Rachel’s Park Memorial National Vision

“They have also healed the wound of my people slightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ when there is no peace.” (Jeremiah 6:14)

Operation Save America is the official covering for the Rachel’s Park Memorial national vision. The Church of Jesus Christ and Pro-life ministries have an opportunity to prepare for unprecedented ministry opportunities as abortion comes to its inevitable demise. According to Life Dynamics, in 1991, there were over 2000 abortion mills operating their grisly trade in America. Today, there are less than 800 furthering the American holocaust. Without any laws being passed to ban abortion, clearly the gates of hell are not prevailing against God’s minute, obedient Church.

This battle is drawing to a close and abortion will go the way of every other tyrannical, murderous, and oppressive system. At some point, America will have to come to grips with our complicity and complacency concerning this grave evil against our own defenseless children. Many will be reminded of this horrendous sin against God and their brutal crime against their own nameless sons and daughters. Thus this deep, festering wound that has polluted and defiled our beloved land must be adequately cared for. We must not find ourselves in a position that the prophet Jeremiah warned against, “They have also healed the wound of my people slightly.”

Rachel’s Park Memorial is specifically designed to deal with the deadly wound abortion has afflicted against our children, the family, the Church, our government, and our culture. In Waco, TX, the first Rachel’s Park Memorial has been constructed. Life Church and my Pastor John Wachsmann donated a couple of acres of Church land to help make this dream become a reality. This first park, we pray, will serve as a model and proto-type for others to emulate. Our goal is to see the vision and mission of Rachel’s Park Memorial spread throughout America, one park in each state of the Union.

To those who may be interested in seeing a Rachel’s Park Memorial built in your state, we are providing a four-fold vision statement, a layout of the park, and the inspiring testimony that sparked the vision and mission of Rachel’s Park Memorial. Let us know how we can serve to help establish this ministry in your area. For more information contact Rusty Thomas, assistant director of Operation Save America at  (254) 715-3134 or you can e-mail me at rusty@elijahmin.com.

Four-Fold Vision Statement 

To bring glory, honor, and majesty to the true and living God; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. To acknowledge Him as the Creator, Sustainer, Giver, and Governor of all life. To uphold His revelation, truth, and laws that promote the sacredness of life and the protection they afford as opposed to the lie of the “quality of life” that has been utilized to exterminate millions of tiny American citizens in the womb of their mothers.

To advance the Gospel of the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. To fulfill the Great Commission that calls upon all true believers to disciple the nations, baptize them, and to make sure the nations (which include America) keep the commandments of God (Matthew 28:18-20). To the glorious end that man might come to the saving grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ by repenting of their sins and rebellion against God’s loving rule.

The Park will honor and memorialize our nameless sons and daughters that have been cruelly lost through the American holocaust called abortion. It is consecrated to restore the humanity, the dignity, and the personhood of our precious children America has denied since the infamous Roe v. Wade Supreme Court Decision on January 22nd, 1973. Thus Rachel’s Park Memorial will become a resting-place for the innocent victims of abortion in each state of the Union.

Lastly, RPM will seek God’s grace to provide post-abortive ministry for families that have been devastated by this grievous sin against God and this crime against humanity. Prayerfully, the Park will provide for those who grieve the loss of their children a solemn place to receive God’s forgiveness, healing, and deliverance.

Layout of Rachel’s Park Memorial 

There is an entrance way made from treated rough timber, which hangs a sign that reads, “Welcome to Rachel’s Park Memorial, A Cemetery of the Innocents and a Memorial to the Unborn.” A pathway leads to a circle that acts as the hub for the whole park. On the concrete circle, a large granite stone is set up as the Memorial Stone. On the stone is the inscription, “Rachel’s Park Memorial,” accompanied by the verse from Jeremiah 31:15,16, which reads, “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children because they are no more. Thus says the Lord, refrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears for your work shall be rewarded says the Lord.” This particular verse carries a two-fold blessing. Number one, families that have been devastated by the sin of abortion may come here to weep and mourn their loss and secondarily it reveals a promise from God to those who have fought to end abortion, “your work shall be rewarded.”

To the left of the circle a pathway will continue, and on each side of the pathway, 2000 little white crosses will be permanently planted. These 4000 little crosses will testify of the horrible truth that 4000 little image-bearers of Jesus Christ die every single day in America. The area of the crosses will be fenced in with a sign on each side that reads, “These four thousand crosses represent the four thousand children that die each day in America. This is hallowed, sacred ground. It is designed to restore the dignity, the humanity, and personhood of the unborn that this nation has denied since January 22, 1973. Treat this site with all due respect.”

Coming back to the circle and turning left again, a short pathway will lead to a prayer gazebo. Hanging from the prayer gazebo will be a sign which reads, “A Time to Mourn and a Time to Heal.” In the prayer gazebo the “great exchange” text from Isaiah 61:1-3 will be prominently displayed. The passage reads: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, And the day of vengeance of our God; To comfort all who mourn, To console those who mourn in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.” Inside the prayer gazebo a literature display will be set up filled with Gospel, Pro-life, and Post-abortive materials. There will also be a form for people to fill out to request a memorial service for their deceased children.

Right next to the prayer gazebo the Tomb of the Unknown Baby will be constructed. On January 22nd, 2003, The Church in Waco will hold a three-fold event to mourn the loss of our children, to publicly repent for the sin of shedding innocent blood, and to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. A part of that event will consist of conducting a graveside service for an actual aborted baby that will be buried at the Tomb of the Unknown Baby.

Coming back to the circle and turning left again, a pathway will lead to a huge twenty to thirty-foot cross. At the foot of the cross, a permanent podium made of brick will be constructed. This area will be designated for outdoor community services and for those post-abortive families who request the memorial service.

From the huge cross, a pathway will lead to the last feature of the park, the Wall of Remembrance. Whereas the Tomb of the Unknown Baby acknowledges the existence and passing of our many nameless sons and daughters, the Wall of Remembrance provides an opportunity for parents to name their children. The parents will be able to inscribe the names of their aborted children upon granite slabs, thereby acknowledging and restoring the child’s humanity. This act will be the central piece to conducting the memorial service that will provide an opportunity for the Church to minister the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those ill-affected by this national tragedy.

Testimony of Rachel’s Park Memorial 

A Baby’s Cry

 “And He said, ‘What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground (Genesis 4:10).'”

Hello, my name is Rusty Lee Thomas, assistant to Flip Benham with Operation Save America. The following testimony that is written for your consideration, I commit before God is true. It is given solely for the glory of God and to reveal to men, both believer and unbeliever alike, that the God of Heaven still moves in mysterious and miraculous ways to fulfill His will in the earth. A few months ago in the summer of 2000, my family and I drove to our church, Church on the Rock located at 4720 N. 19th St. in Waco TX. While I was working in the office, my wife and children remained outside playing on the playground. All of a sudden, a strange occurrence took place. One of my children ran in to tell me, “Daddy, we keep hearing the sound of a baby crying!” All of my children heard it and my wife heard it several times, so I went out to investigate. Sure enough, when I approached the playground, I distinctly heard the cry of a baby. It was clear the tiny infant was in pain, distressed and in need of immediate help. The sound was coming from the lower area of the Church’s property.

Diligently I began to search, but to know avail. I then ran inside the church and called the police. When the police and the media arrived, we again searched throughout the wooded area and even drove around the surrounding neighborhood in a great effort to find something even remotely associated with a cry of a tiny hurting baby. We could not find anyone or anything that was the source of this disturbing, haunting cry. I couldn’t understand it, nor even try to explain it. The only suggestions the police offered were, “Perhaps the sound was coming from a daycare center close by or a child crying in the neighborhood.” The problem with their suggestions was that the cry we heard didn’t come from a child, it was clearly the sound of a tiny distressed baby.

Though this experience was strange and eerie, to say the least, as the months passed by, we didn’t pay it much mind, that is, until recently. The Lord laid on my heart a vision to create a Memorial to the Unborn called Rachel’s Park Memorial. The inspiration for the park is based upon the Scripture in Jeremiah 31 where Rachel is weeping for her children, who were no more (Jeremiah 31:15). When I approached my pastor, John Wachsmann, about the idea, we agreed that it should be a permanent site. Of course, at the time, we never made the connection between the cry of the hurting baby and our proposed permanent site for Rachel’s Park Memorial.

That all changed a few days later, when at our regular Wed. night service, on Dec. 6th, 2000, two member of our church, Larry and Govina Thompson had a similar experience. They both heard the voice of a baby crying exactly at the place we had previously heard it. Larry diligently searched the parking lot while Govina approached my wife with great concern saying, “Liz, count all your children. Larry and I just heard the sound of a baby crying near your van.” My wife immediately made a diligent search and all of our children were present and accounted for. Govina then rushed to the different nurseries to make sure all the other children from our church were there and that none had slipped outside where the sound of the crying was heard. None were missing. Coincidentally, our van just happened to be parked near the site that we initially heard the haunting cry months earlier.

Today, Dec. 7th, in the year of our Lord, 2000, I was made fully aware of the startling manifestation of the second time a cry of a baby was being heard directly from the proposed site for a Cemetery of the Innocents and the Memorial for the Unborn. When the connection was made the power of God and His anointing absolutely overwhelmed me. I broke and cried uncontrollably for quite sometime.

A few days later, my good friend, Pastor Ronnie Holmes invited me, to preach at Church of the Open Door in Waco. It was there that another testimony of this haunting cry came to light. As I was sharing the story of Rachel’s Park Memorial and the unknown baby’s cry, the pastor’s wife, Kim began to sob. Afterward she shared with us that she experienced a very similar incident right outside her home in the country a few days before. She had heard the cry of a baby and had walked out onto her porch to investigate. She walked around her yard and yet could not discover the source of the baby nor its cry for help. Obviously, our testimony coupled with her experience broke her heart and made her weep.

Needless to say, a great awe has come upon us as we realize that the ground set aside for the consecration of Rachel’s Park Memorial had already been hallowed for this purpose by the cry of a baby long before we ever even conceived the vision. A cry from a missing, hurting baby that we believe says, “Remember me and what you have done to me and what you have left undone.”

The last confirmation from the Lord to build RPM, came from a portion of a script I had written approximately 10 years prior to these events taking place. It is from a play called, “Truth on Trial…a cry for justice.” This play was used to prepare the way of the Lord for Operation Rescue to storm the gates at the Republican National Convention in Houston, TX. 1992. This particular scene is a man giving his defense in court of why he risked arrest at an abortion clinic to peaceably intervene to rescue the lives of unborn children.

“Being a veteran of a war, I consider myself a man with both feet firmly planted on the ground. I’ve seen the stark realities of life and have tried to maintain a level head in the midst of it. I don’t consider myself super-spiritual, although I have a deep abiding faith in God. I guess what I ‘m trying to say is, I’m not spooky spiritual. I’m not prone to dreams or visions, I don’t hear voices. I’m just a construction worker who one day did hear a voice. Let me somehow explain….

There’s a park that I walk to, and near the park is a cemetery. Anyway, one day as I was leaving the park, I felt compelled to walk around this cemetery. All the while I had this strange sensation that I was being led somewhere. All of a sudden, I tripped over something. As I parted the grass to see what I had tripped over, I came face to face with a grave marker that simply read “Baby.” That’s all that was inscribed on the grave, no name, no dates, no epitaph….just “Baby.” As I began to ponder all this, all of a sudden I heard a baby cry. It was so real to me that I turned to see if someone was there. Nothing. I was all alone with this grave marker. I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. I’m just a construction worker. What started out to be one baby crying, increased to five, to ten, then hundreds possibly thousands, even millions, all crying and I could hear them.”

The Lord through many signs and wonders has made it abundantly clear this mission of Rachel’s Park Memorial must be established. Prayerfully, this testimony, along with the vision of this monumental, Christian, Pro-life ministry will spread to each state of the Union in Jesus’ Holy Name!