Margo Martin Rhodes, born into a transient military family but raised in a traditional southern home, grew up loving the hymns of the church, so much so that hearing them was what drove her to learn to read. She needed to be able to find one piece of vocabulary that the church sang with elevated levels of affection and conviction: Calvary. As a pre-reader, she didn’t know what the word meant, but she was pretty sure it was important, and she loved the way this powerful word, as she describes it, used every sound bud on her tongue.

Fast forward twenty or so years, and you’ll find Margo earning a Master of Church Music
Degree from Samford University, preparing for a long career in church music, independent
school music, private piano teaching, and, eventually, in classical Christian education. Though being a church employee is like living in the proverbial fish bowl, there was a corner of her life that was kept away from the light entirely, and that was her 1981 abortion. Thirty years after the fact, she finally faced what she had done when she extinguished of the life God had entrusted to her body for carrying and to her soul for protecting. Crisis ensued, followed by acceptance of God’s forgiveness, compassion, mercy, healing, and restoration, and her book, Weak and Wounded, Sick and Sore: Stories of Pity, Love, and Power.

In retirement, Margo and her husband, Ted, are committed to doing what they can to support those who assist women in crisis pregnancies make a choice for life and to helping others find restoration through Christ after an abortion. They hope to help those with regrets of any nature understand that He came to “bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, to release the prisoners from darkness, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow a crown of beauty instead of ashes, and to bestow the oil of joy and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” (Isaiah 61)

Margo and Ted currently live in Charlotte, NC, and have, along with extended family that
branches off “in a million directions,” a combined immediate family of three grown sons,
daughters-in-law, three grandchildren (so far!), and three generations of nieces and nephews that mean the world to them. While their clans are scattered, social media, technology, road trips, and airports keep them connected to those they love most. Because Margo claims that the language of hymns are her native tongue, she says, “Blest be The Tie that binds!”

Margo’s book, Weak and Wounded, Sick and Sore: Stories of Pity, Love, and Power (Second Edition), has been set to release under TouchPoint Press. It chronicles her own journey as a post abortive woman, and the result is relatable and victorious.

Weak and Wounded, Sick and Sore: Stories of Pity, Love, and Power (Second Edition) by Margo Martin Rhodes was released July 31.