Standing Strong When Others Ridicule or Oppose Us

Anyone who does not take up his cross
and follow me cannot be my disciple.
—Luke 14:27

It is not very easy to be His disciple. Normally, I would drop off a supply box by about 9 am; but on Wednesdays, it varied. Wednesdays are sooo busy that it was probably becoming rather an unpleasant burden for me.

I barely posted a prayer request on behalf of Elaina on Facebook, when she called me, in her concerned voice with some effort to contain her emotion, "Schola, could you please pray and perhaps post on Facebook? There is a girl who is waiting for the PP to open and she is with a man who seems like her boyfriend. She seems very distressed..." Elaina also mentioned that there seems to be a big staff meeting all morning when she arrived at 10 am; that's why they'll open at noon or so.

According to their website, they were to open at 12:30 pm and for a while they opened at the scheduled time on Wednesdays, until two weeks ago: Elaina noticed that they opened before 10 am! and PP was BUSY! as most of Wednesdays have been for a while.

I didn't even make it to 5 pm vigil that I signed up; hoping that others would be there. I received a text message from Hennie at 5:45 pm, "Afternoon was very busy today. Glad I was there..." When I eventually arrived at 6:30 pm, I was glad to see Mike who has been there for an hour.

PP was still open and the parking lot showed a trace of how busy it was: a couple of cars were double-parked against the north fence of the parking lot, next to the dumpster.

I was praying in front of PP sign near eastern end of their driveway while holding a 40 Days for Life sign, that read, "Pray to End Abortion". Then all of a sudden, a young man in a black hooded sweatshirt and jeans of rather slender frame and about 5'10" suddenly appeared yelling and grabbed our yard sign staked on the sidewalk and tossed it across the street on 32nd; then he grabbed my signs off my car (from front and rear windows) and tossed one towards me and the other further east across the street.

I couldn't believe it! By the time he grabbed 2nd sign, I called 911 and asked for his name. Without answering my question, he continued to say foul things, i.e. f#@*ing Jesus... (Perhaps it's a good thing that I don't recall or understand exactly what he was yelling; but I remember clearly hearing a deep anger in his voice.) Meanwhile, his female friend, at first seemed to enjoy it; then she seemed a little concerned.

Then they continued walking south on Hoyt. I grabbed my camera (should had it in my pocket!) from car and took photos of where signs were thrown and tried to take photo of them; but it was too late. I picked up the signs before they'd be run over by cars. By then my husband arrived; and he didn't think it was a good idea to call police, who should take care of more urgent matters than what just happened.

Well, I felt threatened and I was all alone. I still think it was the right thing to do. Had I not been on the phone, the man would have stayed around and who knows what more harm/damage he would have done.

I felt bad for possibly causing unnecessary inconvenience to 911 line and to the Everett Police; so I called 911 again to apologize. The lady on the other line asked me if I wanted to cancel my report; so I said, "no, I want to make sure that you are aware that there is a man who did not seem very safe." By the time I got off the phone, a female officer's police car arrived; so I explained to her what happened. It was about 7:15 pm; the officer thought it would be too late to locate the man, but she patrolled southward. Just as she returned, a man in a black hooded sweater of similar stature, but difficult to verify in dusk, approached the intersection and waved his hand; officer quickly asked me if he was the man and went around to meet him before he reached Pacific. So I quickly followed after the man north on Hoyt, and was able to verify that it wasn't the man.

The officer confirmed that I have my right to exercise my freedom of speech and of religion, etc. And she commended me for my courage to stand up for my belief. I thanked her and reiterated that we are not judging anyone; instead, we are merely witnessing to the Truth that life is precious from the moment of conception in a peaceful, lawful, and prayerful way.

I also shared with her my frustration of seeing rambunctious/intolerant/obnoxious/nosy/swearing/offensive/immature/indignant/disrespectful approach that many of so-called those "defending" PP. If anyone wants to defend PP, why can't they approach us in a more courteous way?! We welcome dialogue - without foul language and attack on our dignity and our right. Sticking out middle finger is not a mature approach. Yelling incomprehensible foul language is not an acceptable approach.

Dear Jesus, please forgive them, for they know not what they are doing. Amen. Please help them to soften their hardened angry hearts to see the truth; for the Truth will indeed set them free. Amen.