To All Council Members,
Please see the information below and see if you can join the group for Incarnate Word's 40 Days for Life Adopt-a-Day. Incarnate Word's adopt a day is on Saturday, April 13 from 7:00am to 7:00pm. If you can spend an hour or two on that day it would be greatly appreciated by the Pro-Life Committee.
Thanks for your time,
Jeff
Dear fellow leaders of Incarnate Word Parish ministries,
Cindy Reznikov and Christy McCollom recently attended a 40 Days for Life leadership meeting hosted by the Coalition for Life. Members of the Ascension Parish Men's Club spoke at the meeting about their successful efforts to increase their parish participation at their parish 40 Days for Life Adopt-a-Day. Ascension Men's Club, which organizes their parish Adopt-a-Day, asked the parish ministries to each adopt one hour to cover the sidewalk on the day of their Adopt-a-Day. Ascension was able to increase their parish participation last fall to 120 participants at their prayer vigil. Their goal this spring is 144 participants. This is a very impressive number as our parish had 45 participants last fall at our Adopt-a-Day. Our goal this spring is 60!
We decided to give this strategy a try at our own parish for our upcoming parish 40 Days for Life Adopt-a-Day, scheduled for Saturday, April 13th. These prayer vigils truly save lives. Here is the story of an encounter I had during the fall 2015 40 Days for Life prayer vigil, while praying on the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood.
A woman pulled her car over to the curb and said to me “I want you to know you all are making a difference”. I told her thank you for stopping to share such kind words with us and then she said “Can I show you something?” She showed me a picture on her cell phone of a beautiful baby boy of about 8 months with a big smile on his precious face. The woman said this was a picture of her son, her 4th child. She told me she came to Planned Parenthood to abort this baby because they didn’t think they could take on another child. But she said “because you all were here I changed my mind.” I was at that moment convicted by the power of prayerful witness on the sidewalk. She again said “you all are making a difference and I have my son because of you.” What gift can compare to such encounter? I’ve certainly been convicted that “All things are possible through Him” when we cooperate.
May we ask for your ministry's help in this most worthy life saving prayer vigil? Our adopt-a-day begins at 7am and ends at 7pm on Saturday, April 13. Will your ministry consider adopting one hour on that day to cover the sidewalk in front of Planned Parenthood with prayer?
If you would like a member of the parish pro-life committee to speak for 3-5 minutes at an upcoming meeting we would be happy to come. Thank you so much for your consideration of this effort to save babies and save their mothers from a lifetime of regret. Please let us know if you have any questions.
Peace be with you,
Christy McCollom & Cindy Reznikov
