Growing up, I held to a pro-life ideology. I was well versed, even as a young girl, in the damning effects of abortion to a baby and moral implications associated with the choice. I was extremely judgmental in my views and couldn’t understand how someone could kill their child.

In my junior year of high school, my life quickly unraveled as I struggled with the reality of years of abuse in my life and to those I loved. I was angry at God and decided I would take control. I began to make unwise choices and in a matter of a year or so I found myself pregnant and wondering what I would do. Going contrary to the beliefs of my childhood, I chose abortion.

It was a choice that didn’t make sense when compared to my viewpoints and desires for my life. It was choice that I soon came to regret. I was enveloped in a depression and instantly affected by the debate. College classroom debates on abortion were damning for me. I found I was being silently stoned by the words of people who felt the same way I had felt just a short time earlier. Their judgmental comments were hard rocks hitting my soft flesh.

Over a period of three years, I found healing through a post-abortion support group. It was just the beginning for me, but the whole experience helped me to see the people in the midst of the issue. God was transforming my heart, not only by healing my own wounds, but empowering me to properly mix truth and grace to be effective in helping others find healing. Through it all, my own post-abortion ministry was started both personally and professionally through The IRMA Network.

Through ministry, I know abortion not only kills babies, but it wounds the souls of men and women and leads them to make other devastating choices. I’ve learned that those of us that call ourselves followers of Christ should always stand for truth, but need to learn to communicate it through the words of grace instead of condemnation. When we state our lack of understanding of “how someone could ever do such a thing” puts us above others, when in truth, we all lay out equally at the foot of the cross, each with our different areas of struggle.

You can hear more of Carrie’s Story either at her blog or www.prolifepodcast.net. For more information on how to help those considering abortion, check out Carrie’s 9 Tips for Talking to Someone Considering An Abortion.

While God will never do anything against his Word and we must always test that which comes before us through the Bible’s truths, God is not confined to do things based on our expectations. So the Catholic and the Charismatic can both serve the same God as long as the theology is in line with scripture, regardless of the method with which they seek God.

The truth that God is not confined to our expectations is visible in our daily lives, in our church practices, and out on the mission field. When we choose to break out of the box, God meets us and shows us new aspects of His character, as I have discovered over the years.

God has on the occasion spoken to me through a line in a movie. Just a few weeks ago, a friend of mine had this same experience while we were watching, “What Happens In Vegas.” God spoke truth to her through a comedy! She is now preparing to go on the mission field for a few months. Even the routine act of watching a movie can have life-impacting results with God in control.

I attended a church service while living in Colorado with a few guest worship bands, with a techno group. It was the last section of the night, and as the music began, the audience emptied. I stood there bewildered, because God has created all music and was in fact a part of this man’s act of worship. ‘Can’t we worship God through all forms of music?’ I thought. I stayed, and met God in the techno music, having a wonderful, unique encounter with my Creator.

I had the pleasure of meeting missionaries just this last month heading into a mission field outside the box. Jeremy and Kendra Stephenson have been missionaries in Tanzania for years. The mission field is not a foreign concept as both of them were raised by missionary families on the mission field. Being a missionary is what they know, but God is calling them out of the typical mission experience into one that is nothing short of divine.

God has gifted Jeremy with amazing photography abilities. Growing up, he saw this gift as a hobby sidelined by a passion to pursue Christ and spread the gospel. It wasn’t until marrying Kendra that God began to speak to his heart and call him to use his gift in a unique way. God asked Jeremy and Kendra to change their spiritual target from the natives of their region to the foreigners coming for safari vacations. Now Jeremy will be taking pictures for the tourists on their adventure and allowing God to facilitate relationships that offer a different adventure than the one the tourists flew to Africa to pursue.

Each of these experiences are of God and wouldn’t be considered “normal” interactions, but are in fact movements of the Spirit. Who knows what will come of the direction God has led these missionaries? Who knows what will come of the outside the box experience He has in store for you? The question that needs to be answered is –- Are you ready to allow God outside the box?

My experience was completely the opposite, and it has made a difference in my life. The Karen (Ka-wren) people, a Burmese refugee tribe living in the mountains of northern Thailand, nestled themselves into my heart. I was instantly drawn to their heritage and heart for God. I was also struck by their lack of value in the eyes of the Thai people and in their own hearts. I wanted so desperately to love them and show them the value they have as princes and princesses in the Kingdom of God. Even though I desperately desire to visit other people in various parts of the world, Thailand has become a repeat destination for me.

This past March I returned from my third trip with even more passion for the Karen people. Each experience with them has brought a new depth of understanding for their culture and heritage. It has brought renewed and deepened love for a people dearly loved by God. On my last two trips, I spent all my time with Karen who are living in Thailand with the proper paperwork. The people I work with are part of Handclasp (www.handclasp.org), an organization that, through sponsorship, provides education to children who otherwise would be targets of human trafficking. I have been able to see these children grow, learn and advance in ways that wouldn’t be possible without Handclasp.

On this trip, I went to see the Karen in a very different setting. Through a series of events, I was granted permission to visit a refugee camp on the Myanmar/Thai border. The people in these camps are unable to enter Thailand due to lack of paperwork and unwilling to return to Burma fearing the ramifications of political persecution. As I prepared to go visit these beautiful people, I researched the resettlement program that helps get some of these refugees into third-party countries like the United States. On my way to the camp, I was brainstorming ways I could help participate in this program, get refugees to safety and allow them to start new lives where they could live out their dreams. I was getting fired up about getting involved to save the Karen in bondage to a life of no hope or options. However, my heart changed soon after arriving.

We were taken to a Bible school in the refugee camp, the only section that we were able to visit. We were led on stage before an assembly of Karen students. Dr. Simon, who runs this school that gives young Karen people the opportunity to expand their Biblical and practical knowledge, started to share about the resettlement program but instead of describing the “American dream” as their aim of resettlement, he instead described a dream of joining in the Great Commission. I was instantaneously humbled as my heart sank into my chest. I had gotten it all wrong. I had been envisioning their lives as their own, instead of God’s. Dr. Simon had the proper perspective. He was excited about the prospect of getting to share the good news of Christ, for his life echoed the words of Paul in Philippians 1:21 when he says, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

His life focus was not about earthly accomplishments, but fully saturated in heavenly perspective. His life meant more than what he could do with a college degree (something he does possess.) It was about the impact he made on the world through the gospel. It never ceases to amaze me how I get off course from the perspective Christ hopes us all to have. I so easily assimilate with the Western way of independence, selfishness and pride.

Since I got back to the States, I have been asking God to use these people to save the world, instead of being saved from their circumstances. I went to help them, but instead it was I who gained something that day, receiving another heart-changing moment in Thailand. God is moving among the Karen people, and while they need our help to meet their physical needs, we need them to realign our spiritual compass and broaden our perspective.