Sentencing Complete - Time Served

We will be filing the appeals from home - Not Prison!

We are rejoicing in God gracious answer to our collective prayers in the sentencing phase of this trial. The judge ordered time served, 3 year of supervised release, beginning with 6 months of house arrest. While we are still adamant this trial is a complete political sham from the beginning, we could have been spending time behind bars while this appeal process grinds through the slow wheels of justice. As it is we are looking at 6 months of house arrest and an additional 2.5 years of supervised release. We are planning to file a motion to request this sentence be stayed pending the appeal process as well.

There are many amazing stories to tell and divine favors to share with you. God was very gracious and His mercy was evident in all four of the hearings that took place Tuesday and Wednesday. I will certainly share more about those in the near future. But I wanted to drop a quick note to update anyone who may not have seen the news and share a few snapshots of how the day went. I’ll close with one of my favorite events from the day.

The support was amazing. We had folks from all over the country come in to support us, encourage us, and pray for us. Indeed we have heard from thousands of people from all over the world who were praying for God’s intervention.

But not everyone was there to support us. God brought a small coalition of faithful anti-child abortion protestors to make their view known.

Since they called me out by name I felt an open invitation to talk with them and share the gospel.

There were at least a few connections made with the words God gave me to speak and His law written on their hearts. We never know the full impact of His truth and love when it strikes home, but I’m thankful God brought them out and allowed me to share His love with them.

Out of the frying pan and into the court chambers. From there we made it up to our sentencing hearing. I probably will dedicate a full post to the “victim impact statement” that was read into the record by the carefem clinic. I will say here that it was a wonderful case of the wicked digging a pit for their enemies and falling into it themselves. It was so over the top and obviously untrue even our left leaning Clinton appointee judge could see through it and stated, “it was obviously exaggerated”.

The judge was in a difficult position. The government wanted to lock me up for over a year and even the sentencing guidelines recommended 15 to 21 months of prison time. After hearing from many many support letters and understanding how we served in our local community she did not feel I should be locked up in prison. We are very grateful God worked in her heart in this way, even if she would deny His working.

Celebrating with friends and family after the sentencing.

We left the courtroom rejoicing in the Lord and celebrating with all the family, friends, and supporters who were there.

You have not experienced the doxology until you have faced a decade in federal prison and been able to sing it with almost a 100 joyful Christian in the rotunda of a federal courthouse! This is by far one of the favorite moments of the entire trial saga so far.

We continued to sing and praise outside the courthouse!

God is good! The story is still being written this is just chapter 3 at best - chapter 1 being the event at the clinic, and chapter 2 being the trial. The Lord being our helper there is much much more to come. Please continue to pray for the appeal, that we would see actual justice in this case. First steps are to win the appeal and see the overturning of the wicked and corrupt FACE Act. Then, Lord willing we will file the counter suit to hold all that prosecuted this illegal warfare against God’s people accountable.

…to be continued.