Today, life is threatened. Today, you can make a difference.

Today a girl in our community woke up feeling nauseous and cried when she counted the days since her last period. Today a nurse placed an advanced care directive in front of a relatively healthy senior citizen and encouraged him to sign away his right to certain basic care. Today a couple who was happily pregnant was told that their baby has Down syndrome and that it would be irresponsible to let it be born. Today a woman is abusing drugs and alcohol because she can’t deal with the pain of knowing she had an abortion and hasn’t found God’s forgiveness.  Today a young man is telling his girlfriend that she’s ruining his life by having his baby and she’ll do anything not to lose him because she doesn’t feel like anyone else really loves her. Today a young man is in tears after finding out why he’s not going to be a father after all.

Today, God is giving you the chance to save a life. Maybe not single-handedly, but as part of a world-wide movement called 40 Days For Life. We are answering God’s call to be there for those in need through prayer, fasting and a seven-days-a-week physical presence outside the Planned Parenthood office in Cedar Falls. This isn’t an angry mob of protestors that you may envision. Groups of two or three, often families, commit to peaceful sidewalk prayer and only talk to the clinic’s clients if approached.

We don’t need people who know everything about abortion or other life issues. We don’t need people who are looking for confrontation. We don’t need people who are ‘without sin’ to cast stones. We just need people who care.

We’ve made a commitment to be there at least twelve hours each of the 40 days between September 24 and November 2. We’ve made a commitment to provide an experienced buddy for anyone who is new to sidewalk prayer. We’ve made a commitment to connect those in need to resources that will allow them to choose life.

Now it’s your turn to make a commitment. Could you be the one who tells that scared girl about Alternatives Crisis Pregnancy Center? Could you be the one who helps that girlfriend discover that she is loved today and always by our Savior? Could yours be the words that save a woman from a lifetime of regret and heartbreak and her child from an untimely death?  Can you spend just one hour a week for six weeks defending life in the Cedar Valley? Can you commend life issues to God in your daily prayers? It’s really not much, when you think about it, but to the tiny passengers those women carry into that clinic it could be, literally, everything. 

Please go to www.40DaysForLife.com to find your local 40 Days for Life group. If you're in the Cedar Valley, you can connect with our local group at 40-Days-For-Life-Cedar-Falls on Facebook.