Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson speaks at the annual Focus on Life Gala fundraising dinner
By Nathan Rumohr
The B.C. Catholic

Sometimes being pro-life means taking a "life-altering" risk, says Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson.

The host of the Evangelical Christian TV program the 700 Club Canada spoke at the Signal Hill Focus on Life Gala event, May 28, and told the crowd at Vancouver's Hyatt Regency Hotel how she almost adopted twins.

"I had been working with high-risk youth for five years and they have become my purpose and joy," she said. One of the girls in the program told Thompson about a friend who was set to have an abortion. Thompson asked why the girl was choosing abortion and learned it was because she was carrying twins.

"I knew this would be a very tough situation for this girl," Thompson said. After thinking about the situation for two days, Thompson decided to do something radical to save the babies. "I texted this girl and told her I would adopt the twins. Maybe this is the one shot these babies have!"

Thompson sat in a parking lot waiting outside a restaurant where she was to meet with friends for dinner. She prayed and begged Jesus to change the girl's mind, but a few minutes later she received a text message reading "no chance the abortion is scheduled."

But it wasn't meant to be. She recalled sitting in the parking lot. "In that crushing sadness came this one thought: 'Laura-Lynn, you did all you could do for the twins."

She said her purpose in that attempt is the same purpose of Signal Hill and other pro-life organizations. "We can't change everything and the horrible sadness out there, but I do know the organizations represented at this event (are) about giving you the chance to do all that you can do."

The Focus on Life Gala dinner brought together many of the pro-life organizations around the Lower Mainland. The event is the yearly fundraiser for Signal Hill, which advocates for human rights through media, and is supported by the Archdiocese of Vancouver and the Christian Advocacy Society of Greater Vancouver.

Thompson became involved with Signal Hill after recommitting her life to Christ after many years of hardships. She was born in Uganda to missionary parents and was very involved with her faith as a child and teenager. But things began to go downhill for in her 20s. She announced she was ready to marry at 21, a decision her parents disagreed with. Five years later her marriage ended.

"It was devastating because we didn't believe in divorce and I brought divorce into my missionary family."

She later found herself in an unmarried relationship that resulted in pregnancy. "I was unmarried in a relationship that was absolutely devastating. If I thought the first relationship was difficult this one became my nightmare."

Thompson felt disqualified, shamed, and wounded. She debated whether to terminate her unplanned pregnancy. But despite the hardship she kept the baby.

Things started to turn around for Thompson four years later. She went to a church service where the pastor brought in a life-size cross where congregants wrote down their sins and placed them inside the cross.

As she approached the cross she cried out to God about all the insecurities she had. "But it was at that moment the Holy Spirit whispered a sentence into my mind that changed my life. He said, 'Was what Jesus did, not enough for you?"

The question broke her heart and lifted her from her depression.

"I didn't know God would give me a second, third, fourth or fifth chance. That was the last day I would let the enemy tell me I didn't have a destiny."

Since that day Thompson has pushed for excellence. In 1999, while folding laundry, she felt a call from God to talk about Jesus on TV. She started working on the 700 Club Canada soon after, sharing her story with scared pregnant girls to show them how God heals brokenness. "I am just floored by what God can do with broken people, and broken destinies," she said.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, was the last to speak at the event. He said Signal Hill brings the truth of life to society. "Signal Hill is about telling the truth. We have to have the courage to look the truth in the eye and call things by their proper name without yielding to compromise or self-deception."

For more information on Signal Hill visit thesignalhill.com.

nrumohr@rcav.org