Lynae McFarland outstretches her arms in praise during The Woman’s Choice Center’s Life & Family Gala Sept. 15 at the Waterfront Convention Center in Bettendorf.
By Anne Marie Amacher
The Catholic Messenger
BETTENDORF — “The Lord is not done. Look at what he is doing,” Lynae McFarland told pro-life supporters during The Woman’s Choice Center’s Life & Family Gala Sept. 15 at the Waterfront Convention Center.
She was referring to God walking with us. His forgiveness of sins. And his love for us no matter what we have done.
Breaking out in song of “Amazing Grace,” the crowd joined McFarland standing up to thank God.
McFarland, an educator and author who had two abortions and found healing, was the keynote speaker at the annual Life & Family Gala.
She told the crowd to trust in God.
Recalling a January day many years ago, McFarland returned from Christmas break to the school where she taught music. She was asked by another staff member what word would she use for the next year. “Whole,” McFarland said. Going back to her office she sat down and wrote WHOLE. “What does it mean?” she asked herself. So she Googled it: not broken, lack nothing. “Oh, that sounds good.”
So on that piece of paper, she wrote other words around the word whole: wife, mom, teacher, aunt. She then wrote God. She hung the piece of paper up in her room. “That changed my life,” she said.
McFarland was raised in a loving, Christian home. She went to a Christian school and attended a Christian church. With a love of music, she formed a band for her church.
Dreaming of the future she wanted to have five children — three boys and two girls. And each one’s name would begin with the letter G.
When she started high school, McFarland slowly pulled away from God. In college, she turned away even further. Later, she married her husband of now 25 years and they had three children.
During COVID, “there was not much music (at school),” she said. Not sure what to do, she turned to that piece of paper on the wall that said whole and God.
She opened the Bible, started reading it and began journaling. She could “hear” God talking to her. The song “Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling” came to her mind. “I was tired. We were back at school with masks. I was a choir teacher.”
In January 2021 at the end of the day, she found a business card on the floor for Lifeline Pregnancy center, which was in the Missouri town in which she lived. “God was gently, kindly pursuing me,” she said.
McFarland decided after a few months to give a financial donation to the center. As she walked to the center with money in hand, she felt pulled. “Don’t walk in there,” she heard a voice say. “It will be okay,” another voice said. She opened the door and walked in.
McFarland asked if she could talk to someone. A women “with a beautiful smile and the kindest eyes invited me to come back.” Sitting with the women, McFarland told the women she had had two abortions. The woman let her cry and just listened.
McFarland switched the topic to the donation she brought with her. “Not today,” the woman said. She had begun her healing process. “I held that secret for 30 years.” She wondered if healing was possible.
Three days after visiting Lifeline Pregnancy, McFarland opened a folder the woman had given her and called the number inside. Seven days later, she joined a Zoom video call with other women who had had abortions as well in a recovery meeting.
“We talked and shared our stories,” McFarland said.
During a Bible study, she came across Scripture talking about healing. She recalled all the lies she was told. She realized that even though she had an abortion in Iowa City and the second one in Des Moines, God never left her. He was with her as she cried herself to sleep and in everything she did. “He wants us to bring everything to the foot of the cross,” she said.
Reflecting back to the vision she had in her youth of three boys and two girls — she said “God gave me my three sons.” She feels her two aborted babies —whom she calls Giselle and Gabriella — were the other two children she dreamed of.
“I do wonder what could have been (for them),” McFarland said.
As she walked one hot, summer day, she listened to a podcast — it talked about planting seeds. As she walked by Lifeline Pregnancy again after she had time to process her first visit there. She told a woman who greeted her that in two to five years she would be interested in helping the center. The woman said to wait there.
She returned “with the woman with the kind eyes.” The woman told her they had a position open now. They needed an educator to go into the schools to talk about setting boundaries, sexual health risks, love vs infatuation and being valued. “Two weeks later I began to work there,” McFarland said. She enjoys going into schools talking to students. “I bring the truth.”
She later learned that the business card was dropped off for her and another fellow teacher on purpose. The staff prays for people and they were chosen.
