Day 18 - praying with strangers

A stranger with a familiar name emailed, expressing interest in attending the vigil at the abortion clinic in Kensington.
Nervously, i said i'd pick her up in the Silver Fox (our pet name for our 12 passenger van) and we'd go together... Her family is new to the city - still getting settled, not even in their own home yet - & here she was - ready to dig in & plant her feet behind what she believed in.



Juanita and Caroline



We talked and we prayed - talked again... & then stood in silence - praying and thinking our own prayers and thoughts as we stood looking across the street at that unobtrusive building... We watched taxi drivers pick up the women who had come alone.  We watched mothers enter with their daughters, and men with their girlfriends or wives.  i was reminded how in labour, i begged Neil to advocate for me because, i said, "it's too hard for a woman to advocate for herself in labour... we need someone to speak for us when we are so vulnerable and weak..."
i couldn't help but feel that these women were too vulnerable to be making this horrifying decision - they needed those around them who loved them - to help them to choose better... in their fear and hurt.  But instead, they were being shepherded into a building that brought death - and their decision so quickly made in a matter of days or weeks - would last forever. 
Of course Caroline was there too - and so i grabbed a couple of pictures of them together so i could show you... what it looks like to join this vigil and pray for an end to abortion in our city. 
Does it look like something you could do? 
i realized as we finished our hour and i asked her if we could say the Lord's Prayer together - that she's not a stranger after all... She's sister to me - a daughter of the King... and we can come before Him together to make our plea - and there is a strength that is drawn as we join together and ask for something that we know is good and right...

Father, in Calgary Alberta - bring an end to the horror of abortion...