Please forward to all pro-life Mississippians you know — we need help !
Please forgive me in advance if I am blunt and possibly a bit offensive. I do not mean to be accusitory. This is aimed as much at me as anyone.
I am rather passionate, as many of you know, about this issue. I am not discouraged, but I am a bit frustrated. This will be a little long & disjointed because it is/ was actually two e-mails that I started to send separately, but combined. The first part is urging you to get involved in the Pro-life/ Personhood effort & the second is a few prayer requests. If you do not have the time to read all this, please at least look at #6 under the prayer request & pray/ help as you feel led . . .
- Help Needed
A Referendum on US — Are we a People that Cares about Flags & Electoral Integrity, but don’t care about Dead Children, the Restoration of our Constitution, or the honor/ blessings of God ?
Mississippi is supposed to be one of the most pro life states in America. Getting 100,000 signatures to put a pro life measure on the ballot should be very doable.
(” The fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few”).
This is especially true when you consider that in 2000/ 2001 a rag tag bunch of Mississippians with no formal organization or money were able to collect enough signatures to get a measure on the ballot to protect our state flag. Do we care less about protecting babies ?!?!?
* For the record, I love the state flag & know that is stands for Christian liberty, but I would much rather live in a state that had an ugly, meaninless flag than a flag that represents honor & freedom while in reality it doesn’t exist **
While our little group has been striving & struggling to gather signatures, the Republican party has been quite efficiently collecting the signatures to get a voter ID measure on the ballot. Voter integrity is an important issue, but, again, do we care more about the right to vote than the right to life ?
Maybe the second comparison isn’t exactly fair. Unlike our little band working on the Personhood Amendment or the folks who pushed the “Save the Flag” effort, the people behind the voter ID initative have money & an existing statewide organization.
But, does our Father not own the cattle on a thousand hills ?
Does the Lord need an organization besides the Body of Christ ?
Is He limited on resources ?
Right now, many Mississippians are spending their summers & their money pursuing hobbies and entertainment with vigor. We can get thousands to show up to watch fireworks or listen to music or eat BBQ or otherwise be entertained. I like entertainment, but can we not give a little of our time & money for our unborn neighbors ?
We can get hundreds to come to an event to protest what’s going on in Washington with taxes, spending, and attacks on freedom. I dislike this as much as anyone — I have been involved in the Constitution Party/ freedom movement for two decades & even spoke at a TEA Party rally. But, God’s people not direct similar enthusiam towards protecting the rights of the unborn ? DO WE NOT KNOW THAT IF WE SILENTLY ALLOW THE SHEDDING OF INNOCENT BLOOD IN OUR LAND THAT JUDGEMENT WILL COME AND GOD WILL TAKE OUR MONEY AND OUR FREEDOM ?
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I bring all this up as a appeal for you, Mississippi Christian, to get more involved, directly, in the Mississippi Personhood Amendment. We need people to give their money, their time, or (preferably) both. Or we will not get this done.
We do have a number of people doing all they can to help, and I am very grateful for that. And I do not mean to diminish the efforts of anyone who’s done anything to help — or beat up on anyone who can’t/ doesn’t feel called (?). Please forgive me if I come off this way.
But, consider the above, plus the fact that we have collected a total of about $5500 in donations. Of this, $5000 came from Michael Peroutka, who lives in Maryland.
Mr. Peroutka has done well in business, but there are people in Mississippi who can afford to give, too. (even if it’s only $20).
We are getting very tight on time to get all the signatures in. The Lord is blessing our efforts and our help is growing — but too slowly. We need more people, collecting more signatures (and getting them turned in) more rapidly. We need a greater sense of urgency. If you are working on this thank you. We need to push really hard the rest of the summer. If you would, please pass this on to everyone who is helping you.
* Also, if you have signatures, could you mail what you have in or e-mail us a count — by county — of what you have ASAP. We are trying to get a handle on where we need help.
Below are seven very specific prayer needs. If cannot get involved personally or give you would, please pray for these and pass this on to people who you know are pro-life & who are lovers of Christ who will pray.
** If you want to pray for/ help one specific thing or only have time to read one short part of this, please look at number six below.
- Prayer needed
We have several big pushes going in the next week to ten days and a couple of other things that we need prayer for.
1) Jeff Chamblee is going to try (again) today to set up a meeting with Buddy Smith at AFA. Please pray that he will meet with me and that the Lord would grant me favor with him. If we could get AFA on board it would increase the likelihood (humanly speaking) that we will get done by Oct.1
2) A mailer is going out to 8800 pro-lifers in Mississippi this weekend & an advertisement is going in the Baptist Record (circulation 96000) next week. Please pray that God would burden many people’s hearts with this and that He would raise up people to help with the work.
3) Please pray for more laborers in the field, prosperity & protection for those working.
4) Misty Snyder & Sandy Morris are calling on churches in Meridian & Hattiesburg this week. Please pray that the Lord would bless their efforts.
5) The three big PR pushes we are doing the next ten days will eat up all of the donations we have received to this point. Please pray that the Lord would provide more resources as needed and that He would raise up people with a desire to give financially if they are unable to help in other ways.
We especially need folks from Mississippi to give more (even in small increments). The bulk of our total donations (about 90%) has come from one person — out-of-state. And Personhood USA has kicked in thousands indirectly by paying for things as they were needed.
6) On a related note, please pray for the Zastrow family & the two people below who have been working on this full time. They are doing this as volunteers and have asked us for nothing (actually, they have given of their own resources).
Please pray that the Lord would meet their needs physically & bless them spiritually as they do this work.
And, if anyone wants to pray for someone specifically — or help meet the physical needs of someone who is loving God & loving their neighbors here in Mississippi, please consider Candice & Caty. They two young ladies working full time on gathering signatures and witnessing at the abortion clinic in Jackson.
These two girls are both from relatively poor Christian families. They want to be wives & mothers, but believe this is what God would have them do at this point in their lives. They are living out of their savings & driving an old junky car. Serving & working full time on behalf of their unborn neighbors these young girls are giving up their youth, their entertainment, their abilities and their talents — full time. And, they have asked for nothing but a place to sleep when they are in various towns around the state petitioning.
Last week, our metro Jackson coordinator, Cal, called & said the one of them whose car they were using had run into a major repair bill on the car ( more than it was worth). They bought a used car they could pay cash for & one of the girls took all the money she had been saving since childhood for college to buy this car so they could keep petitioning & witnessing at the abortion clinic in Jackson.
Cal told them he didn’t think they should do that & the girl said that this was what God had called her to do at this point in her life & she was honored to give all she had for Him.
If you would like to give something to help this girl pay for this car — or to help buy gas/ meals for them, please send a donation to Personhood Mississippi with a note that you want it to go specifically for this.
3095 Big Hill Rd
Ponototc, Mississippi 38863
* Also, if you are unable to go out petitioning yourself, and would like to offer a hot meal, a place to sleep, or some Christian fellowship/ a place to rest to anyone who is traveling the state working on this, please let me know.
7) Finally, a personal one. working on this has put a major financial strain on my family — while at the same time, my income at work has been reduced drastically. I really do not know how we are going to get this done and make it through the winter (when my income as a tractor salesman is non existent).
And I have pushed my wife and ten kids really hard (they are doing more work, more cheerfully, with less sleep/money than I would have dreamed possible)
Please pray that the Lord would continue to provide for our needs (particularly the pressing ones)
Thank you
Again, we need your help if we are going to make this happen
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“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19
Personhood Mississippi
Les Riley Sponsor
662-760-8695
personhoodmississippi@gmail.com
http://personhoodmississippi.com
