The next 40 Days for Life campaign begins on Wednesday, September 25. In New Hampshire, kickoff events will be on Sunday, September 22 in Greenland and Manchester.
Greenland’s event on the 22nd will begin at 2 p.m. with speakers Maria of Rachel’s Vineyard post abortive healing, Susan RN of Abortion Pill Reversal Rescue Hotline, and Jackie McCoy, Campaign Coordinator. Expect light refreshments and fellowship. Location is outside Joan G. Lovering Center, 559 Portsmouth Avenue in Greenland. Please park only in the unpaved parking lot adjacent to the Greenland Town Offices. Meet on the grassy area in front of Greenland Town Offices. Rain or shine event! Dress accordingly.
At 3 p.m. on the 22nd, Manchester’s campaign will kick off in Montminy Hall at Ste. Marie Church in Manchester with a screening of the film “Unplanned.”
40 Days for Life is “an internationally coordinated 40-day campaign that aims to end abortion locally through prayer and fasting, community outreach, and a peaceful all-day vigil in front of abortion businesses.” In New Hampshire, a typical prayer vigil runs from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Anyone committed to the 40 Days for Life Statement of Peace can sign up for a vigil hour, either one-time or recurring, at a campaign’s web site. For Manchester, go to https://www.40daysforlife.com/manchester. For Greenland, go to https://www.40daysforlife.com/greenland. Each of those sites contains a vigil calendar, event calendar, and local contact information.
Here are a few quick items from the New Hampshire Knights of Columbus 2019 Pro-Life Seminar, with a tip of my cap to Ron DiStasio and his organizational team.
St. Gianna’s Place
Three years ago, a dedicated group of Granite Staters began raising money and planning for a southern New Hampshire shelter for pregnant women in need of housing and other services. Last month, volunteers worked to renovate the former St. John parish rectory in Hudson, which is being converted to St. Gianna’s Place. Next month, applications for the first two residents will be considered.
Dennis Pedley of the St. Gianna’s board gave us this long-awaited good news. He also reminded us about the benefit banquet for St. Gianna’s, coming up on May 1 at the Executive Court in Manchester. See stgiannasplace.org for more information.
40 Days for Life
Sheila and Lisa of Manchester 40DFL accepted signups for the last two weeks of the current campaign, with all who accept the 40DFL Statement of Peace welcome to participate. Need signs, prayer partners, or more information? Look up your local campaign at 40daysforlife.com.
photo by Ellen Kolb
East Africa Charitable Projects Fund
Nick Monroe, a Knight from Newport, is one of the leaders of this charitable fund, founded in New Hampshire in 2014. Working with partners in Rwanda, Uganda, and Kenya, the fund supports educational, charitable, and faith-based projects. Learn more at eacpf.wordpress.com.
CareNet of Manchester/Nashua Gets a New Name
CareNet has been serving Manchester and Nashua for many years. The ministry’s name is changing: Real Options is the new label, but it’s still a CareNet affiliate. The Manchester office is moving a block away from its longtime location on Bridge Street, to 25 Lowell Street.
Save the dates for the Real Options Walks for Life: May 4 at Veteran’s Park in Manchester, and May 11 at Greeley Park in Nashua.
Our Place and “Love Prevails”
For more than 30 years, Karen Munsell has been the force behind Catholic Charities’s Our Place, providing help to pregnant and parenting teens and young adults. She reported that the program is going strong in Nashua and Manchester.
She also gave us news about a newly-published book by Jean Bosco Rutagengwa, “Love Prevails.” The author and his wife (who works at Our Place) are refugees from Rwanda, and the book is subtitled “One Couple’s Story of Faith and Survival in the Rwandan Genocide.” As Karen reminded us, “genocide is a life issue.” I’m looking forward to reading the book, published by Orbis and available on Amazon.
Etc.
This is only a sample of the people providing good information at the seminar. Make a calendar note to look for the 2020 edition next spring.
I got a few minutes of mic time – thank you, Ron – to promote a couple of projects: this blog (which turns seven this month; we need a party!), and something I’m doing with a colleague from Cornerstone Action, Concord 101, a two-hour introduction to New Hampshire government and how citizens can participate most effectively. That initiative will take me to about half a dozen towns over the next few weeks, and I’m looking forward to it.
The next 40 Days for Life campaign begins March 6. This peaceful pro-life witness will take place in more than 400 cities, including three in New Hampshire.
Right now, weeks before the campaign begins, you can support it. I don’t mean with donations, although those are always welcome for things like signs and event refreshments. I don’t mean signing up for a vigil hour- at least not yet, because I’ll surely be appealing to you for that very shortly.
What you can do today is help spread the word, particularly within your faith community. 40DFL is informed by Christian beliefs and practice, but all are welcome who share the 40DFL mission. If you…
respect the right to life,
are committed to peaceful action to make abortion unthinkable, and
are either unfamiliar with 40DFL or aren’t sure how to introduce it to pro-life friends and neighbors,
…then what you can do right now is invite someone from your local 40 Days for Life team to meet with you or your group. It could be for a one-on-one chat over coffee. It might be a brief introduction during a church committee meeting, or a 15-minute presentation to a room full of people. Maybe you have a podcast or public-access program; would you like to have a segment about 40DFL?
Just drop us a line. I’m blessed to be working with the Manchester organizing team, but you could also contact teams in Concord or Greenland.
“The 40-day campaign tracks Biblical history, where God used 40-day periods to transform individuals, communities … and the entire world. From Noah in the flood to Moses on the mountain to the disciples after Christ’s resurrection, it is clear that God sees the transformative value of His people accepting and meeting a 40-day challenge.” — from 40daysforlife.com
A New Year’s toast: to life! Thank you to the readers who have sustained Leaven for the Loaf, and thank you to everyone whose pro-life work has kept me inspired and challenged all along the way. Join me now as I pack away some artifacts of the year just ended.
The Posts
It’s a mixed bag of topics for the most-viewed posts of 2018.
CareNet: John Oliver Gets It Wrong About Pregnancy Centers. When a late-night TV personality used his platform to criticize pro-life pregnancy care centers, CareNet’s CEO wasted no time setting him straight, with a video offering a positive response to a hostile report.
Gosnell: Film Review. In the hands of an inept screenwriter or the wrong director, this true-crime story could have gone badly awry. The makers of Gosnell got it right. The film will be coming to on-demand video and DVD in early 2019.
But Wait, There’s More. This was a brief report on an ill-advised bill that would have nullified New Hampshire’s parental notification law. The House later killed the bill.
Trust Women, You Say? Start Here. Coverage of January’s hearing on a bill, HB 1707, that would have established comprehensive informed consent requirements for abortion.
A Genteel Rant on Party Unity. In which I’m reminded (yet again) that political-party-linked activism is not always helpful in building a culture of life.
Abortion Statistics: “Inexpedient to Legislate.” “Two hundred [N.H.] legislators voted like people who are afraid of evidence-based public health policy and afraid of political retribution from abortion providers.” Another statistics bill has been introduced for 2019.
Slamming Shut a Doorway to Assisted Suicide. A state senator let slip that her proposed study committee on end-of-life issues was actually a path to an assisted suicide law. Her fellow senators took her at her word and killed her bill. A similar bill is on the way for the coming legislative session.
Why I’m Voting No on Question 2. A ballot question about adding a “privacy” amendment to the state constitution passed, not long after I posted this cautionary message. Time will tell if my concerns had merit.
I reported from the state and national Marches for Life in 2018, and I plan to do the same in 2019. On January 12, less than two weeks from now, you can attend any portion of the day-long program of events that accompany the march in Concord. The March for Life in Washington will be held the following Friday, January 18.
2018 brought two more 40 Days for Life campaigns. The next one is coming up in a little over a month, and you’ll be hearing more from me about that in the coming days.
I went to St. Louis, Missouri for the third annual Pro-Life Women’s Conference last June. The first PLWC in 2016 was organized by Abby Johnson and the team at And Then There Were None. Since then, the conference has grown to include a diverse group of speakers and attendees guaranteed to broaden the horizons of anyone working in the pro-life movement. For just one example, read the message from one of this year’s featured speakers, Savannah Marten: “We find the tables we need to be sitting at.”
The next Pro-Life Women’s Conference is scheduled for June 2019 in New Orleans. I’m already saving my pennies for it. Check out the event’s web site; you might want to make the trip, too.
Best Short Video: “Desperate Measures”
For media in 2018, the Gosnell film is in a class by itself. For short video, I was glad to find and share “Desperate Measures” by Sidewalk Advocates for Life. Featuring former abortion workers who are now committed pro-lifers, the video is a direct response to recent sit-ins and “rescues” at abortion facilities. The message is don’t do it – and here’s the better way to carry out peaceful pro-life witness.
Looking Ahead
I’ll be back at the State House to report on 2019 legislation including buffer zone repeal, abortion statistics, and death penalty repeal. I’ll venture to claim that since 2012, no other New Hampshire blog has covered life-issue bills in Concord to the extent attempted by this little enterprise called Leaven for the Loaf. I aim to keep it going.
When my travels lead me to inspirational people and places, you’ll hear about them.
Over a year ago, I had intended to publish an anthology of Leaven posts – and I’m glad I didn’t! The manuscript was not ready for prime time. In 2019, on a much more modest scale than first envisioned, the anthology will be ready.
As longtime readers will have noticed, Facebook and Twitter became significant extensions of the blog in 2018, especially during coverage of marches and conferences. If you’re not following those social media feeds yet, I invite you to do so.
I ask my readers’ indulgence as I shamelessly swipe something from the latest update out of 40 Days for Life in Greenland, New Hampshire.
…I also got an update about the women from the Correctional Center who pray for our Greenland 40 Days for Life Efforts. The Godmother to one of the women forwarded my 40DFL email in which I mentioned the women and their prayer support of our local 40 DFL efforts. The women were very encouraged by the connection they have to something outside their walls-the 40 Days for Life Greenland vigil!
Wow.
No one is beyond prayer, and no one is beyond joining in prayer.
Of course, the fellowship from the women in the correctional center means that someone talked to at least one of them about 40 Days for Life and its peaceful witness against abortion, and that person talked to others, and so on. It started with one person.
Might you be such a person? Are there people in your life who don’t yet know about 40 Days for Life? You never know whose heart may be ready to respond.
There’s still time to join in the fall campaign, which runs through Sunday, November 4. Learn more at 40daysforlife.com, and click on the green button that says “find a campaign” to find the one nearest you.
40 Days for Life team, Greenland New Hampshire, February 2016. Photo by Don Mudge.
Leaven for the Loaf 
