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Baby Joshua brings home green bucks
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My two-week trip to the USA this July was most fulfilling, not only in terms of the many new pro-life connections made but also because of the donations received – a much needed addition to the funds for our programs.
Everywhere I went – the Washington, DC-Virginia area, the Nashville, Tennessee area, or the Fort Worth, Texas area – there were many Filipino Americans eagerly coming to me at the end of my presentation and handing me checks or dollars.
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It is not that I came home with millions or thousands of dollars, but the kind gestures of handing me some dollars showed much concern on their part regarding the needs of our country which is still mired in poverty.
Parish pro-life groups invited me to share on the efforts of Pro-life Philippines to stop the legalization of abortion, divorce, homosexual unions and population control. Naturally, I explained how our different programs and projects are ensuring that those death-oriented bills not be passed into law. Many of them admitted that they did not see the evil of contraception and the link between contraceptive and the abortion mentality that has created an atmosphere of promiscuity, live-in marriages, and homosexuality.
The Baby Joshua collection can was always a hit. Before the end of presentations, I would invite them to pray the Spiritual Adoption Prayer for Unborn Babies in danger of abortion. I show them the plastic model of a three month old pre-born baby, and tell them that I have named it Baby Joshua because Joshua means Jesus or Savior. Although I let them choose names for the baby they want to spiritually adopt, most of them would also choose the name Joshua. After explaining to them our Project Rachel for the healing of post-abortive women, Project Veronica for the pregnancy crisis counselors to prevent abortion, and the Project Gabriel education seminars in schools, I then request them to drop their donation in a Pringle can that I have covered with the picture of Baby Joshua. When I jokingly say that Baby Joshua is appealing for help but he is sleeping and please not to drop anything that is noisy, I get laughter and shuffling around as they dig in for their paper bucks. Indeed, the can gets filled up with the green bucks before it is returned to me.
My main agenda this trip was to be with Mayor Lito Atienza who was to be given a citation by Human Life International for having declared the city of Manila as a Pro-life City. It was then a pleasant surprise to having been given my own Plaque of Pro-life Achievement by HLI for having founded Pro-life Philippines 32 years ago. My thanksgiving response was to recognize HLI, who through Rev. Fr. Paul Marx, OSB, the HLI Founder, inspired me and gave me the first films, books, brochures and posters that I used and reproduced during the early years of our organization. HLI has also been sending a thousand dollars every few months to help us maintain our office facilities.
Very significant was my stay with the Redeemed for Life group headed by Molly White. She scheduled me for two interviews in a Christian TV channel, several talks in parishes and a fund-raising dinner. Molly and the post-abortive women have been lobbying in their congress for the reversal of Roe v Wade, the US Supreme Court decision n 1973 that legalized abortion up to the ninth month of pregnancy. They have gathered over 6,000 testimonies of women who claim they have been hurt by abortion because of too hasty decision since it was legal anyway. Molly has invited me to sit in a new organization she is forming – Women for Life. I will be coordinating for the Asia-Pacific region.
A trip to the USA is incomplete without seeing the numerous Filipino relatives.
So I was truly at home once again with my brother and his family in Great Falls, VA, my sister who drove all the way from New Jersey to see me, and my other brother and his family in Fort Worth, TX. They were not exempt from dropping their donation in our Baby Joshua can, expressing how much they appreciate what I, their own blood sister, has accomplished through the years.!
Next time you finish a can of Pringle potato chips, please send the empty can to our office. Better yet, start a collection yourself and send the donation over, OK?
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