The Marcum Family/Ministry News

February 2016

Dear Friends & Family,

What a privilege and joy to be in touch with you all again this month! It seems the first
month of 2016 has flown by for us, even though it has been a somewhat restful month. We have
learned that in January we need to rest and spend more time in the prayer room recharging
after pouring ourselves out during December to prepare for and host the OneThing conference.
We do have some updates to share, though, and hope you are encouraged.
-Love, The Marcums

Cross-bearing for the Child-bearing

Jim met & talked with

John for some time.

We were blessed to be able to recently meet and talk with a leader in the pro-life movement,
a man named John Ensor. As an ordained pastor in Boston, MA, John led the way in
establishing a network of six pregnancy help centers (equipped with ultrasound machines
and a loving Christian staff) that serve and rescue women and the unborn day after day in
the Boston metro. After moving from Boston to the Atlanta, GA area, he began a ministry
called PassionLife (www.passionlife.org), whose mission statement is: Disarming the
powers of death with the gospel of life. John travels nationwide, as well as often going
into Asia, working to transform pregnancy help ministry into a true global missions
movement. He is steadily bringing the message of Life to individuals and communities
where its needed most.

We met John at an annual banquet we attended sponsored by Kansans for Life, where he was the featured speaker
for the evening. We were also privileged to hear Governor Sam Brownback speak, as well as the president of
Kansans for Life, former Kansas state representative, Lance Kinzer. With the help of Kansans for Life and other prolife groups, Governor Brownback, since taking office, has signed into law 17 pro-life bills which have significantly
decreased abortions in the state of Kansas. Formerly one of the leading abortion centers in the nation, Kansas now
has a pro-life governor and an overwhelmingly pro-life state legislature. There are currently some liberal judges at the
Kansas state court of appeals level which have been overturning some of the bills, so prayers are needed!
John Ensor has written several books, one of which I (Jim) have recently completed reading titled Innocent Blood.
You may remember last summer a two-part article I wrote here in our newsletter entitled From the Murder of
Innocent Abel. which was about the way the Lord showed me that the shedding of innocent blood through
abortion is one of the major things that is fueling Satans demonic works on the earth. In his introduction, John talks
about the final chapter of his book, Innocent Blood, and he says: Finally, at the end of the book, I flip the script.
Instead of trying to understand the will of God and calling us to be faithful in it, I look at the matter of shedding
innocent blood and bloodguilt from Satans perspective. I have never spent so much time trying to understand the
mind of the Evil One. In doing so here I only seek to be faithful to what God has revealed about our adversary in
Scripture on this matter. What I have discovered is sobering.
Hundreds attended the banquet which was held in Overland Park.
We have mentioned several times that Overland Park is the only
location for surgical abortions in the KC metro, and we have been
praying for the Lord to move and bring a spiritual awakening here,
and indeed to all of Johnson County. We believe this gathering
was a sign that God is hearing our prayers! John Ensor finished
his message with a call to the cross of Jesus Christ, to take up our
crosses and follow our Lord. He said, All pro-life ministry can
be summed up as this: It is cross-bearing for the child-bearing.

For the past six months, I (Jim) have been part of a Saturday morning
prophetic team ministering in the side rooms at the Global Prayer Room. We
minister to people from 1 Corinthians 14:3, which says: the one who
prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and
consolation. I love ministering to people on Saturdays because the weekends
are when we have the most visitors at the Missions Base. In the six months Ive been on the prophetic team, we have
ministered to people from all over the U.S. and from several nations. I can remember people telling me they were from
Australia, Germany, Korea, China, Canada, India, and Sweden (there were others I cannot remember!). It is an amazing
experience to be able to share an encouraging word from the Lord with people from so many places, knowing they will
return more equipped to do the work of the Lord in their homeland.
Often people weep (so do I) as the presence of the Holy Spirit comes and begins to wash them with the Word. More
often than not, the word we give is a Scripture, with a bit of application to them specifically. Some tell us in person or
on feedback forms that the words were quite specific and accurate to their situation, confirming to them how much the
Lord loves them and is caring for them. Many times we speak the word the Lord gives us into a recording app on their
phone, because they do not speak English and will need someone to translate the word for them later! Recently a
woman came from India, but her two friends who had come with her to visit IHOPKC had to leave early unexpectedly.
So through broken English she asked us to please speak a word to each of her two friends and she would record it on her
phone to play to them when she returned to India. The Lord did give our team an encouraging word for them: we pray
He will comfort and equip them as they listen to the word their friend brings home to share. Praise the Lord!

The S.L.E.D. Test

John Ensor introduced us to a tool to use in sharing with people about the sanctity of life in the womb. It was originally
developed by Stephen Schwartz in his book, Moral Questions of Abortion. There are four short videos you can watch
on the S.L.E.D. test at: http://jimdaly.focusonthefamily.com/have-you-ever-heard-of-the-sled-test/. The point of the
S.L.E.D. Test is to show that the unborn in the womb differ from toddlers, children, and even adults in only four
ways, and the first letters of each of these differences spell an easy-to-remember acronym, SLED:

Size
Level of Development
Environment
Degree of Dependency.
SIZE
True, embryos are smaller than newborns and adults, but why is that relevant? Do we really want to say that large people are more human than
small ones? Men are generally larger than women, but that doesnt mean they deserve more rights. Size doesnt equal value.
LEVEL OF DEVELOPMENT
True, embryos and fetuses are less developed than you and I. But again, why is this relevant? Four-year-old girls are less developed than 14-yrold ones. Should older children have more rights than younger ones? Some people say that self-awareness makes one human. But if that is
true, newborns do not qualify as valuable human beings. Remember: Six-week-old infants lack the immediate capacity for performing human
mental functions, as do the reversibly comatose, the sleeping, and those with Alzheimers.
ENVIRONMENT
Where you are has no bearing on who you are. Does your value change when you cross the street or roll over in bed? If not, how can a journey
of eight inches down the birth canal suddenly change the essential nature of the unborn from non-human to human? If the unborn are not already
human, merely changing their location cant make them valuable.
DEGREE OF DEPENDENCY
If viability makes us human, then all those who depend on insulin or kidney medication are not valuable and we may kill them. Conjoined twins
who share bodily organs also have no right to life. Its far more reasonable to argue that although humans differ immensely with respect to talents,
accomplishments and degrees of development, they are nonetheless equal because they all have the same human nature.

None of the four differences between the embryo you once were and the
adult you are today justifies killing you at that earlier stage of development.
-Stephen Schwartz

FINAL WORD: Thank you to those whove responded that you are praying for us about the training opportunity
which the Lord has put before us with the Life International ministry in Grand Rapids, MI in May. And thank you to
those who have given special gifts! One individual has paid for Jims registration fee ($175), what a blessing! We
know the Lord shall provide. Our application is still in process, so keep praying! We love you all, keep in touch

Because He is worthy of it all,

Jim & Melissa

Jim & Melissa Marcum & family

Jim & Melissa Marcum

P.O. Box 1099, Grandview, MO 64030
Phone/text: 816-287-3525 / 816-287-2228
Email/PayPal: intercessorymissions@gmail.com
Egiving:www.ihopkc.org/give/staffsupport (JM204009)
International House of Prayer Kansas City, MO