A New Normal: Digging Out From the Destruction of Hurricane Sandy

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by Patriarch Craig Bates

Devastated, devastating, and devastation are three very common words as the people of my congregation and the people of Long Island, New York City, and New Jersey are digging out from the destruction caused by Hurricane Sandy.

For very few, the Hurricane Sandy meant being confined to the house for a day. For some it meant loss of power that was turned back on rather quickly. For most, over 600,000 on Long Island there is still no power. There are millions without power around the Metropolitan area and many will not get power back for a week or more. And for a very large number of people it means total loss of home and cars.

Like most of you who can read this because you are either not from the New York area or you have power I am watching the news and seeing pictures of places like Breezy Point where over 100 homes were burned down in a fire. One of my parishioners lives on Breezy Point and though their home was not burned down it was so flooded that the town has condemned it and they are now homeless. This morning I watched a report on Staten Island and Lower Manhattan. So many homes on Staten Island are just a pile of sticks. Lower Manhattan was totally flooded. These pictures are representative of the entire tri-state area.

In my parish several areas were hit particularly hard – Freeport, East Rockaway, Oceanside, Baldwin Harbor (just a few blocks from where I live), and worse of all Long Beach. Roughly thirty-five of my families live in Long Beach and most of them are now without homes or they have homes that have such water damage they can not return until repairs are done. Today we will be trying to discover who has available rooms or apartments, or who knows of available rooms and apartments so that we can try to connect those in need with those who have resources.

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Fr. Terry Forced Out of Brazil!

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Just a few days ago, Fr. Terry Gensemer traveled to Vitória de Santo Antão in Brazil at the invitation of Bishop Frederico Bastos and the 2012 Attitude Youth Conference.  Fr. Terry was to speak at the Conference as the American representative of the pro-life movement.   As soon as he boarded the plane, the obstacles began to surface.

First, the weather.  In Florida, the airline announced that Hurricane Sandy stood between their plane and their destination…but they were going to take off anyway.  With his phone and his Facebook, Fr. Terry quickly asked friends and family for prayers of safety and good travel, which God was faithful to answer.  The plane landed safely in Brazil.  But, of course, the battle was not over.

Upon arrival in Recife, Fr. Terry was immediately (and very unexpectedly) detained by Brazilian federal agents due to problems with his visa.  The officers did not speak English, so Fr. Terry was uncertain of the actual problem and even more uncertain of how to respond.  Thankfully, one of the Brazilian priests had emailed him a cell phone number, literally just hours before landing, just in case Fr. Terry ran into any problems.  Fr. Terry called the number and his friend, Ricardo Tomas, was able to come and help.

The federal agents finally released Fr. Terry with a 12-day temporary visa.  He traveled to his hotel and began preparations for the Conference, including several meetings with the young organizers of the event.  God’s grace was very present in these meetings.  Fr. Terry was impressed and encouraged by the team’s zeal and kindness, and extremely excited at the chance to return the encouragement by speaking at their Conference.

However, the enemy still wasn’t done with his meddling, and not even one day later, Fr. Terry was met in the hotel lobby by federal agents.

The agents informed Fr. Terry that his visa was absolutely unacceptable.  He would have to leave.  In fact, he would have to leave first thing in the morning or be deported.  No exceptions.

Fr. Terry was, of course, very discouraged by all of this, but not because he would have to leave the country.  He wanted a chance to speak to the youth!  And he could see very plainly that the enemy was doing all he could to stop it.  So, immediately after the federal agents left, Fr. Terry contacted his assistant back in the States and told her send out a request for prayer, specifically for prayer that he would be able to speak at the Conference before he had to leave in the morning.

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Catch Fr. Terry & Patriarch Craig Bates at the International ProLife Youth Conference 2012!

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The second annual International ProLife Youth Conference, which CEC For Life is co-sponsoring, will inspire and equip a new wave of abortion abolitionists while creating the perfect opportunity for young people to establish strong pro-life friendships with peers from across the globe. Last year, CEC For Life sent Fr. Terry’s assistant, Sarah Howell, to Southern … Read more

Excellent News Coverage of Wednesday’s Press Conference

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All four Birmingham news stations were kind enough to cover our press conference concerning the immediate shut down of Birmingham’s last abortion clinic, but ABC 33/40 did a sincerely good job.  Here’s the video clip from their evening newscast: http://www.abc3340.com/video?clipId=7752517&autostart=true

Press Conference a Success!

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CEC For Life would like to thank everyone from the Birmingham pro-life community for showing their support this morning at the 10 AM press conference outside of Planned Parenthood! Fr. Terry Gensemer and Sue Turner of Alabama Physicians for Life detailed the story of Ms. Roberta Clark this morning for all four of Birmingham’s news … Read more

BREAKING: Birmingham Pro-Life Community Calls for Immediate Closure of Last Abortion Clinic

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BIRMINGHAM, Ala., Sept. 18, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ — Not even six months after the closure of one dangerous Birmingham abortion facility — brought on by the careless injury of two female patients — yet another woman, Ms. Roberta Clark, has come forward and filed suit against the city’s only remaining abortion clinic: Planned Parenthood.

In 2010, Planned Parenthood of Birmingham originally underwent investigation after Live Action President Lila Rose uncovered their regular practice of illegally providing abortions for minors and choosing to cover up statutory rape cases.

At that time, Planned Parenthood was placed under a one-year probation. The recent lawsuit filed against them by Ms. Clark details an incident that actually took place during this probationary period and creates the question of how it went unnoticed by the Alabama Department of the Public Health, which should have been closely monitoring the facility.

This also comes in the wake of the recent death of the 24 year old Chicago woman, Tonya Reaves.

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The Quality of My Life

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Most of the people who know me also know that I am an advocate for life. Some even know the personal reasons I have for having such convictions, but something that I do not talk about often is the “quality of life” argument often used to defend abortion. Having heard arguments that say it is … Read more

She Lives, She Loves, and She Knows

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from Jessica Kessler

Opening up a word document feels like school again. I am definitely not in school anymore, although sometimes I feel as if I ought to be with fall coming.  After school is work.  That is what I wanted to talk about, an experience at work.

For those of you who don’t know, I am a nurse.  In being so, I meet all sorts of people in different moments of their life, whether they be tragic or miraculous.  Daily, I am blessed by the beauty of life in all its forms.

I met a very special person last week who I had the honor of caring for.  She had been born with Spina Bifida and shouldn’t have lasted the night of her birth.  She did though.  Then she beat a rare infection in her spine.  Then, against all the “scientific speculation,” she grew into a unique person who is fully cognitive and interactive to the world around her. 

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His Planning is Perfect

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by David Jonathan Valentin

Before the Madrid Convocation, many people in my life passed away unexpectedly, and it made me doubt God.  It wasn’t that I didn’t believe in God anymore, but I doubted Him.   At first, I felt bad and tried to remove that thought.  But, after a time, when I found myself doubting God I didn’t even really care.  I gave in to it and meditated on my doubts.  Suddenly, I didn’t know why I went to church or why I even believed in God.

I was so focused on the losses that I experienced in the recent years that I couldn’t see the blessings of God anymore.  I didn’t think that God wanted to punish me, but I started asking myself if God even really existed.  I stopped thinking like a Christian and started thinking in a very secular way.  I would say things like, “if God doesn’t want me to do something, then He should try and stop me.”  And I definitely didn’t want to go to the Convocation in Madrid, because I didn’t want to spend a week with people gathered just to talk about the God that I doubted.

Obviously God didn’t want me to miss out, however, because I ended up in Madrid and at the Convocation.  Still, I didn’t expect anything, even sitting in the room for the youth sessions, until Fr. Terry Gensemer got up to speak.

Fr. Terry told us how children are being aborted, even after birth.  As he spoke, I kept thinking of my nephew, who was born in less than perfect circumstances.  I couldn’t bear the thought of him being aborted, and the more I thought of his little face, the more I realized what a blessing he was.  I realized that, amidst all the hardships and all the lives that God called back in the past few years, I had failed to see the blessings that God had still given.  Even more, I realized that every life God called back was a sacred one.  Every one of the people I lost believed and loved God with all of their hearts.  Each of them tried to bring me closer to God and wanted to make sure that I loved and believed in Him with my whole heart.

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