Tennessee police sergeant Evie Lastra West protects and saves lives daily on the job in the City of Cleveland.
But West also helps save lives in another way: her personal testimony.
A pro-life speaker and pregnancy center volunteer, she almost aborted her second child at age 19 while struggling to leave a life of gang activity and drugs. With the help of her family, Christian friends and a local pregnancy resource center, however, West chose life for her child.
“The Lord spoke to me and said ‘trust me, do the right thing and trust me’ and I did,” West said. “Has it been a rough road, absolutely. But even when we make bad choices God still loves us. And life is always the best choice.”
In a recent speech shared by Ambassador Speakers, West said she grew up in a loving, Christian home in Orange County, California. Because her mother worked for an airline, they traveled the world for free, and she and her sister attended private school.
Her life changed at age 12 when her mother lost her job and she and her sister had to attend public school. There, West said her innocence about drugs, sex and gangs slowly began to erode. Unbeknownst to her parents, she became involved in a gang, and, at age 16, became pregnant.
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West had her son, but she said her parents basically raised him. As she continued to make bad decisions, her parents decided that they had to do something. They enrolled her in Christian college in Tennessee, and sent her son with her, hoping to give them a fresh start.
At Lee College, she said she began to experience God’s love through the kindness of her classmates and teachers. People would offer to watch her young son while she was in class, and, because she was required to go to chapel, she would hear about mercy and forgiveness.
“I felt so dirty in side. Why would God love me? I’ve hurt so many people. I’ve done so many bad things,” she remembered.
But, one day about eight weeks into college, God used a speaker at chapel to touch her heart, and she repented and accepted Christ into her life. West said she began to feel different and had a craving to read the Bible. She even joined a Christian choir.
Then, a few weeks later, she realized she was pregnant again, and the baby’s father was a boy from her gang days in California.
“I panicked. I thought, ‘I cannot have a baby,’” she said, remembering how she tried to bargain with God about having an abortion.
West said she grabbed a phone book and turned to the “A” section for abortion. She remembered thinking, “Ok, good! There’s one abortion clinic in Cleveland, Tennessee: New Hope Pregnancy Crisis Center.”
It turned out to be a pro-life pregnancy center.
The young woman eventually changed her mind when she saw her unborn baby’s image on an ultrasound screen. West said the center supported her, counseled her and helped her decide to make an adoption plan for her second child, another son.
Giving her newborn son to another couple was one of the hardest things she had ever done, but, at only 19 years old, God gave her a peace, West said. She said her parents loved and supported her as well.
West now serves as a police sergeant in Cleveland, Tennessee and a mother to two children. According to the Alpena News, she was reunited with her second son in 2017.
Along with sharing her story across the U.S., she volunteers at her local pregnancy center in Cleveland. West also is the author of a book, “Revolving Choices: Playing Roulette With Life,” in which she tells her story.
