Recently, Daniel Parks and I traveled to Seattle in response to an overwhelming pool of sidewalk outreach volunteers who signed up following a Love Life conference. 48 potential new volunteers showed up for our two-day Sidewalk outreach intensive class. It was exhilarating to look out over the faces of all those willing servants of the Lord! So many Christians were stepping out in faith to obey His call to be a voice for the voiceless at abortion centers!
The challenge of training nearly fifty people unfamiliar with Sidewalk Counseling was not insignificant. Both days of the training we took them to local abortion centers and showed them what Sidewalk outreach looks like. We also taught and guided practice in each of the major tasks of a sidewalk outreach team member. We watched as nearly fifty newbies went from terror and self-doubt to trying and successfully stopping cars, talking to abortion- determined moms, and calling out to people streaming in across the parking lot to enter Planned Parenthood. In one morning, our group gave out over 25 pieces of our literature and saw a baby saved from abortion!
The feedback was so encouraging, but one of my favorites was from a brand new volunteer. She said she was so excited to hear that no matter what the situation, sharing the truth of God and of the gospel should never be neglected. This is clearly the heart of Love Life. I was so happy that that was well communicated.
This Outreach Intensive involved mostly new volunteers who were not necessarily connected to Love Life. Most of them were not attending churches that had as yet become involved as Houses of Refuge with Love Life. They were people who had been convicted during the previous Love Life conference that they had to do something now to stem the horrific tide of abortion in their state.
Our hope is to continue to equip and encourage anyone who wants to become involved in Sidewalk Outreach. We are not territorial about our message, methods, or tools. We are eager to share with everyone who desires to be the Church and the hands and feet of Jesus. Our goal is to reach and help troubled families wherever they live who are considering abortion and to speak on behalf of their precious, vulnerable, unborn children.
“but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”
Ephesians 4:15-16