Into the Silence

Last week we shared a story of a vigil participant who was blessed to help empower a young, single mother to keep her preborn child. We also relayed another blessed moment in which a woman drove by and exclaimed, “God bless your efforts. We saved a baby today!”

We’ve been so excited to hear your stories. Please continue to send them in. From saved babies, to Spirit-inspired conversations, to post-abortive parents seeking healing, your prayerful presence has truly yielded incredible tangible results.

But some of you might be wondering, “Why haven’t I had a similar experience? Why are my prayers answered with silence?”

Maybe you’ve received nothing but scorn for your efforts. Maybe you stand watch on Sunday afternoons or late nights when the abortion center is closed. Maybe you watch with a broken heart as women enter Planned Parenthood and end their children’s lives.

In the face of such trials we might ask ourselves why we even bother showing up. After all, what good can come from the silence of the cold, dark night? What is the point of subjecting oneself to ridicule from folks whose hearts are filled with hate? How can anybody stand strong while an innocent person is put to death just yards away? These are difficult questions.

Strangely, my favorite time to pray outside Planned Parenthood is the dead of the night. With a pitch black sky and empty streets, the so-called clinic is enveloped in darkness and silence. God seems very distant. As I pray, the silence only grows. I contemplate the evil that occurs in the building before me and wonder why a merciful God does not deliver the preborn from their executioners. My frustration builds, and I’m reminded of the doubts that plagued Mother Teresa, a fellow advocate for preborn babies.

“Where is my faith?” she asked. “Even deep down there is nothing but emptiness and darkness….I am told God lives in me, and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.”

Indeed, the darkness that emanates from the abortion facility, permeating the night, nearly swallows my faith and hope as well.

And then I remember. We have a Savior who 2,000 years ago endured the same heart-wrenching sorrow while His prayers from the Cross, much like ours, were answered with silence.
But that silence was not the last word. When all hope seemed lost, Jesus Christ literally and figuratively shook the foundations of the Earth by rising from the grave.

Similarly, when our efforts seem futile, let us remember that our Savior went before us to show us the way. The victory has been in hand for nearly two millennia. Our task is to serve as tools of His grace. Nothing more, nothing less.

So let us continue to answer Jesus’s call. Can we not keep watch with Him for one hour?

Thank you all for your wonderful work. Your sacrifices continue to inspire us. May God bless you abundantly.

Week in Review

40 Days for Life Midpoint Prayer Service to be held October 16
Bishop Morlino celebrates Respect Life Sunday
Wisconsin State Journal publishes 40 Days for Life letter to the editor
Renowned Pro-Life Sociologist Bradford Wilcox to speak in Madison October 23, 24
114 babies nationwide confirmed saved from abortion by 40 Days for Life

Queen for a Day

Each year, 90 percent of babies with Down Syndrome lose their lives to abortion.

This rate should shock and trouble us all. Though we'd like to believe that eliminating disabled individuals from the population is a historical relic that went out of fashion many decades ago, the evidence tragically suggests otherwise.

However, today, we're delighted to share with you an encouraging story from the Dallas Morning News. Hope you have a box of tissues on hand.

Never has the selection of a homecoming queen sent so many tears falling so freely.

Kristin Pass, an 18-year-old senior with Down syndrome, became Aledo High School's homecoming queen Friday to a joyous standing ovation and the flutter of a thousand tissues on a remarkable night for an amazing young woman.

Her grandfather, Dr. David Campbell of Corsicana, escorted her onto the field and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as Kristin joined eight other young women in the Homecoming Court to await the results of the vote, cast by the 360-plus members of Aledo High's senior class.

Then came the announcement ... and pandemonium.

"Oh my gosh! I was sitting in the student section and everyone stood up, crying and cheering for Kristin," said longtime friend and fellow senior Meaghan Geary, 17, who first met Kristin in the third grade. "It was great!"

Carolyn Pass stood at the edge of the football field, taking pictures of her daughter and friends' daughters in the court, when the stadium erupted.

"It's just something you can't even imagine," she said. "And afterward, everyone was just running down to her, congratulating her. And the other girls in the court, they're all just beautiful girls, inside and out."

Ms. Pass said she spoke later with a friend. "She said the only mistake anyone made was not handing out crying towels."

The vote may have been a surprise, but no one who knows Kristin doubts her popularity, her mother said.

"Kristin has a lot of friends – she likes everyone. It doesn't matter if you're tall or short, pretty, not pretty, smart, not smart – she likes everybody. She has great friends. And Aledo is a great community."

"She's just the neatest kid in the whole wide world," added her aunt, Chari Hust of Houston, "and everybody sees that."

Clay Gilmer, who works in the stadium press box, running the scoreboard and clock, said people pushed toward the windows as the young women were introduced. "They were all pulling for Kristin," Mr. Gilmer said.

When she won, he was thrilled. "This has been such a special time, a special week for Kristin," he said. "And I was really taken by the maturity and the love shown by her
friends, her peers, her classmates.

"That makes this a double blessing." Kristin pronounced the evening "exciting" and "awesome."

She was so thrilled, her mother said, that she took her crown to bed with her. "She's real proud of it," her friend Meaghan added.

Kristin and her family, including sister Kendall, now a freshman, moved to Aledo when Kristin was in the third grade. She was embraced by the people in town through good times and bad, including the death of her dad, J.T., two years ago.

"We've always had great experiences here," her mom said. "We've been blessed, and I think Kristin brings a lot of blessings to the people she knows."

Her selection as homecoming queen was a wonderful surprise. But Meaghan seemed to have an inkling that it could happen.

"Everyone loves Kristin," she said, "and I didn't know for sure, but in class everyone was like, 'Who are you voting for?' and everybody was like, 'Vote for Kristin, she's so good.' "

Kristin doesn't care what's on the outside, Meaghan said. She's friends with everyone, and everyone admires that.

"She's the person we all want to be," Meaghan said.

Great news from the national campaign

Each morning we receive an update from the national 40 Days for Life campaign. Some days it includes success stories. Other days it outlines challenges. This morning's email was so encouraging that we wanted to share it with you. These stories truly demonstrate the great deeds God is doing. Let us not forget how privileged we are to be instruments of His peace.

The enthusiasm about 40 Days for Life is contagious,and it's had a profound effect during the first half of this fall's historic campaign.

The number of "turnarounds" --women who arrived for abortions but left the clinic without going through with it -- has jumped dramatically in the last week, reaching record levels....

"We know we have saved a 17-year-old who was at first determined to abort her 5-month-old baby," Barbara in Fayetteville, Arkansas said. This young woman could not get an abortion at this point in her pregnancy in Fayetteville, so she was going to make the three-hour drive to Little Rock, home of Arkansas' only other abortion center. "She turned around one block before she reached the abortion facility! We are now are planning her baby shower."

It isn't just mothers and babies receiving positive attention during 40 Days for Life -- it's also the people who work at the abortion centers.

At the 40 Days for Life vigil in Toledo, Ohio, Ann reports that four clinic employees put up yard signs on the building's lawn and taped posters in the facility's windows -- as a result of the prayer vigil going on outside. "This was disconcerting at first,"she said, "but then you come to realize that their consciences are at work. This is a good thing!"

"It seems as if the workers are looking a little grimmer as they enter the building in the morning,"said Jean, speaking of the staff at the Planned Parenthood in Burlington, Vermont. "The ones that do smile are few and far between, and they almost seem to have fake smiles on their faces."

They also can't find anyone to do abortions! Planned Parenthood has gone so far as to run want ads in the local paper, looking for someone to assist with abortions, starting immediately.

"Imagine that!" said Jean. "It seems as though they have lost two employees -- one might be the abortionist herself. Today is the normal day for abortions, but it looked as if there were none preformed."

Patsy in Orange County, California also notes the difference 40 Days for Life can make for people in the abortion industry. "One of the Planned Parenthood employees came out, encouraged our prayer warriors and asked them to display a sign the women can see with a number where they can get help," she said. That's incredible!

If you find such a person, please continue to offer encouragement and Christ's love. It pays off!

"I learned this morning that one of the abortion center nurses quit," said Jenny in Louisville, Kentucky. "Mary, one of our counselors, kept telling this worker that she would help her find another job. Last Saturday was the nurse's last day in the abortion center. Praise God!"

40 Days for Life Midpoint Prayer Service to be Held October 16

Forty Days for Life Madison will hold a prayer service on Thursday, October 16 at 6:00 pm outside of the East Side Planned Parenthood to mark the halfway point of its 40-day vigil to end abortion. Pastors Keith M. Doyle and Ross Martin of Cornerstone Church in Waterloo, WI are set to lead the group in prayer and reflect on Psalm 131.

Over the last 20 days, Madison-area Christians have maintained a peaceful presence outside of Planned Parenthood, praying and fasting. During that time, nearly a thousand one-hour shifts have been filled as at least two people have stood watch around the clock. Forty Days for Life Madison Co-Director Laura Karlen said the midpoint prayer service is an occasion to rejuvenate the already passionate pro-lifers.

“The prayer service is an opportunity to unite Dane County’s diverse pro-life community,” Karlen said. “Men and women, young and old, Protestants and Catholics all come together to pray that soon abortion and all forms of violence will be no more.”

In addition to praying and fasting, vigil participants have helped empower women to choose life by offering support and referring them to local organizations that provide housing, prenatal care, and other material assistance to those facing crisis pregnancies. Furthermore, a number of men who have been affected by abortion have also approached vigil participants to receive counseling information for post-abortive men and women.

For more information on 40 Days for Life, visit 40daysforlife.com/Madison. To volunteer, call Amy Hying at 608-698-3877 or Steve Karlen at 608-445-2063.

Bishop Morlino celebrates Respect Life Sunday

Bishop Robert Morlino celebrated Respect Life Sunday Mass as St. Patrick's Catholic Church Sunday. The Mass commemorated lives lost to violence, particularly those lost to abortion over the last 35 years.

The Catholic Herald has more:

In his homily at the Mass on October 5, Bishop Robert C. Morlino first examined the Gospel reading for the day, the parable in which the tenants of a vineyard kill the master’s son, sent to them to collect the produce, and its metaphor for God, the church, and society.

“The people who killed the master of the vineyard’s son turned against him in the end,” the bishop said. “What greater rejection could there be than they would kill your son?

“Killing always involves the rejection of the master of the vineyard,” he said.

Wisconsin State Journal publishes 40 Days for Life letter

The following letter to the editor appeared in the October 6 edition of the Wisconsin State Journal:

I commend the 40 Days for Life volunteers outside of Planned Parenthood on Madison's East Side for taking up a peaceful fight to try to put an end to abortion.

It can be hard for people to keep doing something they think is right, even if people yell at them and despise them, especially when it seems that much of the surrounding community disagrees with them. But even a small group fighting for what's right is a group to be dealt with. May they continue to have success in their fight.

Why haven't we seen much media attention on their efforts to save the unborn?

-- Adam Morse

Great work, Adam. Thanks for spreading the word.

Why We Do What We Do

I guess you could say I've always been a bit of a dreamer. Growing up, I'd sometimes daydream about what it might be like to save a life and be a hero. From a doctor successfully performing an emergency surgery to firefighters rushing up the stairs of the crumbling World Trade Center, what must it be like to know that your actions kept a human being alive?

My friends, this question is one we no longer have to ask ourselves. Over the last week, we received two separate reports from our prayer warriors that babies have been saved right here in Madison.

On Thursday, a middle-aged woman drove by the vigil site. As she passed, she honked the horn and proclaimed, "God Bless your efforts, we saved a baby today!" We don't have any more information about this particular encounter, but we ask you to please keep the mother and baby in your prayers.

Then, this morning, another one of you sent us this incredibly touching exchange about two women who entered Planned Parenthood before stopping to talk:

They had lots of questions. What was I doing? Why was I doing it? God provided all the answers....Maria* (20 years old) said "I'm pregnant". She and her sister don't have jobs, are not citizens and have to find a new place to live in one week. I [referred them to] CareNet, and they agreed to go there to get help. So I treated them to lunch and drove them to CareNet. I told Maria to please come by next week and let me know how she is doing. She also wanted my phone number and said that I'm her mom now.

*Name changed for the sake of privacy.

What a beautiful testimony! So we thank and praise God for these two lives that have been spared death. And two more lives that have been spared the emotional and physical scars that come with abortion. And countless more lives that will be touched somehow, some way because two mothers made the heroic decision to bring a child into the world in a difficult situation.

We also thank all of you. For each hour you spent outside the abortion center, for your fasting, for your willingness to pray from home in solidarity we thank you. While you could undoubtedly be pursuing activities more fun, more profitable, or more convenient to your busy schedules, you chose to act as tools of God's grace.

Sometimes this struggle for life seems a bit abstract. In the face of 3,000 abortions every day, it might be easy to lose sight of the human face of this issue. But this week, we continue with the knowledge that the world will be irreversibly changed by two women's choice of life. Two children will be born. And, God willing, they will go to kindergarten, sit on Santa's lap, bring friends home from school, and all the other things little boys and girls do. Perhaps they will play Little League, perform in the high school musical, go to college, get married and raise children of their own.

And without your efforts, none of this might have happened. Well done.

God Bless you, and please continue to pray for these women and all women who find themselves in crisis pregnancies.

Week in Review

Pro-Life Memorial Day is today
40 Days for Life Sioux City recounts a touching story
Planned Parenthood caught covering up statutory rape
Pending legislation would eliminate all abortion restrictions
A look back at Bishop Robert Morlino's 2007 Respect Life Sunday statement