The Marcum Family/Ministry News June 2015
Dear Friends & Family,
We (Jim & Melissa) just returned from a road trip which took
us over 2,800 miles! We had seven
stops along the way in St. Louis, MO - Indianapolis, IN-
Statesville, NC Goldsboro, NC Myrtle Beach, SC Knoxville, TN, and
Guilford, IN (Cincinnati area). We give a report from our trip on
page 2 of the newsletter, but first to some amazing & awesome
news on the pro-life front. Again, thanks for reading
Love, The Marcums
Amazing Answer to Prayer!
The day before Melissa and I left for our 2-week trip, I went to
the Womens Clinic in Grandview for a weekly prayer meeting as I do
every Monday morning. But was I in for a big surprise! In our April
newsletter 2 months ago, I
put a picture very similar to the one you see at the right, with
the caption The Womens Clinic of Grandview is strategically located
next door to Planned Parenthood. I
help lead a prayer meeting here weekly each Monday. I did not
imagine that 2 months later I would be reporting that this Planned
Parenthood office is now CLOSED!
Here is an excerpt from an article printed recently on the
website Live Action News about the closing of this Planned
Parenthood. You can find the entire article at:
http://liveactionnews.org/closed-another-planned-parenthood-facility-shuts/.
Closed: Another Planned Parenthood by Susan Michelle * June 1,
2015
For years, the Planned Parenthood at 11902 Blue Ridge Blvd. in
Grandview, MO, shared a wall with pregnancy resource center, Womens
Clinic of Kansas City. On Sunday, the Womens Clinic became the only
one with an active business, when the Grandview, MO, Planned
Parenthood quietly shuttered for good.
Nick Stotzer was the leader of the Life Initiatives department
at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City (IHOPKC) for
the past two years. IHOPKC borders Grandview and has many of its
facilities in the city, so the Life Initiatives department works in
close partnership with the Womens Clinic in Grandview. Stozer says:
The closing of this Planned Parenthood is extremely significant for
Grandview and the surrounding area. This particular PP would refer
young women to the Kansas PP for surgical abortions, while also
providing the morning after pill and other forms of contraceptives
to young women.
Stozer and his team used the common wall as a place of prayer.
He says they prayed faithfully for years at both IHOPKC and the
Womens Clinic: We would lay hands on the common wall and pray for
the PP to turn into a center for LIFE. For a solid year and half we
prayed and saw more and more young women come to the Womens Clinic
instead of the Planned Parenthood.
Stozer says that as time went on, they learned that the numbers
of women increased for the Womens Clinic and decreased for the
Planned ParenthoodIt was like they just didnt want to go in there
anymore. In addition to the many prayers, they flooded the Womens
Clinic with volunteers and people to help teach classes. He adds
that everyone in [the Womens Clinic] was praying. The Life
Initiatives Department became actively involved with the pregnancy
resource center, holding baby showers for the mothers who choose
life and providing mentors for them. Their team put feet to their
prayers, and Stozer says it made a difference.
The closing is also significant because of the demographic make
up of the south Kansas City community. Grandview, MO, has less than
25,000 people, but 40.8 percent of the population is
African-American, a prime market for Planned Parenthood. Protecting
Black Life reports that the, 2010 Census results reveal that
Planned Parenthood is targeting minority neighborhoods. Black
Genocide also notes that 78 percent of Planned Parenthood clinics
are in minority communities, saying blacks make up 12 percent of
the population, but account for 35 percent of abortions in
America.
Jim & Melissa
Celebrating 35 years!
On June 1, 1980, we were joined together in marriage and 35
years, 7 children (plus one, love you Alex), and 2 (going on 3)
grandchildren later
we are still happily together! This year we had a special
35th
anniversary. We started making plans back in January for a road
trip to visit family in Indiana & North Carolina, ending with a
few days together at Myrtle Beach.
Thanks to some generous gifts from some of our partners and our
family, we were able to make the trip, and what a great time we
had!
THE TRIP: We want to thank Don & Valerie Miller in St.
Louis, MO who allowed us to spend the first night with them, it was
a blessing! You will continue to be in our
hearts and prayers. On the 2nd
day we arrived in Carmel, IN (Indianapolis area) for a nice
2-day visit with Melissas brother & sister-in-law and their
family. One highlight was being able to join in on the Wednesday
night home church service led by our
nephew, Aaron Harrison, who is a newly ordained Anglican
minister (priest). It was very special to meet some of the precious
ones who make up the All Souls fellowship, and to have time in
worship & communion together with them & with our
family.
We were very blessed to spend Memorial Day weekend with Jims
sister & brother-in-law in Statesville, NC. They treated us
with a day touring the Biltmore estate followed by dinner out in
Asheville wow! On Sunday we so enjoyed worshiping with True Vine
church where our niece, Marie, helps lead worship. And on Memorial
Day, the home fellowship they lead met for a picnic at their house,
followed by an awesome time of worship & ministry (which was
led in part by our other
niece, Karah!). They ministered prophetically over us which
really touched our hearts, and we were able to share a little about
the mission & ministry of IHOPKC. On Wednesday we traveled
about 3 hours to Goldsboro, NC to visit Alex. Some
who read our newsletters dont know Alex; she lived in our home
for 5 years and she is like an adopted daughter to us, so it was so
wonderful to see her. She is in community college, working at a day
care center, and is getting ready to be married in November. We are
very proud of you Alex! And thank you, Erica & Dave, for
putting us up for the night, what a blessing!
To celebrate our 35th
anniversary, we went to Myrtle Beach for 4 days, and we were so
refreshed while there. Some special
gifts made way for us to do some really special things together,
and we also just spent some hours relaxing by the ocean. Melissa
also got IN the ocean quite a bit, ha! She has always been a good
swimmer and we even bought a body board at one of the beach shops
(Styrofoam one of course) so she could ride the waves! One really
great highlight was getting to meet a
couple, Jeff & Jenni Ray, who are leaders at the YWAM
mission base there in Myrtle Beach. There is a staff of about 20
there at the base, which is located next to a very needy apartment
complex and across the street from a house where they are aware
some prostitution is taking place. They are reaching out in
powerful ways, and we met a young black man who just
the day before accepted Christ and is now living at the mission
house. They had also just completed a 60-hour prayer over Myrtle
Beach involving around 60 of the area churches! We had a great time
of prayer for them, and they prayed for us as well-we were all
strengthened in the Lord! (Note: Myrtle Beach is a town of around
30,000 people, but hosts about 15
million visitors a year. During peak seasons, about million
people live there. Great place for a Missions Base!)
We made two stops on the way back from Myrtle Beach. The first
was in Knoxville, TN to visit our friends, Steve & Janie
Garrison. Pray for them as they have begun laying groundwork for
raising up the East TN Prayer Room there in Knoxville. We had a
great time of worship & intercession together with them at
their house about this, and left some good
training materials with them. Our final stop was at our
long-time friend, Sue Dawsons, home in the Cincinnati area. It was
so great to be with her, and special treat was our final night of
the trip we had worship & prayer gathering at her house and
got to pray over many people. We also got to share about our
work at IHOPKC and Jim shared the story of meeting President Obama
in 2011 after the Joplin tornado and speaking the word to him,
Remember the Unborn.
FINAL WORD: We truly want to thank those special ones who gave
to make this trip possible, and to all of you for praying for us
and standing with us. We feel so refreshed and ready to go ahead
strong into what the Lord has planned for us. Also, it was so great
to see many family, friends, and partners, and to meet and make so
many new friends. All of you, keep in touch! We love you all, and
were praying for you.
Because He is worthy of it all,
Jim & Melissa Marcum & family
Jim & Melissa Marcum P.O. Box 1099, Grandview, MO 64030
Phone/text: 816-287-3525 / 816-287-2228 Email/PayPal:
[email protected]
International House of Prayer Kansas City, MO
Gifts to the Marcums can be made out to IHOPKC. Contributions to
IHOPKC are income tax deductible to the extent allowable under
applicable law. Contributions to IHOPKC are made with the
understanding that IHOPKC has complete discretion and control over
the use of all donated funds.
E-giving at www.ihopkc.org/give/staffsupport - use E-giving code
JM204009 to make a gift to the Marcums. Thank you!
