 Dear Deacon, Babies saved … babies adopted … pastors participating … abortion center owners miffed. Yes, those are things we hear about at 40 Days for Life vigils on a regular basis. But the blessings are REALLY flowing in one particular location that has experienced ALL of those things! LANSING, MICHIGAN Volunteers in Lansing have shared the joyful news of lives spared from abortion – but there are many other ways their prayers have been answered during this campaign. For one thing, there is active clergy involvement at the vigil. Pastor John Hayden of Columbia Road Baptist Church is one of the church leaders who take regular turns at the vigil, stopping by for an hour of prayer each week before heading off to his day’s work.  “He stops to pray and be a witness to hope,” said Cecelia in Lansing. He stands near a very busy corner, holding a “pray to end abortion sign.” He hasn’t counted cars yet, but just watching all the traffic, he estimates "we're reaching a thousand people an hour."Pastor Hayden occasionally gets an earful from a passing motorist, but he greets that negativity with a positive response. "When drivers get angry and make comments from vehicles – mostly it's the men – I give them a thumbs-up." About 50 people who gathered for a noontime prayer hour met Kathleen, a young mother, and her two young adopted sons – twin boys.  Kathleen and her family had been praying at a previous 40 Days for Life campaign (an abortion center that is now closed!) after she had lost a child through miscarriage.Not long after that, a foster care agency asked her if she wanted twin brothers whose abortion-minded mother had changed her mind. She prayed about it and sensed that God was telling her to adopt the boys. So she did!  Rita, a member of the 40 Days for Life leadership team in Lansing (second from left in this photo), shared another adoption story – her own! Rita was adopted when she was three months old."I will be eternally grateful to my birth mom for letting me be a gift to a family who wanted me so much,” she said. “One of the pro-life signs that I've seen over the years reads: ‘Adoption – the loving option.’ It can be such a beautiful gift.”  Rita said if abortion had been legal at the time, she might not be here today.As is often the case, the peaceful vigil is having an effect on the abortion center staff. A man who identified himself as the owner left the building and approached the people praying in the public right-of-way. “I own the sidewalk,” he told the volunteers. “If you stand on the sidewalk, you have to keep moving. You may not put signs up in the grassy area. I own it.” He added – in rather crude terms – that if the vigil participants harassed his employees, he would throw them all off his property.  A quick call to the city attorney’s office confirmed that the sidewalk and the grassy area are public property, and there was no requirement to keep moving.It sounds like just another abortion business that can’t wait for Day 40 to get here – and just another reason to keep a regular, continuing prayer presence on the public sidewalk for Day 41 and beyond! Today's devotional is from Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life. DAY 29 INTENTION We pray for the grace to be strong when others ridicule or oppose us. SCRIPTURE Anyone who does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. --Luke 14:27 REFLECTION by Fr. Frank Pavone, Priests for Life To stand up for what is right means we stand against what is wrong, and that means that those who love what is wrong will oppose us, just as they opposed Christ. Taking up the cross means we continue speaking and standing for the right even when that opposition comes. We experience this, in particular, when we are out on the streets, where people are not expecting the pro-life message and where they did not go to hear it. We must remember to never take the opposition personally. When people ridicule or yell at us, we might get a guilty feeling or be tempted to think we did something wrong. We did not. The insults are not being hurled at us personally, but rather at the truth of what we are standing for, and at the demands of the moral law. There are many who are trying to run away from those demands, or who have managed to tuck the abortion problem away into a distant corner of their minds where it can no longer disturb them. By standing publicly for the cause of life, we have short-circuited that denial and frustrated those efforts to ignore the issue. Therefore, some will be angry, perhaps not fully realizing why. PRAYER Lord, thank you for the grace of being pro-life, and of standing strong when others may ridicule or oppose me. During this 40 Day campaign, may your peace fill my soul, especially when I may endure the opposition of others, and may I become more like your crucified and risen Son. Amen. PRINTABLE DEVOTIONAL To download today's devotional as a formatted, printable PDF to share with friends: http://40daysforlife.com/docs/ ------------------------------ Yours for Life, Shawn Carney Campaign Director 40 Days for Life PS: What's new with 40 Days for Life in your city? Please share the good news by leaving a comment on today's blog entry at: http://40daysforlife.com/blog/
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40 Days for Life
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