So here we are almost at the end of my trip with Survivors
and I find myself looking back as I’ve been on this journey into pro-life
missions work wondering what impact we’ve made throughout the country. Well I’m sure the biggest reward we’ve felt
throughout the trip was when we received the “Good news” on Good Friday this
past week.
You may remember that I wrote about 4 or so weeks back about standing outside of an absolutely awful abortion mill. At this abortion mill we had the sprinklers turned on us in hope that if they soaked us and the signs that we would leave. We stood as ever steadfastly as we were able to in hopes of talking to someone. We were very impressed with local pro-lifers such as Sarah H. and Father Terry who steadfastly were outside that clinic many days a week despite not only the sprinklers but almost constant harassment from the abortion mill workers. I can’t lie that the harassment I received from two men who came to fix the sprinkler had been bothering me a bit on the trip. The things they said in effort to bother me quite the wide variety of disgusting things that any father would beat up a man for saying to his daughter. But I prayed for the one man nonetheless cause as I was standing there I could feel as if he was hurting in his life, like he knew what he was doing was wrong, like something in his life he knew was wrong. I very much wonder if that was the ache of needing a Savior in his life.
Okay I’ll get to the good news now… so as some of us were in Mexico on Friday we were told to call Kristina immediately cause she had some news for us, I figured it was about the Jackson arrest. But we called and were told that the Alabama abortion mill was ordered to close by May 18th! Diane D. the clinic owner had been ordered to surrender her license by or on that date ( you can read more about the story here)! A lot of this is happening due to all the injunctions against them, including I’m sure stuff about the two botched abortions that happened earlier this year. There’s been so much that the pro-life movement and many have done to bring about the closing of this abortion mill. It’s really a blessing to see that all the work we do is not in vain and that we do accomplish great things. I can honestly say that this work is mentally (and sometimes physically) exhausting day in and day out. You wonder if you’re making differences, but we also had some good news while we were in Tennessee. We visited a local pregnancy center and were told that a woman had walked in and after seeing our signs had decided against getting an abortion. What a victory! We know that our signs change hearts and minds all the time, and every day it seems we get those who tell us that our signs will never change anything and we get to tell them differently.
So this week we’ve had a couple office days and today we traveled to Moorpark College in California to do activism on their campus for two days. The first day was a bit rough today, we discovered once we arrived on campus that it was “Multicultural day” which normally sounds like a great time to do what we do. We quickly found out however that there were several grade school classes on field trips at the college, we knew the second we saw them that as soon as we set up that we’d be dealing with angry teachers and parents. That can always almost put a sour mood on the day, but I started praying that no matter what we faced we’d be able to handle things peacefully.
So as you can imagine several parents (and students) came up complaining about the fact that we were there and how awful that we would subject young children to such images. But may I just give my opinion for a second…. I honestly think that what sets the tone for kids being upset or being interested in what’s going on has largely to do with how the adults act. I’ve seen many young children who have been told and shown what abortion is. These children funny enough seem to most times grasp more so than adults that abortion is wrong and is the taking of a life. No, we’re not trying to brainwash the kids, we’re trying to explain to them the truths of what’s going on. So the parents and teachers at the school did manage to reroute the children so they didn’t walk right in front of where we were set up.
It so scary to think though that in a few years when those kids reach middle school and high school that they’ll start to be marketed by people like Planned Parenthood. They’ll be taught that so many things that are wrong and should be called murder are not. Do I want these children to have to see these images, the answer is of course no. But sometimes I wonder if it’s necessary as kids are being hit with sexual images, pornography, and other things having to do with the “sexual nature” and how they can’t control their desires. I simply want people to see both sides of the equation, you want to teach them sex education and all that, well if you insist on doing that then tell them about the consequences of those actions that you say are uncontrollable.
Sometimes we have students come up to us and talk about humans can’t control having sex with people, that it’s simply in our nature to always do it, all the time. I often feel like then asking them whether the fact that I control that nature in myself as do my friends makes us some sort of super humans…. But I usually keep my mouth shut when it comes to sarcastic comments; I find they don’t help in debating so much.
So today at Moorpark went well, we had really a lot of students who wanted to talk and handful that wanted to sign up to get more involved with pro-life activities at their campus. I know these pictures change minds; yes not every mind is changed. Though I guarantee that those images are something that are not so easily shaken from people’s minds. So I’m preparing for my last day with Survivors tomorrow, it’s sad to see the time go by in what now seems like such a fast time. But I know I am so better prepared to be able to engage in conversations with activism and that this time with Survivors has lit even more of a passion for pro-life work in me. A passion that will not be quickly extinguished, in fact I plan on doing some pro-life work this Saturday in New Jersey with my brother and continuing even back in Virginia. Remember do not let your fires be put out, do not let the outrage at the fact that over 3,000 unborn children are killed every day fall away cause you are simply too busy to do something about it. Get out of your apathy and do something about what’s going on! Scream about it, tell everyone you know, and be active about it! For if we don’t cry out for their murders then who will?
You may remember that I wrote about 4 or so weeks back about standing outside of an absolutely awful abortion mill. At this abortion mill we had the sprinklers turned on us in hope that if they soaked us and the signs that we would leave. We stood as ever steadfastly as we were able to in hopes of talking to someone. We were very impressed with local pro-lifers such as Sarah H. and Father Terry who steadfastly were outside that clinic many days a week despite not only the sprinklers but almost constant harassment from the abortion mill workers. I can’t lie that the harassment I received from two men who came to fix the sprinkler had been bothering me a bit on the trip. The things they said in effort to bother me quite the wide variety of disgusting things that any father would beat up a man for saying to his daughter. But I prayed for the one man nonetheless cause as I was standing there I could feel as if he was hurting in his life, like he knew what he was doing was wrong, like something in his life he knew was wrong. I very much wonder if that was the ache of needing a Savior in his life.
Okay I’ll get to the good news now… so as some of us were in Mexico on Friday we were told to call Kristina immediately cause she had some news for us, I figured it was about the Jackson arrest. But we called and were told that the Alabama abortion mill was ordered to close by May 18th! Diane D. the clinic owner had been ordered to surrender her license by or on that date ( you can read more about the story here)! A lot of this is happening due to all the injunctions against them, including I’m sure stuff about the two botched abortions that happened earlier this year. There’s been so much that the pro-life movement and many have done to bring about the closing of this abortion mill. It’s really a blessing to see that all the work we do is not in vain and that we do accomplish great things. I can honestly say that this work is mentally (and sometimes physically) exhausting day in and day out. You wonder if you’re making differences, but we also had some good news while we were in Tennessee. We visited a local pregnancy center and were told that a woman had walked in and after seeing our signs had decided against getting an abortion. What a victory! We know that our signs change hearts and minds all the time, and every day it seems we get those who tell us that our signs will never change anything and we get to tell them differently.
So this week we’ve had a couple office days and today we traveled to Moorpark College in California to do activism on their campus for two days. The first day was a bit rough today, we discovered once we arrived on campus that it was “Multicultural day” which normally sounds like a great time to do what we do. We quickly found out however that there were several grade school classes on field trips at the college, we knew the second we saw them that as soon as we set up that we’d be dealing with angry teachers and parents. That can always almost put a sour mood on the day, but I started praying that no matter what we faced we’d be able to handle things peacefully.
So as you can imagine several parents (and students) came up complaining about the fact that we were there and how awful that we would subject young children to such images. But may I just give my opinion for a second…. I honestly think that what sets the tone for kids being upset or being interested in what’s going on has largely to do with how the adults act. I’ve seen many young children who have been told and shown what abortion is. These children funny enough seem to most times grasp more so than adults that abortion is wrong and is the taking of a life. No, we’re not trying to brainwash the kids, we’re trying to explain to them the truths of what’s going on. So the parents and teachers at the school did manage to reroute the children so they didn’t walk right in front of where we were set up.
It so scary to think though that in a few years when those kids reach middle school and high school that they’ll start to be marketed by people like Planned Parenthood. They’ll be taught that so many things that are wrong and should be called murder are not. Do I want these children to have to see these images, the answer is of course no. But sometimes I wonder if it’s necessary as kids are being hit with sexual images, pornography, and other things having to do with the “sexual nature” and how they can’t control their desires. I simply want people to see both sides of the equation, you want to teach them sex education and all that, well if you insist on doing that then tell them about the consequences of those actions that you say are uncontrollable.
Sometimes we have students come up to us and talk about humans can’t control having sex with people, that it’s simply in our nature to always do it, all the time. I often feel like then asking them whether the fact that I control that nature in myself as do my friends makes us some sort of super humans…. But I usually keep my mouth shut when it comes to sarcastic comments; I find they don’t help in debating so much.
So today at Moorpark went well, we had really a lot of students who wanted to talk and handful that wanted to sign up to get more involved with pro-life activities at their campus. I know these pictures change minds; yes not every mind is changed. Though I guarantee that those images are something that are not so easily shaken from people’s minds. So I’m preparing for my last day with Survivors tomorrow, it’s sad to see the time go by in what now seems like such a fast time. But I know I am so better prepared to be able to engage in conversations with activism and that this time with Survivors has lit even more of a passion for pro-life work in me. A passion that will not be quickly extinguished, in fact I plan on doing some pro-life work this Saturday in New Jersey with my brother and continuing even back in Virginia. Remember do not let your fires be put out, do not let the outrage at the fact that over 3,000 unborn children are killed every day fall away cause you are simply too busy to do something about it. Get out of your apathy and do something about what’s going on! Scream about it, tell everyone you know, and be active about it! For if we don’t cry out for their murders then who will?
I believe it was not so much the imagery but the appropriateness of the work your group was trying to accomplish that day. Multicultural Day at Moorpark College for the past 20+ years has always been a day to examine other cultures and embrace the differences between ourselves. It's not a day for trying to convince people to abandon their ideals or to create a divide of who is right and who is wrong. So for a day that was supposed to be an open communication, you would have been more welcomed I believe if it was a dialogue of life and how precious it is to maintain it. I think you did your group a disservice by not trying to understand where you were and how to effectively deliver your message in that environment. Perhaps for future reference, learn from situations like this, rather than writing these people off.
ReplyDelete