Brian Jenkins

Blessed New Year greetings to you!

We at the Quebec Life Coalition are blessed in both respects – wellness and eagerness. We are well because of the support you have shown us over the years and particularly in 2011. Thank you. We achieved our Christmas fundraising goal of $5000, thanks to your support. Also, your prayers buoyed us along.

We are also quite eager as we look towards 2012. Not only do we have our staple activities but new ones to boot. The accompanying newsletter will brief you about the former. As for the latter, 2012 will be remembered as the year we begin our sidewalk counselling program.

Sidewalk counselling

For those of you unfamiliar with this practice, allow me to introduce it briefly. Sidewalk counseling refers to being present outside an abortion facility – on the sidewalk, in order to plead with the woman thinking of aborting her child to reconsider.

There are two components. First, there is the greeter. This person stands near the entrance of the clinic, attentive of the pedestrian traffic, trying to spot a girl heading to the clinic for an appointment. On doing so, approaches her to suggest alternatives to having an abortion.

The second component is the prayer. These typically stand a little off from the doorway of the mill, spending their time in quiet or soft prayer. These offer spiritual support for the greeter.

As many of us know, the role of the prayer mustn't me undervalued, as the following example will show. When I sidewalk counselled in the Bronx, I would arrive at around 6:45 a.m. outside the abortion mill because it would open its doors at 7 a.m. One particular morning, I followed my routine until 8:30 a.m. when my colleague Julie arrived to relieve me.

When I saw Julie next, she greeted me with a radiant smile. She explained that after I had left, a girl came out of the abortion facility telling her that she had decided to keep her child on basis of having seen me praying my rosary. You see while awaiting her turn, she had come out for a smoke. I was standing some ten yards away, oblivious to her presence. At that time, she spied me in quiet contemplative prayer. This sight was enough for her to reconsider and have a change in heart. So prayer cannot be undervalued.

Toll-Free Help-Line

This new ministry of sidewalk counselling dovetails well with another one of our new programs - the free phone line. Recall that this past October 2011, we introduced yet another manner in which we have come to the help of women in crisis pregnancy. Women seeking help are not only a phone call away from the assistance they are seeking but also get to speak with a live person. This number (1-855-871-4442) is a first in Quebec available only in French. (Birthright and others are available in English and have been for a while.)

So, these distraught women no longer need to scramble around to find help. From anywhere in the province, a single number connects them with a human operator who can answer their queries and allay any anxieties.

Examples of questions already fielded in the past few months include:

• Where to find lodging;
• Where to get financial support;
• Where to find local support; and
• Prayer petition.

Finally, sometimes the caller simply needs to speak to a sympathetic person.

So, as we hit the sidewalks of Montreal, this toll-free number dovetails well as the sidewalk greeter can pass this number on to the women who may need it.

Two new features

So, sidewalk counselling and a toll-free phone line, together we can help women crisis pregnancy before that they through with a decision that they will regret for the rest of their lives.

Many thanks for your continued support,

Brian Jenkins
Coordinator for English and Multicultural Community Outreach
Quebec Life Coalition 

Yes, I want to contribute to the work QLC will be doing for Life in 2011 ! Here's my New Year's donation, so that QLC can maintain and expand its activities in Montreal and in Quebec at large. To make an online donation:

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