PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 277: THE VALUE OF LIFE
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 277: THE VALUE OF LIFE
Introducing Bethany Vaughn, wife of Paul Vaughn, who faces 11 years in prison for saving babies. Bethany, mother of 11 children and 8 grandchildren (so far) tells the beginning of their story. And guess how Bethany was dressed when her husband proposed! Check it out.
Bethanyvaughn.substack.com
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Wonderful to be with you, ladies, and I have great news. Last night, down in Pensacola, Florida, another precious great-grandbaby was born. Oh, these great grandbabies are just coming on all the time. It is so exciting to have another generation coming forth.
This time, it was Cedar and Halle’s little baby, their first baby, little Lael. She was born last night. I saw a picture of Serene and Allison, the two grandmothers, the two crazy grandmothers, doing line dancing in the labor room! Well, I know that was in the early stages of labor when Halle was getting going. I’m sure they wouldn’t be doing that towards the end. But anyway, it was all exciting.
Serene and Allison are very best friends and happen to be grandmothers together. Isn’t that a wonderful thing? I know many of you know Allison. She has shared on this podcast so many times. Not only do they have Cedar and Halle together, but Serene’s son Vision is engaged to Eden, another one of Allison’s daughters. We have yet to have many more blessings from this union of the Allisons and the Hartmans!
Today, this podcast is going to be all about life and babies, because babies are at the very heart of the kingdom of God. I have a very, very special guest today. Her name is Bethany Vaughn. Bethany has an amazing story to tell. I know you’re going to be hanging on, listening with baited breath. If you know any friends, just quickly give them a call and tell them to start listening! OK?
So, Bethany, it’s so wonderful to have you with us today. You know, it’s amazing, you only live a few miles down the road.
Bethany: That’s right.
Nancy: We haven’t really ever seen very much of one another, have we?
Bethany: No, not yet.
Nancy: I got to meet Bethany again, just a few weeks ago, when here on the Hilltop, we had a very special meeting. Her husband, Paul Vaughn, shared his story, and what he is facing at this present time because of trying to save babies here in Tennessee.
He is now facing maybe 11 years in prison. We are praying that God will give favor, but we don’t know what is going to happen. Both Paul and Bethany here are facing this. We’re going to talk more about that later in the podcast.
I think before we get to this story that you’ll all want to hear about, we need to find out more about you, Bethany. They’ll want to hear who you really are. Now, Bethany is a wonderful mother of 11 children. How many, eight grandchildren?
Bethany: Yes.
Nancy: OK, well, tell us a little bit about them, Bethany!
Bethany: Paul and I have 11 children. Our oldest is 27, and our youngest is 2. We live here in middle Tennessee. Four of our children are married. We currently have eight grandchildren.
Nancy: Yes, and I believe that those eight grandchildren are all under four years of age?
Bethany: Yes, our oldest granddaughter just turned four. Most of them are two, along with our youngest daughter, who is also two.
Nancy: Also, that would be nine little ones when they all get together. Can you believe it? I can’t think of anything more exciting!
Bethany: It’s rather noisy!
Nancy: I don’t think that people realize. I think the hardest time, see if you agree with me, Bethany. I think the most challenging time of motherhood is the first-time mother who is finding out what it means to be a mother and to mother this precious little life that’s in her hands.
But more especially for those who are doing it on their own. They don’t have anyone around them. They’re on their own. I do believe that we need other mothers surrounding us when we’re mothering. It is such a powerful thing to be surrounded with mothers, other mothers. Don’t you think?
Bethany: Absolutely! When you’re isolated, you often can be very overwhelmed. You’re disillusioned. You have nobody to relate to. So, when you’re around other mothers, you can exchange stories, you can encourage one another.
Nancy: Oh, you encourage one another!
Bethany: Absolutely!
Nancy: Just like, that is God’s plan for us in the body of Christ! To come together, to encourage one another, and bless one another, and affirm one another in our faith. It’s the same in motherhood. The more we come together as mothers, the more we seem to live in the joy of it.
I notice this with one of my lovely granddaughters, Cherish, one of Serene’s daughters. She has a little baby, Legacy. Oh, Legacy is something else! He walked, just at the end of six months! Can you believe it? He’s like a little toddler. He toddles round everywhere, but in the afternoons, Cherish comes to Serene’s place.
While Serene is doing some research for a couple of hours or so, Cherish will look after the younger ones. Well, actually, Solly is five, and Remie’s, goodness, about nine. But then there’s another little girl who lives next door to us, Ruthie. I call them “the tribe.” Every day, Cherish will come with little Legacy, and Solly, and Remie, and Ruthie, and maybe someone else. The little tribe comes.
Well, it’s so amazing! Cherish has this most amazing, amazing, life as a mother, because Solly’s holding the baby. Oh yes, and then Haven. Haven’s with them too. Haven will be holding little Legacy, but now, of course, he’s running around. It’s hard to even get to hold him.
But when he was a baby, instead of her on her own, trying to keep this baby happy 24/7, because when you have your first baby, you are 24/7 entertaining that baby. When you have others around, they’re all entertaining the baby. I can imagine, when your daughters come to see you, and there’s nine little wee toddlers all around, they’re all playing, and they’re having a lovely time chatting. It’s unbelievable!
Bethany: It’s a very good time when you have lots of people.
Nancy: It is! It’s just so fun! And it’s life, and it’s family, and it’s what it’s all about! Most of the world doesn’t even know! Oh, they are missing out. The majority, even in the Christian world today, are having their 1.8-member family. They have never ever even experienced the joys of true family life where there are lots of little children. Then there are aunties, and uncles, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. There are lots of people. They think, “Oh, how could I stand that?” But it’s actually easier!
Bethany: Absolutely.
Nancy: Oh, yes. So, anyway, keep going with your family. Where did you get up to?
Bethany: So, eight grandchildren.
Nancy: You started with Payton.
Bethany: I have four married—Payton, Pierce, Mariah, Patrick. Patterson is currently courting. Eva is engaged. Then I have Annabelle, Providence, Mercy, Paschal, and Eden Joy.
Nancy: And Eden Joy came quite a few years later, after your last ten!
Bethany: She was a surprise. We had ten. My baby was eight years old at the time. My daughter was already married, already had her first baby. She came and they told us they were expecting their second. We were very excited. She was having early morning sickness, not feeling well.
I think to myself, I was not feeling well, throwing up. “What is going on with me? I wonder if there’s such a thing as sympathetic morning sickness? Surely not!” I was 45 years old at the time. Well, I soon found out I was expecting. So, my daughter and I were pregnant at the same time. My daughter gave birth to her second child four weeks before I gave birth to her little sister. My other children who were married, their wives were all pregnant. There were five of us expecting.
Nancy: How fun! Five of you pregnant at the same time!
Bethany: At the same time!
Nancy: That is too wonderful! I love it! And this little Eden Joy, could you imagine life without her?
Bethany: No! She is definitely spunky, and full of life. Yeah, I look at her every day, and I’m in awe of the story God did there.
Nancy: Yes! Another life! Is there anything else in the whole of this world that you could replace her with? No! There is nothing more powerful than life, is there! Oh, it brings such joy. But not only to you and Paul, but to your whole family, and generations to come! It’s so amazing, isn’t it?
Bethany: Yes.
Nancy: I think we’ve got to go back and hear a little bit of . . . even before you were married. You began to be involved in pro-life work, even before you were married, didn’t you?
Bethany: Yes. I was raised in a very pro-life, active Christian family. My parents had the belief that Christianity was something that you showed up, and you showed the world who was your Lord and Savior.
Nancy: You didn’t hide it under a bushel!
Bethany: No! Absolutely. Christianity was very active. We grew up doing all kinds of things. It wasn’t until later on in my life that I realized that most kids, Saturday morning, they spent the time watching cartoons. Saturday mornings, our family was out doing something. We were usually on the sidewalk in front of an abortion clinic, with signs, and handing out literature. Or we were volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center, painting the outside of the building, or repairing something inside, or organizing something.
Nancy: And you were doing that, even as a young child?
Bethany: As a child. By the time I was 12, 13 years old, our pro-life work had really picked up. My dad was very involved in our local area, but also across the nation. We went to different pro-life events. My parents had spent some time in jail for their pro-life work.
Nancy: So, they both, as you were growing up, they had to go to jail?
Bethany: Yes. Nothing long-term, but they did really believe that your theology becomes biography outside.
Nancy: Yes. It does. That’s right. I was thinking of that Scripture in Acts where . . . Today we live such a wimpy Christianity, don’t we? If it’s going to affect our lives, well, we kind of keep quiet and don’t open our mouths.
I think of those disciples, who even when they said, “You must not preach in the Name of Jesus,” they said, “Well, we’ve got to obey God, rather than man!” Acts 4:18-20). They were prepared to go to jail. You told me, I think, how even one Christmas, your father even missed Christmas Day because he was standing for life. Tell me about that story again.
Bethany: In the late ‘80’s I believe, early ‘90’s, there was the first, in Missouri, the first right-to-die case in America, the first euthanasia case. The parents of Nancy Cruzan were able to get a court order to be able to remove care and food from their very disabled, severely injured child who was actually an adult at the time.
She was not on life support. This was a person who needed food and care, very similar to the Terri Schiavo case later on, which my dad was also at, outside those hospitals, with signs that said, “Please feed Terri.” He was outside in the cold, in Missouri, in front of Nancy Cruzan’s hospital, standing for life.
Nancy: He was doing that Christmas Day, because it was necessary that day. That’s been part of your life. Then you began continuing to do this as a young person, standing up for life. Did you go to jail yourself?
Bethany: During my teenage years, I became very involved with sidewalk counseling, which is showing up outside of an abortion clinic on the sidewalk with literature. As people go in, you say, “Hey, I have some literature here for you. Can I talk with you for a little bit?” That kind of reaching out. “We have hope. We have help. We can help you. We know places that will pay for your medical care. We’ll help you with baby supplies.”
Nancy: That’s a beautiful thing! Yes! What was the reaction to that?
Bethany: My senior year in high school, I actually went to a private Christian school, so I had a lot of support from my teachers. I was arrested three times my senior year for pro-life work. Two of those times were actually for sitting down in front of an abortion mill door.
One time was on a sidewalk in Birmingham, Alabama. They arrested us for an old civil rights ordinance that said you can only have a certain amount of people on the sidewalk. We had too many people on the sidewalk, praying. We went for jail for praying on the sidewalk.
Nancy: Oh, goodness me! I can’t believe it! They’re just trying to get you out of the picture, aren’t they? Even way back then! It’s just amazing!
Bethany: Most of those cases, the Birmingham one was thrown out. There was obviously nothing there they could prosecute us on. The other one, I did community service. The judge sentenced me to community service, which providentially, I was able to choose where my community service would be spent. I chose a crisis pregnancy center! I worked a summer at a crisis pregnancy center and served my “punishment” out that way.
Then the other one, we went back for trial, and the judge found us guilty. He sealed the courtroom, and he took us to jail. It was through that jail experience . . . there were men and women involved in that case. They took us to jail in Little Rock.
It was very overcrowded. They did not have room for us, so they kept us downstairs. The women had one room, just a big concrete drunk tank is what we called it. The men were in the other one. I spent five days there. I think my husband spent about ten days in there before the outcry from the church and the pro-life community to release us came. They did release us early.
But it was in that time, that was the time my husband, we had some time. We were switching up some rooms. We had been taken to the showers. He was sitting out in the hall. We had our jumpsuits on. We were sitting, waiting to go back into our cell. My husband, (well, he was not my husband then), but he came over. We were just talking for a while, and he said, “Seeing that we’re in bonds for Christ, how do you feel about the bonds of matrimony?”
Nancy: Wow!
Bethany: And that’s how he proposed! [laughter]
Nancy: What a proposal! That is amazing! And so, how long had you known Paul then?
Bethany: We had been working together for about a year and a half. We met doing sidewalk ministry. His mom had been involved in pro-life work. He had also spent some time in jail. We met doing pro-life work. Through our courtship, we did pro-life work.
Nancy: That’s so wonderful! Well, I don’t think that everybody can say that they had a proposal like you did! In a jumpsuit! In a jail! [laughter]
Bethany: In a jumpsuit.
Nancy: What do you think of that, Greta? Greta is my lovely Above Rubies helper. She’s recording us at the moment. I think that’s quite special. You then got married sometime after that?
Bethany: We got married after that. We continued doing pro-life work for a little while. Then the Lord brought the babies. We were very, very, very busy with babies, so our pro-life work, we were still involved, but not to the level that we had been before.
Nancy: But actually, you moved to the greatest pro-life work of all, of embracing more babies into this world. I believe that is the greatest pro-life work that we can do. I think there’s nothing greater than being open to bringing into this world the children God wants to have in this world. Amen.
Bethany: Yes, it is a ministry. It’s a 24/7 ministry that really requires your heart and soul, that you’re giving your all. You’re sacrificing, and the Lord is really teaching you in ways that you could not even imagine.
Nancy: I guess, your oldest is 27 now, so for over 27 years you’ve been doing the greatest pro-life work of all.
Bethany: We still took them out occasionally. We went to different events. They are familiar with standing out on a sidewalk, or going to an event, singing in the public square, praying in the public square.
Nancy: Just tell us a little bit about your years of motherhood. Just some little things you’d love to pass on to the moms.
Bethany: Now, being a mom of a toddler again, I look back on my early years of mothering, and I wish so much I could have the perspective and the things that I have learned through all of these years. I wish I could have had that then!
Nancy: I think every mother thinks that.
Bethany: I’m much more patient with my children. I see things very differently. My perspective has changed. I enjoy things much more now than when I had a bunch of little children, and I thought that was going to be my life forever. Chaos and noise. I felt so inadequate, like I wasn’t strong enough to do this huge task that the Lord gave me.
What I realized later on is, yeah, you aren’t strong enough, but God is! And He empowers you, and He strengthens you. I wish I could have known a little bit more about tapping into and leaning more on the strength of Christ, not being so overwhelmed, and had a stronger perspective.
I think God designed years to put on you, as you age, and as you grow, and as you go through experiences, He gives you these nuggets of wisdom that you didn’t have in your youth. This is why it’s so important for older moms to pour into younger moms, encourage them, cheer them on in their sacred duty of motherhood.
Nancy: This is what this podcast is all about. It’s to encourage you, dear wives and mothers, and those who have lots of little ones at this stage, to encourage you that sometimes you think, “Help! Is this my life,” as you thought, “forever and ever?” But no! It goes so quickly! I look back, and it’s like one blink of my eye! I could wish it all back again.
Bethany: Absolutely. Yes!
Nancy: This thing that I would encourage you is, oh, instead of feeling overwhelmed, is take that overwhelmingness to the Lord. Say, “Lord, thank You. You are here with me. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for these precious children You’ve given me. Just come, Lord, and bring Your presence to my home. Lord, I thank You, that I am in Your perfect will. I embrace my life and these children that You have given me.” Get this attitude and enjoy it. Don’t think that you have got to do everything else.
I think that is where a lot of the frustration comes, because we think that we have still got to do all these other things we were doing before motherhood, all these other things people think we should still be doing while we’re a mother. No, motherhood is the highest career.
We see that over in Ezekiel 19, a beautiful allegory about motherhood. In this passage, God is talking about Judah, who were taken to Babylon. But He likens them to a mother. In Ezekiel 19:10, He says: “Thy mother is like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by . . . many waters.”
It’s a picture of that verse in Psalm 128:3: “Your wife is like a fruitful vine, within your home, planted in your home. Your children round about your table, like olive branches.”
Then it goes on to say that “she had strong rods,” talking about her children, “and her stature was exalted among the thick branches, and she appeared in her height with the multitude of her branches.”
It’s speaking of motherhood.
Motherhood is the exalted career, exalted higher than every other career around about.
But sadly, sadly, you wouldn’t believe it. Wow, this Scripture goes on to say: “But she was plucked up . . . cast down to the ground, and . . . her strong rods were broken and withered; the fire consumed them. And now she is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty place.”
This is the picture of what has happened to motherhood. Deceiving voices have come and plucked mothers out of the home, out of that place where God planted them, where they’re meant to be in God’s perfect will. But they’re being plucked out, and now they’re in a dry and thirsty land. It’s a sad picture.
But I love how He says motherhood is exalted. It’s the most exalted career. Mothers, oh, if I could only just get you to understand. There’s nothing higher you could be doing. All these other things that you think you should be doing, and other people think you should be doing, and the church thinks you should be doing, you don’t have to be doing. You’re a mother! Just embrace it and enjoy it. What do you say, Bethany?
Bethany: Absolutely. The investment mindset. We live in such an instant gratification world. Everything is just fast, fast, and instant.
Motherhood is a long investment into eternal souls.
Nancy: I love that!
Bethany: We have to have that mindset of, you are investing, you are teaching and training in the Word of God. You’re planting, and you’re cultivating, and you’re trusting the Lord is going to bring good fruit from that.
Don’t get frustrated when you have to say things over and over and over, and when there are messes over and over and over. This is good investment, and it’s also teaching you patience. It’s molding and shaping your character, and training your orientation to Christ instead of yourself.
Nancy: Yes. And it’s investing for eternity. Motherhood is an eternal career. It’s not just for this life! Every other career is temporary. We won’t take one other career with us into the eternal realm. Only our seeds in motherhood that we have implanted into our children’s lives for eternity. Wow. That is so powerful.
But we have yet to get on to this story of what you are facing at this very moment in your lives. I see that time is gone, so we’re going to do it in the next session. Just hang on, ladies, hang on! You’ve got to come back next week to hear this. Bethany is going to share with you just where they are in facing this court case, where her husband may have to have 11 years in prison. We’re praying against that, but you’ll get to hear about it, and many other things in this next session. So, let’s pray.
“Father, we thank You so much. Lord God, that You are “working all things together for good to them that love You and are called according to Your purpose.” We read this Scripture, Lord, in our Bible reading this morning.
“Lord, I bring all the wives and mothers listening today. I pray that You will bless them and encourage them. Lord, give them such a joy, knowing they’re walking in Your perfect will. Give them the revelation that, Lord, they are in the greatest career, which You have given them. It’s Your heart, and it’s an eternal career. Just bless them, I pray. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
To receive encouraging writings from Bethany to your email go to:
bethanyvaughn.substack.com
To receive challenging writings from her husband, Paul, go to:
paultn.substack.com
I would heartily encourage you to receive these writings.
Also check out the following:
Support their legal fight here: https://www.givesendgo.com/prolifedad
You can also read about Eva Edl who was also indicted for helping to save babies. Eva is now 88 years old and facing years in jail for peaceful prolife protests. She was also a survivor of a concentration camp and now facing this at the end of her life.
https://www.liveaction.org/news/87-concentration-camp-survivor-pro-lifers-fbi/