We continue to maintain two sidewalk counseling teams on Saturday mornings, one at American Family Planning and the other at Summit. For the most part our sidewalk counselors at Summit are encountering far less interference than when they made their first appearances there. And both teams are having success–lately, they have been the quiet kinds of successes, a mother or a couple who simply decides to leave but does not request any follow-up from us.
There is just one story on which I want to make particular comment, a bitter-sweet kind of thing. A brother brought his sister to the abortuary. He sat in the car after she had gone in, and we talked to him quite a while. He insisted that he had tried to save the baby, that he had even offered to raise the child himself. We said that if that were the case, he still had the duty to protect his own conscience. He could not have anything to do with this abortion. his mother, he explained, had asked him to bring his sister, and he didn’t feel that he could “dishonor” his mother. We pointed out that he could less afford to dishonor God. He did make one last attempt to bring his sister out–a sincere attempt, lasting almost a half hour. Having failed, he did what he should. He said, “I’m not having any more to do with this,” and he left. It is so rare to find a man who has any will power left. I am glad we helped him to salvage his.
