40 Days for Life

I have not written a lot about our family involvement in pro-life efforts.  I guess with our new bundle of life we have been more focused on this then our community outreach.  We have stayed strong in our commitment to life and assisting our local pregnancy help center.  In fact, we have gone many times over the last few weeks to give little donations of diapers, wipes, and clothing.  I even sorted through my maternity clothes before packing them up in order to try to give some of the outfits away.

Yesterday, we began our local prayer campaign (40 Days for Life).  This is a time of prayer and fasting for the end to abortion, as well as community outreach.  This has become an international effort started by our good friends in College Station.  Here are the highlights of what has happened since its beginning in 2004 (straight from their website):

• 1,894 individual campaigns have taken place in 440 cities
• More than 525,000 have joined together in an historic display of unity to pray and fast for an end to abortion
• More than 15,000 church congregations have participated in the 40 Days for Life campaigns
• Reports document 5,928 lives that have been spared from abortion — and those are just the ones we know about
• 69 abortion workers have quit their jobs and walked away from the abortion industry
• 24 abortion facilities completely shut down following local 40 Days for Life campaigns
• Hundreds of women and men have been spared from the tragic effects of abortion, including a lifetime of regrets
• More than 2,100 news stories have been featured in newspapers, magazines, radio shows and TV programs from coast to coast ... and overseas
• Many people with past abortion experiences have stepped forward to begin post-abortion healing and recovery
• After so many years of legalized abortion, many people of faith are experiencing a renewed sense of HOPE!

Tuesday night we had our Kick Off Rally at the Lutheran Church.  We had a wonderful guest speaker, Rev. Larry White from Houston, speak to us about the gift of life as we are God's creation.  He spoke about how we were made in God's image and should not take this gift for granted.  He related our plight in America (and around the world) as equivalent to the Holocaust in Germany.  Just as the devil, the master of deception, eased his way into the life of the German people through Hitler, we have allowed the lies of abortion to enter into our society.  Just as the German people look back on the atrocities of Hitler's reign as evil, we will one day be able to look back and see the gradual shift in our society and know that it was wrong.  We must stand in front of the evil and cry out for God to assist us in our fight.  Just as the German Christians had the opportunity to stand in front of the trains, risking their lives, to prevent the Jewish prisoners from going to their death, we must take a stand.  Will we be like the Christians in Germany who chose to look away and deny the atrocities?  Or will we take that stand and fight the good fight against all odds?

The pastor gave us this challenge, not only for these 40 days, but until this battle for life is won!  We are called to be here for those who can not speak for themselves.  We are asked to pray and give of our time to end abortion in our nation.  We were asked to sign up to pray at the Planned Parenthood to witness to those who go to the clinic.  We gladly took several times to pray.



We spent our first day praying in front of the Planned Parenthood.  I was there with Zaira, Brendan, Edward, and Henry.  We arrived to find our coordinator, a pastor from the Lutheran Church, already praying.  He kindly stayed and prayed with us through our hour of prayer as well.

I had decided to use our Morning Prayer for the basis of our time praying.  I was so pleased to see that the readings were all about God's gift of life and mercy.  These were easily discussed as we prayed and talked about the need for both of these gifts in our lives.  I love the way we were able to spontaneously bring to reality the prayer that was in our little prayer book.  It is always a joy when our prayer time is real and not just words being read from a book.

I really felt like this time was filled with special graces.  We were able to talk and pray about all of our needs.  We did not pray as if we were judging those at the clinic.  We saw our own need for forgiveness and mercy as we prayed for our nation and our community.  Although we were there at the Planned Parenthood early in the morning before they opened their gates for business, we felt like our prayers were being lifted up for a greater purpose then we could understand.

We ended our hour of prayer singing and praising God.  Then closed with the St. Michael's Prayer for added protection from "the wickedness and snares of the devil," directly in the surrounding area of the clinic.

We hope to spend many more hours in prayer at the clinic.  However, we had to leave our vigil to go out of town for the remainder of the week.  We will be taking Michael to the airport on Sunday so wanted to spend a few days focused on our family.  We will continue to pray each day for the efforts around the world and return to the vigil on Monday.

I encourage everyone to find a local campaign and sign up to pray.  There are also daily prayer emails that you can sign up to receive at their website.  This is a unified effort that does make a difference.  The prayers are very focused on different aspects of the abortion issue.  The focus is on change of heart and conversion.  Take some time to pray for the end of abortion!