ATHENS, Texas (BP)–On a Saturday night before Sanctity of Life Sunday, DeAnn Brindley crouched in front the altar of the empty Galloway Avenue Baptist Church in Mesquite, Texas. Almost 17 years after she aborted her first child, the search for healing and forgiveness culminated as she tenderly arranged flowers and lit a few candles in a makeshift memorial. Pleading with God to reveal the identity of her lost baby to her, the burden of past mistakes seemingly lifted from her shoulders. The Lord had given her a name. He whispered to her spirit, “Audrey Dawn.”
Brindley walked away that evening with the strength to face the congregation the next morning. In January 1995, Brindley and her deacon husband would share their past with the church. The couple had no idea what was in store for them. From this couple’s humble plea for forgiveness, the lives of women across the state would receive healing through the formation of the Crisis Pregnancy Center in Athens, Texas.
Brindley’s ministry began in 1978 with her first abortion at the age of 16. In 1979 a second one followed. With no crisis pregnancy center in her area, Brindley’s parents took her to a nearby abortion clinic.
“My parents went to what they felt was a good place, and of course at that time we didn’t know what abortion did to women, physically, emotionally and spiritually,” Brindley said. “They sounded like they had all the answers. They said it would be quick and simple.
“No one ever thought to look back to the Scriptures that say, ‘I knew you before I formed you,'” she said, referring to the first chapter of Jeremiah.
Believing the clinic’s information, which described her baby as “a glob of tissue,” Brindley had the abortion on Friday. She was back in church the next Sunday. However, it wouldn’t be until 17 years later that she would reap the emotional consequences called post-abortion syndrome common to women who have abortions.
In 1990, Brindley sought the counsel of her pastor after having a repeated encounter with her Sunday school teacher who had been picketing abortion clinics on Sunday afternoons.
“She was just killing me with it,” Brindley said when her teacher would express indignation toward the clinics during class time. “When she would start talking about it, then the room would get 400 degrees and the walls would start caving in on me.”
Through the encouragement of the pastor, Brindley and her Sunday school teacher worked through Brindley’s emotions.
“She found a Bible literature that we could use by Ken Freeman called ‘Healing the Hurts From Last Harvest,'” Brindley recounted. “She said to me, ‘I’ve found this Bible course, and I’d like to help you walk through it and get you some relief from what has happened.'”
On Sanctity of Life Sunday in 1995, after having completed the study, the Brindleys stood in front of their church and shared their pain with their friends. Having received forgiveness for aborting Audrey Dawn and their second child whom they named Jennifer Nicole, the Brindleys made a simple offering to the church.
“And my husband said, ‘If there’s anybody that has been touched by abortion, please come to our house tomorrow night and look at this literature that DeAnn went through,'” Brindley said. “And so the next night six ladies showed up at our house.”
A new ministry reaching women and men devastated by abortion had begun. The couple soon moved, but the ministry, “Someone Who Cares,” was left in the hands of Carolyn Dyke. Since then Brindley has walked women through the same biblical literature she went through, including a girl she was friends with in her youth group as a teenager.
“She had an abortion about the same time as I had mine, but because we couldn’t tell, no one was supposed to know,” Brindley said. “And so I had the privilege of walking her through the same biblical class and help her get to the foot of the cross and find forgiveness for what she had done in the past.”
Although her life experiences have provided numerous opportunities to share the Ken Freeman literature with many different women, Brindley’s heart is centered on the ministry she founded in February 2001, the Crisis Pregnancy Center of Athens.
“I want to be here in a warm location, a place that is neutral, a place where they can feel loved,” she said of the hurting women who walk through her door daily. “And when a girl comes in, I want her to feel that more than anything. If I take care of her, the baby will follow.
“We are here to spread the gospel,” Brindley said, noting the center had one profession of faith during the year. “Every time a girl walks in the door, she’s going to hear my testimony, and she’s going to be presented with the chance to make the decision for salvation.”
Brindley also reported four healthy babies being born this year to abortion-minded clients. She shared an example of one these abortion-bound women, a 38-year-old named Tracey, who entered the center on her way to an appointment with an abortion clinic.
“She was pregnant with her second child and already had a 7-month-old,” Brindley said, describing the divine appointment. “She had her money in her hand, had borrowed somebody’s car and was headed to Fairmont Abortion Clinic in Dallas to abort.
“She sat through our little intake. I shared my testimony with her, and we shared a video with her. And this past October when we had our fundraiser, she stood on the stage beside me with her little girl in her arms,” Brindley said. “She said she was very glad that she didn’t abort that day.”
Brindley hopes the center in Athens is able to participate in more divine appointments like the one with Tracey. Currently, only eight churches out of the 198 churches in Henderson County are helping the center reach that goal.
“This is a huge mission field,” Brindley said. “We’ve already seen 158 girls this year.”
While First Assembly of God in Athens pays the center’s monthly rent, Henderson County Baptist Association’s director of missions, Mike Smith, said the center also receives support from the associational office, which often assists in various associational projects. The office gives $200 a month, and also gave a one-time gift of $2,500. Additionally, two Catholic churches provide help by organizing “Walk for Life” events for the center.
Last November, the association contacted the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and requested additional help. The SBTC responded by sending a check to the association in the amount of $400.
Smith said all the money would go to the center to help defray costs for medical packets and pregnancy tests.
“We need very desperately for God’s people to get involved,” said Brindley, who fills in when one of the 14 volunteers is unavailable to work one of the daily shifts, often requiring her to work into the night and on weekends. “We need individuals to support us through prayer as well.”
Looking to the future, Brindley envisions opening a transitional home for women who need a place to live during and after their pregnancies.
“This would be for a young girl who might be kicked out after she’s found out she’s pregnant or for women who have decided not to place their baby for adoption and needed a place to care for her baby,” Brindley said. “We will let her come stay with us for the first six to nine months of the baby’s life, make sure that she can support herself, help her get a GED, help her get an apartment, and get her near a church that can help her further.”
Hoping to raise the money to bring this new ministry to fruition in the next year, Brindley said the transitional home would be located on the seven acres adjacent to their own home.
John Brindley, who entered the ministry after their 1995 disclosure, currently is pastor of LaRue Baptist Church in Henderson County. The Brindleys have been blessed with three more children: Stuart, 16; Brittany, 14; and Tyler, 10.
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