Hi friends! On today’s episode of Draw Near to Me, we will conclude with the last part of Judy’s faith journey. For those who prefer to read, today’s content is also posted below. I love the stories she shares about how God has been moving at First Coast Women’s Services. It is always interesting to get a behind the scenes look at the miracles He performed. I’m also inspired by where she is today with the Lord. She truly has a great confidence in Him and a beautiful eternal focus. Judy, thank you again for sharing part of your story! It has been an honor to learn more about how God has moved in your life. If you enjoy this post, please like it and share it with others using the share button below. With that, let’s dive into Judy’s story. Enjoy!
As First Coast Women’s Services grew, we recognized there was a need to position a pregnancy resource center in the middle of the city. As our board discussed this issue, we realized that a mobile unit center, rather than a brick and mortar, gave us more flexibility. A mobile unit allowed us to move from place to place in the area. We prayed about it for several months.
Creating a mobile center involved either purchasing a large RV and transforming it or buying one that was already converted. Early on, as we gathered pricing information, we talked to a group in the South Florida region that had a converted RV. They told us that if they were going to eventually sell it, it was going to be priced at about $89,000. At the time we only had about $30,000 to spend on a RV. We were at a standstill, so we kept praying about the mobile center. Several months went by.
One day, we were in a board meeting and Ken, one of our board members, suddenly said, “I think we should call those people down in South Florida again.” We knew to listen to the things God prompted us to do. So, while we were in the meeting, we called them once more.
To our surprise, the gentleman said, “I can’t believe you called me. Just today we had a board meeting and decided to sell our mobile unit to somebody who will use it, for whatever price they can pay for it.” Ken told him that we had $30,000, and the man agreed to the price. They even drove the unit up to us from South Florida! When we received it, the back part of the unit, which was normally a large bedroom, was already converted into an ultrasound room. It was such a God story.
In 2011, we began using the mobile unit to reach clients that had more difficulty getting access to us. We used it for several years and moved it to many different locations. The unit also helped us to figure out where the next center needed to be. We began to recognize that there were many women coming from Georgia, into Florida, via I-95 to explore their options for abortion. However, there were no resource centers available in the north side of Jacksonville.
Our board began to discuss the need to establish a center on the north side. During a meeting, one of the board members said he knew there was a group of Christian men that owned some land in that area. He called a man, who was part of that group, on the phone to ask about the possibility of acquiring land. The man said he would speak to the other members in his group about our inquiry.
A few minutes later, the man called back. He told us that they had this huge tract of land up on the north side right across I-95 near the airport. On the other side was a fast-growing area called River City Marketplace. They had sold a huge tract of land to a healthcare facility, but for some reason there was one little triangle of land that the facility did not want.
He continued and said, “We couldn’t figure out why they would buy this whole tract of land and not this one little triangle. We know now it’s because God was saving it for you. We’re giving you this tract of land.” Once more, God had shown up with another miracle.
As we expanded over the years, we began to outgrow the office space in our original Mandarin center. This was where both our administrative and development teams were held. We began to ask God what we should do and where we should go.
During that time, we noticed that our beach center was never quite as busy as expected. We did not understand the reason since it was in a prime location on one of the main streets in the area. However, each time a new center was built, it would quickly become busier than that one. We decided to pray and ask the Lord if He wanted us to move the beach center, and if so, where it should be located.
At the time, our most common clients were between the ages of 18 and 24. While there was a wide range of ages, from 12 all the way into their 50s, the majority of the women we saw were around college aged. We prayed fervently if the Lord wanted us to move closer to University of North Florida (UNF) and Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ), which were the larger universities in our area. Although not all our college aged clients went to school, this area typically had a younger demographic. We asked our wonderful realtor to look for a possible piece of land as we continued to pray.
One day, our realtor called and told us there was an old savings and loan building on Kernan Blvd. That road was right behind UNF and around the corner from the largest FSCJ campus. It had been on the market for a long time. No one had looked at it for 1,400 days! We wondered what was wrong with the property since no one had looked at it for so long. Regardless, I went over there with a couple of board members. One was a land developer and another was a builder that did all of our construction remodels.
The building had a typical bank layout, but it looked really, really good. There was a big open lobby in the center with offices all around the edges. The latter could be made into rooms to see our clients. Additionally, there was something unique about the bank. It had a very large, well-built drive through structure, with a roof, that could be converted into administrative offices. It was amazing. This building had the potential to solve our desire to be more central for our college aged clients and alleviate our office space issue. We conducted further inspections, but no one could figure out why nobody wanted the building.
Our beach center was located on a very valuable piece of property due to its location. We knew we could sell the beach building, use the money to buy the property on Kernan, and move the beach center to this area. So, we made an offer to the owners, and they accepted.
Within 3 days of accepting our offer, the sellers received two better offers for the property, but they had already committed to ours. We knew that once again; God had saved that property for us. He kept it for us until the right time. Within the first few months of operation, our new center at Kernan had already become three times busier than our old beach center. It has been amazing to see God continue to work.
First Coast Women’s Services has seen many miracles over the years, including those that we see with our clients. Most of our clients are not coming in because they have health issues or are victims of incest or rape. The majority are seeking information on pregnancy options or they are entertaining abortion because they think they have no other choice. They have concerns such as, my boyfriend will leave me, my parents will disown me, I won’t be able to take my scholarship to college, I don’t have the money, I don’t have the finances, and many others.
By offering education, resources, treating our clients with gentleness, answering their questions without pressuring them, praying, and showing our clients the love of Christ, even in cases where we do not directly discuss Him, we have seen God move. Each time we see someone with a change of heart it is a miracle. It’s so exciting when you get to see it all the time.
I have seen First Coast Women’s Services grow from 6 staff members to 41 staff and over 300 volunteers. Yet, I know that I’m not going to continue in this ministry forever. I’m now 75 years old and will probably step back from my role here within the next few years. However, I completely trust God is raising up the right person to take over and move this ministry forward in the future. I know He will bring somebody for the ministry when I leave, so I’m not the least bit concerned about that because I have seen God be so faithful.
In the last few years during my time alone with God, He has been turning my heart more and more toward heaven. I know that time is coming, and I have great confidence in it. Looking back, I think I have felt this way all my life ever since the time I became a Christian. Any time I did something that may have danger involved, I was not frightened because I knew the freedom and release of knowing at any moment I could go to heaven.
For example, I used to fly a lot when I was younger. Whenever I got on an airplane, I buckled myself in and said in my mind, “Okay Lord, you can take me.” The only time I hesitated was when I was pregnant. Those were the times where I thought, “Lord, I’d really like to see this baby on this side of heaven. So, I would appreciate it if you waited a little bit before you take me.” This sense of feeling ready to return has become stronger and stronger over the past 3 years. If God took me today, I am not only ready, but I’m also excited about going home to be with Him. I’m looking forward to Him.
God has been drawing me even closer to Him. I think more and more about heaven and how wonderful it is going to be there. When I read scriptures, I suddenly see more things about heaven and the future of being with Him. Because I am 75 years old, many of my friends are already there. I look forward to seeing them again as well.
The Lord has also been bringing me closer to Him through song. I have an old hymn book that I started using in my quiet time. I’m amazed at how many songs I remember the tunes to, which is shocking since I can’t carry much of a tune. Many of the hymns are about heaven and the future with Him. It is amazing. One of the songs that means the most to me right now is Be Thou My Vision. The first part of the lyrics say:
Be Thou my vision, oh Lord of my heart
Be all else but naught to me, save that Thou art;
Be Thou my best thought in the day and the night,
Both waking and sleeping, Thy presence my light.
In the end of the song, it goes:
High King of heaven, Thou heaven’s bright Sun,
O grant me its joys, after vict’ry is won;
Then the next line is the one I love so much:
Great Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be Thou my Vision, O Ruler of all.
I have great confidence in God. I know anything I leave behind won’t be left unfinished because God’s the one who’s going to finish it. He will just be using somebody else to bring it to pass. To me, that’s a great, great comfort. Of course, there are many people I love that I hope to see come to Christ. For example, my young grandchildren. But then I realize, I don’t have to see it from here, I can see it from heaven.
God is going to be faithful. Before my grandchildren were even born, I prayed that they would come to know Him. I trust that God is going to provide for that. There’s a lot of things I’m praying about that haven’t become sight yet, but they are things that are a part of God’s will, so I’m very comfortable leaving and letting that happen in His time.
Once I was talking with Gail, a friend I’ve known for years, about how it was a good thing that God did not tell us in our 20s everything that would happen in our lives. All the things we would see, all the heart breaks, and all the difficulties, especially with people that we love so much. First, I am not sure we would have believed it. Secondly, it would have scared us, especially in our 20s. But now, after walking so long with Him for so many years, we are assured that He is faithful.
No matter what the circumstances are and how bad something may look, we know God is the same. We keep praying and knowing that it will be okay. The fact that He doesn’t act as quickly as we would like Him to act, does not mean He isn’t moving. We can be really tempted to find a shortcut to try to help God out a little bit, but His timing is best. It does sometimes require repeated waiting, and waiting patiently, which can be hard. But once we’ve made a prayer that is according to His will, we can put a seal over it and know that He’s got it. Of course, we can keep praying, but not because we are reminding God about it. We keep praying because it’s good for us to remind ourselves that He’s still working on it, and it is coming.
I think about the lyrics to the song, Goodness of God that say:
All my life you have been faithful.
All my life you have been so, so good.
When I look back at my life, I find that to be so true. God is faithful. My life has been so blessed because I have known this to be true. Of course, there have been difficult times where I’ve had to cling to Him more closely. Life is not perfect. Just because God loves us doesn’t mean that He doesn’t allow difficulties in our lives. Those are the things that are going to make us stronger.
When we have a solid bedrock of walking with Him, getting in the Word, being in church, and remaining faithful, then when problems come, we are not shaken. We say, “Alright Lord, I know you’re doing this for my good and to teach me something. Even as painful as it might be, I know that there is a point and a purpose.”
I’ve walked with the Lord for most of my life, almost 60 years now, and I can truly say that there has never been a time where He has let me down. He simply has never done that.
Judy, thank you once again for sharing part of your beautiful story. If you enjoyed this post, please consider sharing it with others by hitting the share button. If you are not already a subscriber, consider doing a free or paid subscription so you don’t miss any content and to support my work. Thank you!
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