My Dad entered the last stages of his long fight with Cancer on Memorial Day weekend '04. He began hallucinating and such. During this time he prayed Rosaries nearly all of his waking hours. Doctors said he would be gone in days. So I stayed with him.
It wound up being months before he passed away. In those months, he was rarely the man I knew as my father. But he said he loved me all the time, several times per conversation. After a couple of weeks he would say, "Let’s pray this rosary to end abortion."
After several rosaries to end abortion in one day, I asked, "Let’s pray this one to heal your cancer, or ease your pain."
He said, "NO! we are praying to end abortion."
He then shared with me a story one evening about my own conception, and its inconvenience. A very long and complicated story made short.
They chose to have it, "taken care of." They went to the Abortion Clinic, he paid the money, and then my mother stood him up for the final appointment.
He didn’t speak to her for weeks, until finally his mother shamed him into marrying my mom.
He said, "Here it is 25 years later, and the baby I wanted to kill is by my side at my deathbed."
Read the rest here.
5 comments:
Hi Jennifer,
I tried to access the link to read the entire story and I could not find it.
Can you help?
Thank you!
LMM -
I just checked it and it seemed to work OK for me. Just click on the link that says "Read this email from David Arabie" and then scroll down to the part that starts with "At 2:22 this morning I received a very moving e-mail...", that's the beginning of the email.
Hope that works!
I can't get it to work either.
How strange! What do you see when you click on the link? Does anything come up at all or is it an error page?
I'll just go ahead and copy and paste it here since that site isn't coming up for you guys:
-------------------------
At 2:22 this morning I received a very moving e-mail
from David Arabie, the young man who first suggested to
me the “crazy” notion of holding a 24-hour-a-day vigil
outside of an abortion facility.
That suggestion became a major factor leading to the
formation of the first 40 Days for Life campaign in
Bryan/College Station, Texas, in the Fall of 2004.
I did not know until this morning the circumstances
that led to that initial suggestion, but when you read
David’s message below, you will understand why I had to
share this with you today.
I will actually send you the rest of the 40 Days for
Life success reports and the prayer request tomorrow,
because I think this message is worthy of your
undivided attention.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
David,
This is a long email. I know how busy you are. But I
have been thinking about this stuff for about 43 days
now and thought I should share it.
Congratulations on the completion of the National 40
Days for Life campaign. I got a call from the Columbia
Magazine, the Knights of Columbus national publication,
and the conversation reminded me of the beginning of
this whole thing.
How many people will spend their entire lives yearning
for a sign that God is with them. We had a couple of
ideas, combined them over a dinner party and a meeting
at the Coalition for Life office in 2004 and then 40
Days for Life started, all in a matter of weeks. We
watched God, plain as day, mold that project in front
of our very eyes. And now it’s changing the world.
I have thought thousands of times, how did I get in the
middle of that? I had been at Texas A&M for almost four
years before we met. I didn’t even know where the
abortion clinic in Bryan was before July of ‘04. I am a
carpenter. I cuss like a sailor and I party too much.
Not so much anymore. But definitely then.
Then we did 40 days.
After it was over it became appearant that I wasn’t
called to pro-life ministry, in the same way you and
Shawn are. Abortion is the greatest evil we face, so of
course we pray and support its demise in every way.
But other than the miracle of 40 days, I never felt
called to be a part of the ministry except when I
brought the idea of 24 hours’ presence to you in the
first place.
This is how it happened. I don’t think I ever told
anyone the details.
My Dad entered the last stages of his long fight with
Cancer on Memorial Day weekend ‘04. He began
hallucinating and such. During this time he prayed
Rosaries nearly all of his waking hours. Doctors said
he would be gone in days. So I stayed with him.
It wound up being months before he passed away. In
those months, he was rarely the man I knew as my
father. But he said he loved me all the time, several
times per conversation. After a couple of weeks he
would say, “Let’s pray this rosary to end abortion.”
After several rosaries to end abortion in one day, I
asked, “Let’s pray this one to heal your cancer, or
ease your pain.”
He said, “NO! we are praying to end abortion.”
He then shared with me a story one evening about my own
conception, and its inconvenience. A very long and
complicated story made short.
They chose to have it, “taken care of.” They went to
the Abortion Clinic, he paid the money, and then my
mother stood him up for the final appointment.
He didn’t speak to her for weeks, until finally his
mother shamed him into marrying my mom.
He said, “Here it is 25 years later, and the baby I
wanted to kill is by my side at my deathbed.”
I was not upset at all about any of the circumstances
surrounding that trip to the abortion clinic. I was
upset that he had to struggle with that guilt on his
deathbed, instead of all the great times we had in my
great childhood.
I just wanted to talk about the good times, but he was
worried about his soul, because of a near miss that
never would have happened if there hadn’t been an
abortion clinic at every turn in the city of Houston.
Julius Allen Arabie died in July of ‘04.
I decided right then that I was going to do something
drastic. I mentioned the idea of a 24-hour presence at
an abortion facility to priests and fellow knights, and
a bunch of other people.
Originally I figured we were just going to stand there
in force until it closed, and then go to the next one.
And I didn’t even know who “we” was.
Eveyone tried to temper the idea. “Why don’t you just
shoot for all the hours the clinic is open,” or
something of the sort. Not you. The Lord was moving in
you, because you knew we could do it.
You made my hairbrained idea practical, by putting a
timeline on it, and making it repeatable, and
marketable. You gave me an outlet in the Coalition for
Life, and a microphone to help convince people we could
do it.
And then subsequently you were given an outlet to
spread the word to the rest of the country.
I am sorry for the length of this email. I just wasn’t
sure if you knew that part of the birth of 40 days.
Monica and I often think about the example you and
Margaret have set for us. My daughter Nicollette is
almost 2 now and when I open the door she runs full
speed to meet me with a hug. Thank you for everything.
And again, congratulations.
–David Arabie
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Isn’t God wonderful, the way He works through His
people and uses the “little” things to make a BIG
difference?
Wow.
Have a blessed day!
Your Brother In Christ,
David Bereit
National Campaign Director
40 Days for Life
-------------------------
I have the page, it just does not appear to have a link. There's text at the bottom, but it's clicker is broken.
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