I Hugged an Atheist

It was Thursday morning as usual. I’m at the clinic doing my hour and a half of prayer/vigil while carrying my “Stop Abortion Now” sign.

At about 11:15 a.m., the last of the other vigilers bid me farewell and I was left by myself.

Suddenly a young woman walked across the parking lot from the clinic’s entrance area and she approached me. I started a conversation that became more of monolog by me than an active two way conversation.

I asked her if she was aware of the effects that abortion has on the woman as post-abortion syndrome. She said no. I continued on with my descriptions of the horrors and effects of abortion. I also explained the plight of today’s culture and its secularism. Although she asked only a few questions, she listened with interest.

While our conversation continued for about an hour, I learned that she was twenty years old and she was here in the United States on a working visa living in Salisbury, Maryland. She and a friend whom she chaperoned to the clinic are both from Romania. They are working at a restaurant at the beach.

At one point in my comments, I referred to the Bible. She then asked me with her somewhat broken English what the Bible was. This led me to ask her if she thought that she was an atheist. She responded that she probably was one.

Interestingly, although she seemed to know little about Christianity, throughout our conversation she listened very intently as like a sponge sucking up water.

As our conversation came to an end we discussed that we would probably not ever meet again. So we wished each other well and embraced each other with a big hug.

I certainly experienced the presence of the Lord in our brief relationship.