Hi everyone.
Last Friday we did not go to the abortion mill due to sickness in the family. Instead we stayed home and watched the End Abortion Now conference. The conference was good and ended with a day at the abortion mill in Tempe. The speakers were: Jon Barros, John Speed, Jeff Durbin, Zachary Conover, Sherri Pierce, and Rusty Thomas. You can probably watch the videos on the Apologia Radio facebook page.
I did not listen to all of the sessions but the title of Jeff Durbin's talk, Overcoming Objections sounds like a good one. You may remember that Apologia posted a video of a Planned Parenthood supporter that they refuted. I still love Jeff's response when someone says that it is "just a fetus." "Feel free to speak English here!" The question and answer session was good, complete with jokes about reformed theology which always adds great fun to the mix! Discussions came up about women doing abortion ministry alone, disarming when going to the abortion mill, the doctrines of Grace, (hence the reformed theology jokes,) and more. I would encourage you to listen to the videos if you have not already.
One thing that came up that we have thought about as a family is whether or not to press charges on someone who assaults you when doing ministry. We think that based upon the principal in the Old Testament of killing an ox that is known to gore, if someone attacks you when you are preaching shouldn't you then press charges so that justice is served. Also if someone walks up to a street preacher and punches them and the preacher does not press charges, the person may decide to go and punch any other preacher that he sees with whom he disagrees. Isn't that like knowing that an ox is known to gore and not putting up a fence to keep it in or killing it so that it can not gore anyone else? Yes, we should forgive them, but God is also a God of justice. If anyone has some Scripture that speaks to this issue I would love to hear your thoughts. Just a few thoughts that have come up in our family in discussions about this.
Brian and Tabitha Ingalls were able to go to the End Abortion Now conference so Pro-life Missionaries of Maine was represented along with I think 27 other states. The videos of how many people were at the abortion mill was amazing. Brian said that they were expecting about 200 Planned Parenthood supporters but I do not know how many actually showed up. Another thing in the videos was how far away from Planned Parenthood the End Abortion Now people had to stand. In Portland we can stand within 2 feet of the door and we can easily walk up the sidewalk talking to women who are going in. We need no bullhorns or speakers and can easily project our voices for anything that we are doing which is a huge blessing. I do have to say a couple of people from our group can project their voices really well, such as Daddy, Brian and Robert Gray. There is no need for an amp when those guys are preaching! Some people from around the abortion mill do not like that fact but it is great that we do not need to get permits and such to use amplification. It is a great place to do abortion ministry because of how close you can get to the building and also the women going in can see you and see how much you love them which may be harder to do when you are farther away having to use a megaphone to talk to them.
Today, Rusty Thomas and I think 10 other people were arrested for interposition on behalf of the preborn. The article I saw did not say what the charges were so I do not know what exactly happened. There are pictures here. Just the other day Jon Barros said that someone was thinking about doing something illegal and with this happening today I would assume that is what he was talking about.
We are not involved with Operation Rescue/ Operation Save America and did not endorse their actions. I know that there is a time to obey God rather than men, but that time is when man tells you to disobey God. Romans 13 says that we are to obey the governing authorities. Going to the abortion mill is a great ministry and there is a way to do that without breaking the law. It is not wrong to disobey the authorities if they tell you that you cannot preach such as with Peter and John in the New Testament. But there are certain things that the authorities have made laws about where we must obey. There are ways to protest abortion and to save babies without breaking the law.
Again I do not know what exactly happened with Rusty Thomas and the others who were arrested but we need to make sure that we are doing God's will and not disobeying God when He has told to be subject to the governing authorities. I know that sometimes the police are unjust and you may get in trouble even though you did not do anything wrong such as when Brian was taken to court for preaching, but if you do something that you know to be illegal you can expect that you will get in trouble with law enforcement. We just finished discussing this in 1 Peter in our nightly worship time as a family, and Daddy talked us through many objections and circumstances that might come up.We all must continue to seek God's guidance and pray for wisdom to show us when we are to obey the law of man and when it is just to disobey the law of man. Please pray for those that were arrested today that they would seek God and act according to His will.
Our family is considering going to Augusta to do abortion ministry at the mill there in addition to our ministry in Portland and Rockland. The abortion mill there is purposely very hard to get to. It is on a side street and the abortion mill itself has a berm and a gate so you cannot get near it and people going in can't hear you without amplification. You cannot get anywhere near the door thus making it difficult to talk to the women but you can stand on the corner going to the abortion mill so that the people coming in will still see your signs.
There is a Catholic man named Ron who when we met him had been there in Augusta every week for 42 years. He was 82 years old! I do not know if anyone else does ministry there, but Ron said that people have said to him " This is your baby. I was going in there, (the abortion mill) and saw you and your signs and decided not to." So his ministry is effective in saving babies. The other nice thing about being there with Ron is that since we will not be able to talk to people much we can witness to him while doing the abortion ministry and maybe God will save him while we work to save babies.
We have stood outside the abortion mill in Augusta once when there was a planned event for pro-lifers but we have not been there to hold signs on a normal week. The one week we were there someone did call the cops but everything turned out fine. There were I think 86 people there which may not seem like a big group to some, but here in Maine that is a good size crowd. We have less than 30 people on a good day in Portland. Regardless of the amount of churches in the Portland area there are not many people that come to stand outside the abortion mill to protect babies and to share the Gospel. Please pray that God would raise up more people who are willing to come out and share the Gospel with the lost people of this world! If anyone has any information on the Augusta abortion mill that would be useful for us as we consider going there we would appreciate it.
We should be going to the abortion mill in Portland next Friday as long as no one in the family is sick. We are getting new signs printed and should be able to pick them up Friday morning and use them at the abortion mill.
Prayer
Please be praying for Nabeel Qureshi, a christian apologist and speaker. He has terminal cancer and the doctors have given him almost zero chance of survival. Please pray that if it is God's will he will heal Nabeel.
Please pray for Mike Stockwell and Mike Overd as they are going to appeal their case next month. Pray that they would be acquitted of any false charges that have been placed against them. Pray that the men would be strengthened in their faith through this trial and that God would be glorified through them.
With love in the Lord,
Virginia
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