The Gift of Friendship, An Idaho Mountain Wedding, and Minds Changed - An Update from June

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One thing that I will never fully understand is God’s gift of friendship. You pick a person and decide that you like them or want to spend more time with them. It just seems strange. I want you to know about a friend and colleague of mine, I call her "my Columbus sister.” 

Sarah and Me
I met Sarah (Jimenez) Harrington on my first Justice Ride back in 2015. I don’t really know how to describe to you what our friendship has become other than mutually encouraging, uplifting, and God inspired. 
No one of our colleagues would have envisioned us becoming close – we just have so many differences and come from different backgrounds. 

But as I got to know Sarah and our lack of similarities, the one thing that we do strongly share in common is the redemptive work the Lord has done in our lives! Challenging friends are hard to come by, so I am grateful for Sarah! She points me to Christ and encourages me in my growth as a Christian. You can’t know Sarah without telling that she is full of God’s love. 
In fact, once during outreach someone came up to her just to tell her that she was shining with a strange light. She used the opportunity to share Christ with him that day. 
Life by myself without a community of believers would be so much harder. Our Creator sure knew what he was doing when He created us for fellowship! I encourage you to invest in the friends you have, you won’t regret it.

In my last email newsletter I mentioned that I was leaving for a wedding. Sarah just got married to Luke Harrington and I had the honor of being part of the beautiful wedding in her home-state of Idaho. I am so excited for them!

Left: Luke and Sarah's wedding party
Right: The Idaho wedding

The week after I got back from Idaho, we left on our summer Justice Ride!
I wish you all could have been there for the post-outreach debrief times on this Justice Ride. 

Every day there was one story after another of minds that had been changed!

Our outreaches in Columbus have been very encouraging as well; there was one day this month that SEVEN people turned away from Planned Parenthood and cancelled their appointment! 
Praise the Lord for all He is continuing to do and blessing the fruit of our labor. 

Our team on the summer Justice Ride:
Top L: At the Harriet Beecher Stowe house in Cincinnati
Top R and Bottom L: In front of the OH state house
Bottom R: At the campground getting ready to head to Cleveland for a day of outreach

The week after the Justice Ride, we welcomed the summer interns in to our packed office. The atmosphere is one of change and much excitement. Often interns will decide to change their career after spending a summer with us, and return for full-time work. 
Please be praying for these interns, that they will be attentive to the Lord’s direction in their lives. Pray also whether they come back to work with us or go home to continue their lives, that they will leave prepared to winsomely defend life in their home towns and will carry their conviction to further the Kingdom and inspire others wherever they go.
If you have already joined my support team, will you host a “Fundraising for Life” evening with pro-life friends of yours for me to give a short presentation to and invite them to join this support team? If you have not yet, will you please become a monthly financial partner working to save lives? Click HERE, and enter your gift amount in the bar marked “for Rachel Burkey” so your donation will go to me. Your donations are tax-deductible.
~Rachel

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