EmpowerShop Pro-life

When­ever talk­ing about babies saved from abor­tion through God’s mercy and the prayers of 40 Days for Life par­tic­i­pants, I usu­ally add the words “that we know of.” After all, we really don’t know how many lives have been spared in ways that only God will ever know. We just have to trust Him!

With that in mind, I can tell you that thus far in this 40 Days for Life campaign …

… 107 babies have been saved from abortion …

… that we know of!

We don’t know, for instance, how many abor­tions were pre­vented because the abor­tion facil­ity was closed one day last week in Over­land Park, Kansas.

“The place was empty,” said Valerie. Appar­ently, heat­ing and plumb­ing prob­lems kept the doors shut all day. “Praise God for allow­ing women to have another chance to think about what they are doing.”

Most of the time, we don’t know how many women change their minds — and sim­ply don’t show up for their abor­tion appointment.

We do, how­ever, know of at least one.

Judy in La Puente, Cal­i­for­nia said a young man walked up to 40 Days for Life vigil par­tic­i­pants to thank them for being there.

“Because he had seen us out­side pray­ing, he had the courage to con­vince his girl­friend not to have an abor­tion,” she said. “You just never know how many oth­ers never get to the abor­tion site because of our pres­ence. Praise God!”

That may be hap­pen­ing in other cities as well. Mary in Everett, Wash­ing­ton noted that last Mon­day, the abor­tion facil­ity “wasn’t as busy as I remem­ber on Mon­days dur­ing the last campaign.”

It’s great news when­ever busi­ness decreases at the abor­tion center!

Here’s a photo of the 40 Days for Life vigil in Everett:

In Fayet­teville, Arkansas — yes, the same city where the abor­tion­ist went on TV to call 40 Days for Life “silly” — a young man sport­ing a Mohawk hair­cut, leather jacket and sun­glasses is parad­ing in front of the abor­tion cen­ter with a home­made poster that reads “I love abortion.”

He, too, drew the atten­tion of a local TV sta­tion, telling the reporter that pro-life peo­ple “incite hatred.” The video shows a mom and her two chil­dren qui­etly pray­ing, with other peo­ple behind them peace­fully stand­ing in prayer as well.

Incit­ing hatred? Of course not! And any­one watch­ing the news­cast could clearly see that.

As for the guy with the “I love abor­tion” sign — and the other per­son who joined him later offer­ing “free coat hangers” — vigil par­tic­i­pant Christy White sim­ply told the reporter, “We’re just pray­ing for con­ver­sion of their hearts.”

Click here to see the TV news report:

http://www.4029tv.com/news/22665396/detail.html

Today’s devo­tional is from Den­nis DeMauro of Luther­ans for Life.

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DAY 13 INTENTION
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We pray for the strength to love those who do not love us.

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SCRIPTURE
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But the Lord said “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in the night and per­ished in the night. And should I not pity Nin­eveh, that great city, in which are more than one hun­dred and twenty thou­sand per­sons who can­not dis­cern between their right hand and their left, and much live­stock? Should I not be con­cerned about that great city?”

– Jonah 4:10 – 11

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REFLECTION by Den­nis DiMauro, Luther­ans for Life
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God doesn’t value peo­ple and things like we do.

Jonah loved a shade tree more than an entire city of sin­ful peo­ple. We love our dogs more than a ter­ror­ist. We love our cars more than a beg­gar on the side of the road. And some­times, we love our money more than a child grow­ing in a des­per­ate teenager’s womb.

But God isn’t like us. Gen­e­sis 1 tells us that humans were the cap­stone of God’s creation.

We were cre­ated on the sixth day after God had com­pleted the land, the stars, the plants and the ani­mals. There­fore, His love for us is greater than His love for a plant, an ani­mal, or any other cre­ated thing.

And the book of Jonah tells us that He loves even the most sin­ful peo­ple and seeks to bring them into His mer­ci­ful arms. And it’s a love that seeks to touch all of his cre­ated chil­dren: that des­per­ate teenager, the baby grow­ing in her womb, even tyrants and terrorists.

So it’s up to us to imi­tate God’s mer­ci­ful love by help­ing and pray­ing for those who per­se­cute us, and those who don’t love us back.

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PRAYER
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Gra­cious God, lov­ing our ene­mies seems like one of most dif­fi­cult things you could ask of us.

Please remind us that this is how you love and that if you ask it of us then you will give us the grace to do it. This we ask through Christ our Lord, Amen.

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PRINTABLE DEVOTIONAL
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To down­load today’s devo­tional as a for­mat­ted, print­able PDF to share with friends:

http://40daysforlife.com/docs/spring2010day13print.pdf

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How many more lives will be saved over the next 27 days of this cam­paign thanks to you?

I can’t wait to find out!

Yours For Life,

David Bereit
National Direc­tor
40 Days for Life

PS: Good news from your 40 Days for Life cam­paign? Any “inter­est­ing” vis­i­tors like the ones the Fayet­teville vigil attracted? Please share the infor­ma­tion by reply­ing to below.