Dear Gateway friends,

Below are three urgent needs at Gateway:

(1) Please pray for Diannia (Dee Dee) Stembridge,
(left) a faithful Tuesday Gateway counselor,who has come down with flu like symptoms. She had had a heart attack in May 2003.


(2) A dear Christian brother is now working in Baltimore at a ministry for troubled youth. He writes: "I just moved to the Baltimore area three weeks ago. We service children and adolescents for adoption, foster care, and who have been displaced from their families. An issue of inappropriate sexuality and its expression through acting out behaviors was discussed in a recent staff meeting. A suggested resource was the possibility contacting Planned Parenthood for a speaker.

Dean, you know my heart. XXXX is a Christian or faith based organization.The CEO committed his life to Christ while in foster care an desires that others in similar situations be reached with the Gospel. When I mentioned that PP was the antithesis of our mission, the response was redirecting me to the Program Director since he mentioned this possibility. This is something that I am willing to approach the Program Director but have the need for prayer and concrete materials for my presentation."

We are contacting local pregnancy centers in Baltimore to help these folks. Please pray that the Lord direct us to the proper CPC for a good Christian outreach to this group."
Thanks, Dean

(3) Geoff Jones, our dear brother in Christ:

Joan Vitale, our associate director writes:

"Our former male counselor, Geoff Jones, is undergoing another surgeryTuesday, April 18th at 8 am. Please pray for Geoff. Two years ago - May 3rd, Geoff had undergone hip replacement surgery and has suffered a stroke during that time.

He has been hospitalized for two years and has come a long way. I believe he needs surgery on his leg - the exact details I haven't been able to get but the Lord knows. Please lift him up in prayer."

Worth checking out.. the Urban Initiave, an article in CareNet magazine:

http://www.care-net.org/publications/cot/UrbanInitiative.pdf

GUESS WHAT'S COMING
UP ON MAY 20th.???

Walk for Life 2006

Walker Procedures and Walker Incentives

Walker Procedures

Signup as many people as you can, asking them for their name, address and telephone numbers.

Please print carefully. Ask the potential walkers to state a specific amount (there is no per mile amount)

Ask people other than those in church (teachers. Relatives, friends) because those in church probably have been already asked by others.

To get a free T-shirt a walker needs at least $150 in sponsorship. Make that your minimum goal.

INCENTIVES:

Amount raised Reward (cumulative)

$150 in sponsorship Free T-shirt

$350.00 $15 gift certificates to
Jesus Book and Gifts

$500.00 Dinner for 2 at a local restaurant


$1,000.00 “Surprise Gift” to be announced

Church Liaisons

Profile: The church liaison is the primary link between their church and Gateway. They are responsible for meeting with their pastor and seeing that the walk-a-thon is presented to the church. Then they are to help with the recruitment of walkers.

Main Task:

1. After an initial mailing by Gateway, any other items needed that can not be mailed are to be picked up and deliver to the church.

2. Meet with the pastor (if possible) and encourage him to attend as well. If he does walk, many more will be likely to walk.

3. As the pastor if he will share about the walk-a-thon, or schedule a speaker for a brief (5 minute) update and announcement.

4. As the church secretary to place the Walk-a-thon insert in the bulletin

5. Encourage 10-15 people (of all ages) to attend. Distribute the literature, possibly at a literature table in the back of the church

6. Talk to friends about walking.

7. Do a ‘creative pulpit announcement’ if possible

8. Ask to speak to the Sunday schools or youth group about the Walk

9. Remind people that they may walk two miles on another day should they be unable to make it on walk day.

10. Set a goal for themselves of $150 per walker in pledges

11. Call for extra sponsor forms or download them from www.gateway.org

12. Have a table in the back of the church for walk materials and registration.

The liaisons should do their best to inspire their walkers. The walkers need to be convinced that this is something they can do and will have fun in the process.

Walk for the Little Ones Sponsor Pledge Form

Walker’s name:________________________________________
Address:______________________________________________
Town: _____________________________Zip code___________
Telephone number with area code: ( ) _______________
Church /youth group___________________________________
Please print all information and circle pledge desired

First name __ Last name _______________________
Address__________________________________________________________________Apt# City ____________________________State____ Zip code __________ Tel#_______________________
Circle one $15 $20 $25 $50 $75 $100 Other $ ________________

First name __ Last name _______________________
Address__________________________________________________________________Apt# City ____________________________State____ Zip code __________ Tel#_______________________
Circle one $15 $20 $25 $50 $75 $100 Other $ ________________

First name __ Last name _______________________
Address__________________________________________________________________Apt# City ____________________________State____ Zip code __________ Tel#_______________________
Circle one $15 $20 $25 $50 $75 $100 Other $ ________________

First name __ Last name _______________________
Address__________________________________________________________________Apt# City ____________________________State____ Zip code __________ Tel#_______________________
Circle one $15 $20 $25 $50 $75 $100 Other $ ________________

First name __ Last name _______________________
Address__________________________________________________________________Apt# City ____________________________State____ Zip code __________ Tel#_______________________
Circle one $15 $20 $25 $50 $75 $100 Other $ ________________


Any questions, please call Dean at (973) 399-8378 or (908) 686-3086, email us at dean@gateway.org, or log on to www.gateway.org

Post abortion thoughts from Joan to our counselors

With the recent news of my client Lisa who chose abortion (see March 27, 2006 post) I felt that I wanted to share with the volunteers what I have experienced.. not only now, but also in the past, when a woman we have counseled with chooses to abort. Feel free to do with it as you choose.

Lean not on your own understanding. There are times at the center I have experienced sadness and a broken heart when I learned about a decision by one of my clients to have an abortion.

As a volunteer I want to let you know that you too are not alone if you have struggled with such stirring emotions.

When women we speak to at the center make a choice to abort it not only affects the client but at times it deeply wounds the volunteer who counseled and prayed for her. There's a bond that takes place with the client and her unborn baby, and the volunteer can experience some aspects of post abortion trauma.

So allow yourself permission to grieve and always remember that the Lord would want us to trust in Him in spite of the lost lives. There is also forgiveness that needs to take place as well.

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith of greater worth than gold, which perishes, even though refined by fire may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1st Peter 1:6-7

Having the sure confidence from the Word of God that the aborted child is with the Lord always brings such peace as you work through your grief and forgiveness. I have learned that being successful is found in obedience and humility not in the choices our clients make.

We must continue to love and speak the truth in love and leave the rest to the Lord. Often times I have been reminded of the verse of Scripture from Galatians 6:9 "Do not grow weary in well doing for in due time you will reap if you do not lose heart".

In His Service and Love,
Joan Vitale
March 28, 2006

America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response

The Abortion Side Invokes God, Too

Planned Parenthood Prayer Breakfast By Neela Banerjee / The New York Times

In any given week, if you walked into one of Washington's big corporate hotels early in the morning, you would find a community of the faithful, quite often conservative Christians, rallying the troops, offering solace and denouncing the opposition at a prayer breakfast.

So you might be forgiven for thinking that such a group was in attendance on Friday in a ballroom of the Washington Hilton. People wearing clerical collars and small crucifixes were wedged at tables laden with muffins, bowing their heads in prayer. Seminarians were welcomed.

Scripture was cited. But the name of the sponsor cast everything in a new light: the Planned Parenthood Federation of America.To its critics, Planned Parenthood is the godless super-merchant of abortion. To its supporters, it is the dependably secular defender of abortion rights.

But at this breakfast, God was everywhere, easily invoked by believers of various stripes."We are here this morning because, through our collective efforts, we are agents in bringing our fragile world ever closer to the promise of redemption," Rabbi Dennis S. Ross, director of Concerned Clergy for Choice, told the audience.

"As clergy from an array of denominations, we say yes to the call before us. Please join me in prayer: We praise you, God, ruler of time and space, for challenging us to bring healing and comfort to your world.""Amen," the audience responded.The Interfaith Prayer Breakfast has been part of Planned Parenthood's annual convention for four years. Most ministers and rabbis at the breakfast have known the group far longer.

Margaret Sanger, founder of the organization that became Planned Parenthood, drew clergy members in the early 20th century by relating the suffering of women who endured successive pregnancies that ravaged their health and sought illegal abortions in their desperation, said the Rev. Thomas R. Davis of the United Church of Christ, in his book "Sacred Work, Planned Parenthood and Its Clergy Alliances."In the 1930's, Jewish and mainline Protestant groups began to voice their support for birth control.

In 1962, a Maryland clergy coalition successfully pressed the state to permit the disbursal of contraception. In the late 1960's, some 2,000 ministers and rabbis across the country banded together to give women information about abortion providers and to lobby for the repeal of anti-abortion laws."

The clergy could open that door because the clergy had a certain moral authority," said Mr. Davis, who is chairman of Planned Parenthood's clergy advisory board but whose book is not sponsored by the group.

"They balanced the moral authority of the critics."As the scrape of silverware quieted at the breakfast, the Rev. W. Stewart MacColl told the audience how a Presbyterian church in Houston that he had led and several others had worked with Planned Parenthood to start a family planning center. Protesters visited his church.

Yet his 900 parishioners drove through picket lines every week to attend services. One Sunday, he and his wife, Jane, took refreshments to the protesters out of respect for their understanding of faith, he said.

Mr. MacColl said a parishioner called him the next day to comment: "That's all very well for you to say, but you don't drive to church with a 4-year-old in the back seat of your car and have to try to explain to him when a woman holds up a picture of a dead baby and screams through the window, 'Your church believes in killing babies.'"

Mr. MacColl said of the abortion protester: "She would, I suspect, count herself a lover of life, a lover of the unborn, a lover of God. And yet she spoke in harshness, hatred and frightened a little child."

Mr. MacColl quoted the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr: "'Sometimes the worst evil is done by good people who do not know that they are not good.'"The crowd murmured its assent.Then Mr. MacColl challenged them. "

The trouble is, I find myself reflected in that woman," he said. "Because I can get trapped in self-righteousness and paint those who oppose me in dark colors they do not deserve. Is that, at times, true of you, as well?"This time, people were silent.

It is not lost on Mr. Davis how the passion of the Christian right in its effort to abolish abortion and curtail access to birth control now mirrors the efforts of clergy members 40 years ago to do the opposite.

"They're a religious tradition, too, and they are moved by Scripture," he said, although the Bible says nothing explicit about abortion.

"When we understood the suffering in these kinds of situations that women were in, we understood that for reasons of justice, we had to act. We're doing it for theological and Biblical reasons."

A perception may exist that the denominations supporting abortion rights are outnumbered and out-shouted by their more conservative brethren. But that worried Mr. Davis little, he said, for he and other like-minded clergy members were in the minority in the 1960's, too. Still, some clergy members could barely contain their outrage.

"The more we are able to cultivate the capacity in every person — women and men — to make informed ethical judgments both in ourselves and our society, the more we are coming into relationship with the transcendent, with God," said the Rev. Susan Thistlethwaite, president of Chicago Theological Seminary.

"Human existence as a materialistic quest for power and dominance, a crass manipulation of fear and intolerance for political gain, drives us apart both from one another and from God," she said. "For what does it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your soul?"

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/03/us/03breakfast.html