PersonhoodNow! Team Update
The Lord is richly blessing the PersonhoodNow! team. This past week, we met with Pastor Danny Hodges of Calvary Chapel St. Petersburg. He got on board with the growing personhood movement by inviting us to circulate petitions at each of the church services this coming week and the week after. Additionally, he made calls to a few of his friends who also became enthusiastic about working with us. Those people recommended that we meet with people that they knew, as well. It’s exciting to see the pro-life network expand throughout the Sunshine State!
We drove to downtown Clearwater to circulate the personhood petitions at the Smile Awareness Month event. All we had to do was smile at the event organizers and they gave us a smily face donut and coffee. The guys on the team were all over that! We then walked through the streets of the downtown petitioning. Something interesting about this experience was that the Church of Scientology has its national headquarters in downtown Clearwater. We had the opportunity to not only circulate the petition, but to also witness to these people who have been led astray.
We met with a local pro-life leader, Sol Pitchon. Mr. Pitchon has a great ministry that counsels pregnant mothers, aids needy families, and raises awareness about abortion alternatives. Mr. Pitchon gave a hearty endorsement of the amendment. He connected us with churches, denominational associations, and media networks. We’re looking forward to reaching even more people within the state with these leads.
On Saturday morning, we gathered signatures at a local farmer’s market. The event was going quite well until the event organizer confronted us. She told us that we were not allowed to circulate the petition and that we had to leave the (public) property. We graciously informed her that we had a right to circulate a petition on the public sidewalk. She proceeded to call the police. When the police arrived, he reiterated to all of us that we have the right to assemble on public property as well as speak to individuals about the plight of the unborn. We learned to not back down in the face of persecution, but to stand up for our God-given and Constitutionally-insured rights.
After a long week of petitioning (a week that was made much longer by our “friend” at the farmer’s market), we hit Treasure Island beach Saturday afternoon. It was nice to be able to relax and soak up the Florida sunshine for a few hours!
Sunday morning came sooner than usual, as we had to be at Madeira beach each in time for a 5:30 a.m. triathlon. It wasn’t easy getting up that early, but it was definitely worth the effort. We gathered many signatures from the early morning exercisers. One of the triathletes (and signer of our petition) was the sponsor of the Florida ultrasound bill two legislative sessions in a row. We had the opportunity to talk to him about how the personhood initiative strikes the heart of the abortion issue! The competitors as well as the event organizers were very receptive and easy to work with.
The day ended well quite splendidly. Our New Jersey girl, Kristen Au, arrived to join the team. After finishing up college courses and other ministry obligations, Kristen was able to fly to Florida to work with us full time. She is such a joy to work with and is an invaluable asset to the PersonhoodNow! team.
Thank you for all your support so far and we’ll be sending another update very shortly!
