Day 21: Thank you St. Joseph the Worker Parish, St. John’s (Burry’s) Church, Divine Mercy Parish and Individual Volunteers!

My prayer book this month features one-page articles about men and women who transformed the culture in their time. Key to the transformation is each one of them allowing the Holy Spirit to move their own hearts first, then spreading this spark in new, creative ways to their places of work, neighborhood and country. 40 Days for Life surely sounds a lot like this, sparking individual faithful people to come together, transforming our culture in Pittsburgh to a culture of Life!

Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful.

And kindle in them the fire of your love.

Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created.

And you will renew the face of the earth.

7-9: Nikki and Tracy

Whoops! Sorry! I forgot to take a picture! It would’ve been an amazing one, too! During our early morning shift, we actually had LOTS of company! What a lovely surprise! Nikki, Joseph (from out of town), Tiffany, Anthony and Karen joined Steve and me on the sidewalk. We began our day reciting  together the Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary. This morning’s biz at PP seemed slower with maybe three young ladies going in? PP sometimes appears top-heavy with staff compared to number of clients going in. (GOOD!) An ambulance pulled up at some point and it was actually the security guard who needed the medical attention. She walked out by herself, so we hope she’ll be OK. She seemed fine going into work earlier. Please keep her in your prayers. Thank you!

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It was a very prayerful morning shift today. Thank you to Peggy for switching with me so I could attend the panel discussion with David Daleiden later on today. I was honored and privileged to be accompanied by Dr. Joseph Meany, president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center, who is one of the presenters at today’s panel discussion. He prayed with us during this morning‘s shift. He has been to 81 countries in his pro life bioethics work and has prayed in front of abortion centers in many countries, and it was a blessing to have him with us today.

Also on the sidewalk was my shift buddy Tracy, her friend Tiffany and we were so happy to see Anthony come to join us. What an inspiring witness he is!  Karen also signed up to join us.

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Abortion bound couples began to enter at about 8 o’clock. An ambulance pulled up and we feared the worst but it was not an abortion patient. The security guard from Planned Parenthood was taken away by ambulance. Please say a prayer for her, she is a dear woman.

Before I knew it the shift was over and the wonderful ladies from Saint Joseph the Worker Parish arrived for the 9 to 11 shift, along with Julie from Riverside Community Church. Thanks to everybody who came today!

9-11: Peggy

Thank you! Fran, Donna, Susan and Bernie. “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them (Matt 18:20). We had a two hour prayer meeting! It was wonderful! We were joined by Arleen, Lori and Julie. We had an Uber driver drop off a case of water. As I thanked him, he told me his story. He had gotten a girl pregnant and was very excited about becoming a father. Without his knowledge she chose to have an abortion. He said, “Since I was already a Dad I know the joy of having a child.” He said he is there everyday and just wanted to do something for us.
Love, Peggy

11-1: Shelia

There was not much out of the ordinary today. But sadly, Elsie and I watched as an employee, who was standing inside near the door, quickly ushered in a hesitant young woman who had stopped to talk with us. We urged the young woman to check out the information before she committed to anything.  Also, let’s pray for Candy, the security guard.  She walked towards us during our shift and we assumed that she had been out to lunch. Turns out she had left the clinic earlier to rest – she was having a cardiac issue.  She returned briefly to the clinic and on her way back out, Pastor John asked if he could pray with her and she gladly accepted.  And so we all joined in prayer.  A bit later a replacement guard (I had never seen him before) walked out of the clinic and said, “Have a blessed day!”  How awesome is that!  Around that time, Glen made an appearance in plain clothes and a spiffy hat, and was fairly cordial.  God is good!!

1-3: Mike – Kim

Our faithful four- Mike, Kim, Mike and Dolores- covered the area in prayer today.  It seemed busier than usual for Tuesday, but with the same mix of support and negativity.  There were tears of joy when L. and S. said they “didn’t do it,” and accepted information in case they needed any further support.  And then there were tears of pain when 2 couples were adamant in refusing to discuss it, and it really appeared to be a one- sided decision.  Special thanks to Kim who lovingly filled the gap today in passing out literature as she celebrated her own birthday— and told passersby that everyone deserves a birthday.

3-5: Beth

Dean, Matthew, Lauren, Emiliano, Claudia and I manned the 3-5 vigil at PP today. What a great group of prolife volunteers 😇 We may have had a save. A woman ran to the PP front door which didn’t open. Her friend said that the man with them had made  both of them pregnant and was making both have abortions. They took information from Lauren and Claudia and were told about Moms House. We’re going to keep praying that it’s not sex trafficking and the women are safe.