Activity Reports

Two Reports Below Posted 5/21/2010

Latimore Road - May 14, 2010

10:00 a.m. We had just heard the bells tolling the hour from a church a couple blocks away. Rev. Mike Warren and I had been there a little over an hour. The “signals” today were predominately negative. As we were walking near the entrance (also exit - only one driveway) a gray van suddenly pulled up next to us, facing the wrong way on the street. The driver wanted to see our signs. Mike’s sign said “ABORTION EXPLOITS WOMEN” and mine said “THEY”RE KILLING BABIES HERE”. His first question was who is killing, to which I replied the abortion clinic in there. He then commented that we were men, that we had no say in the matter. Mike tried to explain that about half of the babies killed were female, but he wasn’t really listening.

He then tried the “what ifs.” What if a 16 year old is raped by some scumbag? We tried to explain that certainly there are some hard cases, but again he wasn’t really listening. Suddenly he put the car in park and got out. In quickly assessing the situation I noted that he was about Mike’s height and my weight. He looked to be in pretty good physical condition. As he got out his said “Do you know how many people I’ve killed?” Obviously a rhetorical question, we decided not to go there.

He again started with the “what if” question. We were both pretty sure he was going to hit me - he seemed to object to my sign more than Mike’s. Mike then emphasized that killing is wrong, and brought in our only authority, the Word of God. The guy quoted the commandment “thou shall not kill.” Mike clarified - it means not to murder. The guy then repeated “thou shall not kill.”

Then he said, “BUT … what about the 13 year old rape victim coming in who sees your sign and thinks it is wrong.”

Mike - “It is wrong.”

Man - “But … there is no but … what you’re doing is right. There is no but.”

He then got back in his car and said “but … there is no but.” And he drove away.

Strong Memorial/Golisano Children’s Hospital May 15th 2010

Things are heating up during our weekly outreaches at The University of Rochester Medical Center A.K.A. Strong Memorial Hospital. Three our of the last four outreaches have been met with some vocal opposition and a police or security presence. Since the National Day of Prayer, we have had some focused time at Strong, especially at the employee entrance. The police have visited us twice and we have seen the administration paying closer attention. At the same time we have gotten numerous positive comments from staff, even words of thanks.

Saturday, May 15 was extremely interesting. As Jerry and I were preparing to leave a black woman took offense to one of our signs and began to loudly accuse us of being racists. It was the sign that declares, "Stop Black Genocide". She confessed she had seen our outreach at the hospital a number of times and finally felt she need to stop and say something. She strongly felt that we needed to have a balanced approach. A sign regarding white genocide should be displayed, too. As we tried to explain the statistics and the fact that the abortion industry is targeting minority children she got more and more incensed. As she loudly declared her offense, she began to prophesy and accuse us of "smoking" and being hypocrites, now there were some bystanders and employees smoking on break on the sidewalk so she may have assumed they were with us. As I asked her to help us her whole demeanor changed. She got very self righteous and defensive and louder.

She then asked how many homeless do we help and began to tout all her good works. She clothes the homeless, she feeds the hungry. I declared that's wonderful how about helping us stop this killing. Why not help us? Where is your church can we visit your pastor? These comments just made her shout all the louder, and by now was out of her vehicle a few feet from us.

I asked, "Is your volume supposed to be an indication of your righteousness? We are trying to have a discussion here and I'm not deaf."

Then she tipped her hand as she continued. "You people" she said, "You people are biased and need to stop what you are doing." Jerry countered, "You people? Who’s the racist here?"

Religious people are the most difficult to reach and actually the most dangerous, to themselves and others. It was the religious that crucified the Lord Jesus Christ. By this time security came by and asked her name and then that tracked us down as walked back to our vehicles a few blocks away.

The security guard asked for our ID, instead we gave them our business card and told them, you already know who we are. We will be back next Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday, if you need to contact us. The pot is being stirred at Strong Hospital.