The witness of the Roman collar

The following from my 40 Days for Life friends arrived in my inbox recently:

We’ve been out there every day for the last 13 days doing what we do ─ with nothing to show for it ─ except to offer up our prayers and effort to God – until today!

The Roman Collar carries deep meaning for many, almost always evoking a reaction of some sort.  It is a sign of God’s chosen ones to a pastoral ministry.  It evokes emotion, respect, and hopefully turns one’s thoughts to Jesus Christ.  Today, Father Yamid Blanco joined us on the sidewalks with two of his parishioners from St. Francis Borgia – Cedarburg.  All priests have an open invitation to join us at any time – but they are human, just like us!  Most normal people just don’t wake up and say, “I think I’ll go down to the abortion mill to pray today.”  Most people who show up down here were personally invited – me included.  To say I like having priests join us in this spiritual battle is AN UNDERSTATEMENT!  We prayed, talked, counseled and then prayed some more.  Murphy’s Law took effect and they left just before things really started happening on the sidewalks of Farwell.  Here’s what took place.

I was counseling Natasia as she left the abortion mill.  I was asking her all the usual questions – How are you doing – Are you going to be ok – How is your baby doing – all of that.  At 12:06pm, Natasia shared with me that she wasn’t going through with the abortion.  I asked her, “What changed your mind?”  She said, “I just didn’t want to go through the procedure – it kindof’ scared me.”  I said, “Well, it’s a good thing you listened to your God-given intuition – this is a dangerous place.”  Just as I was telling her about the Women’s Care Center, another pair of women walked came outside and walked right between Natasia and me, saying, “Are their services still free – even though we came here first?”  I didn’t want to be rude to Natasia, so I backed up a bit and started talking to all of them and said, “Yes, of course they are!  Free today, tomorrow, next week – get over there and see for yourself!  Why don’t all of you go over there together, right now?!” I asked them what was going on, and they too shared with me that they were going to keep their baby.  Now, I was really curious, so I asked them as well, “What made you change your mind?”  They said, “We saw that young priest when we came in.  We were raised Catholic, but don’t really go to church anymore.  He made us think about what we were about to do.”  I said, “Really?!  What did Father Yamid say to you that made you change your mind?”  She replied, “He didn’t say anything!  He was just standing there praying the rosary with the blonde lady and her kid.”  Still curious, I said, “Did Tobey, the blonde lady, say anything to you?”  She replied, “Yeah, she did, but it was mostly seeing the priest – he looked so happy.”  I then told them what parish he was at if they ever wanted to talk to him someday.  They said, “Cool, thanks!”

If you’ve ever witnessed Tobey at work down here, you know just how focused she is – an excellent sidewalk counselor.  As excellent she is, she was trumped by a man of the cloth, who did nothing more than stand there and pray with his Roman collar in full view.  I’ve always known that someday a priest would be the reason someone turned away from abortion down here at the mill – and today it happened.  All praise, honor and glory be to Jesus Christ!  Thanks, Jesus!  Thanks, Father Yamid!  Thanks, Tobey!  Thanks, Creed!  Thanks, John!  Thanks, Jim!  Thanks, Tom!  Thanks, Missionaries to the PreBorn!  That’s right!  With Christ working through only seven people today, two lives were spared!

Tobey’s love for Christ really shines through in everything she does.  Join her and 2,500 other women from all over Wisconsin at the Women of Christ conference on November 3rd, 2012.  It is always a very moving, faith-filled day.  Get your tickets early – the last few years have ALWAYS sold out! 

TWO HUNDRED ELEVEN babies have been saved from abortion – that we know of!  Here are the running totals:  133-211-1.  133 saved during the last four 40DFL campaigns, 211 total since 8.3.2010 – and one post-abortive mom saved from suicide through this ministry.

See you out there.

Through Christ,

Dan Miller
40 Days for Life