“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” Corrie Ten Boom

This month has been full of life altering images, events, failures, and victories. I would like to focus on but two of them – both extraordinary in their power and predicament.

On August 15^th, after months of violence as the Taliban virtually overran all of Afghanistan, they entered the Capital city of Kabul and expeditiously ousted the Afghan government, and the sitting President fled the city. Nine days after seizing the Capital they took over simply and completely.

Thousands of people, families, fled to the Kabul airport in hopes of escaping what they knew may be terror, violence, and death. And as of today, there are still many and more still stranded with no hopes of rescue. The despair for themselves and their families must be horrific. The helplessness is unimaginable.

“Women in Afghanistan face rising levels of domestic violence, abuse, and exploitation.” In the past the Taliban “barred women from working outside the home or leaving the house without a male guardian, eliminated schooling for girls and publicly flogged those who violated the group’s morality code”, women and girls are rightly feeling scared, isolated, and uncertain of their fate. (Farnaz Fassihi, 2021, Taliban Take Over in Afghanistan, New York Times,)

The freedoms women (like myself) enjoy and expect each day remind us that we are free and blessed beyond measure. Our hearts go out to those women, mothers, daughters, sisters, wives – whose future is so uncertain. Prayer for their safety and prayer for an end to the many injustices our sisters far away in another place face each day.

On September 1^st, 2021 “the U.S. Supreme Court formally denied the abortion lobby’s request to block the Texas Heartbeat Act Wednesday evening, voting 5-4 to let the historic law take effect”. (Calvin Frieburger, 2021, LifeSiteNews.com)

The Heartbeat Law, signed into effect in May by Gov. Abbott of Texas requires abortionists to screen for a preborn baby’s heartbeat and prohibits abortion if a heartbeat can be heard (generally as early as six weeks), with exceptions only for medical emergencies.

This is HUGE! A HUGE victory for the innocent lives lost because of an abortion. There is still a lot of movement expected in the Judicial system however this unprecedented ruling may not be a ruling “on the merits of the Texas Heartbeat Act, many pro-lifers have taken the majority’s willingness to let the law stand even temporarily as an encouraging sign.”

And it is that – an encouraging sign. A sign that hearts and minds are changing. That the fact that the act of abortion takes the life of a living breathing human being with a heartbeat is beyond dispute. And the hope is that sometime perhaps in the near future the sanctity of all human life – born and unborn, man and woman, American or Afghan, will be beyond contention and protected.

The future is indeed unknown, for all of us in truth. But trusting our future to Him  and stepping forth to protect those who cannot protect themselves, standing firmly in the light of truth is what He asks of us – scary and uncertain as it may feel at times. His power is known.