for Life leaders from across America gathered on a
conference call to review the amazing progress of the
first week of the campaign.
Little did anyone know how inspired that discussion
would be!
When I asked everyone to write-in the greatest blessing
of the first week of their 40 Days for Life effort, the
responses came pouring in! Here are excerpts from just
a FEW of those comments, in their own words:
WEST CHESTER, PA:
Our single greatest blessing have been the new people
who have stepped up to the plate with their individual
committments to be at Planned Parenthood. One example -
a gentleman who is coming every day from 1:30 - 2:30 am
before his paper route.
NORWICH, CT:
The greatest blessing has been how AWESOME our God is!
It is wonderful to work along side so many devoted
individuals with a singular purpose and voice and how
he has melded all of our talents! Many new people have
joined our prayer vigil that have NEVER prayed like
this before...AND when we need to fill hours, people
are coming forward. The excitement is building once
they pray outside Planned Parenthood; they WANT to come
back! It's just awesome. We had to cover some of the
hours in the first few days and now that word is
getting out, people are volunteering their time to
return! God is SO GOOD! May he continue to grace all of
us with his blessings!
PITTSBURGH, PA:
God is looking down and seeing His church as it should
be. All denominations, all uniting for His purpose.
That's the beautiful thing here in Pittsburgh.
LUFKIN, TX:
So many people are waving and honking...strangers
bringing us water!...a man came and thanked us for
being at PP because he knew the hurt of his wife's
abortion...new or revived support of the ProLife
movement.
SARASOTA, FL:
Through our kickoff with Alveda King, we made some
great connections with African American pastors who are
interested in fighting Planned Parenthood. It's been
wonderful working with people of different faiths on
such an important issue.
WILMINGTON, DE:
The number of people who have never prayed in front of
a clinic who have come out numerous times already to
participate.
DURANGO, CO:
The response from neighboring towns. People are driving
50 miles to fill our time slots.
WILKES COUNTY, NC:
The number of churches who have signed up to
participate and the postitive newspaper coverage
LUBBOCK, TX:
The single greatest blessing for our 40 Days for Life
Lubbock campaign has been the mobilization of God's
children to defend their brothers and sisters. Here in
Lubbock, we haven't had any sort of coalition for life,
only departmentalized groups of people who happened to
share a purpose and a passion for life. With God's
blessing upon 40 Days for Life, more and more newcomers
and old-comers are joining us in prayer and helping
change Lubbock and our nation for the better!
WASHINGTON, D.C.:
The babies that have been saved by the presence at 16th
Street Planned Parenthood have been enormous. Two known
on Saturday the 29th of September. Nothing can compare
to that, but one thing I have to say is the outpouring
of interest with 40 Days for Life is amazing! So many
wonderful people I have spoken to. A real honor to be
the campaign director here in Washington. Three couples
drove up from Southern Maryland for a "date" on Sunday
night to kneel and outside the door of Planned
Parenthood before they went for a quick bite of dinner.
150 people processed from Farragut Square with candles
singing "Onward Christian Soldiers," only to kneel on
the sidewalks and grass. What an awesome sight. All for
the love of the Lord.
CHICAGO, IL:
My greatest blessing: getting to know such wonderful
people on a deeper, more spiritual level! I believe
that 40 Days for Life is truly unifying the pro-life
movement through these new friendships. Praise God for
that!
MORRISTOWN, NJ:
The greatest blessing we have experienced, in addition
to renewed interest in prayer vigils, are the miracles
of grace that we see occurring among all of those who
participate. I feel that very personally, but I also
see it visibly all around me. One of the first churches
to support our effort had been struggling to get people
to attend Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament just one
day a week. By Sunday, more than 400 parishioners had
signed up for Adoration 24 hours a day, seven days a
week. And it is not a large, wealthy parish. What
seemed almost impossible has happened almost
miraculously. God is lighting the way. Meanwhile, we
are now up to 5 different clinic vigil sites in north
Jersey -- not 24/7 but the breadth of coverage in just
a week is unreal.
NORWICH, CT:
The single greatest blessing for this 40 Days for Life
is working with and meeting new and reviving old
friendships with the greatest, most dedicated and
gifted pro-life people. The feeling of oneness in
purpose and commitment has been both exhiilarating and
tiring.
COLLEGEVILLE, PA:
Saying yes and stepping out in faith and trust in Jesus
as the Campaign Director in much opposition from
various sources. Many Miracles too numerous to mention
with the most incredible being St. Eleanor's Perpetual
Eucharistic Adoration Chapel opened 2 weeks before
Sept. 26th the start day of "40 Days for Life" and 1
week into the prayer, fasting and vigil over 1100
scheduled adorers and visitors have visited Our Lord in
the Most Blessed Sacrament in adoration, prayer,
thanksgiving and petition! Yes, with God All Things Are
Possible!!!
BUFFALO, NY:
The greatest blessing so far has been the hope and
excitement that seeing young people show up at the
clinic gives the veterans who have been there
tirelessly for years.
GREENVILLE, SC:
The beautiful Christian people who have come together
with overwhelming generosity of their time and talents
to join together in this, especially the few good men
covering the night hours. A shooting star appeared
directly over our clinic as 4 men were praying there
one night. A motorcycle roared up one night and the
rider in full black Harley gear got off and sauntered
over to the 2 men there. He huskily asked what they
were doing. They told him. He responded, "Oh, yeah, I
heard about that on Catholic radio." And he has since
pulled two all-nighters! Our abortionist talked to us
respectfully and we are praying hard for him.
COLUMBUS, OH:
A family came to pray from a church which I hadn't
contacted anyone from. It told me the word is getting
out. Also, local TV NBC's Chopper 4 swung by twice,
reinforcing this thought.
TUCSON, AZ:
The most special day of our Tucson 40 Days For Life so
far has been the fantastic turnout on Friday and on
Saturday just last week. We were blessed with many
young people, and several people new to the idea of
public witness through fervent prayer. I am seeing the
momentum build steadily. I believe we may have many
repeat prayer warriors at the locations after the 40
Days is over. This has been one of the hardest, most
time-consuming ministries I have done to date, but this
is one of the most successful in terms of getting to
the community with a positive message and a strong
image of what pro-life is all about in Tucson. God
bless you all, and may we all continue St. Paul's "Good
fight."
FARGO, ND:
People's hearts are being converted. They have been
called by name to be a witness for the unborn and they
are answering that call from our Lord.
EVERETT, WA:
Single greatest blessing so far: Learning to trust in
God, more completely, and not on my own strength,
skills, or talent, nor fret about the lack thereof.
CORPUS CHRISTI, TX:
The greatest impact 40 Days For Life has in Corpus
Christi, TX is to re-enkindle the zeal of many persons
since our Rescue days in the early 90's, and for
individuals who were not born then to join us in the
greatest cause of this counry & the world, and that we
will never stop our efforts to save innocent human
life.
DALLAS, TX:
It has been awesome to see the powerful work of the
Holy Spirit bringing so many people to prayer. At our
kick-off candlelight procession and prayer vigil we
walked a little over half a mile through a neighborhood
adjacent to the Planned Parenthood abortion center to
be prayed-over during the 40 Days for Life. This
neighborhood is predominantly all apartment complexes.
We had thought maybe about 50 people would come because
there wasn't much advance notice. To our great surprise
over 100 persons participated along with a three-car
police escort with lights flashing that were not
expected. The silent candlelight procession was
impressive and appeared to be about a half mile long
that included parents walking with small children and
strollers, teenagers, senior citizens and pregnant
women. The neighborhood residents came out to see what
all the commotion was. Little did they know that their
neighborhood was in the process of being blessed and
would continue to be for the next forty days. There
were two Catholic priests accompanying the procession.
Once at the Planned Parenthood site, we prayed, sang
and heard testimonies. No one wanted to leave. A
beautiful 40 Days for Life banner was held throughout
our visit that gave the passing traffic our message.
Thoughout it all, the police remained the entire time
and escorted the remaining walkers back to the park
where we had originally gathered. Thank you, Father God
for all your blessings.
AKRON, OH:
The biggest blessing of this campaign has been the
amount of people who are getting involved and fired up.
In the past we have only had a handful of people who go
out to pray and counsel at the clinics. Now people are
taking notice of the need for this effort. One person
wrote in an email to me, "Thank you so much for
organizing this. It has put a fire under me to actually
do more."
LONG ISLAND, NY:
Single greatest blessing: Reaching college students.
Students on their way to class at the two nearby
colleges have noticed us outside Planned Parenthood and
stopped: among them - one doing a report that needed to
include religion, one doing a report for the college
radio station, and one post-abortive. The Catholic
Campus Ministry is involved and some students joined
the vigil!
SUN CITY, AZ:
I have been drawn by the Holy Spirit to pray and fast
as never before.
***
WOW! God is good!
If you have a 40 Days for Life blessing to share, make
a comment on today's blog posting at:
http://www.40daysforlife.com/blog <--------------------
Here's your daily devotional...
*******************************************************
40 DAYS FOR LIFE: DAY 8, OCTOBER 3
Daily Devotional by: Carmen Pate
*******************************************************
INTENTION:
Pray that the post-abortive woman would be repentant,
accept forgiveness, be healed and restored, and bring
glory to God with her new life.
SCRIPTURE:
"I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have
not hidden. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions
to the Lord,' and You forgave the iniquity of my sin."
-- Psalm 32:5
REFLECTION:
Abortion is not the unpardonable sin, yet it is a
sinful decision that must be acknowledged as such
before one can receive God's forgiveness and mercy.
Because abortion is legal in America, many have
justified their choice. "If it's legal, it can't be
wrong, right?"
We now have an entire generation of men and women who
have never known abortion to be illegal; a generation
of people who have never been broken over their sin of
abortion. As a result, the consequences of unconfessed
sin weigh on their souls, yet they have never connected
the dots as to why their hearts are heavy.
Psalm 32:3-4 describes the intense pain: "When I kept
silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the
day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon
me; my vitality was turned into the drought of summer."
No wonder we have millions of women who are struggling
with depression, addictions, eating disorders and more.
Post abortion syndrome is very real but recovery begins
when the individual agrees with God as David confessed
in Psalm 51:3-4, 14, "Against You, You only, have I
sinned, and done this evil in Your sight - that You may
be found just when You speak, and blameless when you
Judge. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
the God of my salvation."
Brokenness is the key to accessing God's glorious mercy
and healing. Christ came to heal the broken hearted and
He is waiting with open arms to take the post-abortive
woman on a glorious journey of healing and restoration
if she will only run to Him.
God will not waste any sin we lay at His feet. Imagine
millions of healed and restored post-abortive women
like myself singing aloud of His righteousness and
giving testimony of His love and forgiveness. What a
day of rejoicing that will be!
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, you are our Healer. You have forgiven
all my iniquities and removed my transgressions from me
as far as the east is from the west. Guilt no longer
has dominion in my life.
Christ's sacrifice for my sins cleansed me from all
sin. Thank you for your Son who knew no sin but became
sin for me that I might be made righteous in Him.
Lord, I pray that post-abortive women across this
nation will run to You to receive the gift of
redemption and healing that comes from You only. Your
mercy, O Lord, is from everlasting to everlasting upon
those who fear You.
In the name of our Savior I pray, AMEN.
*******************************************************
Your Brother In Christ,
David Bereit
National Campaign Director
40 Days for Life
3515-B Longmire #316
College Station, TX
77845
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.488 / Virus Database: 269.14.0/1046 - Release Date: 10/3/2007
10:08 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment