The 40 Days for Life began its vigil on Wednesday. I think those prayers were with us on Saturday. There were no abortions this Saturday at American Family Planning. Oh, plenty of people showed up, but one by one they all left again. With two of them we had extensive conversation, the longest with a guy named Jack. What a story he had to tell. He had been a cocaine user and he had shot a man. He was in prison for two years and claimed that he had become a Christian. His “loophole,” as he described it, was the belief that life didn’t begin until birth. He accepted everything we told him about heartbeat and brainwaves, but he just didn’t think it mattered until oxygen was put into the mix. I knew that this was indeed nothing more than a loophole, and that the real problem was simply that he didn’t have the will to go into the abortuary and bring out his friend. We let him talk about his past, then I gave him a card with my number and he went back inside. At that point he and his friend were the only clients in the abortuary. I have this quirky conviction that while there needs to be words at the door of the abortuary, there also comes a point when silence is needed. God has to have the chance to have his say, as well. So the Partners left, but within about a half hour we received the phone call telling us that Jack and his friend had left too.
Later we met with Hope, the woman referred to in earlier entries. We looked over the house she is renting and handed to her new landlord a check for the first month and security deposit. The landlord surprised me a little, for when I gave him the check he commented, “And by the way, I think this is a good thing you are doing. God bless you.” Hope must have told him all her circumstances and explained to him who we are.
We have to write another first month and security deposit check this week. Those checks hurt. So I decided to be reckless with $5.00 and buy a raffle ticket at the Saint Patrick festival. I had my son, Patrick, pick the number. I have never won a thing. I bought two places at the cake walk and couldn’t even win that.
