DAY 28: “It did not deter us”
Christ said those who follow Him could face persecution. And He was certainly right about that.
Whether it’s “pledge a picketer” efforts, media misrepresentations — or something altogether novel — we’re pretty much seeing it all during this campaign. The abortion business does not like 40 Days for Life.
What to do about it? Just keep praying! This is, after all, a spiritual battle. Here are a couple of stories about campaigns under attack. Please keep ALL of the 258 campaigns in your prayers.
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LONDON, ENGLAND
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The London 40 Days for Life coordinator, Robert Colquhoun, said, “We have been totally harangued by the media with lies and intimidation.”
Indeed, the campaign has been in the middle of a media firestorm. Newspapers have published stories about 40 Days for Life participants “harassing” women outside the abortion center where the London vigil is taking place. Of course, there was no such behavior in evidence.
Vigil participants were also accused of taking pictures of women entering the facility. Also not true — they had cameras to record the people who were directing their anger at the people praying.
One newspaper had a headline with the word “intimidation” in it — right above a photo of three people quietly praying, with their eyes cast down at the pavement. The photo spoke louder than the abortion center staff’s trumped-up accusations.
Robert appeared on BBC radio’s morning news along with Ann Furedi, the CEO of BPAS, which is England’s largest abortion chain.
Robert fielded a barrage of loaded questions from the interviewer with an air of calm confidence and outlined the 40 Days for Life mission — and the necessity of a peaceful prayer presence outside the abortion facility. An estimated 4 million listeners heard the interview.
To read — and listen to — the BBC story, please go to:
http://tinyurl.com/7bk7omn
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NEW ABORTION CENTER TACTIC
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We’ve received reports from several locations that suggest the abortion centers are trying something new in their efforts to get 40 Days for Life prayer vigil participants to go home: fertilizer. And lots of it.
The idea, apparently, is to spread the stuff along the public right-of-way and generate a foul odor in the area where people are praying. In at least one of the locations, the sidewalk itself has been covered in awful-smelling fertilizer. A staff member said they’re just maintaining their landscaping.
Of course, fertilizer does help things grow. What’s growing on the concrete outside the abortion centers? The vigil!
“We have dedicated vigil people who will not let this keep them away from the vigil,” said one of the local leaders confronted with this tactic. “If they think this will make us go away, they are very wrong.”
“It did not deter us at all,” reports the coordinator of another campaign, “and now God has sent the rain for hours, which washed away the smell.”
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TORONTO, ONTARIO
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Need a bit of positive encouragement? Then take two minutes to go watch a short video of the midpoint event for 40 Days for Life in Toronto and recall the words of Isaiah: “Here am I; send me.”
Here’s the link to today’s devotional.
Yours for Life,
Shawn Carney
Campaign Director
40 Days for Life
PS: What’s new with the 40 Days for Life campaign in your home town? Please share your updates by replying below.
March 20th, 2012 at 2:07 am
In the BBC interview Anne Furedi mentioned several times that the 40 Days people want to debate. No, we don’t. We want to inspire hope and offer help.
I also liked what the young Toronto lady had to say re: “where two or three are gathered…” Even when I am standing alone at the hospital I know my guardian angel is with me as well as all the people praying from home. The messages I read on this blog from those too far away to join us on site, the messages from those who have physical challenges that keep them home – their prayers are lifting us up and protecting us as well as the babies. Thank you for the prayers!
March 20th, 2012 at 5:32 am
Hi all,
Well I’m from QLD Australia and have once gone to the vigil in Brisbane…such a beautiful experience. I just have a quick story to share…I was on a website called standup girl in which girls and women who are pregnant or have been pregnant, had abortions, etc. share stories. It is also a website to help pregnant women and girls who have an unplanned pregnancy…anyway there was one girl on there who was considering an abortion…she had already had a first child so she was considering an abortion as she thought she would not be able to take care of another and her boyfriend and someone else wanted her to abort so she was scheduled for March 28, but PRAISE GOD she later posted saying that she would keep her baby…PRAISE GOD…Thank you all so much for your prayers and sacrifices…
God Bless
March 20th, 2012 at 5:37 am
The song “Here I Am Lord” really tugged in my heart as the beat of an aborted fetus trying to hold on to dear life. May our prayers reverberate once this song is being sung in all churches all over the world and thereby bring God’s judgement upon those who are the modern day Herods perpetrating this dastardly act.
Let their voice be heard and the clap and thunder of God’s power descend upon every abortion clinic and their hordes of darkness in behalf of every soul aborted and deprived of human life.
March 20th, 2012 at 5:51 am
Wow!! God is GOOD…. sending His rain to refresh you all… it must be the Holy Spirit’s not so gentle promptings…causing some discomfort and reactions all over it seems. We are not immune in Melbourne, Australia either, but is could be worst. No reaction at all. But “ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE WITH OUR LOVING GOD….With Him with us who can stand against us. Hang in there all our brothers and sister in Christ Jesus. We are learning to love our enemies, at least they think they are our enemies… we had a woman shouting all kinds of sentiments at the four of us today and what was placed on my heart was she must be in alot of pain to be soooo angry.
God Bless everyone of you. ALL FOR JESUS AND LOVING ONE ANOTHER.
Sue
March 20th, 2012 at 6:26 am
I listen to the radio recording. The pro abortion lady said; What if those women had been rape. But she doesn’t know that rape is only 0,22% of all abortion and that 60% of them chooses to keep the baby! Most abortions ar done on fear, or on convienience of confort for their parents. Keep up the good work!
March 20th, 2012 at 8:22 am
May abortion workers realise that we love women who are struggling with their pregnancy and are concerned for their wellbeing, but we also feel the same way about their children.
March 20th, 2012 at 8:23 am
I have a great deal of hope seeing the worldwide solidarity that 40 Days for Life promotes. This season is my first to attend but I will be doing this for as long as it takes. I want my children to live in a better world where women are embraced for their fertility and children are loved and valued. I pray every day that our loving creator will send his Spirit and open the eyes of our souls to the reality of abortion and how it hurts us all. God Bless everyone who is dedicating their time and their prayer to this. Thanks to the wonderful work God has done through you all, I have hope!
March 20th, 2012 at 9:20 am
We love you London for standing in the crossfire so little ones can someday speack for themselves .They will walk up to you and say ‘are you the man or women who saved my life ? THANK YOU FOR MY LIFE’!I have a friend who was raped had a child and the adoptive parents love this child she is my hero and her sons also .I can’t thank you enough for what you all do .mary from syracuse ny the oldist abortion mill in the country.
March 20th, 2012 at 10:46 am
I have a physical problem making it prohibitive for me to participate actively in 40 days for life. This is quite a dissapointment for me, however, hopefully my prayers for the unborn and the overwhelming success of 40 days will have some impact. My prayers also are for those involved in the murder of the unborn.
March 20th, 2012 at 2:28 pm
I am praying that the Lord stop this killing of unborn babies, and that the abortionists see the error of their ways. Lord bless the prayer for life warriors & stop abortions, in your name Jesus, we pray. The Lord goes before us always. praise Jesus!
March 20th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
We pray on Monday evening at an abotion center in Inidanapolis. It was quiet, a few honks, when a lady stopped, got out of her car, we assumed she was going to stop and pray before we left, it was 5:50. She came up, was very angry and send we were scaring clients away. She wondered if we knew how much help the center gave to poor people. Con replied, we were their to save lives, she continued yelling about safe help for woman, where could people go and how cruel we were. Rosaries in hand we just prayed. She walked to her car several times that came back. She got in her car and yelled Planned Parenthood saved my life. So we just continued prayinig and ask you also to pray for her. Vivian
March 20th, 2012 at 3:12 pm
The fertilizer tactic is very interesting!! I just had to comment too that when we were out praying in Tacoma last week it was pouring rain and wouldn’t you know there was a man with a leaf blower tending to the Planned Parenthood parking lot right in front of us. Either he wasn’t the brightest person on earth or this is another brilliant (?) tactic on the part of Planned Parenthood. We just smiled at eachother and kept on praying.
March 20th, 2012 at 3:19 pm
Allan, your prayers are sustaining those of us on the front lines as we stand in the rain, snow, wind, etc. Your prayers sustain us as people say unkind things to us and give us rude gestures. Thank you!
March 20th, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Mary, your words are a sword of truth that pierces my heart…to stand in the crossfire for the little ones that cannot protect or speak for themselves. Will they some day be able to come to us and thank those men and women who stood and prayed to save their life? Only if we stand up for them now.
On BBC the woman administrator of abortion clinics seemed confused by her question to Robert if the 40 Days For Life was “Christian”. Prayer, loving children, loving each other, caring for the outcast, protecting the sanctity of God’s gift of life, were Christ’s examples. In contrast, the world loves power over life that God has given us, to reign over it with humanistic bureacracies, that want to are worldly utopia, serving man not God.
March 20th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
To all the pray-ers being harassed in any way, please remember that there are many of us unable to attend a 40 Days for Life event and are praying for you each day at home. Several of you we do not know by name but we know you are our sisters and brothers in the Lord and that He is there with you because He said I will never leave you nor forsake you. I am so thankful for each of you who go to these abortion centers to pray God’s love to these confused, emotional and misguided young Mothers or older ones who already have children. Please remember you are doing God’s will and saving the lives of his youngest children and that someone is praying for you each day.
March 20th, 2012 at 5:10 pm
THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORD OF COURAGE AND THE PRAYER .THE WORD OF GOD IS SO TRUE ,BECAUSE OUR LORD SAY BE A LIGHT TO THOSE ARE IN DARKNESS AND HOPE TO THOSE ARE LOST ,THAT THEY MAY BE FIND THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. WE ARE CALL TO WIN SOULS BACK TO CHRIST TO KEEP THEM FOR THE PIT OF HELL .THAT THEY MAY COME TO GOD PERFECT WILL FOR THEY LIFE ,TO KNOW THE LOVE OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST AND TO BE BORN AGAIN THROUGH HIM AND TO RECIVE A NEW LIFE AND A NEW BEINNING .AMEN THANK YOU AGAIN! MAY OUR GOD SUPERNATURAL LOOSE HIS MIGHT BLESS UPON YOUR MINISTRY AND ALL THE GOOD WORK THEY DO AMEN!
March 20th, 2012 at 6:03 pm
Let us all pray for an end to abortion.
March 20th, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Just a hodgepodge of thoughts… 72% of pregnant rape victims bear their child. It’s their child, too! I couldn’t understand the woman in the video. The music overpowered her spoken words. I guess from now on, people should take a piece of plastic to kneel on, just in case there’s manure on the sidewalk. When someone is angry with me, I also think it is because they are hurting so bad. I would love to tell them that I care. But they won’t listen, at least not yet. Pray for them.
March 20th, 2012 at 8:39 pm
Each morning I offer my prayers to with the people standing at the vigils.
I ask god to end this abomination and thank him for his people who are standing in the cold doing His work.
Thank you each and everyone who is praying and/or at a vigil
March 20th, 2012 at 9:08 pm
We must remember we are ‘fighting’ a ’spiritual battle’! Our God is the Author of Life, Love, Light and Truth. Our enemy, the devil, is a liar, a thief, and a destroyer. Jesus conquered that enemy!! Hallelujah!!
Greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world!
Encourage each other! Do not lose heart in well-doing! Keep on peacefully praying and loving. A lost and dying world is watching.
To Go be ALL the glory!! Great things He has done and is doing!!!
March 20th, 2012 at 10:12 pm
I am one of the ones unable to participate in a vigil in front of the places of death, but am at home praying for all of you daily and offering up my sacrifices for you most courageous,; loving souls. God Bless all of you…… I pray that there will be an opportunity for me to participate at some time, but for now this is where the Lord has me!!
March 20th, 2012 at 11:43 pm
Praise God for your faithfulness. I have not been able to participate this year in Maryland as I hope, but I am praying for the 40 Days for Life. I was very much encouraged after reading these testimonies (good and bad) and will be attending, at least on weekends, somewhere in Maryland. Blessings!
March 21st, 2012 at 11:46 am
Monday I was praying out side of Bren Mawr Hospital in PA and peacefully offering pro-life literature, kindly to passersby from the Parking structure to and from the hospital across the street.
Many people took literature with thanks. One lady told me to go to hell. I couldn’t help but respond with a cheerful,”Oh no, we are going to Heaven.” Something to think about. May this older lady, who may have had an abortion, or been involved in one turn to the Lord for forgiveness.
The other day, while at prayer and reflection the Holy Spirit showed me how important it is that we spread the word of the “Equality of the child in the womb.” That women are so bent on being = to men that they completely miss the point of the equality of the child they bear. “..and He created them =.” – And again, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all…are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights…” – Declaration of Independence
March 21st, 2012 at 11:55 am
I have two adopted children and my oldest just gave birth to my first grand daughter. Both of my children came to my wife and me, as did 6 of my 9 adopted nieces and nephews (out of 34 total nieces and nephews) through the pro-life involvement of my parents and siblings! Although we are involved in the movement because jesus commanded us and not for reward here on earth, the Lord’s reward to us here can never be repaid by us. However, we will try and until the day we die to save lives and souls until abortion is no more so others may experience the joy we have felt.
March 21st, 2012 at 3:24 pm
Haha, the fertilizer is growing the cause life! Awsome!
March 22nd, 2012 at 9:34 am
Just a heads up. At Metropolitan in Greenbelt MD, we were approached by a man advocating what we stand for, but asking for financial assistance
to buy supper and get home. We did respond, but had misgivings. We
can look like “a soft touch” because of our faith. If this happens to you,
keep this in mind. Peace and joy, Dorie.
March 24th, 2012 at 8:13 am
Robert,
Well done! Way to stick to the points under intese pressure from the “other side”. Please keep heart, and know that the climate in the US was similar several years ago. But, in large part due to 40 Days for Life and other peaceful, prayerful efforts, the tide is changing and the US is now more than 50% Pro-Life! The same can, and God willinging – will – happen in the UK!