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Dear Friends, It’s not too late to sign up for our counselor training with Elizabeth McClung! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity! So please take the time to joins us! You could be the voice that saves an innocent life! CLICK HERE to sign up! Can’t make it Saturday contact us at lifefront@sbcglobal.net to get involved!
The coordinators luncheon has been postponed to a later date! We hope you will join us for our Counselor Training on February 11th!
“Elizabeth McClung is the Executive Director of the Austin Coalition for Life. When she moved to Austin in November of 2008, Elizabeth started working for State Senator Steve Ogden. Elizabeth was the campaign director during the five 40 Days for Life campaigns here in Austin. Bringing the knowledge she gained in pro-life work in Bryan-College Station, Elizabeth is organizing a dedicated and faithful base of pro-life activists into an effective instrument of change. “Elizabeth left her job with Sen. Ogden in the fall of 2009, making a prayerful decision to gather the pro-life energy in Central Texas and form the Austin Coalition for Life. The mission of the Austin Coalition for Life is to end abortion in Austin, TX….peacefully and prayerfully. With a simple mission, the focus is on maintaining a prayerful presence at the local abortion facilities. Volunteers come to peacefully pray and some even become trained as Sidewalk Counselors to compassionately offer alternatives to women before they enter the abortion facility. After the Austin Coalition for Life was in the works, Elizabeth got some life-changing news from Bryan/College Station. Long years of praying in front of the Planned Parenthood in Bryan led to something truly miraculous. Abby Johnson, the former director of the Bryan Planned Parenthood, was one of the people Elizabeth spoke to through the fence. She often told Abby of prayers for her, and constantly reached out through the iron fence which separated the pro-lifers from the abortion facility. In October of 2009, Abby was made to help in the abortion procedure of a 13 week old fetus. After watching the procedure on the ultrasound machine, Abby finally decided to quit. She contacted Elizabeth immediately to tell her thank you for the prayers and helping to encourage her in Christ. It was the prayer card Elizabeth once gave Abby that helped give Abby the strength to leave her job. Since leading the ground-level pro-life work in Austin, Texas, Elizabeth has begun an organization that truly is ending abortion in a city that so desperately needs a culture of life. The Austin Coalition for Life has seen 108 women turn around and chose life for children they were going to abort (which makes 110 babies saved since two women were pregnant with twins), over 70 churches unite for the cause of life, and raised awareness about the injustice of abortion through substantial media coverage. In addition to her local work in Austin, Elizabeth has traveled across the country training pro-lifers to be confident and compassionate Sidewalk Counselors using the effective model the Austin Coalition for Life uses: North Dakota, Arkansas, Missouri, Washington, and Ohio. Elizabeth is the face and the voice of the pro-life movement in Austin, Texas. A guest on local radio shows, a frequent speaker at churches, university campuses and conferences, Elizabeth continues to shape the pro-life message as one of peaceful and compassionate outreach. Through her leadership the Austin Coalition for Life has gotten off to a strong start. Because of the dedication of young vibrant leaders like Elizabeth, the pro-life movement is touching hearts, changing minds, and saving lives.” To join Elizabeth and the LifeFront Team click on the link below Click here to view our flyer!
Or click here to sign up online. Thank you… I arrived at the abortion mill all set to offer up a morning in the cold to save a life. When I got there, a car had already parked in the Planned Parenthood lot. There were four teenagers inside. They were young, and it hurt to see them there. With their windows up and it being so cold out I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to talk to them until they got out to walk inside. So I set up the speaker, took my place on the sidewalk and waited. Just as I heard their doors open and they started to head inside, a couple of cars slowed to turn into the lot. So I turned to offer them our literature if they would stop. They didn’t. And by the time I turned back around, the teenagers were already inside. Not long after they went in, they came back out. But there were only three of them this time. They didn’t stop to talk to me when I tried to flag them down. They just dropped their friend off inside and they left. Moments like that make the sidewalk feel really, really cold. And I was standing there on my square of the sidewalk, shivering and very tempted to just go home after such a rough start when I heard some noise behind me. I turned around to see a group of women walking toward me on the sidewalk. We said hello, and they turned toward the abortion mill and started to pray. It’s hard to describe what I felt just then without sounding pretty darn corny. But when you’re alone on the front lines, in the dark and cold, feeling defeated, and someone else comes to stand with you…well, it just doesn’t feel quite so cold. None of the cars stopped to talk to me this morning. I didn’t see anyone turn around. I was ignored when I picked up the microphone and tried to talk to people over the speaker. But I wasn’t alone on that sidewalk. And that knowledge was enough to keep me going this morning. So to those women who stood with me in the cold – thank you! And to our other prayer warriors…if you have ever wondered if it really matters if you go out to the sidewalk to pray or just stay at home where its warm….it does. You’re not just a witness to the mother’s whose babies you help to save. You’re a witness to us as well. Thank you. Erin PS: I promise to keep extra hand warmers with me on the sidewalk this winter for anyone who comes out to pray. See you on the sidewalk! LifeFront will be bringing a very special guest to Kansas City to train sidewalk counselors! Mark your calendar for Febuary11th and look for details soon! If you don’t receive our newsletters via email please check them out online: YOU can help save lives! From September 28th-November 6th, our community will be one of many joining together for a faith-filled, groundbreaking, coordinated pro-life mobilization — 40 Days for Life. 40 Days for Life is a focused pro-life effort that consists of:
We are praying that, with God’s help, this groundbreaking effort will mark the beginning of the end of abortion in our city — and throughout America. Take a stand for life While all aspects of 40 Days for Life are crucial in our effort to end abortion, the most visible component is the peaceful prayer vigil outside the local abortion (or Planned Parenthood) facility. You can help make a life-saving impact by joining our local vigil at: You can park in the lot across the street from the clinic. The entrance has a sign that says Integrity on it. It has parking spaces that face the clinic. I do have some signs that you can borrow. They are the ones we use for the Life Chain. Please do not park in Planned Parenthood parking lot. Sign up to participate in the Overland Park 40 Days for Life vigil by Clicking Here or View the Schedule Contact us To learn more, sign up for specific vigil hours, or let us know how you feel called to serve God in this effort, please contact the local 40 Days for Life leadership team: Sandeia (DeeDee) Sadarangani Get the latest updates Be sure to sign-up for updates and prayer requests using the form at the top right of this page, and browse through the rest of this site to find out how YOU can help make a lifesaving impact as part of our local 40 Days for Life campaign. Learn more about the national 40 Days for Life campaign. Sidewalk counseling training for older teens (juniors and seniors, 17 and up) at St. Thomas Aquinas High School coming in October. Details are forthcoming… By Jessica Langdon KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Ask Jennifer Widhalm if it’s convenient to stand outside an abortion clinic during a sweltering Kansas City summer or on a bone-chilling day in the deep freeze of winter, and she’ll say it’s not. But ask her if it’s worth it, and she will tell you in a heartbeat: absolutely. Every time she hears a mother say she changed her mind and didn’t have an abortion, she has no doubt she’s right where she’s supposed to be. “It’s really indescribable,” Widhalm said of learning about a mother’s change of heart. “You have to experience it for yourself.” Widhalm is cofounder and president of LifeFront, a ministry with a two-fold mission — to pray peacefully outside Planned Parenthood and to do sidewalk counseling with people who are there for abortions. Widhalm presented information to local teens on purity and on Planned Parenthood during the first Truth Illuminated Teen Pro-Life Boot Camp in June. LifeFront, a grass-roots mission, builds on a foundation in the pro-life movement that Widhalm says she learned from her mother. “If we’re going to be anywhere as a people of life, we have to be at the darkest place . . . accompany these children in their last moments and offer their mothers one last choice,” she said. LifeFront places volunteers outside the place where abortions take place. The mission started in 2007 when Widhalm and friend Justin Nelson, who is a seminarian of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas, decided that, for Lent, they were going to pray at Planned Parenthood in Overland Park. When they arrived, they were horrified to find that two men were the only people out there. They wanted to see a much stronger pro-life presence. “Our goal is to be out there every hour they are open for business,” Widhalm said. “We are very far from that goal.” One misconception people often have is that it is too controversial and it involves screaming at people. That’s not what it’s about, she said. A major goal is to get information into the women’s hands to let them know things they’re not likely to find out inside. “We tell them abortion is not safe,” Widhalm said. Some of the efforts involve sharing information over a loudspeaker to make sure the women going inside have every opportunity to hear from and talk to the volunteers. The LifeFront representatives want to know what brought the mothers to this place, why they think they can’t have this baby. People often think the volunteers care only about the babies and don’t think about the mothers. Widhalm said that also isn’t true. “You can’t care for one without caring about the other,” she said. “We’ll help her. We’ll stay by her. . . . We’ve had baby showers for a couple of women.” One that holds a special place in Widhalm’s heart is a little girl she calls “our Valentine’s baby,” because that was the day in 2009 the mother changed her mind and chose life instead of abortion. Widhalm went to a couple of doctor’s appointments to offer support and help during her pregnancy. “I got to go to the hospital the day after our Valentine’s baby was born and hold her,” she said. The feeling of holding a baby who would not be here if a different choice had been made “is amazing,” said Widhalm. She went to the little girl’s baptism this past year. A lot of people also believe the work is futile and are discouraged before they even try, said Widhalm. “My attitude is: ‘That’s the last chance,’” she said. “All you can do is make it better.” She thinks of the babies who have lost their lives and of the mothers who now say, “If I had known . . . If I had known . . . If I had known . . . ” She hopes more volunteers will add to the pro-life presence outside the clinic and help keep more women from one day living their lives thinking about what could have been different “if I had known.” LifeFront offers periodic training for people interested in sidewalk counseling. Widhalm encourages anyone even remotely interested in volunteering to attend the training. She also encourages anyone interested in LifeFront to contact her about opportunities to go through training or pray outside the clinic. LifeFront is excited to participate in the 1st Annual Truth Illuminated Teen Pro-Life Boot Camp! This one-of-a-kind event for teens age 14-18 will bring together pro-life leaders, priests, seminarians, and special guests to cover a full breadth of pro-life topics. Dynamic speaker and LifeFront founder Jennifer Widhalm will present about Planned Parenthood and Theology of the Body. All across our nation, it’s clear that youth are the becoming the leaders in the pro-life movement. Don’t miss this opportunity to join other teens in learning the fundamentals of what pro-life is all about, and find opportunities to get involved and make a difference in the pro-life movement! Don’t just take our word for it. Check out the event brochure and Diocese Boot Camp website or facebook page for more information and to learn how to register. The 3 day camp runs from June 2nd – 4th, and registration is open until April 30th! UPDATE: Registration has been extended through Mary 31st! On Fridays during Lent, we’d like to keep vigil with Jesus at the Cross — be present to these little ones as they suffer and die at Planned Parenthood during the hours of noon to 3 pm — the time Christ hung on the Cross. Sign up for an hour or three, or just show up. This works for any other day of the week as well, so don’t feel limited to Friday. If you don’t want to go alone, you can sign up when someone else will be out there. The account of the baby-save on January 22nd, 2011, as told by one of our dedicated sidewalk counselors: “Another life was spared at Planned Parenthood this morning! A woman in her mid 30’s pulled up in the drive. Her window wasn’t working so she just waved to me and continued to pull in without stopping. She pulled her car up to the parking space closest to the sidewalk. When she got out of her car I asked her if she would come down and talk to me for just a couple of seconds. She shook her head. I then proceeded to say “Please just come down it will only take a few seconds of your time.” She then walked down to the sidewalk. I told her my name and then said “I know this is a big decision. But I have talked to women who have had an abortion and every single one of them has regretted it.” She looked at me and said “I have had an abortion, at this Planned Parenthood, and I don’t regret it. And I’m just here to support a friend!” My heart sunk. What was I to say? At that moment the Holy Spirit took over. I looked her in the eyes and simply muttered “So you don’t miss your baby at all? You don’t miss the chance to be a mother? You want your friend to go through the same thing as you did?” She then took the information from me and walked in. My heart sunk again. I didn’t get through to her. I got down on my knees and begged and pleaded for God’s mercy. Please God change her heart! A few moments later she walked back out to her car, this time with tears in her eyes. She opened the car door, and for I moment I thought, This is it! She is going to leave. But just as soon as she opened that car door she shut it and walked back in to the killing place. Ten minutes passed and still nothing…fifteen…and still nothing. So on my knees I begged for God’s mercy. About 20 minutes later she came walking out with a huge smile on her face! She shouted to me “She’s going to keep it!” I motioned her back down to the sidewalk. She came and got more info from me and said that they had taken the other pamphlet I had given her when she went in. I told her I was so very happy for her and asked if I could do anything else to help. She said no and began walking back to her car. As she walked away I said “Will you tell me the name of your ‘friend’? She said “Jane!” Then I said “I’ll be praying for you Jane…”she turned and smiled. It was at that moment I realized, that this whole time the “friend” we were talking, about was really her. She was the one going in for the abortion….she was the one who was contemplating whether or not to have her child…she was the one who was already a mother …And it was at that moment that I knew God had truly answered my prayer and those of the pilgrims on their way to Washington D.C. Today a life was truly saved. For today we not only saved a child but we changed the heart of it’s mother…” ‘For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.’” *name has been changed for the privacy of those involved This year, September 11th was not only the 9th anniversary of the terrorist attack on America, but for me it marked the first time I joined some fellow seminarians for their monthly prayer at the Planned Parenthood abortion facility in Overland Park, KS. Although this was my first time praying in Overland Park, it was not the first time I had prayed outside an abortion clinic. In the past, I have participated in the 40 days for Life campaign as a shift coordinator in Green Bay, WI, and have prayed at Planned Parenthood in Appleton, WI, St. Paul, MN, and Washington DC. My experience at Overland Park was quite different than the others I’ve been to. I was used to being in a more public area, a major street in the city. I was used to being sworn at and hearing other expletives shouted. This was much different because it was on a side road where there was not much traffic. Another way this experience differed from the others was the presence of a sidewalk counselor; she attempted to give out free literature and spoke kind, gentle words from a mega phone, inviting the women entering the clinic to choose life. I was really struck when the passengers in a car that stopped in the driveway desired to continue the dialogue beyond the time the security guard was willing to give the sidewalk counselor. The car passed through the parking lot and came out to meet the lady on the street. In the ensuing 20 minutes, my prayers being offered as part of our 20 decade rosary intensified for the couple in the vehicle who were expressing their openness to life. In my mind, I was visualizing their truck shifting into drive and heading toward the stoplights—cancelling their appointment for an abortion. Unfortunately the truck did not do that, and after about 25 minutes of conversation, with literature in hand, the couple decided to pull into the parking lot of Planned Parenthood. I do not know what happened during their conversation with the sidewalk counselor. I do not know if they chose not to have an abortion. I do not know if they were able to make their appointment, considering their tardiness as a result of dialoguing about their child. What I do know is that the presence of 11 brother seminarians, 5 students from Rockhurst University in Kansas City, and another family who joined us, gave a testimony to the power of life. I pray that the Lord was able to touch their hearts and that they decided to seek out the help that was being offered to them in exchange for choosing life. I’ll never know what that family decided, but I know now both the power of our witness and the power of our prayer—as a result, this is a pro-life experience I’ll never forget. - Edward Looney is in his senior year at Conception Seminary College. He studies for the Diocese of Green Bay, WI. In 2007 he was awarded the Pro-Life Wisconsin Sharon Schumer Memorial Scholarship. Welcome to LifeFrontKC our website is brand new and we are still updating it with content. Please check back often to see new content and blog posts. Our focus is to peacefully stop the killing of babies in the Greater Kansas City Metro. |
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