Defending and Celebrating Life!

We are now about mid-way through both our season of celebrating 7 of the fearfully and wonderfully created lives in our home, and our newly-found commitment to take part in the nationwide 40 Days for Life Campaign.    They have sure seemed to go hand-in-hand with one another as we have stood, praying for the “least of these” in front of our local PP clinic, side-by-side with many of our children that had once been “prime candidates” for abortion.    Oh, how we praise the Lord for His Truth, that He firmly planted in our hearts and minds before we were given these ever-so flippant death referrals in the doctor’s offices.  May He use our testimonies of His faithfulness for other's good and His glory!  

Today, our hearts were gravely troubled.   From the moment we stepped foot out of our van, a very deceived soul began spewing his anger at us with loud insults and false accusations.  He, a self-professed “atheist, liberal, hippie,” claimed to know who we were . . . in his words,  “gun-loving, health-care hating, Bible-reading folks that believe it cover-to-cover and pray to our imaginary friend.”  He never mentioned "defenders-of-life!"  And actually, he said he thought we were instructed in the Bible to kill people like himself.  :-(  

At first, we thought he had been waiting for us to arrive, or maybe had even been hired to harass us.  However, as time went on, he mentioned that his own daughter was inside the clinic. 

As Kyle attempted to talk with him, the rest of us tried to distance ourselves from the ruckus the man was creating, with wanting to keep our prayer vigil peaceful.   The first time we made our escape down the sidewalk, we began praying earnestly that God would intervene, and send this man on his way.  Meanwhile, Kyle did a tremendous job trying to diffuse the situation, by making his best attempts to talk with him, and keep him from harassing the rest of us.    But within minutes, the man would take off toward the rest of us, and begin anew with his rant.   

After about 15 minutes, another man walked by, seemingly out-of-the-blue, and as he walked by, he told us that he did not like that man and what he was doing at all.  We thought at first maybe he knew him.  Then, he continued with telling us that he didn’t like us “protesters” either as he proceeded to walk to his vehicle parked in the PP parking lot.   At this moment, God answered our prayer in a surprising way!   As the angry, yelling man approached us women and children once again, the second man, who as it turns out, also had a loved one inside the clinic at the time, came to our defense!   He approached the yelling man, and while they got into a heated discussion, we headed back down to the other end of the sidewalk.    Soon thereafter, the yelling-man’s daughter came out of the clinic, and together they quickly left the scene. 

It was interesting to us that the yelling man never mentioned the very thing that brought us all to this PP clinic that day.   Please pray with us for this man.  He and his daughter desperately need to know of God’s love, grace and mercy. 

As we regrouped, and continued the best we could with our prayer time, I started having doubts again about what we were doing.   Does it really make a difference?   Are we doing the right thing?  And the Lord encouraged my heart with Matthew 25:40, "The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' " 

When we returned home, our hearts broken, and still feeling quite downcast, we read a couple more chapters in our “40 Days for Life” book.   The second chapter we read “just happened” to end with Matthew 5:11-12, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.”   

So, we praise the Lord, for lifting up our heads, and showing us once again, that even in the midst of such hard things, we can continue rejoicing!!

God is surely moving in powerful and miraculous ways, and showing His awesome faithfulness during this (and past) 40 Days for Life Campaigns.  To read all about it, check-out the 40 Days for Life blog and book! : -)  You'll be  glad you did!  (And excited and inspired! )