Hi everyone.
The last few days have been filled with ministry mostly regarding abortion but every day had a different group of people with very different views yet all claiming to be pro-life.
On Wednesday Daddy got home from work and decided to go to Rockland to hold some gospel signs. Daddy started counting how many cars went by and about 1,200 cars went by which means probably 2,000 people saw the gospel signs in about an hour. With the size of the town of Rockland that is a huge number!
On Thursday we went to the Maine Family Planning in Augusta. There is a large presence of pro-life people there that come in throughout the day. They are there from 8 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon every Thursday which is when they do abortions. They are mostly Catholic. At that abortion mill you can not stand next to the door like we can in Portland. The mill is on Gabriel Drive which is kind of ironic considering they are murdering babies on a street that has the same name as the angel that announced the birth of Christ. The group that is there has gotten permission to put signs up right outside the entrance since it is within 30 feet of the center line of the road and also down at the street corner. They sit across the street praying. Sadly their prayers are not being heard since they are praying to dead people instead of the living God.
The people there did not know whether or not we could use amplification for preaching. I am currently trying to figure out with the police if it would be okay to use an amp there. Most of the signs that the Catholic group has are related to abortion. How often RU486 fails so that you then have to have a surgical abortion which means you have to pay twice to kill one baby. Other signs link abortion to breast cancer. They have graphic signs and signs that say Planned Parenthood sells baby body parts and "Defund Planned Parenthood". The signs do address abortion and there have been many babies saved but these do not deal with the root of this atrocity. At the abortion mill in Portland we do have signs "BABIES ARE MURDERED HERE" and "LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL", but we preach the Gospel. We know that abortion is a huge issue in our day and age but the root of the problem is that people are sinners in rebellion against God. The answer to ending abortion is to preach the Gospel!
I know that some people will probably disagree with me when I state that Catholics who believe the doctrine of their church are not saved. I say this because they believe that their works contribute to their salvation and that is heresy. They are often more faithful to go out to the abortion mill than Christians are because they believe it earns them favor with God. We do agree on some things such as the need to end abortion but they have a different Gospel and that needs to be addressed. Ron, who is one of the men there, said that we have the same morality but we do not believe in the same God so we do not have the same standard for morality. They believe that they have to work to earn their salvation thus saying that Christ's sacrifice was not enough to pay for our sins. This is not just a pet doctrine this is an issue of a false Gospel! We may continue to go to Augusta to do ministry at the abortion mill but we want to proclaim the true Gospel and not just hold signs about how much abortion costs and what diseases it may cause. These women need to know that not only are there physical consequences from having an abortion but much more there are spiritual consequences. They will have to stand before God having murdered their own child that He gave as a gift to love and cherish. That far exceeds any physical consequences.
On Friday we went to Portland for our usual abortion ministry. We have not been there for awhile since we were sick last time we were supposed to go, so it was nice to be able to be there again and to see people. There may have even been a baby saved. A couple stopped and talked to Jeremy and Donna. They said they were going for birth control but Donna does not think that was right from some things that happened while they were talking. They ended up not going into Planned Parenthood though. They heard the Gospel and I do not know what all happened but I would love it if God chose to save this couple.
Not much else happened on Friday besides the usual response we get when we preach the Gospel. The officer did not do much for either side. Sometimes the officer is more sympathetic to us and one stands opening the door to Planned Parenthood but sometimes the officers are like the one this week and they mostly just stand there doing nothing. Sadly they are just standing there doing nothing instead of enforcing the justice due to the murder of children that is taking place under their watch. Please continue to pray for these officers.
After the abortion ministry we went to a local park and had lunch with Donna, her family, some of her friends and Marguerite and James. We had a great time together with lots of fellowship with our family in Christ.
On Saturday we went to the Care Net walk for life. We did not walk as it would have been difficult for Mommy to walk the whole distance. We went to the street corner near where they were gathering for the walk and held signs. We had a few people who disagreed with us and one man screamed at us from across the street but thankfully the man's wife controlled him before he came across the street and did anything else. He said that we were self righteous hypocrites. The thing is we were are not self righteous we are sinners saved by the grace of God we have no righteousness of our own but clothed in His righteousness alone. I do not think the man was interested in listening to what we had to say though.
We had a great talk with one of our friends that was there for the walk. We have known them for a long time and they are a great family. They used to be missionaries in the Czech Republic and now their daughter and son-in-law have a church there in the Czech. Recently their son-in-law actually got to translate for Paul Washer on his recent trip there. He also used to be a student of James White who is also going to the Czech soon.
{This post was written within a few days of the Care Net walk. I have now edited this post because when I wrote it some things were misunderstood by me but we have now been given new information and I do not want to include false views in my writing. It seemed at the day of the Care Net walk that we were being avoided by those putting on the walk, we have recently received a letter that changes our perspective. Today, June 9th, we received a letter from the board of directors of Care Net. They made a formal apology and explained that they did not change the route to offend us or to separate themselves from us as fellow followers of Christ. They told the walk volunteer that was standing near us to move away from us because the man across the street was yelling at us and they thought it would be safer if their volunteer move away from us. (The volunteer was probably 10 years old or so and was there with her mother.) They also said that they are joined with Care Net international and they have guidelines that say no signs are allowed in the walk except the Care Net banner. They also redirected the path around us again because Camden police had said that they must stay on the sidewalk and where we were standing there would not have been enough room for us and the walkers so they moved for safety reasons. They welcomed us to come and walk with them next year and apologized for seeming to avoid us. They also asked forgiveness for not approaching us and discussing this on the day it happened. This letter was signed by six members of the board. I commend Care Net for writing this letter and seeking to make restoration. May we all learn from their example.}
I did get to talk to some people that were there for the walk. I put together a couple questions for people to answer. I talked to one of the people on the board of directors of Care Net. He agreed that abortion was murder but when asked what the punishment should be for a women who has an abortion he said that "the abortion is punishment enough". The thing is no one would say that if someone murdered a 3 month old, "Well having to live with the guilt of murdering someone is punishment enough". Another person said that they had not thought about it but that it should be jail or prison since it was murder. Most people were okay with Christians standing outside abortion mills and sharing the Gospel with women going in but no one said that they were doing it themselves. I hope it caused some people to think about what they believe.
If you could be praying we will be meeting with our representative, David Miramant, at the capital next month. June 1st is home school day at the capital where the home school families from around the state get together and have a rally and a day of getting to get to know each other. I am hoping to talk to Mr. Miramant about abortion which may be interesting. Daddy has written to him before so I know where he stands on the issue but that is not going to stop me from trying. Please pray that it all goes well.
Prayer
Please be praying for Sye Ten Bruggencate as he just made the announcement that he is in a relationship with Kimberly May! Kimberly's husband Cody died in January. They had just recently moved to Texas with their seven children when Cody died. I have not been able to meet either one of them but we are all very excited for both of them! Pray that God would give them wisdom as they figure out what they should do as there are many logistics to figure out as they are living in different countries right now and there are some things that need to be figured out as Sye is the full time caretaker for his mother. I am so happy for both of them and hope that God shows them what to do. Please pray for them.
With love in the Lord,
Virginia
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