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PROJECT 33 - 2005 IMPACTS THE CHURCH,
ROSEVILLE PASTORS AND THE COMMUNITY FOR LIFE
“Crosses for Losses”
Crosses
for losses was the headline in the Roseville newspaper after a reporter
came out to Foothill Community Church on January 17th to
document a scene of about 35 Christian men, women, teens and children who
gathered to put up a total of 927 crosses on the massive front lawn of the
church. Each
of the 900 white crosses represented 50,000 American abortion deaths since
the Roe VS. Wade decision on January 22, 1973. Do the math. Yes, 45
million little boys and girls, approximately one third or 33 percent (thus
Project 33) of the generation conceived after l973 were eliminated by
on-demand abortion. Twenty four red crosses, each representing 50,000
American losses in all of our wars beginning with our Revolution, about
1.2 million. were present. Three blue crosses, each representing 50,000
people lost in the recent Asian tsunami were also displayed. A large
lighted white wooden cross stood in the center of the field, surrounded by
the red crosses. A large banner at each end of the front of the memorial
boldly proclaimed the truth of the crosses to the thousands of commuters
who drive on Cirby Way going to or coming from the Interstate 80.
A
Local Church Joins the Battle for Life
When
I arrived at the church at 8:00 A.M., Pastor Jim Carmichael and Pastor
Rich Pierce, Foothill’s pastors, were already at work, staking out the
field for the string lines that would help to ensure the crosses were
lined up in a stately manner. Most of the other help arrived one hour
later and enthusiastically engaged in the work. Most of these folks had
never before participated in a prolife event but they had been well
prepared by their pastor, Jim Carmichael,
A
Pastor Teaching His Flock and is Not Running Away from the Issue
During
the weeks preceding the national Sanctity of Human Life Week, Pastor Jim
passionately brought the truth to his congregation about what the Bible
has to say about the shedding of innocent blood, bloodguilt, and the truth
about the Roe VS Wade Supreme Court decision that had ushered in the
killing of 45 million little girls and boys following the 1973 decision.
Pastor Jim squarely confronted our (the silent American church) complicity
in the abortion holocaust and called us to a real repentance, emphasizing
II Chronicles 7:14, noting that portion of the scripture which holds God’s
people responsible for turning away from their wicked ways before God will
heal the land. Compassion and duty towards the women who find themselves
in crisis pregnancies as well as the wounded post-abortive women and men
were stressed by Pastor Jim. Although Pastor Jim received some criticism
from a few for this truthful presentation, most of the congregation was
enthusiastic that Foothill was boldly joining Sohlnet and the Project 33
coalition in this meaningful work in our city.
Roseville’s
Pastors come Out for a Pastor’s Breakfast Meeting
Vision Presented – “Harder Truth” Viewed
During
our early planning for Project 33, it was decided that Pastor Jim would
write letters of invitations to all of the pastors of
Roseville and Rocklin area
churches, inviting them to participate in the Project 33 events. John
Stoos of Cherish California’s Children suggested that we sponsor a free
pastor’s breakfast in the weeks preceding the events and generously
volunteered that Cherish would fund this outreach.
On Jan 6th Foothill Church
volunteers put together a beautiful breakfast and 15 local pastors and
many accompanying staff attended the breakfast. Forty five in all,
including leadership from area prolife organizations attended. Pastor Jim
Carmichael and I both addressed the pastors with the vision of Project 33
in Roseville and our concerns to see the Roseville Church (all of the
local church working together) carry forth our Christian mandate to stand,
speak and act on behalf of our neighbors in the womb and to make a clear
declaration that the church of Roseville would not be silent any more. We
then gave them the opportunity to see the two videos, “Roe No More” and
“Harder Truth.”
There seemed to be
consensus that this project was worthy of promotion and would be effective
in reaching our community with the reality of just how tragic the abortion
holocaust has been.
Grieving
Moms, Students, Prayer Intercessors and Repentant Christians Visit The Abortion Memorial
By around 4:00 P.M. on Monday the memorial field of crosses memorializing our children, our
war veterans and the recent tsunami victims was complete. On Tuesday
about 15 college age youth
 from The Rock Church in
Roseville came together to the memorial and
spent time walking, kneeling and praying in the memorial. On the same
day, classes of fifth and sixth graders from a nearby Christian school
came to the memorial accompanied by their teacher who wanted them to
experience the memorial.
Other stories came
forth. A woman driving by the memorial with her three daughters, ages 21,
18 and 13 was so moved by the memorial that she pulled into the church
parking lot, stopped and admitted to her daughters for the first time,
that 22 years earlier, she had aborted her first child. She then
approached Sam, one of our Foothill host members and asked if they could
go out to the memorial and pray with him. Sam recounted how the five of
them walked through the crosses and then wept together as Sam wrapped his
arms around them, praying for God’s healing and grace to anoint them.
Throughout the week
women came to the memorial and requested that they be allowed to write the
names of their aborted children on the crosses. I saw about ten names on
crosses when we put them away.
While hosting the
memorial I witnessed a young woman pull into the parking lot and after
taking some of our literature, walk slowly into the middle of the massive
white cross memorial. I could see her weeping and wiping tears from her
face. When she came out I asked this young woman if I could speak and
pray with her. She thanked us for the memorial. She then shared how she
felt a powerful drawing to come to the memorial and pray as she was
driving by and taking her son to school. After dropping him off she
pulled into our parking lot and then told her own story of having aborted
her first child at age 16 when her parents and her boyfriend’s parents all
told her it was the “best thing to do.” She then shared how it was not
until she carried her next child that the terrible emotions of
post-abortion syndrome set in. I was able to pray and weep with this
woman.
Healing
Grief, anger, sorrow
must be addressed by the post-abortive woman or man to receive healing.
This memorial was an avenue for the prayerful release of grief, shame and
anger. Christians, especially pastors and teachers, I hope we will learn
that to suppress the truth about abortion for fear of causing these
emotions is a deception of the enemy. It is only when one will walk into
these past areas of grief that one has the opportunity to be healed.
Secondly, we must not withhold the truth of just how massive this
bloodshed has been and continues on. We ask you to encourage your pastors
to compassionately take the abortion issue out of the closet and darkness
into the healing light of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
A Few Dissents
There were other
stories including a few negative reactions from passersby and those who
called into the church office. Not so surprising, several negative calls
were submitted by persons identifying themselves as “born again”
Christians, active in their own churches. They had bought into the
deception, saying “We should not be hurting people with this kind of
display.”
Memorial
Service Packed Out
On Friday evening
January 21st, a standing room only crowd of about 300 attended
by Christians from multiple denominations packed into Foothill Community
Church. Pastor Jim and pastors
from five other area churches participated in leading scripture reading and prayer for our national
sins, our veterans and active soldiers, and the victims of the recent
tsunami.
The Foothill worship
team was awesome as the gathered followed them in declaring that America
the Beautiful, God shed His blood for thee.
Two post-abortive
women affiliated with the
Alternatives Pregnancy Resource Center gave moving testimonies of their
own abortion tragedies followed by the healing they had experience in
Jesus.
At the end of the
service men, women and children carried lit candles out onto the memorial
and surrounded the large centerpiece lighted cross in the middle of the
field. Sixty red roses were then laid at the foot of this cross by those
who wished to memorialize a lost child.
Project
Truth Street Proclamations near Abortion Mills
in Sacramento and Roseville. Genocide Awareness Project Photos Displayed
On
Saturday morning, January 22nd, the 32nd anniversary
of the Roe decision, about 70 Christians, most out on the street and next
to an abortion clinic for the first time, gathered first in prayer and
then in proclamation. The
abortion mill at that location, the Women’s Health Specialist Clinic had
decided to close for the day (hallelujah!) and the regular clinic escorts
(deathscorts) rallied on the street for counter-presence to the gathered
Christians. At first outnumbered by them, later arriving youth prolifers
from Teens for Life, Cornerstone Christian School and CA Life from Fresno,
swelled our numbers to about 70. Our presence was silence and we did not
engage those who opposed us. Our signs, including the very large Genocide
Awareness Project (GAP) signs were clearly seen by the thousands of
commuters passing by on Alta Arden Blvd. After one hour we ended with
prayer. A contingent of the pro-abortions crowd drew near as we prayed,
giving me a chance to confront them with the saving Good News of Jesus
Christ.
On
Sunrise Blvd. near Roseville Planned Parenthood
We
then caravanned to Roseville near the entrance to the Roseville Planned
Parenthood Clinic at 729 Sunrise Blvd. to again confront the deceptions of
“Choice” by publicly displaying the real pictures of the results of the
wrong “Choice.” We were joined at this location by additional local
Christians, including contingents from Foothill Church and more
Cornerstone youth and families. Others came from as far away as the
Sierra Range foothill communities.
Pastor Jim and Carol and Pastor Wayne Leigh joined us. Again we stood
quietly, this time opposed by only a few of the pro-abortion folks. One
teenager, looking to be about 13, stood with her parents holding a sign
saying that she was “almost aborted.” She was an adopted child saved after
her birth mother decided for life. I talked to a teen from far away
Irvine, CA who said she had been recruited into prolife activism through
the work of Jonathan Keller, our former Teens for Life president, now
working as the full time prolife leader of CA Life in Fresno, CA. Because
our proclamations are often misunderstood by Christians, two scriptures
citations giving Biblical reasons for our proclamation were displayed at
six locations in the long chain of prolife Christians strung out on
Sunrise Blvd. These two scriptures are Ephesians 5:11-12 and Ezekiel
22:1-4, both clearly instructing that evil and dark deeds must be exposed
and confronted with truth.
200
Attend Youth Rally – Inspired for Service
Following
the Project Truth on Sunrise Blvd., approximately 200 young people came
through the doors of Foothill Community Church eager to first eat some
pizza and then spend the next two and a half hours together. Worship and
prayer was led by the Cornerstone
Christian School Praise Band.
The program then moved into action, designed to move prolife young
people from a place just being prolife to a place of doing prolife. The
program was MC’d by Teens for Life President Andrew Nemy.
Megan
McPherson, 14 and Doris Pop, 13 gave testimonies of how they
and their school have participated in Project Truth and how meaningful
this prolife involvement has been to them and the school. Other speakers
included Jonathan Krieve, winner of the National Right To Life’s
Oratory contest, Tim Beuler, 17 the founder and president of High
School Conservative
Clubs of America, and
Jonathan Keller former president of Sacramento Teens For Life, and
the Youth Outreach Coordinator for the Right To Life of Central
California. Additional inspirational talks were given by Karen England
of the Capitol Resource Institute, John Ficker, Director of Teens
for Life and Craig Garby, Headmaster of Cornerstone Christian
School. Katie Milan, 18, gave a personal testimony concerning her
unwed pregnancy, the joy of her child, and how she as a well intentioned
Christian girl got into trouble by not sticking with the chastity vows she
had made earlier in her life.
How did we do? One
young attendee put it this way: “We were impressed that you not only
showed us the ways young people are making a difference for the unborn but
you gave us tools and showed us how we could do the same.” This has
been our objective from the start with Project 33 and we are hoping and
praying that the Lord will bring in a great harvest from the seed that was
planted.
MANY THANKS
I want
to thank all of you who put so much time and effort into this Project.
You are too many to name here and I would feel really bad to leave one of
you out. So, to the many many who worked so hard…THANKS – THANKS –
THANKS.
From Bud’s Desk
Does our reporting on
this year’s Project 33 give you hope? I certainly hope so. Young people
are waking up and getting pumped for Biblical activism. The church in
Roseville is coming alive for the unborn.. It is beginning to understand
that together we can begin the work that will prevail against ignorance
and apathy as well as the Planned Parenthoods who set up shop in our
cities.
I am encouraged by
the hundreds of new faces, primarily youth, who turned out for our Project
33 events. I interviewed some of them on the streets of Roseville while
standing up for the unborn on Sunrise Blvd near the Planned Parenthood.
The majority of these kids had never before stood on the street with a
sign, let alone graphic pictures that told the truth about the biggest lie
in their high schools called “choice.” Our Project 33 Youth Rally was
well attended. Dynamite young prolife Christian speakers told them how
they could impact their schools, communities and the nation. I believe we
will see these youth multiply. They are the mustard seed that will grow
into a large tree.
Adults as well were
moved to new involvement. A woman prayer intercessor from my church told
me that she now understands the abortion issue. She took the time to
listen to my explanations of bloodguilt; heard her pastor preach on it and
then moved on to get more grounded through the video “Massacre of
Innocence” and Troy Newman’s book “Their Blood Cries Out.” This woman
confessed to me while weeping, “I am sorry Bud because of my judgments. I
have always thought this issue was “your thing.” She related that she now
understood that it is God’s heart and that the revival she has so pressed
in for will not come without the church standing for life.
This past Thursday a
mom and her teen daughter drove to Roseville Planned Parenthood from
Benecia, CA to stand with us and learn
sidewalk counseling. She had attended our Project 33 Memorial and
participated with her 15 year old daughter in our other events. This mom
who had experienced two abortions before coming to Christ now wants to
start ministry at the Planned Parenthood in Vallejo, CA.
My pastor now shares
my belief that bloodguilt is the most significant block to genuine revival
and restoration in the church. He has gone way beyond being “prolife.”
He is believable because he is acting in very real ways to show that he is
in fact prolife. He has written to the pastors of
Roseville asking them to join
him at least once monthly for prayer and proclamation at the Roseville
Planned Parenthood. When he told me he was doing this I was so elated, I
kissed him (one the cheek folks). Friends, I believe that Godly pastors,
bold and courageous, filled with the Spirit, are the key to moving this
nation back to ending legal abortion and moving our culture toward justice
for all. Our concern for justice is a key to revival. “Zion will be
redeemed with justice, her penitent ones with righteousness.” (Isa 1:27)
“See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of
justice, righteousness used to dwell in her-but now murderers!” ( Isa
1:21) Let us not weary in our Christian responsibilities toward justice
for all.
Blessings to you all
until next time. We do appreciate and need your continued prayers
and financial support.
Bud Reeves
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NOTE: Our
story on Chantelle Gordon, promised to be in this issue will be in the
next issue. We are doing a baby shower for her on Saturday Feb. 26th
and we will use some pictures for the forthcoming story
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