If you are a Christian who loves Jesus & loves people; who wants to reach out to people who would never visit your church, or crisis pregnancy center or listen to Christian radio, getting involved in petitioning for the Personhood Amendment will give you opportunities.
Every time people go out petitioning, we hear stories back of opportunities God provides for them to do more than just gather signatures. You meet post abortive parents; people considering abortion; people who don't know the Lord who need to hear of the loveliness of Christ; people who would like to get involved in caring for foster kids or adopting who don't know how.
One week, in two days we met a lady who knew of three young kids in foster care who needed a home and were able to introduce them to families who were willing to help -- then were given the opportunity to witness/ offer help to three different hurting young people in a two hour period while petitioning.
Perhaps one story will illustrate this :
Several weeks ago, Cal Zastrow, Caleb Gilbert, & some of the Riley Kids were petitioning at Ole Miss.
Cal approached a well dressed man in his late 20’s / early 30’s . Cal asked him, if he wanted to sign a pro-life petition.
The man told Cal : “It’s interesting that you should ask me this today. My wife and I have always considered ourselves pro-life, but we have an abortion scheduled for Saturday.”
Cal, no longer merely a pro-life petitioner, but an Ambassador of Christ with an opportunity to minister to a need, spent some time talking with him & asking him what the problem was.
The man told Cal that the baby had a severe brain stem defect & almost certainly would not survive long after the birth. Cal was able to minister to him, to talk with him about the sovereignty of God; the love of Christ; the humanity of his unborn child; the pain that he & his wife would suffer if they went through with the abortion as opposed to the blessing of trusting God and protecting his wife & child until the child’s natural death.
We prayed for him that night. I wish I could report that we know that these troubled young parents changed their minds, but we do not.
What we do know is that Cal would have never gotten this Gospel opportunity; this. “Divine Appointment” had he not been out petitioning or been involved in another way (like through sidewalk counseling minstry or working at a CPC).
Another thing that we know is that while the Personhood effort in Colorado did not win at the ballot box, the process has had an amazing eternal impact on the state. Consider, that the Crisis Pregnancy Centers in the state had their clients, volunteers, and donations go up dramatically during/ after the petition process & election. And at the same time, Planned Parenthood has seen the number of abortions drop dramatically (reportedly to less than half) during the same people. And check out the amazing work God is doing there through the church with kids in foster care .
If you, your family, or your church have a desire to be used by God to minister to those in need and to speak the peace & truth of the Gospel to desperate souls, one way to find opportunities ( and “Divine Appointments”) could be to get actively involved in helping Personhood Mississippi’s Petitioning Efforts.
Call (662)-760-8695 or e-mail personhoodmississippi@gmail.com to get involved
