So
many of you are reading my prolife missionary blog for the first time, to those
newcomers I say welcome, but I also say I would be pleased if you read even
more than just this one time because of my arrest.
First of all if you're not familiar with Chen Guangcheng's story please read the following, it will help: http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/04/pro-life-advocates-rally-at-white-house-for-chen-guangcheng/
Okay so here's the whole deal with getting arrested, it's never been something I planned on. While there are some pro-lifers who consider every arrest a jewel in their crown that's not so much my opinion of it. I actually tried to make sure in every way when I was traveling with Survivors (of the Abortion Holocaust) that I was arrested because I was unsure of how it would affect me fostering and adopting in the future. But after talking to some kick-butt pro-lifers who have been arrested for standing up for the unborn and then going on to foster and adopt my fears and apprehensions were put to the side. But I have to say I still wasn't keen on the thought of getting arrested. I just thought if I'm going to do it, it's going to be something that's really worth fighting for (which is usually just about everything in the Pro-Life movement).
I had been reading up on Chen's situation and had seen Rev. Mahoney posting about it a lot on Facebook of course. But one night after I was reading about how his wife had been tied to a chair for two days and beaten and threatened, I just lost it. I mean how could the US Embassy after promising Chen and his family protection not help them? How could they so easily turn Chen out of the Embassy basically leaving his family to be threatened? I was upset and all I could think about was what if their two kids saw the mother being beaten as well as their father. I couldn't take it, it was upsetting, unnerving and I wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing.
So after seeing the invitation from Students for Life of America and Rev Mahoney to go to DC to stand up for Chen and his family I decided to head up there on Friday morning. So I started my journey at 6am that morning and met up with Tina Whittington from SFLA at 1030 am to drive into DC. As we drove I found out that Tina herself had never been arrested before either, but this was something that was heavily on her heart and also she wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone if anything happened which was rather sweet of her. I was a bit nervous as we drove, but we talked about many things including how wonderful it would be to see Chen and his family comes to the United States.
We arrived to DC just a little before noon and walked to the White House. We joined Rev Mahoney (Pat) and talked to the media about why we were there and calling for them to get involved and get Chen out of China, since they not only had promised to do so but had the power to do so. Pat then announced that we would be going on the sidewalk in front of the White House to kneel and pray for a bit less than an hour (until 1pm) for Chen’s safety and that Hilary would open her heart to let them come back to the US with her. We went onto the sidewalk and knelt down to pray together, yes we can do that many places, but doing it in front of the White House symbolizes in the media that there are still Christians willing to stand here in the US with Chen. As we were there for about 15 minutes with what seemed to be no problems we thought that perhaps the cops would not be arresting us. But just as Pat said that perhaps we’d be that lucky the cops pulled up in quite a few cars and started barricading off the area we were in including part of the street. The lieutenants came up and told us we weren’t allowed to remain stationary on the sidewalk on which we were kneeling praying on.
So they gave us two warnings saying that we needed to vacate the public sidewalk, and we kneeled firmly keeping in prayer. On the third time they talked over the PA system in the cop car they told us we were then not allowed to leave and were being put under arrest. They came up and determined they would take the ladies first; first they arrested Tina, then me, and then Gwyn. They had us frisked and went through our belongings quickly before they put us handcuffed into the back of eh paddy wagon (as I like to call it). I can’t even begin to describe the horrible feeling of having a cop tell me to stand up and then turning me around and grabbing my wrists to put them in handcuffs. It’s this slow-motion thing in your head of ‘are they actually arresting me, when I’ve done nothing wrong?’
I mean laws are made for a reason right? They’re made to protect people right? What part of this was protecting someone, we told them we were just there to pray until 1pm. We said we just wanted America to know the injustice that was going on with Chen’s situation. We were just there kneeling in prayer and were told we weren’t allowed to remain stationary there… and why is that? Is it because we disagree with what the Obama administration and the US embassy is doing to Chen. Because it that’s the reason then that’s obviously and blatantly disregarding our First Amendment rights as Americans. So we were put in the police wagon, the women on one side and then Wylie and Pat (Rev. Mahoney) on the other side. They locked us in then and drove us to the police station which seemed to be quite a bit of a drive away, at least it felt that way while we were moving around the whole time in handcuffs. We were not buckled into the row in the back we were sitting on so you can imagine how great our nerves were when we saw the police man who was driving the vehicle was texting and driving! But we tried to keep things light and got to know each other and sang a little on the ride.
When we arrived to that station we were taken out of the paddy wagon and lined up to walk through a couple doors into the room that they would process us in. The men (Pat and Wylie) were patted down and had their things confiscated and then were put in a cell together. I’m not quite sure why, but they told the women we could have a seat by the desks where they would fill our paperwork out, they had us patted down again and then let us sit there while we waited for them to come fill out our paperwork. So we waited and they filled out our paperwork and we waited a little more. They then came to us and told us we could either pay the fine or we could stand trial. We all elected to pay the fine and were released within about 3 hours of being arrested I believe.
We thankfully were picked up outside the station somewhat because otherwise we would have been wandering for a bit is my guess with the horrible directions the cops gave us on how to get to the metro. So we all made our way back and Tina and I headed back to Fredericksburg. It was quite the day and I can tell you by the time I got back to Lynchburg and my apartment that night I was just about as exhausted as one could be. To only get up the next morning at 645am to go pray outside Planned Parenthood, what can I say, the pro-life work never ends. But I can honestly say I feel so blessed that working in this movement and defending the unborn is where God would have me be doing His work right now. I feel truly blessed, especially with people like Tina, Gwyn, and Pat by my side as well as countless others in the movement.
One of my friends had posted about what happened and had remarked about how she doubted that this would slow me down in fighting for Life. She is quite right, this if anything shows me how much more time I need to put into it all and how tirelessly we have to work until abortion is ended, not just in the US but in the World!
First of all if you're not familiar with Chen Guangcheng's story please read the following, it will help: http://www.lifenews.com/2012/05/04/pro-life-advocates-rally-at-white-house-for-chen-guangcheng/
Okay so here's the whole deal with getting arrested, it's never been something I planned on. While there are some pro-lifers who consider every arrest a jewel in their crown that's not so much my opinion of it. I actually tried to make sure in every way when I was traveling with Survivors (of the Abortion Holocaust) that I was arrested because I was unsure of how it would affect me fostering and adopting in the future. But after talking to some kick-butt pro-lifers who have been arrested for standing up for the unborn and then going on to foster and adopt my fears and apprehensions were put to the side. But I have to say I still wasn't keen on the thought of getting arrested. I just thought if I'm going to do it, it's going to be something that's really worth fighting for (which is usually just about everything in the Pro-Life movement).
I had been reading up on Chen's situation and had seen Rev. Mahoney posting about it a lot on Facebook of course. But one night after I was reading about how his wife had been tied to a chair for two days and beaten and threatened, I just lost it. I mean how could the US Embassy after promising Chen and his family protection not help them? How could they so easily turn Chen out of the Embassy basically leaving his family to be threatened? I was upset and all I could think about was what if their two kids saw the mother being beaten as well as their father. I couldn't take it, it was upsetting, unnerving and I wasn’t going to stand by and do nothing.
So after seeing the invitation from Students for Life of America and Rev Mahoney to go to DC to stand up for Chen and his family I decided to head up there on Friday morning. So I started my journey at 6am that morning and met up with Tina Whittington from SFLA at 1030 am to drive into DC. As we drove I found out that Tina herself had never been arrested before either, but this was something that was heavily on her heart and also she wanted to make sure I wasn’t alone if anything happened which was rather sweet of her. I was a bit nervous as we drove, but we talked about many things including how wonderful it would be to see Chen and his family comes to the United States.
We arrived to DC just a little before noon and walked to the White House. We joined Rev Mahoney (Pat) and talked to the media about why we were there and calling for them to get involved and get Chen out of China, since they not only had promised to do so but had the power to do so. Pat then announced that we would be going on the sidewalk in front of the White House to kneel and pray for a bit less than an hour (until 1pm) for Chen’s safety and that Hilary would open her heart to let them come back to the US with her. We went onto the sidewalk and knelt down to pray together, yes we can do that many places, but doing it in front of the White House symbolizes in the media that there are still Christians willing to stand here in the US with Chen. As we were there for about 15 minutes with what seemed to be no problems we thought that perhaps the cops would not be arresting us. But just as Pat said that perhaps we’d be that lucky the cops pulled up in quite a few cars and started barricading off the area we were in including part of the street. The lieutenants came up and told us we weren’t allowed to remain stationary on the sidewalk on which we were kneeling praying on.
So they gave us two warnings saying that we needed to vacate the public sidewalk, and we kneeled firmly keeping in prayer. On the third time they talked over the PA system in the cop car they told us we were then not allowed to leave and were being put under arrest. They came up and determined they would take the ladies first; first they arrested Tina, then me, and then Gwyn. They had us frisked and went through our belongings quickly before they put us handcuffed into the back of eh paddy wagon (as I like to call it). I can’t even begin to describe the horrible feeling of having a cop tell me to stand up and then turning me around and grabbing my wrists to put them in handcuffs. It’s this slow-motion thing in your head of ‘are they actually arresting me, when I’ve done nothing wrong?’
I mean laws are made for a reason right? They’re made to protect people right? What part of this was protecting someone, we told them we were just there to pray until 1pm. We said we just wanted America to know the injustice that was going on with Chen’s situation. We were just there kneeling in prayer and were told we weren’t allowed to remain stationary there… and why is that? Is it because we disagree with what the Obama administration and the US embassy is doing to Chen. Because it that’s the reason then that’s obviously and blatantly disregarding our First Amendment rights as Americans. So we were put in the police wagon, the women on one side and then Wylie and Pat (Rev. Mahoney) on the other side. They locked us in then and drove us to the police station which seemed to be quite a bit of a drive away, at least it felt that way while we were moving around the whole time in handcuffs. We were not buckled into the row in the back we were sitting on so you can imagine how great our nerves were when we saw the police man who was driving the vehicle was texting and driving! But we tried to keep things light and got to know each other and sang a little on the ride.
When we arrived to that station we were taken out of the paddy wagon and lined up to walk through a couple doors into the room that they would process us in. The men (Pat and Wylie) were patted down and had their things confiscated and then were put in a cell together. I’m not quite sure why, but they told the women we could have a seat by the desks where they would fill our paperwork out, they had us patted down again and then let us sit there while we waited for them to come fill out our paperwork. So we waited and they filled out our paperwork and we waited a little more. They then came to us and told us we could either pay the fine or we could stand trial. We all elected to pay the fine and were released within about 3 hours of being arrested I believe.
We thankfully were picked up outside the station somewhat because otherwise we would have been wandering for a bit is my guess with the horrible directions the cops gave us on how to get to the metro. So we all made our way back and Tina and I headed back to Fredericksburg. It was quite the day and I can tell you by the time I got back to Lynchburg and my apartment that night I was just about as exhausted as one could be. To only get up the next morning at 645am to go pray outside Planned Parenthood, what can I say, the pro-life work never ends. But I can honestly say I feel so blessed that working in this movement and defending the unborn is where God would have me be doing His work right now. I feel truly blessed, especially with people like Tina, Gwyn, and Pat by my side as well as countless others in the movement.
One of my friends had posted about what happened and had remarked about how she doubted that this would slow me down in fighting for Life. She is quite right, this if anything shows me how much more time I need to put into it all and how tirelessly we have to work until abortion is ended, not just in the US but in the World!
