Last night Claire and I had a terrific time as we drove 82 miles west to spend an evening with folks involved with Columbus Right to Life.We were invited out by Barb McPhillips, a genuine champion in the cause whom we've been blessed to know for many years. There were a few others there who we remembered from other times we've been in Columbus or whom we've met at the Walk for Life in Lincoln. But several we were privileged to meet for the first time.
I spoke about the history of Vital Signs Ministries, told a few stories about sidewalk counseling and creative protests, and outlined a few of our newer projects. It was a very informal, comfortable session with like-minded activists.
In our prayers on the way out we had asked the Lord to use us to encourage and, as the Scriptures put it, to "stimulate to love and good deeds" our pro-life colleagues there in the Columbus area AND to use them to bless, teach and encourage us too.
Well, I hope the former was realized but we can certainly affirm that the latter was -- for we were thrilled to hear how much this small, limited-resourced group is accomplishing for the pro-life movement. Whereas nearly all of the local pro-life groups that existed in the 1980s have gone out of existence altogether, this group in Columbus is turning out people for the Life Chain, organizing young people to attend the March for Life in Washington, conducting "field trips" to the abortion mill in Lincoln, doing pro-life literature drops, setting up information booths, creating a Facebook page, and a whole lot more.
They're doing a fantastic job.
And from their example, their stories and their comments about our ministries, we learned some valuable things. Emerging from these conversations, for instance, came ideas about how we can improve our YouTube video clips -- ideas that we will be implementing in the next couple of weeks. So it's for several, very practical reasons that we're glad we were in Columbus last night.
Thanks again, Barb, for the invitation. And thanks to the whole team there for the great job you're doing for the Lord and His "little ones."
