I’m Kelly Robinson. Here’s how I’m living deeply. 

“At first, you tend to think you’re helping them- ‘Oh, I’m giving of my time and leaning into God’s call to be generous. I’m helping these women.’ But the reality is- the Lord is working on you. At least that’s been the case for me in my almost three years serving as a client advocate at Choices Resource Center in Oak Ridge. It started with a Bible study called BLC -Becoming Like Christ. BLC really pushed me to get out and use what I’d learned. The leaders walked us through where we might be gifted, where our passions were. And I’d always had a passion for the pro-life community. (I actually started a pro-life group back in college!) So I reached out to [CSPC Local Mission Coordinator] Kathryn Ann Laux. She mentioned that the church partnered with Choices, which she said could definitely use the help. So I went and met with them. What I didn’t expect was the process. I trained for almost a year before I ever went in with a client on my own. (I’m only there one day a week, so it felt like you’d take a step forward and then half a step back!) But they are thorough, and for good reason. The women they’re helping deserve that. When I finally started meeting with clients, my role became what they call a Client Advocate. A woman comes in -sometimes for a pregnancy test, sometimes just needing resources- and I’m there beside her. I look over her intake form, go in with the nurse, and while the client’s waiting on that pregnancy test to come back, I’m sitting with her. I’m asking: ‘Are you excited? What are your thoughts?’ Sometimes they’re overjoyed- they’ve been wanting to get pregnant. And other times, their head is absolutely swirling- they have no idea how they’re going to do this. So we try to get them to focus on today. Not five years down the road, just today. What does it look like, TODAY, to be pregnant? Because that’s all any of us can really hold.

We tell every client from the very beginning: Choices is a faith-based organization. And you know what? Probably 80% of them say, ‘Oh, I’m a Christian.’ So we’ll respond, ‘That’s wonderful- tell me what that means to you. How did you become a Christian? When did you know?’ We try to get them to really talk about what faith means to them. And then there are those who aren’t believers. We ask permission to speak to them about the Gospel, and most of the time they’re open to it. I’ve only had a couple who’ve said no. So that’s one of the great parts of being a client advocate at Choices: I get to share the Gospel! I’ve also recommended churches- not always because a client asked, but because I wanted them to know they need community. I’ve been able to reassure them, ‘Churches are places that will walk alongside you. They want to help.’ Of course, we don’t always know what God does with that seed once it’s planted. That’s up to Him. But sometimes, I do get the privilege of having a front row seat to watching Him work. Let me give you an example, one that doesn’t have to do with the Gospel directly but does speak to God’s heart for protecting life. Last fall, I had a client come in who wasn’t born in the United States, and I had a little uneasy feeling about her situation at home. Something just felt off. She was living with a boyfriend, and it seemed questionable. From the very beginning, she said she didn’t want to have a baby. We did the test. It was positive. Then we went ahead and did an ultrasound. At that moment, the tears came. She was very emotional and wanted to take the baby’s picture home with her. I could see something stirring in her, even through her fear. But when she left, I honestly thought she was going to have an abortion. That’s just where her demeanor was. She kept saying, ‘I don’t want this baby. I don’t want this baby.”

This young woman then missed her second ultrasound, and I didn’t know why. So I just texted: ‘Checking to see how you’re feeling, how did your appointment go?’ And her boyfriend actually responded. He said she was doing much better, then basically told me, ‘We’re excited about having the baby.’ Wow, I was overjoyed! I really thought it was going the other way, but the Lord did a miracle. So often, when they see that ultrasound, there’s just no denying that’s a life. That’s a person. I have watched it happen again and again: A woman walks in certain she doesn’t want the baby, then she sees that image, and something shifts in her that no argument could ever bring about. I will say, if we know a client is abortion-determined, a prayer chain goes out to anyone who wants to be on it: to pray for that client and the client’s advocate, that the Lord would give her the words. The staff actually stops and prays together, right in that moment. They also pray every morning and at lunch. There are some really hard days at Choices, like when a couple of abortion-minded clients in a row come in for appointments. So the team is rooted in prayer because they have to be- they feel the weight of the sadness, which only God can change. As you can tell, the Lord is doing amazing things through the team at Choices. But what I wasn’t expecting when I started was what He would do in ME. Before this, if I’m honest, I probably carried a lot of judgment toward some of the clients we serve. But now, I just see the needs that these women have. Many of them don’t come from great homes. Love is lacking in their lives. They’re there for a free pregnancy test because they just don’t have money. The Lord uses all that to get them in the door. But until you meet these women and learn their stories, you really don’t know all that. As I’ve gotten to know them, though, God has changed my instinct to judge into an instinct for compassion. His love is overflowing in me more than it was three years ago. And that’s so good for my heart. It’s hard to even call it serving, because I’m the one reaping the benefits.”