's charted our course andhe's laid it out before us.
Who's going to respond to God'scall?
When we respond to God's call,we compassionately speak and
show his way to others.
Faith comes by hearing.
(47:24):
As we speak and demonstrateGod's ways to others, we provide
the truth that allows hisspirit to open blind eyes to see
.
If we choose to say nothing,then they will see nothing.
Running the race is a choicethat Christians make every day.
The race doesn't requirelightning speed, but it does
(47:46):
require endurance.
The race will become hard.
We're going to have obstacles,we're going to have struggles,
we're going to have distractions, we're going to have
discouragement.
But when you think about it, ifJesus could endure the cross,
then we can persevere and endurethe course that God has set
before each of us to run.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Thank you, turi Wright, wonderful story.
You can learn more about ourministry, reasoning Through the
Bible, at our website.
What we normally do isverse-by-verse Bible study and
we have helps for small groupsand churches.
We have free teacher materials.
So our main purpose is teachingthe Word of God and reaching
(48:23):
out to all people in all places.
You can find more about that atour website,
reasoningthroughthebiblecom, andwe'd be more than happy to hear
from you.
If you want to have a messageabout today's topic, then email
us at info.
That's I-N-F-O atreasoningthroughthebiblecom, and
(48:44):
tune in next time for more ofour programming.
Hello and welcome to Reasoning Through the Bible.
We normally do verse-by-verseBible study through the Word of
God, so if you're new to ourprogram, then check out our
website,reasoningthroughthebiblecom.
The main thrust of our ministryis providing free teaching
materials for small groups andchurches, so go to our website
(00:41):
and you'll learn all about us.
Today, for our regularlisteners, we're going to have
something slightly different.
We have a very interestingstory.
We've got a lady today who hasbeen through a lot and you'll
get to meet her.
Welcome to the broadcast, terryWright.
Thank you.
Terry you are.
I'll go ahead and kind of spillthe beans here.
(01:02):
You've gone through a hearttransplant operation and you've
also been very involved in thepro-life movement.
Today we're going to learn yourstory.
Tell us a little bit about yourbackground.
Where did you grow up?
What was life like?
Speaker 2 (01:18):
I was born, raised and educated in Detroit and grew
up in the Detroit area.
I moved to Texas in 1981.
We were accustomed to eating,eating and we needed work, so we
moved down here along with many, many other people.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
And your career was what you were in the as a nurse
right.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Yes, I worked as a registered nurse and also as a
deaf interpreter.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
So I know you've spent a fair amount of time
doing sign language, doinginterpretation with the deaf.
That's one of the ministriesyou do.
So you're married, got kids.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yes, I'm married.
We have two children they'regrown and seven grandchildren,
and we're very fortunate they dolive in the Houston area.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
So with that, did you have a spiritual background
when you were growing up?
You go to church when you werea kid.
What was your spiritual lifelike?
Speaker 2 (02:11):
I came to faith in Jesus Christ at a young age.
During elementary school.
I did not know everything aboutGod's salvation, but I fully
understood I had sin and thatsin separated me from being with
God.
I pondered the decision to putmy faith in Jesus.
For about two weeks I didn'ttalk to anyone about what I was
(02:31):
thinking about.
I just kind of kept it tomyself in my introverted way,
but kept feeling a pull.
After about two weeks I talkedwith my pastor at my church and
he led me to Christ.
I believe in a triune God.
I have a personal relationshipwith God because I have put my
trust and faith in Jesus Christas my Lord and Savior.
I strive daily to live myday-to-day life in harmony with
(02:55):
God.
Even in my deepest struggles,my most difficult times, I know
God is with me.
There's an inner peace, like aninner joy that he gives me that
can only come from him.
I may not know what the futureholds, but I do know that my
Lord and Savior will remain withme.
He's with me now here on earth,and someday he's going to carry
(03:16):
me home to heaven.
I'm a witness that God can andwill save anyone.
I'm a follower of Jesus Christcalled to be a proclaimer of His
gospel to a lost world.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So with that you had some spiritual background, you
were a Christian.
And you said when you were asmall child right, yeah,
elementary school.
So grew up in church, went to ayouth group Again, grew up, got
married, had kids, had a career, moved to Texas and just normal
life at this point, right?
Yes, so what happened?
(03:48):
You eventually had some medicalissues, right?
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Eventually.
I mean, I was pretty healthy.
I really went to the doctoronce a year for a checkup,
basically.
Then something kind of unusualhappened.
I developed heart failure andit's kind of unusual happened.
I developed heart failure andit's kind of unusual for that
type of disease to just happenquickly.
But basically I was walkingacross the room at Lifeline,
(04:12):
walking over to the copy machine.
I still remember looking downand seeing that and I lost
consciousness.
I woke up on the floor.
That was scary.
All this furniture was rightnext to my head, Just a question
At this point.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
You had not had any symptoms prior to this right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I had no cardiovascular disease of any
type and even later they stillcouldn't find a reason for what
happened.
Since I bumped my head when Ifell, I knew I needed an x-ray.
If you're older or younger, youalways get an x-ray if you bump
your head.
I called my doctor andencouraged me to go to the ER.
So I really I thought I'm justgoing to go to the ER real quick
(04:50):
and I'll be right back, justgoing to scan my head real quick
, just do a quick x-ray Went tothe ER and they x-rayed and they
found two subdural hematomas.
I had two brain bleeds in thefront.
So when I bumped my head in theback it pushed my brain forward
.
I had two bleeds in the frontand I'd also lost conduction in
my heart.
So I was in a full heart block.
(05:12):
Both of those are very critical.
Electricity to help my heart tobeat.
It was temporary, it was likethis external device and the
wire went into my heart and itjust fired my heart to beat and
I remember the doctor sayingokay, don't move If that wire
(05:33):
comes out, that's it.
So I didn't move, I did as Iwas told.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So question again up to now in life you had been
relatively healthy, no realheart issues.
Suddenly one day, just walkingto the copy machine, you
basically pass out and thensuddenly you're in the hospital
with all of these wires in youand things.
What's going through your mindat this point?
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Well, I was perplexed .
I was really.
I was in disbelief, kind of indenial, because even when I woke
up and got up off the floor Iknew I'd bumped my head, but I
felt okay.
I mean to me I felt okay, eventhough my heart was not, you
know, I felt okay.
So I was in disbelief.
I really felt like, oh, they'regoing to realize everything's
fine and just send me home.
(06:17):
I'm sitting in ICU but I'mstill telling myself I mean,
actually I still had my bluejeans on under my gown.
I was just thinking they'regoing to send me home.
So I was in denial, I was indisbelief, I didn't believe it
you know.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
So they had going back to the story.
They had wires on your heartsaying don't let these come
disconnected, right, Don't move,Don't move.
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Or the doctor just before he went home he came to
my room and said okay, don'tmove, or that wire comes out,
that's it.
So it's like oh, I didn't, Ilaid there.
Then the next day they did amore permanent, where you know
the placement where you keep thebox in you, and so it was more
permanent, it was working.
They figured, okay, we figuredout what's wrong.
You needed electricity to yourheart.
So then they did a permanentplacement the next day.
(06:59):
But I was still left in heartfailure and that was a mystery
to my doctors.
Up to that point I had goodcardiovascular health.
I had low everything bloodpressure, cholesterol, I ate
healthy, I was active, you know.
So I exercised, I had no socialdrug activity, I didn't smoke,
I didn't consume alcohol.
(07:19):
So the doctors really theycouldn't find a cause for what
happened.
And this isn't usually howheart failure happens.
It just a healthy persondoesn't just go into heart
failure one day, it's usuallysomething that progresses slowly
over time.
It was all kind of perplexing,kind of a mystery, mystery to
everyone.
(07:39):
My heart was pumping at about18 to 20% of its capacity.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
I guess as a career as a registered nurse, you were
familiar with hospitals andmedical things, so at this point
you probably understood theseriousness of where you were
right.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I was very aware it was very concerning.
It was kind of a differentdynamic for me.
It was a different feeling tobe the one in the bed so that I
had to kind of looking at themtrying to figure me out, because
I was used to being the one onthe team giving the care.
So it was a different dynamicfor me.
I kind of had to wrap my mindaround that.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
Were you still in ICU or continue with the story in
the hospital?
What's going on?
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Well, eventually, no, I had to go home.
Of course, they got my heartstable.
The bleeds on my head closed ontheir own, so I didn't need
surgery.
They were thinking I neededboth surgeries.
The heart was going to be first.
That's what they told me.
We're doing the heart first.
And even after the heartsurgery they took me to CT
immediately to re-scan and theycould see where it was starting
(08:44):
to close on its own.
Those did heal on their own.
I didn't need any surgery forthat.
That was good.
I went back home, but I wasstill in heart failure.
My condition persisted andworsened quickly.
It wasn't too long until Ifound myself on the heart
transplant list waiting for adonor.
Doctors decided this is all so.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
heart transplant list waiting for a donor heart.
And what were the doctorstelling you at this point?
Speaker 2 (09:09):
That that was my only option.
They were hoping whatever wasgoing on was going to reverse,
because it happened quickly.
Well, maybe we've goteverything going on the right
track, they've got electricitygoing to my heart, maybe it was
just a conduction problem andwe've got that restored.
So they were thinking this willreverse.
As quick as it happened it canreverse.
That was the hope.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
How much time passed in between the initial again
walking to the copy machine andyou just fall out one day.
How much time passed in betweenthe initial event and here
where the doctors are nowtelling you your heart has
failed and you need a transplant.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
About a year, because you know they were hoping it
would reverse.
They even upgraded theelectrical device, right,
because, oh, this is what youneed, you need the Cadillac
version, you just need a biggerdevice.
And so we, you know, changed itout.
So in that time, maybe a year,year and a half, and finally it
was a transplant is your onlyresource, your only option.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
At this point, I'm presuming your heart is just
slowly getting worse andeventually you end up what back
in the hospital or what happened.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
Pretty much.
I got worked up and everything.
You've got to kind of make thetransplant list.
Certain things have to be okay,you have to be able to go
through the surgery and recoverlist.
Certain things have to be okay,you have to be able to go
through the surgery and recover.
So they check out all yourother systems.
So I got worked up and then Iwas placed on the transplant
list.
I wasn't on the transplant listvery long until I realized I
really couldn't function well athome and my doctor encouraged
(10:38):
me to go into the hospital andjust be admitted and wait in the
hospital until a heart becameavailable.
There were medications that hecould give me that would
actually help me during theselater stages and give me a
little more time waiting.
The doctor felt prettyconfident that within three
months you should have a heart.
You know he mentioned.
(10:58):
You know we pass up a lot ofgood small hearts.
You can't put a little enginein a big truck.
So he was pretty confident withthat and felt like going in the
hospital.
I had a good chance.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
So at this point you're in the hospital waiting
on a heart.
Again, you had mentioned youhad been having trouble just
getting through the day at home.
You're not feeling well at thispoint.
Your heart is slowly gettingworse.
And what's the family doing atthis point?
How is the people around youaccepting this?
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Well, everyone seemed to be okay with it because
there was a lot of hope.
It sounded like a great plan.
You know, I mean really I'mgoing to go in and I'm going to
get a heart.
So I mean everyone was in on itand everyone was supportive for
it, for that plan.
So I went into the hospital andeveryone was supportive for it,
(11:49):
for that plan.
So I went into the hospital.
But while there I declined muchquicker than anyone expected.
Within 11 days I had gonethrough all the meds that were
available for me, the meds thatwere going to stretch out my
wait time.
My heart was kind of goinghaywire what it does at the end.
It was just going haywire.
My heart pattern and numbersreflected someone getting ready
to die.
I was very aware.
I knew what was going on.
(12:10):
All at once, my heart would justbe normal in a normal heart
pattern.
Then all at once it would jumpup in the 180s and 200s and
maybe do that for a minute,minute and a half and then come
back down to a normal heartrhythm again.
It was doing that.
It's what your heart does whenit's giving out.
It's very common and duringthis time I can remember when my
(12:33):
heart would race high for maybelonger periods of time, longer
than a minute, a minute and ahalf.
It would go on for severalminutes, which is longer than
expected.
With that, but during these twotimes when my heart was racing
longer, I could feel somethingslowly pulling away from my body
.
The part that was pulling awayfelt normal, like me, like how I
(12:57):
feel every day.
The part that was being pulledaway from felt this extreme
weakness like I've never feltbefore.
So it was kind of odd because Ifelt like me and yet I felt my
body was just so.
So weak.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
You were very close to death at this point.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Yeah, my heart was giving out and I was dying.
My soul, my spirit, it wasleaving my dying body.
There was no pain, but I wasable to feel what was happening.
Then, all at once, when it wasup there for minutes on end,
five minutes, seven minutes itwould on its own revert back to
a what's happening.
Right, we do have a soul wehave a spirit.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
It's distinct from our body, so we have in the
process of dying.
There's part of us thatcontinues.
So you claim to be aware ofthis.
At the time you were reallylooking death sort of eyeball to
eyeball right.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
That day was Saturday , november 18th 2017.
And it was a very difficult day, physically and emotionally,
for me.
My family was there in the room.
My monitor alarms were soundingconstantly.
My heart kept giving that lastoomph right, jumping way up
there.
Oh, I got to catch up.
I got to catch up.
The nurses didn't like walkingout of my room.
(14:22):
They ran in and out of my room.
The door to my room was like arevolving door.
My trash can was full of thoseblue gloves, just from them
coming in and out, constantlychanging.
I was very, very weak.
The staff started talking to myfamily a little bit different
that day, and just a calm,reassuring voice.
I remember hearing them say tomy family this is what happens
(14:45):
at the end of the end.
So they were preparing them,did you?
get news from the doctors onthat last day there wasn't a
whole lot that could be doneright now.
They'd done everything theycould do.
Little did I know.
I wasn't aware of this, but thestaff were aware I had a heart
match.
That's why when I would go intothese patterns they would run
in to my room Because if myheart had stopped they'd have
(15:07):
started working on me to get itgoing again.
They were there to keep mealive.
I wasn't aware, but I had aheart match.
They were aware.
But the family had not signed inagreement for the organs to be
donated.
There was a motivation there.
The doctor did say one day ashe was leaving, one time Mike,
my husband, had said what do youknow?
(15:28):
What do you know about a heart?
What do you know?
All he turned and said was youknow?
Sometimes it's hard forfamilies to give up their loved
ones and allow them to donate.
I mean, those organs have to beharvested.
It takes a few more days fromdeath and they have to be cut on
and I think during theirdeepest grief and anguish it's
(15:48):
hard for them to agree to that.
It's just overwhelming.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
There you were in a very large hospital, in a major
city hospital full of very illpeople, and you were in the
process of dying, very close todeath, where again you could
feel your soul, spirit leavingyour body.
At this point it was probablyfor you a real low point.
(16:12):
I would assume the spiritualpart of you says wow, I get to
see the Lord.
But you're very aware of this,your family is aware of this.
It's sort of a dark day foryour family.
Somewhere else nearby there wasanother family who had lost a
loved one as well, full oftragedy.
But out of that tragedy theLord can work, can he not?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Yes, he can.
And even through all this, as Iwas kind of realizing, oh, I'm
dying, I'm leaving, because whenthe nurses were talking to my
family explaining this is normal, this is what happens.
At the end of the end I couldsee my family's disbelief.
I could see their concern.
End of the end.
I could see my family'sdisbelief.
(16:54):
I could see their concern.
I could see grief on their face.
It was hard to see that.
My immediate family was young.
We had three separatehouseholds, but we kept in
contact with each other all thetime.
So, as women, it doesn't matterwhat our stage of life is.
We love to take care of ourfamilies.
It's just something we lookforward to doing and we want to
do.
They're just so precious to us.
They're precious jewels ourfamily and so this life of mine
(17:18):
is intertwined with them.
See, I have a connection witheveryone, the older, the younger
.
In some way I'm connected withthem.
So I'm intertwined with them,and this life with them is
really the only life I've known.
So it was hard for me torealize and accept I'm
intertwined with them and thislife with them is really the
only life I've known.
So it was hard for me torealize and accept I'm leaving
(17:38):
you.
This appeared to be God's planfor me, and a plan that was
different than any of usexpected, because, you remember,
I was going into the hospitalto get a heart.
I was just going to wait on aheart.
God's plan kind of appeared tochange, although I was
personally also in my heart.
I personally felt like God,there's more work for me to do,
but according to his agenda,that day, on November 18th, it
appeared I was finishing up mywork here on earth and that God
(18:02):
was calling me home to heaven.
Like all of us, I just want tobe found faithful, walking the
path that God lays before me,the same path that God lays
before you.
Your desire, my desire, it'sthe same.
But whatever his plan, whateverhis agenda, even though it's
different than maybe what weexpect or we might want, it's
really truly what we deserve.
(18:22):
He found faithful in his planfor us.
So I was pulled.
I was pulled because I wantwhat God wants for me.
Yet I have this life now that'sinterwoven with these people,
with my family, and I'mconnected and we're together.
It's a weaving that I felt wasstrong and I felt like I was
concerned for my grandbabies.
(18:43):
They had not lost a grandparentyet.
They were all young, maybe oneor two hamsters.
That was her only experiencewith death.
I worried for the young onesand for the older ones because
the thread that was interwovenin that fabric was about to get
pulled out and things were goingto kind of unravel for them.
The situation, I realized, wascompletely out of my control.
(19:05):
It wasn't something that Icould make better.
You know, we women we like to.
When there's an issue or aproblem, we like to kind of come
in and make it all better forthat person.
I realized that during thissituation I had no control.
There was nothing I could do tochange anything.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
One of the questions that has been on the mind of all
of mankind really since ancienttimes up to now is why?
Why would God allow sufferingin his children?
Why would God allow sufferingacross humanity?
And this is a question againgoing all the way back to
(19:41):
ancient days.
People say why is theresuffering?
If we read the Old Testament,the prophets were screaming out
saying Lord, why, why don't youfix this?
And the Bible tells us that Godis good and that he's
all-powerful.
We see pain and suffering andwe wonder why, as someone, terry
, that has looked death in theeye and gone through this and
(20:05):
all of the heart-wrenchingstruggle you just mentioned, can
you sit here today and say thatGod is good and he has a
purpose and that we can stilltrust God through all this?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Absolutely yes.
Physically, what we go through,what I went through, I was weak
and emotionally spent.
I had no reserve, energy, and Ithink it's in times like that
that we truly turn, when werealize we just have God, we
truly turn to him and maybe heallows the situations of the
struggling and the despair.
So we will do that.
(20:38):
When things are going well, wecan depend on God.
But it's not the same as whenyou have no other reserve and
you just realize everything isin God's control.
I think we say that, but untilwe experience that, where we are
on rock bottom, this is it,it's all in God's hands that we
really do turn to him.
And I did that.
(20:59):
I turned to God's word becauseI saw those precious people in
front of me and I cashed in onGod's promises.
His promises are throughout theBible, right, they're just
peppered all over differentareas of the Bible.
We see God's promises, we readthem, we talk about them, we
teach them.
I've heard it say that God'spromises are like payroll checks
you work, you get paid, you getthat check, but there's one
(21:22):
more step.
Right, you have to put it in abank before you can receive the
money.
One more step, if I just ooh,gather those checks and let them
pile up on my desk.
Ooh, look, I got payroll checks.
What good are they right?
God's promises are a lot likepayroll checks we never
experience the blessing of themoney that we've received until
(21:44):
after we deposit the check.
God's promises we have many ofthem throughout the Bible.
But we have to do more thanlook at them.
We have to do more than believein them.
We have to do more than talkabout them.
Okay, we have to trust God withthem.
So I reached into God's wordand I took his promises and I
just surrendered them to him.
I trusted him fully andcompletely that his words were
(22:07):
true.
Those precious jewels that Iwas leaving behind they're his,
they're not mine.
In Joshua 1.9, he promises tonever leave or forsake his own.
Okay, he's not going to abandonthem.
He's going to be with them thewhole time, even when I'm gone.
He's going to be with them.
In Philippians 4.19, hepromises to meet all of our
(22:28):
needs.
You know what I realize?
God's going to take care of you.
Maybe you can't call me aboutsomething.
He's going to put someone inyour path, and I prayed that.
Put the person in their paththat can help them when they
need help.
Philippians 419 assured me Godcares for them, he's going to
take care of them.
God didn't take away theproblems of that day.
(22:49):
My heart continued to race.
The doctors and nurses theycontinued to run in and out of
my room all day long.
I remained in the end of theend stages that day, but what
God did do was give me just anincredible realization of his
peace.
The eyes of my soul saw thestill waters described in Psalm
(23:09):
23.
I experienced Jehovah Shalomthat day.
All the worry, the hugeconcerns, they were all covered
in an outpouring of peace, peacethat can only come from our
Lord God, from Jehovah Shalom.
It was going to be all right.
Difficult, yes, but all right.
My family had been surrenderedto God and covered, completely
(23:32):
covered, in his wonderfulpromises.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
You know, we memorize passages like Psalm 23 when
we're kids and we read thesepromises of God and when we
don't have a tragedy going on inour life, then it's real easy
to say, oh yeah, well, god'sgood and he'll take care of
things.
But it's something elseentirely when, as your
illustration, we really do needto cash that check.
(23:55):
Can we take God's promises tothe bank?
He?
Speaker 2 (23:58):
gave me an assurance in my soul as I'm laying in that
bed like a dishrag.
Okay, he gave me assurance inmy soul that I can't describe in
words.
It isn't so important thateverything makes sense to us.
We don't need all the answers.
We don't need answers to allthe whys that may pop into our
(24:18):
head.
That really doesn't matter.
In the course of everything,it's really not important.
What is important is that wetrust God, that we lean into Him
, that we, like you said, wecash in His promises by
surrendering our situationscompletely to him and trusting
his word.
We can't just give it to himand take it back.
We got to give it all to him.
(24:39):
I was at a point that's all Icould do was give it to him.
I was dying.
And after we do that, he leadsus to still waters and we can
experience Jehovah's Shalom.
God is peace.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
Newsflash for our audience.
You didn't die that day.
What actually did happen?
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Well, that day, as I struggled through and eventually
accepted what appeared to beGod's plan for me, which is what
he wants.
He wants us to accept where hehas us right, not keep wanting
different.
Oh, I want to be here.
Oh, I want before.
No, he has us here.
Okay, he wants us to accept hisplan for us, I realized I'm
(25:17):
going to see Jesus.
There was an excitement withthat.
Okay, oh, wow.
Okay, my family's going to befine and I'm going to see Jesus.
I'm going to stand before him.
I mean, am I going to do?
I mean, oh my gosh, right.
So I had excitement, but I hadregrets.
I had a sadness, not regretsfor places that I had not
vacationed to, that I'd seenmore of the world, not regrets
(25:40):
that I'd wished I'd made moremoney or maybe secured a
different job or maybe obtainedthe next degree.
Not those regrets.
My regrets was I wish I haddone more.
I should have done more forGod's kingdom work, because it
appeared to me in that hospitalbed, my window of opportunity
was closing right, my time's allused up.
(26:02):
It was pretty apparent.
It was all used up.
But late that evening thehospital phone rang.
I heard it ringing and it'sringing and I'm really I'm
laying there so weak.
It was so much effort to raisemy arm and reach over and answer
it.
So I was kind of talking myselfout of answering the phone.
I kind of told myself, you know, anyone who knows me is going
to use my cell phone so I don'thave to answer that phone.
(26:25):
They'll get tired and hang up,you know, and.
But it kept ringing and itoccurred to me a few days
earlier, a family member fromthe patient that was in my room
prior to me.
They called looking for her andI was able to help them locate
her where she was and I thought,you know, if that was a family
member, I should answer thephone because they could be
(26:45):
looking for her and need somehelp.
So I answered the phone andinstantly I heard this voice and
I thought I recognize the voiceand I thought you know a health
professional, like a doctor ora nurse.
They might use the hospitalphone because, well, they know
the number, they work there andthey know my room number.
On the other end I heard avoice that said Terry, you have
(27:08):
a heart.
You have a young, perfectlymatched heart.
This is rare to be perfectlymatched.
Your surgery is scheduled firstthing tomorrow morning.
We'll see you then.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
This was good news.
Right, it was yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:23):
It's what I came in for originally.
Right, that was the whole planin the beginning.
But my mind now my mind is okay.
I thought I was going to seeJesus.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
My mind's a little.
I couldn't even think the wordsto say the words and I thought,
oh, I need to call Mike.
And I thought, oh, I need tocall Mike, but I can't even
think the words.
I even say the words to him onthe phone In my mind.
I'm thinking I was ready to seeJesus.
(27:44):
Oh, wait a minute.
It was kind of hard to wrap mymind around, but, oh my gosh, I
have a heart, you know.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
What's interesting is what you said a minute ago, at
the point of what you thoughtwas death.
What you really thought of wasI hadn't done enough for the
Lord, I hadn't done enough forthe kingdom.
There was a sense there of loss.
I remember a very successfulbusinessman at the end of his
life wrote a book.
He was a CEO of a hugecorporation.
(28:12):
This was after he retired.
He never met anybody that got tothe end of their life and said
you know, I really wish I hadmade greater return on
investment 25 years ago in thecompany.
But what he did is he met a lotof people that got to the end
of their life and said I wish Iwould have spent more time with
my family or done more for thecommunity things like that.
(28:34):
As Christians, I think we allneed to be aware of how am I
really spending my time?
Because all of us are walkingaround, going through, just
doing daily activities, and Ithink at some point we're going
to have to answer that questionwhat have you done with what I
gave you?
Right, that was kind of thethought, correct.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
Yes, that's where the regret was.
There was regret with that andthere was sadness with that.
I missed opportunities.
You know we'll rest in the newJerusalem.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
You got the call.
We have a heart for you.
Again, as we mentioned earlier,this is good news for you.
Possibly even in the samehospital or somewhere close by,
there was a family that had losta daughter and that was a great
tragedy for them.
We have these things thathappen in life and again we
always scream out why, but theLord's purposes are up to Him.
(29:27):
You go through the surgery,obviously, you survived.
What was it like after thesurgery?
You go into the surgery thenext morning and what happens?
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Well, you know, in my mind I was thinking, oh, but
I've still got to make itthrough surgery and I'm really
sick right now.
So I really wasn't thinkingI've got an extended life, I've
got bonus time.
I wasn't thinking that yetuntil I woke up after surgery
and then I realized and it justhit me, I mean just overwhelming
God's love just poured into myheart and there were so many
(30:00):
people praying for me, prayingspecific prayers, praying
specifically, that I would get aheart.
God answered that prayer in avery specific way.
He gave me a heart.
I don't really have enough wordsto express the gratefulness
that I really feel for all thosepeople who'd stopped and took
time to pray for me.
They didn't give up, theypersevered, they did not grow
(30:22):
weary.
They didn't you know well, I'vealready prayed for that before.
No, they were praying, and Iknew that because afterwards
they'd come and tell me how theywere praying.
Right up that day, november18th, they were praying.
It's like this is all we've got.
We're going to pray.
I'm just so thankful to so manywho took the time to pray for
me.
I'm just so thankful to so manywho took the time to pray for
me.
God used them to minister to me, to minister to my heart.
(30:44):
He poured his love into myheart through their actions.
You know God does that.
So when people do something foryou, when you do something for
someone else, the love they feelcan be God's love poured onto
them.
That's what I felt.
I felt God's love poured overthem.
That's what I felt.
I felt God's love poured overme, him taking care of me.
Saying thank you is hardlyenough.
(31:05):
I'm so grateful to so many.
I have communicated with thefamily of my donor, first
through written letters, andthen we drove to a restaurant
halfway.
They lived in the Dallas area,so kind of halfway between us,
and we met for lunch.
They're lovely, lovely peoplearea, so kind of halfway between
us, and we met for lunch.
They're lovely, lovely people,and so many in their family came
(31:29):
that day to meet me.
I'm grateful to them Again.
I really don't have words todescribe my heartfelt gratitude
for what they did.
That mother in her deepestdespair, her agony, her deepest
pain, just overwhelmed withgrief.
Speaker 1 (31:41):
Because this mother had lost a relatively young
daughter, correct?
Speaker 2 (31:44):
She was 18.
Yes she was 18.
But in her deepest despair, thedaughter had signed up to be an
organ donor.
But the family has to agree toit.
But in her deepest despair shedecided to allow what her
daughter wanted, and she told methat it's what she wanted and
that's why I wanted to followand support her wishes.
(32:04):
I'm so grateful to her for that.
To me, that was very selflesson her part.
Anyone would have understood inher grief.
Just let her be, Don't put moreon her.
But so it was very selfless onher part.
Can one person make adifference?
Yes, my donor did.
God used her gift to me tocompletely change my life.
(32:25):
My gratitude runs deep.
Speaker 1 (32:27):
I can remember in my lifetime where heart transplant
surgeries just they hadn'tdeveloped the techniques to do
it yet.
So these are, in the grandscheme of things, still
relatively new type of surgeryand it's obviously very major
surgery.
Scheme of things, stillrelatively new type of surgery
and it's obviously very majorsurgery.
So you were at one day atdeath's door, get the phone call
(32:48):
with the heart transplant justa few hours later.
So how long was it before youwere actually out of the
hospital and back home?
Speaker 2 (32:53):
I think I was in the hospital about five to six weeks
, recovering right around inthere.
I'm grateful beyond words thatGod would give me this bonus
time by allowing me to have theheart and the transplant and the
recovery is hard.
The transplant is probably thehardest thing I've ever done in
my life, but it was totallyworth it.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
You wake up the next morning with a new heart.
What happened in the followingdays?
How long was it before you werekind of up moving around?
Speaker 2 (33:21):
They start PT pretty much immediately.
Okay, so the research shows thequicker a post-operative
patient is up and moving, thebetter their recovery.
If you just lay there and donot move, you run higher risk of
developing pneumonia and that'smore of a complication on the
surgery itself.
So their heart transplant isn'tdifferent than any other
(33:43):
surgery.
They get you up right away withphysical therapies getting you
up and walking around.
You're just carrying a lot ofluggage because you've got all
these wires and tubes and allthis stuff.
So you're just kind of carryinga lot of stuff with you.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Moving on now with what you've done, since you've
been very involved in thepro-life movement, correct?
That was one of the things Ithink that was very important to
you.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
Yes, it was over years, I think that God kind of
laid some things on my heart.
He gave me confirmation andmaybe the first story that, or
the first experience that I hadthat kind of left me, just kind
of touched my heart in a way ofwe need to educate more on what
abortion is.
I was working in the hospital.
(34:25):
I worked on labor and deliveryunit and my patient was getting
ready to deliver and so I wasgetting the incubator already
with warm blankets for the babyto receive the baby, and the
warm blanket machine was at theend of the hall.
I was walking down the hall andthe unit did do abortions.
Usually between four and six inthe morning the doctors would
come in before they start theirday and do some abortions in
(34:47):
some small surgical suites thatwe had at the end of the hall,
and then in the hall they hadsome curtains that just divided
and they would, you know whenthe patient finished they would
move them there and recover them.
So I'm passing the area to getthe warm blankets and I hear
some light crying as I'm walkingby behind the curtain.
So I got what I needed and asI'm coming back I still heard it
(35:10):
.
So I didn't see the nurse thatwas recovering the patients
around, so I popped in just tosee what was wrong.
Maybe the patient neededsomething.
So, as I went in, the nursecame around and popped in and
said oh, I'm here.
And I said, oh, okay, okay,she's going to take care of the
patient.
So I left to go back to mypatient and as I was leaving, I
(35:30):
heard that patient say okay, Ijust realized what I've done.
I really need to talk tosomeone.
The nurse's response to her waswell, it's too late for that.
And I thought to myself oh, shedidn't really understand what
abortion was until after ithappened.
Then she realized so I thinkthat was the start of God, kind
(35:51):
of touching my heart like weneed to educate.
Oh, that was the late 80s.
During the course of the late80s and 2012, when I started
working on planting Lifeline towrite in the Articles of
Incorporation in 2013.
During that time, there weremore of those situations that
God would just put in my path.
(36:12):
That would again show me weneed to educate on this.
People need to be educated.
All the way to the lastconfirmation, lifeline was built
out.
So we've gone way forward nowto 2014.
Lifeline's built out forcebehind that.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
The idea here is not just curse the darkness, but to
go and do something positiveright.
The culture, of course, is kindof focused on death and
darkness, and there's a lot ofmoney to be made in death and
(36:50):
abortion, but setting out tohave, okay, what can we actually
do in a positive sense?
You were the founder of apro-life center, correct?
Speaker 2 (37:00):
Correct.
Of course I didn't do the workalone.
God put people in my path thathelped even one person in
particular who came alongside me, jamie Porter.
I'd been working on Lifelineabout a year when I met Jamie
and she actually I didn't talkto her.
She heard from someone else andshe came and she just got
active and she told me.
(37:21):
She said, terry, when you're uphere, I'm going to be up here.
It was really reassuring.
When you plan to ministry or achurch or anything like that,
it's very isolating.
It's kind of a COVID feelingbecause you're off doing all
this work and everyone else isgoing about their way and their
life and they may come and helpyou but they go back to their
life and it's not a constantsort of help.
(37:41):
And she did that.
She came alongside Now, ofcourse, god put her in my path.
She was a retired vicepresident of a bank, so not
being a businesswoman becomingbusiness-minded, but not being a
businesswoman.
We had Jamie to set that partup for the ministry because as a
501c3, which we became we'reaccountable to government for
(38:02):
the money we take in, the moneywe spend.
So she helped to get all thoserecords in place.
That's how God worked throughthe whole planting of Lifeline.
It was like that.
But Jamie was one that I mean.
She was with me every day andright up to getting ready to
open, and the inspector iscoming and he's already come and
left a list of things that weneeded to fix that we missed
(38:24):
right.
But the person who came thistime wasn't the same one who
critiqued us the first time.
So I was kind of glad aboutthat, because the first one that
came was just wrong, wrong,wrong, wrong, wrong.
And we had, just, you know,this legal pad of things that
you know we can't get this done.
We're supposed to.
We have an open house thisweekend.
We'd already announced it andeverything, and people were
coming and churches were coming.
(38:44):
So the person who came was inhis place and it was someone
different.
It was a younger man.
So he came in and he checkedeverything we had.
He had the list of what neededto be fixed and everything was
fixed.
But he shared a story with meand it was again like, right
before we embarked on openingour doors, god one more time
(39:05):
confirmed this is right, this iswhat we need, this is what you
were supposed to do.
He came to me and he said afterhe's done doing all his
inspections, and he says youknow, my wife and I, when we
were in college she got pregnantand we really didn't know what
to do and everyone around us wassaying well, you need to get an
abortion, just get an abortion,because you know you've got to
finish school.
This is bad timing.
(39:25):
You're not married yet.
Just do that, finish school,and then you know, you can have
more children later.
So they thought about it for awhile and then decided no, we're
going to do the abortion.
He called his dad.
He know I can't remember hername, but you know she's
pregnant, so we're going to goahead and get an abortion.
And my dad said well, I guessthat's the best thing for you to
do.
And he said my son he knew hehad a son would be 20 years old
(39:49):
today.
If something like this had beenthere for us, we would not have
gotten the abortion All alongthe way, from the very start,
when God started putting awhisper on my heart that we need
education, all the way up todays before we opened the door
for the open house and the nextday we started business, god
confirmed again we have toeducate and that's what we do at
(40:10):
Lifeline we educate.
We're not just there for thebaby.
Yes, we're concerned about thatbaby's life, but we're really
concerned on the eternalsalvation of that mom, of that
dad.
Lifeline was mainly planted forevangelism.
We have a need in this society.
We have a need.
We're going to meet that need.
Since I was a nurse, we couldexpand the pregnancy center and
(40:33):
include a medical side.
We did that.
So the women can come.
They need a pregnancy test,they can see an ultrasound, they
can hear the baby's heart rate,they can see the baby on the
screen.
There was a TV we had tomonitor, you know, for the
ultrasound, but one of the boardmembers donated this.
Like this, this huge TV Takesup the whole wall.
(40:54):
Just about in that room you cansee the chambers of the four
chambers of the baby's heart onultrasound.
It's really good.
So they can see that they'rechoosing to carry the baby, to
have the baby.
We offer classes for four yearsof the child's life, from
whatever stage the mom is in.
So while they're pregnant theyget lessons on their pregnancy
(41:16):
and what's going on during thatterm first term, second term,
third term, then, as the baby'sborn, through the life, up to
four, even things, how to, whatto do with a temper tantrum or
car seat safety, all thesethings that pertain to that
level of life.
As the mom attends theseclasses, she's given boutique
(41:36):
books and those books.
She can walk into our boutique,our baby boutique, and it looks
like a resale shop Beautifulclothes for babies, everything
you need.
She can take that boutique bookthat she received from
attending the class and she canbuy things she needs for her
child.
We have everything from zero tofour years old there.
(41:58):
It allows us to, yes, educate,but also come alongside and
support.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
So much of the public discussion goes around abortion
and allowing it or stopping it,because it's such a contrast of
kind of light and dark yes, andno death and life.
Then that's the publicdiscussion.
But the real value and the realdown end of the nitty-gritty
(42:23):
where people live is people haveto.
They've got jobs, they've gotfamily, they've got money issues
and really all of the educationis part of what's driving this
kind of pro-death movementaround.
Oh, we'll just dispose of thislike it's yesterday's empty box
or something.
No, this is a human beingcreated in the image of God, but
(42:46):
we have to do something aroundhelping people to be able to
care for the baby.
When our families break apart,then we don't have like really
all of human creation.
The grandmothers were there andthe granddaughters learned from
the mom.
A lot of that's gone becauseour families have broken up, and
(43:06):
so on top of that you have thepeople just making money out of
abortion.
It's good that there arepro-life centers and crisis
pregnancy centers really allaround the world now and to our
audience, wherever you happen tobe, look around.
(43:27):
If you have anyone that has acrisis pregnancy, look around,
because there really is supportsystems all over.
Terry, can you say today thatthere's still a need for
Christians to get involved inthe pro-life movement?
Speaker 2 (43:37):
Yes, it's a pregnancy center ministry and everyone
who goes to Lifeline, when theywalk in the door, everyone is
shared the salvation message.
But they're not just shared.
The message.
God's love is demonstrated tothem as well.
They can see, they can see achange.
They can see it.
I remember one mom that I hadworked with and she was coming
(44:01):
every month and she was aboutfive or six months along.
When they first come on thefirst visit, we share the gospel
with them during the interview,when we're first letting them
know about the program, how weshow them the boutique.
You work, our program.
You can have everything youneed for your child.
By the time you deliver you'llhave the entire layout, you'll
have everything and they can seeeverything.
They can see strollers, theycan buy high chairs, clothes.
(44:22):
They can see that.
So we're providing a need forthem and we're meeting that need
with that.
We can share the gospel messageand they watch us.
And I remember this one momshe's going along in about five
or six months along and she camein one day and she was excited.
She said okay, I went home andread John.
We give them a Bible After Iwould share salvation story with
(44:46):
them.
I would say read John.
You're going to read the storyagain and more and I liked the
way John formats it and that.
And she came in, she goes.
I read John and I decided Iwanted this Jesus that everyone
here has, so we can demonstrateGod's love, we can show God's
love to them through thisministry.
But we need dollars.
(45:06):
We have light bills, we have topay rent, we have some staff,
we need money and so, yes, weneed support Lifeline.
It's nonprofit, it's a 501c3.
It's supported by churches andindividuals.
More individuals and churchessupport it.
It doesn't belong to any one itit doesn't belong to any one
person.
It doesn't belong to any onechurch.
It's God's ministry and we'rejust here to take care of it.
(45:28):
When you do support it throughfinancially, support it.
It allows people to learn aboutwhat abortion really is, but it
also allows people to be ableto hear the gospel message.
Because the main focus forPlanning Lifeline was the
opportunity for evangelism andmeeting people where they are in
(45:48):
their need.
We provide for that need andthere's a hope and
transformation that comes withaccepting Jesus into your life.
So you're supporting thepro-life movement, but you're
also you're really supportingevangelism as well.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
What we'll do is put down in the description.
We'll put a link to where youcan find out more about Lifeline
.
There's, of course, as we said,there's centers like this all
around.
Terry, you've been a greatguest.
Thank you for being with us.
Any last words to our audiencethat you want to leave with
people?
Speaker 2 (46:19):
Maybe a message for Christians today.
As Christians, we're not hereto sit.
We're not here to just ride thewave of life and pleasure or
wander around leading a lifewithout purpose and meaning.
That's not what we've been madeto do.
As Christians, we have a raceto run.
The God who made us has givenus just a window of opportunity.
We don't know when that windowwill close permanently.
(46:42):
For some, that window willclose sooner than for others.
It's important that we use thetime now, the race that we're
running, the course that God hascharted before us.
It outshines any personalpursuit or focus that we might
have.
It's God's purpose for yourlife.
That's really.
What truly matters is findingwhat is God's purpose for my
(47:04):
life.
Finding that purpose andfulfilling it needs to be, as a
Christian, a number one priority.
God calls us to run the race.
He's charted our course andhe's laid it out before us.
Who's going to respond to God'scall?
When we respond to God's call,we compassionately speak and
show his way to others.
Faith comes by hearing.
(47:24):
As we speak and demonstrateGod's ways to others, we provide
the truth that allows hisspirit to open blind eyes to see
.
If we choose to say nothing,then they will see nothing.
Running the race is a choicethat Christians make every day.
The race doesn't requirelightning speed, but it does
(47:46):
require endurance.
The race will become hard.
We're going to have obstacles,we're going to have struggles,
we're going to have distractions, we're going to have
discouragement.
But when you think about it, ifJesus could endure the cross,
then we can persevere and endurethe course that God has set
before each of us to run.
Speaker 1 (48:02):
Thank you, turi Wright, wonderful story.
You can learn more about ourministry, reasoning Through the
Bible, at our website.
What we normally do isverse-by-verse Bible study and
we have helps for small groupsand churches.
We have free teacher materials.
So our main purpose is teachingthe Word of God and reaching
(48:23):
out to all people in all places.
You can find more about that atour website,
reasoningthroughthebiblecom, andwe'd be more than happy to hear
from you.
If you want to have a messageabout today's topic, then email
us at info.
That's I-N-F-O atreasoningthroughthebiblecom, and
(48:44):
tune in next time for more ofour programming.
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