Hear Dinah Monahan & Jacob Barr talk about her her story’s amazing beginning.
Summary
This is Jacob Barr, and I recently had the privilege of hosting Dinah Monahan on the Pro-Life Team Podcast. Dinah has been involved in pro-life work for over 50 years, and her journey has taken her from Arizona to Ethiopia. She shared numerous impactful stories, including the inception of the Precious Feet pins by her mother, Virginia Everest, and the legacy of her family in the pro-life movement.
Dinah discussed her emotional response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, highlighting the significant shift in the pro-life landscape. She also touched on the political challenges and the need for constant vigilance in the fight for life, regardless of the shifting political climate.
Her stories from the front lines included aiding pregnant women in difficult situations, setting up a pregnancy center on an Indian Reservation, and starting a maternity home in Ethiopia. Each narrative highlighted the profound impact of pro-life work on individuals and communities. Dinah’s journey is a testament to the resilience and dedication required in this field, and her stories emphasize the importance of personal connections in changing lives.
Reflecting on her experience, Dinah emphasized the miraculous nature of pro-life work and the privilege of impacting generations. Her stories remind us of the complexities and joys of serving in this capacity, and the importance of being a beacon of hope and change.
To encapsulate the essence of this podcast, here are some hashtags that reflect the content discussed: #ProLifeJourney, #50YearsInProLife, #RoeVWadeReflections, #ProLifeLegacy, #ProLifeInAction, #MaternityHomeMission, #GlobalProLifeImpact, #ProLifeStories, #ProLifeResilience, #GenerationalImpact.
Transcript
The transcript was automatically generated and may contain errors.
Jacob Barr :
Welcome to the pro-life Team Podcast i’m Jacob Barr and I’m here with Diana. We’re going to be talking about some of the stories in her journey over 50 years of pro-life work from the Indian Reservation in Arizona to a maternity home ministry in Ethiopia. Diana, I’m excited to have you on the Pro-life Team Podcast. Would you introduce yourself as if you were talking to a small group of pregnancy clinic leadership executive directors?
Dinah Monahan :
That’s my favorite thing. Thank you for having me on. Well, Diana Monahan and I have been in the movement since before Roe V Wade and actually, I probably am best known as the daughter of the mother of the precious feet. Yeah, because my mother of Virginia Everest, created the precious feet and everybody knows about them and then my parents started Heritage House however, I now have a new title because my son Brandon took over, and he did bright course, he’s done doing amazing things he took over from my husband and I and we took over from my parents. So now I’m the daughter of the mother of the precious feet and I am Brandon Monahan’s mother. So that’s where I stand in the middle those, that’s my identity. But I have been involved for a lifetime, really. I’ve been involved i have the incredible perspective of being there when Roe passed, having been working in California in pro-life and trying to educate people because California was had abortion before Roe V Wade it was that state had abortion and then Roe passed and now I stand at the other end 50 years later, and I have the incredible privilege of seeing Roe fall 50 years later. So I’ve been in it a long time.
Jacob Barr :
Let’s I want to ask you a couple of questions about Roe falling so I’m going to start off with the emotion question first what was your emotional reaction to hearing that Roe was being overturned like, how did that hit you?
Dinah Monahan :
It took a while. It really did take a while i was just shocked and walking around and then this real it makes me cry now.
Jacob Barr :
It happened so quick, right like it seemed like it wasn’t going to happen i thought it was going to happen when my children were my age i didn’t realize it was going to happen in my life honestly, I didn’t think it was going to happen in my lifetime i thought it would happen i just didn’t think it was going to happen this soon and.
Dinah Monahan :
Well, I’m on the other end i didn’t think it would happen because I thought that Pandora’s box had been opened and there was no way in the this culture that we’re in that you could close that again. I just, I couldn’t even imagine it. And yet because of the appointments on Supreme Court, it happened. And so you’re right, it happened so fast so I just sort of stand in awe of God that it was at 50 years. It was that.
Jacob Barr :
49 and a half like it was in the fiftieth, year which is so biblical for something like that to happen.
Dinah Monahan :
Yeah, it just. And then you just sort of sit back and smile and say, wow, God, wow, thank you know, But then our work is still cut out for us. There’s no rest. There’s no everything shifts, but yeah, and yet everything.
Jacob Barr :
Doesn’t shift. Yeah, the word rest is interesting. On my way to do this podcast with you, I was listening to Hebrews and it was talking about the Israelites journey to find rest and how he well, they essentially didn’t get to go to rest because they were in the in the desert for 40 years but like it was talking about how like you know after God did all this work he rested and how like the goal line for believers is to find rest like that’s like that’s what we should be striving to be as in God’s rest and so I think this has been a year of rest after such a long fight but yeah, you’re right now it’s time to get back to work and to keep working and but yeah, trying to find God’s rest in the midst of all the work.
Dinah Monahan :
I think a whole, I think an awful lot of people, directors like we’re talking to their rest was if there was any was very short lived because especially in the states where now they’re passing these radical radical pro abortion bills in the states that want to become abortion destination sites and I mean our sisters and brothers in the battle in these states Oh my gosh there is no rest and having to be ever vigilant here in Arizona we had we had good pro-life laws but we just got a committed pro abortion Democrat in governorship and so are we still have a fight and there’s two levels of this in the looking at the rest because that’s the political fight which man you stand back and you look at that and you say it’s almost capricious no, it takes a lot of work but in the end I I’ll never forget when Clinton got in and all we had worked and for all of these laws and we were feeling pumped because we had a lot of good progress. And literally within two days he’d struck down all of our progress. So we look at that and we think, you know, and that for me it was a Seminole wait moment because I looked at it and although I believe in political action, I really do i look at it and I say it is so tenuous. It’s wherever the wind blows and so totally recommitted to. We’re called to work in sharing life and sharing the gospel one person at a time i know that sounds right. And yet I have I.
Jacob Barr :
Don’t think so i think it makes it’s very practical.
Dinah Monahan :
It Well, I got 50 years to look back on. So the babies that were born to in we take girls in for six years we took girls in three at a time into our home. We just and so those babies are now in their thirties and early forties and so yeah 30. Let’s see the oldest one, that first girl we took in, and that’s a story, That’s a miracle. But that young lady, the 1st girl we took in to her they daughter is now maybe thirty six. That would be the oldest of these girls we took in. So I have a perspective.
Jacob Barr :
Are you able to share that miraculous story or is that something you have to keep somewhat confidential or how much can you share?
Dinah Monahan :
No, I can share all of it. She and I have oh perfect. Oh I yeah it is to watch God’s Hand wow because my husband and I were utterly clueless. But the young woman named Tina and Mike and I, our kids were little. If any of the listeners know Brandon, he was just a little Co headed guy maybe.
Jacob Barr :
40 Well, how old is he now, 4244.
Dinah Monahan :
Don’t ask me that i forget I got five kids, 26 grandkids and don’t remember dates, but any well, I.
Jacob Barr :
Would guess he’s in his forties. He feels like he’s my age and I’m 44 so I’m going to guess he’s in that ballpark. He is i don’t really know i’m.
Dinah Monahan :
Guessing. And so is that awful. And so anyway he But he was just a little guy and his brother was a baby and so there were three at the time and so we actually started by taking in a runaway but then after and then that sort of opened our hearts to this concept and then a young woman she came and Tina she first she lived with us she just, she literally told her parents, if you don’t find somewhere for me to go, I’m going to call CPS myself. So our parents, she was a shirt tailed relative i didn’t even know her, but remembered an Aunt Jenny over there in Arizona and that’s how this whole thing got started. So she is some somewhere down the line kind of relative. But anyway, so Tina, so she came to live with Mike and I and so she did her i think it’s her sophomore year maybe, yeah anyway, it doesn’t matter. So she went to high school, everything was fine so we took her in and then she went home and she was raped at a party. And then after that and she was raped, raped by someone of a different ethnicity and so she, you know, she didn’t know if that was that baby’s or she had a boyfriend and it was his baby and what a mess we’ve made of life for these kids i’ll tell you anyway so she didn’t know and so we knew we would know when baby was born, but we didn’t. There’s no DNA or testing or anything like that then. And so he came back to live with us and she he went through her pregnancy and decided to place for adoption. So now look at all of the all of this, all of the threads of this tapestry that are just waving out in the wind and then how God so beautifully wove them in because we didn’t know anything about adoption. And so my mom comes back from a pro-life event and says I just met two of the sweetest people they’re a couple and they can’t have children and they want to adopt and oh, I think I have their name on a slip of paper somewhere here. So he handed me the paper and we called them and let me go back to one step. I knew someone in town who wanted to adopt. They would not take the risk of this baby being biracial and which just I didn’t know people thought like that but anyway and so then so I contacted them well, they didn’t care at all. They were thrilled and so the Bynums there it was Pierre and Christina Bynum and they so they talked with Tina and we worked out the adoption and I think we went through like Bethany Christian services or something and on their end it was so we worked out the adoption and then he had Catherine is the baby’s name and then they came and flew out and we had a blessing ceremony which I did. I’ve done 50 over fifty adoptions since then that was the 1st and we have this beautiful blessing ceremony and they took little Catherine home with them and Tina stayed with us and finished her senior year and is by the way still all these years later very dear to me and we are still connected. Ok, now Catherine goes back with Pierre and Christine Bynum. Well, they were so moved by the story of Catherine’s life and their Tina, and they were so moved by Tina’s Oh, her courage in doing this that they decided to start a pregnancy center. Now that was back when there weren’t that many. I mean, we didn’t. We had some birthrights and then we had Christian Action Council was what Carenet is now and they had a few, but it was not the machine, the well oiled machine it is now. And so they decided to open in Maryland, to open the Catherine Foundation. They opened the Catherine Foundation and through that, through this adoption, through Tina and what happened to her, I can’t even tell you how many thousands of babies have been saved and how many thousands of young women’s trajectories of their life have been changed because they heard the gospel and they received help. And so now that baby who is now grown woman Catherine, he’s walks with the Lord, loves the Lord and she has six kids of her own. So that’s just the hand of God.
Jacob Barr :
Wow and so the and the Catherine Foundation i just looked it up online and it’s actually a project that my group has worked on their website. So it’s a small world.
Dinah Monahan :
Oh really it is a small world. Yeah, we’re a pretty tight knit family but I’ll tell you. And I was just so I was in awe and that kicked off our whole pro-life you know, working with the young women, which is always where I landed.
Jacob Barr :
Ok, well, so tell me another, let’s go to another story, Another story of, Yeah, in the in the historical. Yeah, like one other part of the history of the pro-life world and your journey in this over these 50 years. What’s another story that comes to mind that you’d like to share with executive directors?
Dinah Monahan :
Well let’s see when I, when I first started a pregnancy center in and it was down in our little town of Taylor, it was in a little trailer across the street from my parents house and it was it was just tiny and oh and so and it was not very professional just saying but we lived in a very rural community and we’re already only center there. And I always had a motto you do the best you can with what you have. You know you don’t wait till it’s perfect. You use what you have and that’s what I had. And so I had a young woman who called I don’t think was she and anyway she oh, no. So she contacted me and she was pregnant and it was when I had this little tiny place and she was pregnant and I gave her the pregnancy test and she told me her it was actually she’s being raised by her grandmother and she said her grandmother would kill her she would just kill her. And so i just talked to her and encouraged her. She chose her grandmother had made an appointment. She called me and she said she’s like staff for an abortion. And she said I’m afraid she’ll throw me in the trunk and drag me there. And so now my brother at the time was the police chief of Taylor. And again, this is a town of maybe 2000 but he’s the police chief. And so my husband and I took her in this before we were taking girls in. We took her in and we hid her and I did have her call her grandmother and just say I’m safe and that was it. And anyway well my brother got a missing persons report and so he’s looking for this girl and she’s at our house and so her grandmother reneged and then I was with her when she delivered and her grandmother was standing oh probably 1015 feet away and I was coaching her and her grandma came up to me at help saw that baby held that baby and looked at me and said tears streaming down her cheeks and she said i am so grateful. He said sometimes we do things we’re ashamed of and I’m ashamed of what I did. She said, I am so grateful for what you did and she helped me in my little clinic for years she would put panels in jeans when that’s what they used to do, so panels in jeans and she just helped any way she could and that baby is now probably in his thirties but.
Jacob Barr :
So I’m going to ask you, what is a panel in a Jean i don’t know what that means.
Dinah Monahan :
Anybody who is my age or even 60 years or older remembers we used to sew stretchy panels with elastic in jeans so you’d cut out a dip in the Jean, cut out the zipper, and then put it in and it accommodated Mom’s belly. Trust me, we would never have worn the stretchy, clingy things that show the belly buttons that I would they wear now. We were very blousy over Yeah it sort of amazes me but anyway but that but that’s what she did so again again you know so many times i’ve said to women you know how you feel now and your fears now are not reality they’re not you know and that so many things can change but you never can undo the decision you make and I’ve seen it over and over and over.
Jacob Barr :
That’s and that’s and that’s so true and it holds true every time. And I think that’s even, you know, abortion is something that people see. You know, they pursue it and but they don’t realize that in just a few months or yeah, then a few months they’ll have an infant and that infant, you know, changes everything and if they can, if they would just wait until they have the infant, they would have a very different emotional response to what’s going on in that scenario. And then that, and it’s a long term, it’s a long game because then, you know, from that point forward, you know, they’re, you know, always glad that they chose life and that and that abortion decisions, a very short term thing that they might feel like it’s OK.
Dinah Monahan :
Yeah although I have to say, not always in anyone of anybody listening. All right if you rolled your eyes, stop it. It’s because we deal with women who have so many problems and when they have those ladies, it’s there are problems. I well, I started a maternity home. I started three centers in the White Mountains of Arizona and one of them’s on an Indian Reservation, the only one on an Indian Reservation. I have a funny story about that. But anyway, and it’s still going. And then a maternity home up here in the White Mountains we took girls from all over the country it’s very secluded, lovely. It was great. But anyway, but I did have it was hard because we got young women who had a lot of emotional problems they’ve got this baby and what do you do but you do it case by case and you trust God and you get through and it it’s you deal with really across life circumstances and that’s one of the challenges and also it’s just as a Christian we walk in it, man, we’re mucking in it with our shoes, are in the mess in so many of these young women’s lives. On the other hand, we walk above it because we have an eternal world view and so we’re able to walk above it and we’re able to continue doing it not being sucked in because of the methods that we deal with. And this culture has created so many of these methods. They’ve taken every safeguard out they’ve taken everything out that the that would that I knew in the sixties when I was in high school and it just you had cultural norms that were safeguards and then and they’re just gone. It’s all gone. So anyway but I was going to tell a funny story too.
Jacob Barr :
Tell the funny story about the Indian Reservation Clinic that’s interesting.
Dinah Monahan :
Yeah, they’ll appreciate it. So I we had Apache, We were down with the Apaches and the Apache White River Apache Indian Reservation it’s a tough place. It had the highest murder rate per capita in the country one year, and I couldn’t believe that but I checked it out and it was true. And it had a seventeen hundred percent % rate than anywhere else in the country. So, but anyway, but we opened up there in fact, I had a friend who was a Christian, an FBI agent, and that was his beat, and he took me around beforehand to give. I don’t know what he was thinking but he’d say oh and this house he decapitated his uncle and in this house someone was shot and this. I’m just listening to him and I’m like what are you trying to do? What are you trying to say? But God went before us and we opened and so and we it was amazing the impact that we had. But I had you have cultural issues that and anybody going into that doesn’t understand and that. So I had a gal who I’d hired for a director and he’s talking to me later and she says, well, she had a lot of problems and i didn’t know what to do now this is the director who was a Christian who went to church, but she took her to the she took this young lady to the medicine man, the shaman to help solve her problems. And I’m like, I don’t think I put in the policy and procedure manual not to take people to the shaman for help.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah, that wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t have thought of that either so what so what happened there?
Dinah Monahan :
Well, actually, I don’t even remember she’s she we she left and then another director came and then very hard because pro-life is a culture you know that when you hire people who’ve never ever been in that culture, it’s very hard. But we were blessed the gal I hired is still running running it and I’ll tell you what else is interesting we did a lot of pregnancy tests down there and we had an ultrasound machine and then we noticed them dropping off and we’re like, this is weird what’s going on well, we found out what was going on. The Native Americans used to, they understood genocide they understood, I mean you couldn’t even get birth control through IHS, Indian Health Services. But now but it started shifting as you know as the dark. So I started making inroads and working in and so started shifting and then when we noticed the pregnancy test going down they were giving Depo Provera shots to the high school students without their parents knowledge. And so that’s when we, you know, we’ve noticed the numbers drop. But what we did that was just incredibly valuable and still are doing is the we did a lot of parenting because I wrote Earn while you learn and we used it down there and it was that was unbelievable because culturally they’d had a lot of parenting, just ways of parenting that were very negative that like eye contact with their children it just didn’t happen and they sort of spun in their own orbit and lots of stuff that just got passed down generationally. And the impact we saw was incredible. And then, you know, of course we started to earn while you learn where instead of giving them stuff, which doesn’t help anybody, keeps people in a victimhood mentality. But instead of that, we opened this big beautiful store and they were able to shop and we got lots of stuff because there’s lots of agencies who would help because it was, you know, on a res and they were able to shop and they’ve got clothes and cribs and everything they needed for their babies. But they learned and they learned different ways to parent. And I have seen over the years the dramatic impact in families because of that.
Jacob Barr :
So I want to go back to when you said that you noticed that the PRANCY test numbers were dropped, had dropped. That’s interesting that well one that you were tracking it with the idea that if it and then you had the reaction that when it when left people came in to get PRANCY test that there was something wrong or you were trying to figure out like what caused that trend change so that so the number of tests dropping is and how did you find you know how did you find that they’re taking the Depra Nova shots or how did you go about experience you know learning that after you noticed the data change.
Dinah Monahan :
Oh, because down there, there’s no secrets.
Jacob Barr :
Ok.
Dinah Monahan :
Down there because so someone found, you know, would say, well, the teenagers would say, oh, they gave me a shot, Mom, say what was it then they found out and yeah, they’re giving Depa Provera shots, which, you know they don’t tell them the risks. Infertility is one of the risks. And so anyway, you find out, you know, and so and then we got our center was burned down.
Jacob Barr :
Burned.
Dinah Monahan :
Down. Yeah, it was burned down.
Jacob Barr :
Oh, why?
Dinah Monahan :
It just did a wild ride. Yeah it was burned down and but it wasn’t because of anything to do with abortion. It had to do with we had a men’s program and we called it Warrior Bucks we didn’t give them Daddy money we gave them Warrior Bucks. And it was run by a guy who was just he was wonderful and they would come in and they would do classes men’s fraternity and different classes and they would get warrior bucks for it and then I had people donate and I would get thousands of dollars worth of men’s things like sports things and tools and outdoor kind of things and they would spend their warrior bucks on these things that’s a wonderful program it was an amazing program. And we had thirty forty fifty men and but anyway but there’s so many good people down there but there but there’s a violent element down there that and everybody suffers because of it And so they broke in and anyway they burned the place down and they were after my goodies so from my earn while you learn program. So it was a wild ride, but we rebuilt so.
Jacob Barr :
Well, that is a wild ride. So what was it like after you experienced that, you know, the, you know, burning down and what was, what was, what was that journey like, the rebuild, Like, what did that look like?
Dinah Monahan :
I, you know, i’m going to impress this with, I have a motto I want on my headstone and it’s called God Took Care of His Idiot because I just go through and blunder through and I’m looking at this trying to figure out what we’re doing and actually it only burned down half so we were looking at maybe fixing the other half, but then they came and burned down the other half. So then we’re saying we’re starting. I know, I know.
Jacob Barr :
They came back and burned.
Dinah Monahan :
The other half yeah, I know I’m laughing. I wasn’t laughing, then I was crying. But with that we have to go in front of the, you know in front of the council and actually the leadership of the council at that point was very they just didn’t like any outsiders and so that when we went, I just, we didn’t show we had our people, we have wonderful Apache staff and they would they went and asked for it and there was opposition from the leadership but that it was amazing because all the people in the council stood against them because. But they ‘d all had kids who benefited they benefited their you know, nieces, nephews had benefited and they knew that, you know, we were not taking anything from them, we were adding to them and so they gave us permission and then I bought a used 4 modular but in four pieces. But I forgot to ask what it would cost to move it up the mountain so that’s what I mean by God took care of his idiot because then, you know, then and but it all got provided and we moved it up and so that’s what we’re in now and it’s been broken into. So it’s really a challenge down there but you know what? Unbelievable opportunity to change people’s lives with these young women come in and they want to know parenting and they want to earn and they want to get things for their babies and they learn and in the beginning they want the things. After a while they just love the learning and they you know connect with the client advocates that are who are there. So anyway, so it’s still going chugging along.
Jacob Barr :
So when it comes to you know the burning down of half and then the other half and being broken into, how would you reflect on the verse in the Bible that says what some meant for evil God, Jews for good. How would how does How has that been shown in your story?
Dinah Monahan :
Oh, over and over and over and over again. I don’t know. I just look at it and i you know, you never know what would have happened staying there you just we don’t get to write the ending to any story. But where we are now is I think everybody just seeing God’s favour in US rebuilding we didn’t build we moved forward things on but in all of that happening in and we’re still there and they’re still changing hearts and they’re still working with people and the community trusts us and the community knows that what we do is good. And so anyway, there’s nothing easy any directors out there will tell you there’s the romanticizing of this whole ministry and then there’s the reality of this whole thing and it’s sometimes it’s not easy it’s but in. But in the end how many people Now I’m just i have a high school education and yet I can be. And this has happened many times but I’ll just give you one where I’m in Walmart here, which is like the center of our universe and the vortex you know, I’m in solo, which is the big city of about probably 1015 thousand. And Walmart’s the center of our universe. So I’m in Walmart and I get a tap on my shoulder and I turn around to see a young lady and she’s got a little maybe a 2 year old in her basket and she said, you don’t Remember Me. And she said, but I came to see you and I was going to abort, but I decided not to. And this little boy is the light of my life. And I just want to say thank you, but how many ministries do we get to see that outcome? You know, doctors do, the nurses do because they’re there. But not someone like me who just has a high school education, who’s just has a passion for this. And yet babies are alive because God was able to put me at a point in time in someone’s life. Lots of babies. That’s an amazing thing.
Jacob Barr :
Well, and a lot of times doctors may not get to see the, you know, see the baby several years later and just to be able to, yeah, just to be able to see that I’m part of that person’s story and helping them, you know, have to have their first birthday and now, you know, and here they are with 7 or 8 birthdays and just having joy and life and all that comes with that. That’s amazing.
Dinah Monahan :
Now, and think about it, now those babies have babies. In fact, the story of Tina, she went on to marry man they because of her adoption, she ended up adopting A sibling group of five, being her husband. They took in foster kids, but her natural born 16 year old got into some trouble now my she came to us at 16 and then she calls us all those years later. This is not the baby she had with us this is she was placed for adoption. Her baby that she was, her and her husband were raising. She got into trouble and I just was. It was incredible, ’cause she said Dinah, could she come live with you? And I’m thinking, man, I’m feeling old, so I’m taking the children of the girls who first, girls who came and lived with us, and he lived with us for a while and actually got a lot of things sorted out and went back a very different young lady. So anyway, what an incredibly exhilarating journey be part of something like this?
Jacob Barr :
That isn’t. That’s an that is an awesome. So you. Yeah so you helped Tina and then you helped Tina’s future child or her second or future child?
Dinah Monahan :
Yeah.
Jacob Barr :
Wow. Yeah, that’s that is awesome.
Dinah Monahan :
Do you talk about, you know, God’s stories they’re just, they’re everywhere and any of those directors know because they walked in miracles we had a sign over in our main office and it so it said we walked in Miracles and we walked in Miracles we walked in daily we walked in miracles we I remember once a Patsy girl came in with her mother and she was adamant she wanted an abortion so they called me into the room last ditch effort. So I sat down with her and it was interesting because her mother was ambivalent but very reticent to say no don’t have this baby i took her aside later and she had an abortion didn’t want her daughter to have the abortion but felt she had no right. And so we were able to talk and said some truth on that but anyway with that said she agreed to an ultrasound and we gave her an ultrasound and her that baby was truth in fact I just connected with the grandmother on Facebook about a month ago and she was saying you don’t Remember Me, do you? I hear that a lot. And she relayed the story and you bet I do. The baby in its womb mama’s watching lifted both hands and clapped. Just clapped. Mama changed her mind and I got invited to that baby’s first birthday. And now just last month, I talked to the grandma and of course that baby is now a young man and their delight. So you know we who gets to do this where we change generations we can impact generations that wouldn’t be there. It’s the pro-life movement is a sacred calling It’s I don’t when you’re in the trenches it’s hard to see it but I think when I’ve been, you know, in it so long and to have so many stories unfold and I get to see second generation and actually some third see mom lives with me. The baby grew up. They had yeah i. When you get to see that, you realize what a sacred amazing calling this is it it’s just unbelievable to have this kind of impact so.
Jacob Barr :
Yeah. If you think about it, the second and third generation, you know, those are well, someone doesn’t get to the twentieth generation any other way except by going through the 1st and second and 3rd and so it there’s no, yeah sort of like, you know we’re essentially we’re trying to help save families more so than a child like it’s an entire family tree of connections that you know that could be stopped short through an abortion or they could be preserved through a life decision yeah.
Dinah Monahan :
That’s we have. We know and we know, but on the back of that tapestry, it’s the most tangled looking thing you’ve ever seen but on the front it is beautiful and that’s the tapestry God is weaving because he sees all those generations forward and he places us in that room with that girl for that time. It’s a it’s a it’s an amazing calling. And you know, i want to just say something about because God has He has been so good to us and my husband and I, he passed away six years ago but before he passed away, the five years, six years before he passed away here he and I maybe seven. He and I went to took a trip to Ethiopia and we had no idea why we were going we literally looked at each other with suitcases packed and someone said where are you going and we looked at each other and said why are we going? And we met up with someone we’d never met who had a ministry there. And so we’re in Ethiopia we and God brought in front of us over and over and over pregnant women who had nowhere to go. And over there, over here they have so many safety Nets cause. And I started a maternity home and ran it for 20 years over here in the White Mountains. So then I’ve retired and then I’m over there and I’m listening to these stories and looking at where they live and it’s just stunning to me, But anyway, so we went not knowing where we’re going by the time we left, we had started a maternity home in Ethiopia and they ran for five years and every one of those babies were slated for abortion. And actually I’m still doing it but a different way. I’m leaving actually in 10 days to go back. So anyway, but you see that bloodlust, that evil bloodlust that is Planned Parenthood is also Marie Stopes in Africa. And so you said.
Jacob Barr :
Mary Stopes. What is Mary Stopes?
Dinah Monahan :
It is the Planned Parenthood equivalent it’s a woman. She would be the equivalent of Margaret Sanger. Oh my.
Jacob Barr :
Goodness, I didn’t see i’ve never heard about this before.
Dinah Monahan :
Yeah she’s the equivalent of Margaret Sanger. And they have, they have abortion clinics all over and oh, I got to tell you a funny story. So anyway, I don’t know if this is going the way you wanted to go but anyway, oh, that’s perfect. So we’re in Ethiopia and they, Marie Stokes, the abortion clinic, they put a blue star, not the Star David, but a five twenty. They put a blue star any business where they have gone in and given them pamphlets they give them a blue star stores and they display it and women know they can go in there to get abortions and so I’m looking at that I yeah. Oh yeah they’ve got it nailed they’re so busy in Africa, you know, and it’s the most, oh, it is the most, it’s racist. It is so racist. They’re poor. They’re disadvantaged. Let’s just let’s just both infertility. They have a lot of things that result in infertility and also let’s abort their babies. So anyway, but I’m looking at these stars and I’m thinking, all right, we need our own symbol. So we developed a sticker that is the equivalent of i’m a child, not a choice in two languages, American Oromo, which are the two major languages there and anyway and there’s these little things called bijages and they look like beetles on motorcycle fronts. They’re 3 wheeled and that’s where every they look like if you’ve ever seen them there, that’s how everybody gets around so you hop into a bijage and you go around well, they’re like scurrying around, like beetles scurrying around. So we printed up these big stickers, probably 12 inches across ovals and we went out and we stuck them on the back of all the that we asked them they were all excited. So all these, they just wanted something cool. All these bizarre hundreds of Bijaj drivers had this sticker stuck on the back of their of their little bijages and all over the city. So we had a pro-life statement all over the city and a number they could call it was pretty cool. It was just, you know, it’s just like seeing something and just don’t throw your hands up just look for a creative way to deal with it and to counter it. And in fact, I’m going back the tents to meet with some very committed pro-life or the start and organize pro-life organization. And Raul Reyes is coming and he’s going to talk to them about how to present the pro-life message. And then we’re going to also work with women, see, because now what’s happening, it’s not the Muslim women who are getting abortions because they are very pro-life It’s so it is the Christian women and the orthodox women who are getting abortions and they don’t know they just know it ends the problem and so and then the emotional impact happens and so we are i’m going to be training 10 women in how to work with women in post abortion and how to get this, how to get the word out because it’s such a shameful thing women won’t admit it, and yet there’s so many women suffering in the church. And so that’s our challenge if anyone wants to keep us in prayers. And then the third thing we’ve done is we’re working with women who changed their mind on abortion, these girls, because our people are out there in front of the abortion clinics, some of them get threatened with their life and they’re out there and these girls changed their mind. And so we house them for a year. And I’m working on a it’s always a challenge because then what do you do? So we’re working on that too. So my, I don’t know, for whatever reason, God moved my interest into Africa and into Ethiopia, which is an amazing country, amazing history and so just carrying this thing international. So that’s what we’re doing.
Jacob Barr :
Wow that’s that isn’t a that’s an amazing story and it’s intriguing how you went to Ethiopia without really an under an understanding of why you’re going which is even more intriguing when you respond back on that like what do you think about that today Like you know where do you see God’s fingerprints in that decision.
Dinah Monahan :
Oh, well, I’ll tell you what. I see God’s fingerprints in one of my grandsons and we didn’t. Our maternity home did not. We weren’t there to place for adoption. We’d help the mothers like to raise their children, but one of the Mama said I can’t raise him into me and had met my daughter-in-law brandon and his wife had met them because they had been over there and said I want to place my baby with them, I want to place with them. And I said, well, it’s got to be God, because that’s a really hard thing to do and it was getting harder and nine months later, that baby was in my arms.
Jacob Barr :
Was it Samuel or?
Dinah Monahan :
It’s Samuel. Yes. Oh, he loves to hear.
Jacob Barr :
That I actually just had lunch with. Yeah, Samuel with Brandon a few weeks ago so yeah, OK really.
Dinah Monahan :
Well that is and that wasn’t the end reason i don’t you know I’m not going to say that was the end reason but that was one of those parts of the threads in the tapestry that just I just look at and it was a total surprise to me i did not you know i didn’t even think about it So it came to us as a gift absolutely a gift that we’d never even entertained. And then others i’m on Facebook, believe it or not with some of the girls and I. They’re just they all they can say is we love you. I love you, Dinah. Or they can put the little heart emoji. But trust me, I hear from them i can’t even tell you what a blessing that is for me. Just know these girls and they’re many of them are walking with the Lord and it’s hard it’s a struggle there. But well, thank you i didn’t know.
Jacob Barr :
This has been such a good experience or time hearing your stories. So to wrap up this podcast, would you, would you say a prayer that those who are listening could pray along, as you know, praying for, praying for the work and the space that we all find ourselves in this pro-life world?
Dinah Monahan :
I will. I’d be honored. Let’s go. Lord Jesus, oh Father in heaven, we come before you. And 1st, Father, we just thank you for being put in a place where we can make a life and death difference for these young women, both here on earth, for their children and for eternity what a privilege to do this work. And Lord, I lift up the directors and the client advocates who are listening to this Father and Lord if they’re discouraged because it comes with so many problems. Lord, I pray that you would just gently lift them up and let them see beyond the discouragement to the blessings lord. Father, I pray that as these women walk through the ministry daily, ministering to each of these women, and it’s exhausting that Lord, you would be their strength father, that you would be their sustenance lord, that you would just remind them that sometimes that tapestry looks awfully messy from the back, but you are always weaving something beautiful for your glory and for the blessings on generations. And, Lord, I thank you and I pray that they, these people were on the front lines. Lord, they have an understanding, a true knowledge of the privilege. We know the responsibility, the Lord, also the privilege and the joy of being used in such an amazing way. Bless each person listening, Lord, bless them. Lift them up. Encourage them Lord as they bless so many others that you put in their path in Jesus name amen.
Jacob Barr :
Amen well, thank you, Diana this has been just a absolute pleasure to hear your story and just to see your heart for those who are broken and in need and vulnerable and just in need of a hand and help and love and care. And so it’s. Yeah thank you so much for being on here today. Yeah i really enjoyed hearing your stories.
Dinah Monahan :
Oh well, if you want to call me back sometime, I’ve got a lot more.
Jacob Barr :
Perfect yeah, of course. Sounds good all.
Dinah Monahan :
Right.
Jacob Barr :
God bless you too. All right. Bye Dinah all.
Dinah Monahan :
Right bye, bye.
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