Sharing My Story

Terry Beh, the original chairman of the committee
left the area in the around 1991. He was a staff
member of Focus on the Family and moved with
the organization from Southern California to their
new headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
One of the other committee members, Stephanie
Makris was elected to become the next chair person.
The emphasis and mandate of the committee at this
point was to devise a plan to education the SMCC
church body concerning the issue of abortion and
how it affects our society. Besides to Pro-Life
literature table plans were developed to give
presentations to the entire SMCC congregation.
Several of the committee members (including
myself) attended seminars put on by a medical
Bio-Ethics group gave instruction on how to
present the pro-life issues to church memberships.
During that time a very graphic video depicting an
abortion was available called “Hard Truth”. This
video was not pretty and it did not sanitize the
surgical procedure that often ends up dismembering
the unborn child as it is being excavated from the
womb. On Pro Life Sunday we gave a presentation
to each of the three morning church services and
showed the “Hard Truth” video (1991). We also
had literature to give out to interested members
and attenders. As I remember Pastor Anderson
was involved in making the topic of abortion a
focal point in his sermon that day and on other
occasions. After this event we felt the committee
had basically discharged its mandate. While
continuing education was certainly an issue
(abortion did not go away) the emotional energy
used to move the committee toward its objectives
was largely spent. This was the high point of the
SMCC Pro-Life Committee. Shortly after this
Stephanie moved from the area and the Pro-Life
Committee was combined with a more comprehensive
Social Concerns Committee.

My involvement in the pro-Life movement after
that included partipations in Life Chains, other
Walks for Life and the monthly picket of a
denominationally supported large hospital
in the area that performed abortions. Interestingly
enough I met a young man at those pickets named
Kevin Yong that would a short time later become
important in another part of my life