You Have Less Than 36 Hours Until the Campaign Begins in Earnest!

There are less than 36 hours until our 40 days of Peaceful Vigil, Prayer and Fasting, and Community Outreach begin! Please visit 40 Days for Life Alexandria online and sign up for an open vigil slot or two; put some Community Outreach events on your calendar; and pray without ceasing for an end to abortion in Alexandria and around the world.

Women deserve better than abortion - and babies have a right to life!

Our Fall Campaign Kicks Off This Sunday, Don't Miss It!

Just a reminder that the Alexandria 40 Days for Life Fall Campaign kicks off this Sunday! You are invited to attend our kickoff rally which will be held at St. John's Lutheran Church on Franconia Road in Alexandria from 3-4:30pm. Come join us and learn about opportunities to help save lives!

The rally will open with remarks from Sara Dina, our Campaign Director. Following this introduction, you will have the opportunity to enjoy light refreshments and meet members of our leadership team and other pro-life supporters to learn about how you can witness for life this fall in Alexandria.

Get geared up for the campaign by picking up pro-life literature, brochures, and signs at our information tables. Vigil Coordinators will be on hand to help you sign up for vigil hours. Our Community Outreach Coordinator will be eager to share with you how you can get involved in one of our many scheduled outreach events. For a sneak peek, check out the outreach schedule here.

If you have any questions about the rally, you may contact our Campaign Director.

We look forward to meeting you!

Pre-Campaign Community Outreach THIS FRIDAY at the King St. Metro

"An inconvenience is only an adventure wrongly considered, an adventure is an inconvenience rightly considered." - G.K. Chesterson

40 Days for Life Alexandria is having a pre-campaign Community Outreach event THIS FRIDAY, September 21st from 4:30-6:00 p.m. at the King St. Metro. Please come out and help educate Alexandria about the real "War on Women": abortion.

If you are shy and feel you're not ready to try an outreach and chat with people, then we have educational signs that you can hold while you stand and pray. If you feel a little more comfortable reaching out to people, then we have pro-life information that you can distribute to passersby. Whatever your comfort level, we have a Community Outreach job for you! Contact Susan at susan.40days@yahoo.com or 571-228-3571 if you have questions.

Yes, you have worked all week. Yes, Friday nights are your time to go out with family and friends. Yes, you haven't slept well lately and need rest. Yes, you are dealing with some major crises in your life and lots of smaller problems. Yes, ragweed has made its presence known and hot tea and a fresh box of tissues are beckoning you home.

Yes, all of these inconveniences are real, but worrying about bad things will not ensure that they won't happen; nor will it make the good things happen. We all know, even if we don't want to admit it, that you can't "catch up" on lost sleep. If Friday night is your time to go out with friends and family, then invite them along or push dinner back an hour. Consider those inconveniences rightly. Come join us this Friday for the 40 Days for Life pre-campaign Community Outreach and have the adventure of helping to save a life!

The Community Outreach Calendar Wants YOU!

Alexandria's 40 Days for Life Community Outreach

Fall 2012 Campaign - EVERY FRI. & SUN.

Pro-Life Community Outreach is exciting, rewarding and life-saving as we express the dignity of the human person from the inception of life. Be part of a peaceful, active and engaged group of pro-lifers dedicated to the conviction that human life is sacred and abortion must end. We put into action a desire to cooperate with God in carrying out His plan to end abortion in a 40-day period to transform individuals, communities and the world.

What We Do: We hold signs, pass out literature and talk to passersby. As a group, we pray and support each other. There is much camaraderie and the Holy Spirit is definitely present.

How to Get Involved: Meet at the locations shown below during the time frame given and stay any length of time that you can - 30 minutes, an hour, etc. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Susan at 571-228-3571 or via e-mail at susan.40days@yahoo.com.

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you..." (Jeremiah 1:5)

COMMUNITY OUTREACH SCHEDULE*

(Download a copy for your fridge here)

Day           Date       Time                  Location

Sun.          9/16        3-4:30 p.m.         Old Town Market Square (Fairfax & King)

Fri.            9/21        4:30-6 p.m.         King St. metro station

Fri.            9/28        4:30-6 p.m.         Braddock Rd. metro station

Sun.          9/30        3-4:30 p.m.         Old Town Market Square (Fairfax & King)

Fri.           10/5         4:30-6 p.m.         King St. metro station

Sun.         10/7         3-4:30 p.m.         Old Town Market Square (Fairfax & King)

Fri.           10/12       4:30-6 p.m.         Braddock Rd. metro station

Sun.         10/14       3-4:30 p.m.         Old Town Market Square (Fairfax & King)

Fri.           10/19      4:30-6 p.m.          King St. metro station

Sun.         10/21      3-4:30 p.m.          Old Town Market Square (Fairfax & King)

Fri.           10/26      4:30-6 p.m.          Braddock Rd. metro station

Sun.         10/28      3-4:30 p.m.          Old Town Market Square (Fairfax & King)

Fri.           11/2             4-5 p.m.           King St. metro station

Sun.         11/4        3-4:30 p.m.          Old Town Market Square (Fairfax & King)

Fri.           11/9             4-5 p.m.           Braddock Rd. metro station

*After the 40 Days for Life fall 2012 campaign, Pro-Life Community Outreaches will continue to be held every Friday.

Hearing on Virginia Abortion Clinic Regulations Tomorrow

This Friday is an important date for the real social justice movement in Virginia. The VA Department of Health will be convening to reconsider the abortion clinic regulations. As you may know, they attempted to exempt all of the existing abortion clinics from the new regulations. However, the Attorney General and the Governor rejected their proposal and they must now go back to the drawing board.

The meetings on reconsideration of the abortion clinic regulations are open to the public. The last meeting was filled with pro-death activists. This is a rare moment for pro-lifers to send a strong message to the Commonwealth of Virginia by showing up in unprecedented numbers. This may require a vacation day for some of you, but God calls His people to be a living sacrifice and sometimes that includes sacrificing the things we cherish most.

Hearing Date: Friday, September 14, 2012
Location: The Perimeter Center
                  9960 Maryland Drive
                  Richmond, VA 23233
Time: 7:30 a.m.

If you are interested in carpooling to provide a pro-life presence at this hearing, please contact Sara Dina at sara.40days@cox.net or Susan Pawlukiewicz at susan.40days@yahoo.com.

If you cannot attend this hearing, please take time to pray. "With God, all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26).

A Prolife Opportunity You May Want to Consider

Below is a prolife opportunity from ACTSFIVE29 that you may want to consider:

Stand Up for Religious Freedom

Of all the invitations you receive this year, this is the most urgent...

RSVP to save the America that you love!

SAVE RELIGIOUS FREEDOM!

Please join us September 29 through October 2, 2012, in front of the White House as we take a stand for freedom through an historic event called ActsFive29.

Just as Peter and the Apostles in Acts 5:29 declared to the authorities that they must obey God rather than man when it was illegal to preach about Jesus, our nation is faced with a similar attack on religious freedom.

With the recent Supreme Court ruling affirming the President's healthcare legislation, the future of religious freedom in America is in grave danger. This law will force institutions, churches and individuals -- that means you! -- to purchase abortion-inducing drugs, and pay for sterilization and abortion -- in direct opposition to our beliefs.

Now is the time to defend our religious freedoms and the lives of the most vulnerable U.S. citizens: the preborn!

For the first time in our nation's history, our president and government are forcing people to abandon their deeply held values and core beliefs. The government is dictating to Christians how we are to live our faith, replacing the teachings of Scripture, the Church, and our conscience by demanding that we bow down before their dictates.

Stand Up for Religious Freedom Day: Sunday, September 30!

We must send a powerful message to President Obama that we will never be silent when it comes to our religious freedoms and we will fight to ensure they are protected for future generations! As part of ActsFive29, we are gathering in Lafayette Park on Sunday, September 30 to celebrate our religious freedoms and liberties.

Below is the schedule:

10:00-11:30  A.M.    Evangelical Worship Service.

12:00-1:00    P.M.     Praying the Rosary led by Father Frank Pavone.

1:30-3:30      P.M.     Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally

3:30-4:30      P.M.     Prayer and public witness on the White House sidewalk.

The nearest Metro stops to the White House are: McPherson Square and Farragut North.

YES! I will stand for my freedom and for the freedom of those who cannot stand for themselves!

SIGN ME UP

ACTSFIVE29 PLEDGE

Benjamin Franklin said, "Freedom is not a gift bestowed upon us by other men, but a right that belongs to us by the laws of God and nature." President Obama's healthcare legislation will force people of faith and conscience to violate their deeply held values and core beliefs by submitting to unjust HHS mandates.

In response to this unprecedented attack on religious freedom, as people of mercy, justice and life, we pledge in our hearts never to comply with these immoral mandates. We want to make it clear to President Obama and all public officials that we will never be silent when it comes to matters of human rights, justice and our freedoms. We would rather spend time in jail than be forced into betraying our deeply held convictions.

Our message and pledge is simple yet powerful. We will be prayerful. We will be peaceful. But we will never comply! "We must obey God rather than men." Acts 5:29.

Commit to a Post-Labor Day Labor of Love!

Labor Day weekend provided many of us with an opportunity to relax and recharge our batteries. Perfect timing, for there is plenty of work to be done.  

Commit to a post-Labor Day labor of love!

40 Days for Life Alexandria invites you to commit to a post-Labor Day labor of love! Our fall campaign begins on September 26 and runs through November 4. 

The vigil calendars for our Duke and Whiting Street sites are up and ready to be filled with committed volunteers who will commit to a post-Labor Day labor of love and stand in peaceful, prayerful vigil for life at one or both sites during the fall campaign.                                                                                   

You can commit to the post-Labor Day labor of love by signing up at www.40daysforlife.com/alexandria/. Please come join 40 Days for Life Alexandria as we stand in prayerful vigil for the women and preborn children of Alexandria!

Event Reminders

1. The College Park 40 Days for Life is hosting sidewalk counseling training this weekend! On Saturday, September 8 from 1-4 p.m., Msgr. Phillip Reilly (founder of Helpers of God's Precious Infants) will conduct a sidewalk counseling/prayerful presence seminar in the Breen Room at St. Mary of the Mills Catholic Church, 14 St. Mary's Place, Laurel, MD 20707. Check out the flyer here.

If you have any questions about the training session, please contact Janice Oliver at 40daysforlifeMD@gmail.com or 301-518-3874.

2. This week's Pro-Life Community Outreach will be held at the Pentagon City Metro from 5-7 p.m. at the top of the escalators outside (across the street from the Fashion Centre Mall). Join us and hold a sign, pass out literature, and talk to people about the sanctity of life. You are welcome to stay whatever length of time you can. This is rewarding work and truly makes a difference!

For more information about our Pro-Life Community Outreach efforts, visit our Outreach page. You can also view upcoming Pro-Life Community Outreach events on our Events calendar.