Lori and I just returned from picking up the venerable green van from its 40 Days for Life station in the parking lot at Holy Trinity.  We stopped for one last time of prayer to close the vigil.  As we prayed the rosary a man in a passing car rolled down his window and braved a cold wind to give us a shouted message as he passed us in the dark.  I could not discern the first part, but he ended with “No one cares a !?&#.” I thought, “How fitting and true his message is!”  THIS is why we stand vigil, because NO ONE CARES for these children – the least of these, our unborn brothers and sisters.  We must pray, fast, stand vigil, sacrifice, work, inform, and educate — UNTIL EVERYONE DOES CARE.

BTW – If you have a sec and want to checkout some really imaginative fiction about the Bremerton vigil, go to the Emily X website and read the October 30th post.  We can only hope when they say, “…some women who need our services don’t come here because they’re intimidated by the protesters.” that women have indeed been deterred by our prayerful presence.

An appropriate metaphor for the pro-life message in this culture of death, the OLSOS Starlight Girls Choir provided a beautiful sound midst the cacophony of traffic in front of the Planned Parenthood abortion facility on Riddell Road in East Bremerton during the closing Victory Rally.

---

Many unborn Kitsap County residents were killed by the savage act of abortion during these past 40 days.  Hundreds of women, spouses, and boyfriends were deceived by Planned Parenthood regarding the true life affirming nature and meaning of human sexuality.  To the best of our knowledge none of the Riddell Road Planned Parenthood staff quit their jobs and joined the ranks of those working to offer true caring assistance to women who perceive their pregnancy as a personal crisis and their unborn children.  As witnessed in Kitsap Sun letters and blogs, and attested to by a lack of positive response to the K40DFL door-hanging campaign, little headway was made in soliciting action from a largely apathetic population that remains blinded by decades of lies and purposeful misinformation.

Where is victory in the midst of this apparent lack of progress?

Victory is first in the fact that those who participated in this great campaign have done the will of God.  We have stood against the tide of death and destruction that continues to rise in our society with every passing day.  And, we have invited our friends and neighbors to stand with us.  We don’t know and can’t know the actual impact of this campaign on the community.  Although we have no confirmation of babies being saved, many of us did witness long conversations and then departures from the PP parking lot on Wednesdays.  And, the statistic stands that about 25% of women scheduled for an abortion do not go through with it when one or more of us stand in prayerful presence at the abortion facility.  We are those who plant the seeds, and bring the water and sunshine to the fields.  For the most part we do not witness the harvest.  Finally, we must always keep in mind that God does not require us to be successful in all we do for Him – instead He requires us only to be faithful.  That we have been!

All of you who have participated in this first ever Autumn Kitsap 40 Days for Life are invited to continue to pray and stand in prayerful vigil for the unborn every Wednesday (the current abortion day) from November 4th through February 17th (Ash Wednesday), when the Spring 2010 Kitsap 40 Days for Life will begin.  Imagine the community impact this one day per week vigil will have if can but pack the Riddell Road right-of-way with the 35 to 40 who participated in the closing Victory Rally!