Day 3: Thanks to our incredible Volunteers, Shift Managers, and Shift Buddies!

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:

    releasing those bound unjustly, untying the thongs of the yoke;

Setting free the oppressed, breaking every yoke…

Isaiah 58:6

Dear friends, when you pray in front of Planned Parenthood, you help to set free those oppressed by the lie that abortion is the only answer to an unexpected pregnancy. You help to break the yoke of cultural pressure that falsely claims motherhood is the enemy of freedom. It’s exactly the kind of fasting that God asks of us, giving up our time and comfort to rescue others. May He bless you richly for obeying Him!

-Jen

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SIDEWALK REPORTS

7-9 AM +++ Barbara, Richard, and Rose

Beauty warmed the downtown sidewalk this cold … cold Friday morning. Tom, Rose, Richard and me, Monica, Steve, Bill, Mary, Mark and Billy … yep … the sidewalk offered the sunny warmth of love. All of us prayed. Monica and Steve, Sidewalk Advocates, offered their abundant crisis pregnancy assistance as young women showed up.

Inside the opening and closing pp doors, abortion went about its abortion routine … bloodying and dismembering babies by appointment for cash … discarding the lifeless little bodies … ushering mom up and out of the building. She went home a very different person. Now she was the mother of a dead baby.

Abortion told her she would be unpregnant. Abortion lies.

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle as we fight for the lives of these babies and for the  souls of everyone wounded by abortion.

Barbara

9-11 AM +++ Kathy and Mark

Thank you to SB Mark and pray-ers Mary and Billy.  Also SA Kim came to offer counseling and pass out literature and Terry from Central Catholic joined us later to pray.
A few women accepted literature before they entered pp but sadly no turnaways today.  Two women who entered separately hugged their male counterpart before entering building.  Neither the women or the men accepted literature or wished to engage in dialogue.The security guard came out to scold Mary for walking through the “circle” while wearing a sign.
Mary, Billy, and I offered prayers together using Psalms 51, 136, and 94 as our guide as well as some of the written prayers from the booklet “prayers to end abortion.” Mark prayed separately on the other side of the circle.

Kathy

11 AM-1 PM +++ Libby

So grateful to Libby for covering this shift today…God bless you!

1-3 PM +++ Donna and Elaine

It was a quiet, cold day today. Thanks to Fr. Jeremy, Elaine, Bernie and Rose for praying today and reaching out to those entering and  exiting from PP.

We had another 40 DFL volunteer stop by and drop off granola bars to have and hand out. Thank you! Also another faithful gentleman was praying and walking by us. Thank you, Father, for these affirmations. Another gentleman stopped to talk and share his story with me how his mother was 16 in the 60’s and was raped and chose life for him. Please pray for him, “N.” His mother passed at a young age in the early 90’s. 

Donna

HOUR OF MERCY

We are so grateful to Fr. Nick Argentieri for responding to our request for priests to pray the Rosary and Chaplet of Divine Mercy at the vigil at 3 PM, a time known as the “hour of mercy” since we believe that our Lord died on the cross at that time of day. May God bless you for your generous sacrifice!

3-5 PM +++ Pat, Val, and Mike

Everything is more difficult when you’re at the vigil and it’s cold. Everything.  Even the seemingly simple act of blowing your nose.  OK, now that I’ve got that out of my system, I will say that I was grateful that the wind was minimal and the negative passerbys were non-existent. I was grateful to have Mike and Val back again as my shift buddies.  We were joined in the first hour by Fr. Nick of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, who serves as a chaplain at Children’s Hospital, and the second hour by Lou from Our Lady of Hope.  Thanks so much to both of you for joining us.

Pat

5-7 PM +++ Bill and David

I arrived a  couple of minutes late to my first shift.  It was good to see the 40 Days For Life faces since it has been a while.  After Pat and his crew left, I greeted Dave and Lou to begin the final shift for Friday.  Fortunately the cold, covid and the lateness of the day didn’t have one person going inside Planned Parenthood for the entire shift.  There were not too many passersby, but there were more than a couple of “thank you’s” toward us from some.  It did leave plenty of time for prayer. And just like everyone else up to this point it was cold….but being with prayerful people is a warm blessing.  God Bless & Good Night

Bill