EmpowerShop Pro-life

From 40 Days for Life Blog

It’s Day 40 – you made it!

As we close the largest 40 Days for Life cam­paign in his­tory … the fol­low­ing things can be said about what God can do in just 40 days:

40 days ago …
… there were chil­dren sched­uled to be aborted who are alive today — 465 that we know of!

40 days ago …
… women were mak­ing abor­tion appoint­ments — but now,
they’re prepar­ing their lives to wel­come a new baby boy or baby girl.

40 days ago …
… cold hearts that were annoyed at your peace­ful pres­ence at the abor­tion facil­ity are now open to join­ing you in prayer.

40 days ago …
… you may have doubted what God could accom­plish; and yet through your prayer, fast­ing and vigil … YOU have been spir­i­tu­ally blessed.

Babies … women … work­ers … hearts … minds — these are all impacted when we pray and bring light into the darkness!

ANNAPOLIS, MARYLAND

Car­olyn writes that a taxi dri­ver pulled up in front of Planned Par­ent­hood while she was pray­ing at the 40 Days for Life vigil. She was car­ry­ing a sign read­ing, “we choose life.”

“The cab dri­ver got out, said that he sup­ported my effort, but asked me what was going on HERE that I should be stand­ing HERE,” she said. “I told him I was pray­ing for the end of abor­tion out in front of the Planned Par­ent­hood offices here where abor­tions are done and pointed to the win­dows of the wait­ing room.”

He said he was aware of the evil of abor­tion because he knew that more than 50 mil­lion babies have died since Roe v. Wade, but he had no idea that abor­tions were done in that building.

“He was rather shocked,” said Car­olyn, “and then he thanked me for my witness.”

SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK

“Prior to 40 Days for Life,” said Diane, “I wanted to get involved in pro­life work but didn’t know how or thought I didn’t have the time to do so. The Lord changed that for me and opened a big door so that I am now able to be involved in 40 Days for Life and pro-life work.”

Through these 40 days, Diane has expe­ri­enced changes in her life. “I’m will­ing to stand up for my faith and to be a wit­ness,” she said. “I’m will­ing to take a risk and share my ideas with peo­ple. I have the oppor­tu­nity to pray with peo­ple on the street who need God’s love and heal­ing. I have new prayer part­ners and have made new friends.”

Diane’s 40 Days for Life cam­paign is cer­tainly fin­ish­ing strong. “Thank you for all of your prayers,” she said. “As you can see, they are working.”

ON THE ROAD WITH DAVID BEREIT

Speak­ing of fin­ish­ing strong — David Bereit, the national direc­tor of 40 Days for Life, left his home in the Wash­ing­ton, DC area and drove to FIVE dif­fer­ent 40 Days for Life vigil sites in east­ern New York, spend­ing 17 hours in the car dri­ving between vigil sites in one day!

Also, over these final few days of this cam­paign, he vis­ited 40 Days for Life loca­tions in Vir­ginia, North Car­olina and Illinois.

COBLESKILL, NEW YORK



SCHENECTADY, NEW YORK



ALBANY, NEW YORK



POUGHKEEPSIE, NEW YORK



GOSHEN, NEW YORK



CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA



RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA



DOWNERS GROVE, ILLINOIS

Here’s today’s the link to today’s devotional:

http://40daysforlife.com/docs/fall2011day40print.pdf

For Life,

Shawn Car­ney
Cam­paign Direc­tor
40 Days for Life

From 40 Days for Life Blog

Since 40 Days for Life was launched coast to coast in 2007, our national direc­tor, David Bereit, and I have each been to more than 300 cities.

As David said in his mes­sage ear­lier in the cam­paign — all this travel can be hard work!

But we do it because of the great appre­ci­a­tion we have for all of YOU who are tak­ing time out from other activ­i­ties — to pray and fast for an end to abortion.

I’m in Cal­i­for­nia right now for some events in the San Diego area, but I’ve been from coast to coast this cam­paign … includ­ing stops in Canada.

Here are a just a few of the places I’ve been — and some of the ded­i­cated peo­ple I’ve met — in Ari­zona, Louisiana and Pennsylvania.

FLAGSTAFF, ARIZONA

In Flagstaff, I met Lan­don, whose par­ents brought him and his brother out to pray. Both are adopted and adorable — and they also pray reg­u­larly out­side of Planned Parenthood.

While I was there, a mobile pro-life preg­nancy care cen­ter was parked out­side – they travel across Ari­zona to offer assis­tance. On this day, a woman walked up and asked for a preg­nancy test.

She had gone to Planned Par­ent­hood – but was told they were out of preg­nancy test kits! So she was able to get the help she needed at the mobile unit instead of Planned Parenthood.

GLENDALE, ARIZONA

I also stopped at the 40 Days for Life vigil site in Glen­dale – another Planned Par­ent­hood loca­tion. This is the third cam­paign in Glen­dale, which is one of sev­eral loca­tions this year in the metro Phoenix area.

SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA

In Shreve­port, I met with 40 Days for Life vigil par­tic­i­pants out­side the Hope Med­ical Group for Women – one of the most con­tra­dic­tory names I can think of for an abor­tion cen­ter. The women who seek “ser­vices” there have run out of hope.

The good news is that the peo­ple who are pray­ing out­side can offer the hope of Christ, which far sur­passes any­thing that is offered inside.

HANOVER, PENNSYLVANIA

This is a first-time 40 Days for Life cam­paign — and they already have one con­firmed save so far. Planned Par­ent­hood is in down­town Hanover, at the busiest inter­sec­tion in town. It seemed as though every car honked approv­ingly. The local news­pa­per was there and pub­lished an arti­cle about the campaign.

HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA

Har­ris­burg, Pennsylvania’s cap­i­tal city, has been a reg­u­lar 40 Days for Life pres­ence each spring and fall.

The lead­ers here talked about the baby that was saved from an abor­tion dur­ing a 40 Days for Life cam­paign some time ago. Dur­ing a speak­ing engage­ment in Har­ris­burg, David Bereit met this young­ster when he was an infant. The lit­tle boy is three years old now!

ALLENTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA

We had 200 peo­ple at the event I spoke at in Allen­town. This 40 Days for Life event started in a park. From there, the group marched to the abor­tion cen­ter where the vigil is tak­ing place. It was a great event! The entire junior and senior classes from St. Pius X Catholic High School came out to take part.

Those are just a few of the places I’ve been. At each stop, I am both hum­bled and impressed by all of YOU who are will­ing to stand and pray for those who have no voice but yours. God bless you!

Here’s the link to today’s devotional:

http://40daysforlife.com/docs/fall2011day37print.pdf

For Life,

Shawn Car­ney
Cam­paign Direc­tor
40 Days for Life

From 40 Days for Life blog

I’m run­ning through an air­port and only have a minute … but I have one impor­tant request.

»»> Mark your cal­en­dar for MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14 ««<

I’m not yet able to tell you what’s hap­pen­ing that day. But BIG things have been devel­op­ing over the past few months … and all I can do at this point is ask you to mark your cal­en­dar for Mon­day, Novem­ber 14.

I’ll be send­ing you more details right after we wrap up the largest 40 Days for Life cam­paign ever in 301 cities this week­end. So stay tuned!

Here’s today’s update … com­prised of com­ments about just a few of those local cam­paigns that were posted on the 40 Days for Life blog.

EDMONTON, ALBERTA

What a hum­bling priv­i­lege to be in sol­i­dar­ity with thou­sands of peo­ple who are pray­ing for the same purpose.

Across the street from the abor­tion clinic, I was touched by the peace­ful­ness of prayers, their inter­ac­tion with each other and the good­ness on their faces. The pub­lic responded with curios­ity, some ques­tion­ing and explain­ing, some raised eye­brows and some honk­ing of horns and thumbs up.

I ques­tion the peace of souls who work against life and ask that we con­tinue to pray hard. God bless.

LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN

Today God granted me the honor and priv­i­lege to coun­sel a post-abortive woman at the bus stop next to our vigil site. After I told her how many babies have been saved this cam­paign, she sadly smiled and told me she and her daugh­ter had both had abor­tions and she wanted to heal.

She had never heard of Rachel’s Vine­yard or Project Rachel and I was able to put in her hands the con­tact info for these groups. Our prayers and pres­ence are also sav­ing souls who have been hurt by abortion.

Keep pray­ing!

CLEVELAND, OHIO

I prayed at that dur­ing my two-hour prayer time that any­one who went in would come right back out. Praise Jesus — that is exactly what hap­pened! One cou­ple saw my sign, drove in … and right back out.

OTTAWA, ONTARIO

I have been so blessed by the peo­ple I have met — there is a man who is there, I think, every day. He loves Jesus and peo­ple. His seren­ity and faith encour­age me to keep going.

I was ner­vous before going the first time but I had a won­der­ful sur­prise when I felt a Holy Pres­ence right on that street. I knew the Lord was with us.

TAMPA, FLORIDA

Today we saw a young cou­ple get out of their car with their 6 month-old-baby. They seemed hes­i­tant as they crossed the park­ing lot. I walked over to the fence and asked them if I could give them some infor­ma­tion. They actu­ally came over and lis­tened to what I had to say.

They said they were just there for a preg­nancy test. I cau­tioned them not to go into the clinic … but my heart sank as they walked in anyway.

Then mir­a­cle of mir­a­cles — they came back out after a few min­utes to go find Catholic Charities!

So when you ask why we do it — why we suf­fer the heat and abuse and long hours, because most peo­ple do have their minds made up by the time they get to the abor­tion clinic — this is why. For the one time when a woman is open to REAL help — and a choice she won’t regret – some­body HAS TO BE THERE for her.

Here’s the link to today’s devotional:

http://40daysforlife.com/docs/fall2011day36print.pdf

For Life,

Shawn Car­ney
Cam­paign Direc­tor
40 Days for Life

From 40 Days for Life Blog

With 133 of the 301 local 40 Days for Life cam­paigns hold­ing their vig­ils out­side Planned Par­ent­hood facil­i­ties, it’s no sur­prise that I get a lot of e-mail about Planned Parenthood.

Here are a few sto­ries about how America’s largest abor­tion chain con­ducts its busi­ness — includ­ing a report from Hous­ton, home of the biggest abor­tion facil­ity in North Amer­ica — the 76,000 square foot Planned Par­ent­hood complex.

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA

Eileen tells the story of a Bar­bara and her hus­band, who had recently moved to Indi­anapo­lis and called the pro-life preg­nancy cen­ter for an appointment.

“Dur­ing the mov­ing process Bar­bara, real­ized that she was preg­nant for the first time,” Eileen said. “She wanted an ultra­sound to be sure the preg­nancy was pro­gress­ing normally.”

Bar­bara said she was on her way to the pro-life cen­ter from Planned Par­ent­hood. “I told Bar­bara that I was glad she had decided against hav­ing an abor­tion,” Eileen said. “But Bar­bara said she had not gone there for an abortion.”

Bar­bara thought she knew what Planned Par­ent­hood was about. She believed they cared about women. But when she went there and asked for an ultra­sound, she was told that she could only have an ultra­sound if she was going to have an abortion.

Eileen said, “Thank God for 40 Days for Life, for prayer part­ners and for side­walk coun­selors who really do care about women. “

ITHACA, NEW YORK

“A min­is­ter saw us pray­ing,” said Mary Anne in Ithaca, “and stopped to intro­duced him­self. He wanted to pray over us for protection.”

Right after that, a Planned Par­ent­hood employee jumped into the midst of the peo­ple pray­ing at the 40 Days for Life vigil, claim­ing they had no right to be there.

“One of the prayer vol­un­teers pro­claimed that she did have a right to be there,” said Mary Anne, “as she’d had an abor­tion and regrets it every day.”

She also men­tioned a man who was deliv­er­ing bot­tled water to Planned Par­ent­hood. He told the vol­un­teers his girl­friend had been sched­uled to have an abor­tion — until he saw peo­ple pray­ing on the side­walk outside.

After see­ing the pro-lifers pray­ing that day, he ran into the abor­tion cen­ter and found his girl­friend — and the two of them left. They’re now the par­ents of a 17-month-old child.

HOUSTON, TEXAS

A woman walked into the mobile pro-life preg­nancy cen­ter across from Planned Par­ent­hood with a coupon for a free preg­nancy test and ultra­sound. She was given the coupon in Feb­ru­ary – but did not use it. She had gone through with an abortion.

As she pointed towards Houston’s Planned Par­ent­hood abor­tion megaplex, she told vol­un­teers, “I never want to go into that build­ing again.” She said the abor­tion was a ter­ri­ble expe­ri­ence and that she would never have another one.

The vol­un­teers have seen other women who had been given these coupons — by friends who had gone to Planned Parenthood.

One woman’s friend told her that she really regret­ted her abor­tion and that before the friend had one, she should go see “the peo­ple in the blue bus.”

“Even if you think your day in prayer at Planned Par­ent­hood was unpro­duc­tive, think again,” said one vol­un­teer. “You never know how God will use the sac­ri­fice you make to be there and the time you spend in prayer.”

Here’s the link to today’s devotional:

http://40daysforlife.com/docs/fall2011day33print.pdf

For Life,

Shawn Car­ney
Cam­paign Direc­tor
40 Days for Life