Several nights ago Guadalupe Partners hosted a sidewalk couseling workshop. There were a few newcomers to the idea of sidewalk counseling; the majority of those in attendance, however, were, in some capacity, already out on the sidewalks. Being together in a format in which we could exchange ideas and experience some encouragement was very helpful. I promised those in atttendance that I would renew my weekly logs on this web site, so that through these accounts they might continue to experience the same sort of encouragement.
I reasured them that most of the accounts contained here would be examples of God’s creative work in action. And I have a wonderful story from this past Friday, only two days ago. It begins on Thursday night, when I received a phone call from a local Catholic physician. He said that he and his family had been planning to take a three day camping weekend, but because of the rain forecast, they had decided to cancel. So, since he had the next day off, he thought he might join us at the abortuary. I told him to meet us the next morning at our usual rendezvous point. When, the next morning, I arrived at the meeting point, I found that I was too sick to carry on. I turned around, then, and went home to bed, while Dan and Alicia continued into Detroit. At the abortuary they met a young couple who, fortunately, did not have enough money for the abortion. Dan and ALicia drove them home, talking to them all the while, and were able to make an ultrasound appointment for them that same afternoon.
Dan and his wife, accordingly, went back that afternoon to the same address at which they had dropped off the couple. The residents, though, insisted that they did not know the people Dan and his wife were looking for. Dan callled Alicia, who earlier in the day in private conversation with the young woman had gotten a different address than the one at which the couple had been dropped off. Over the phone, ALicia followed directions from Mapquest to direct Dan and his wife to the second address. There they found the young woman, whom I will call Tonya. The physician who had agreed to do the ultrasound, meanwhile, waited patiently at his office, well beyond the hours that he normally kept. An hour late, Dan, his wife and Tonya arrived for the ultrasound. The images showed a 16 week old boy–in one photo, holding up a fist, as if to challenge anyone who might be threatening his life.
We visited Tonya the next day at the home which she shares with her mother and 7 siblings. We brought groceries and diapers, and she seemed genuinely happy, especially when she pulled out the ultrasound images.
