Inaugural 40 Days for Life campaign under way in Rolla
Coordinator says long commute, long hours are worth it
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Whenever the Rolla Planned Parenthood location is doing business, Steve Drake is outside on the sidewalk, praying.
Mr. Drake, a member of St. Mark Parish in Houston, in the Springfield-Cape Girardeau diocese, is coordinator of the inaugural 40 Days for Life campaign in Rolla.
“I do it for the babies,” said Mr. Drake. “And I do it for God, for Jesus. He’s done so much for me, this is just a little something I can do to give back.”
40 Days for Life (www.40daysforlife.com/en/) is an internationally-coordinated 40-day campaign, held twice a year, that aims to end abortion through prayer, fasting, community outreach, and compassion for mothers, fathers, babies and abortion employees.
Throughout the 40 days, all-day, peaceful prayer vigils are maintained outside abortion clinics or places where abortion referrals continue to be given.
Among the latter are the Planned Parenthood locations in Columbia and Rolla.
Although 40 Days for Life has been going on in Columbia for the past 15 years, this is the first campaign to be held in Rolla.
The Rolla vigils are from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Saturdays, on the sidewalk outside Planned Parenthood, 1032 Kings Highway. All are welcome to take part.
Mr. Drake drives for a little over an hour from his home in Solo (about 9 miles outside Houston) to Rolla for each day’s prayer vigil.
“I’ve got some people coming in to do it with me,” he noted. “Sometimes we’ve got a few, sometimes I’ve got myself. But we have someone out there the whole time they’re open.”
Mr. Drake and his wife were married for 49 years until her death seven years ago.
He attended this year’s Midwest March for Life in Jefferson City and became determined to find a way to help.
He was drawn to the 40 Days for Life table on the Capitol grounds and had a conversation with Judy Bax, a member of St. Margaret of Antioch Parish in Osage Bend.
He found out that although elective abortions are illegal in Missouri, employees of the Rolla Planned Parenthood are referring clients for abortions at an Illinois clinic near St. Louis.
“So, I thought it’d be a good idea to get 40 Days for Life to set up a vigil here, to try to stop that,” he said.
He talked to Kathy Forck, stalwart co-coordinator of 40 Days for Life in Columbia, and national leaders of 40 Days for Life.
“They told me I could lead it here, and I ended up leading it,” said Mr. Drake.
His computer skills are limited, so he called upon his granddaughter to help him get onto the 40 Days for Life website and work through the 18 training modules.
The training took about three days to complete.
He followed all the suggestions, such as contacting the local Police Department.
He received valuable counsel and assistance from Joseph Dalton, executive director of the Pregnancy Resource Center of Rolla, along with members of Knights of Columbus St. Patrick Council 2627 in Rolla.
Monsignor Gregory L. Higley, pastor of St. Patrick Parish in Rolla, Immaculate Conception Parish in St. James and St. Anthony Parish in Rosati, provided spiritual encouragement, as did a Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS) missionary at the Rolla Newman Center.
Offering it up
This fall’s 40 Days for Life campaign got under way on Sept. 25 and will continue through Nov. 2.
Mrs. Forck was the keynote presenter at Rolla’s inaugural kick-off rally on Sept. 22, speaking on the power of prayer and the wonders God has been working on the sidewalk in Columbia.
She said Mr. Drake’s first day on the sidewalk was awe-inspiring.
“I am so proud of his determination,” she said. “He’s run the full gauntlet.”
Mr. Drake said the long drive and occasionally the weather constitute a bit of a sacrifice, “but it’s certainly worth it.”
He prays throughout his time on the sidewalk and sometimes during the commute.
“I just give God praise and ask him to be with me and protect the babies,” he said.
He’s convinced his presence is making a difference.
“I’ve seen it do some good,” he stated. “Of course, a lot of the good, you do not see.”
The weather has been mostly cooperative.
“I did spend one day out in the rain,” he noted. “It didn’t rain really hard — only kind of a sprinkling all day.”
That made things a bit chilly, but he had his raincoat.
It turned out to be an effective witness.
“I think I made a little impression out in the rain,” he said.
He’s found the responses from passing motorists to be mostly supportive.
“Some of ’em holler bad things, but I don’t hear that well, so I can’t hear what they’re saying,” he said. “But most people come by and give me thumbs-up and shout good things.”
The most memorable aspect for him so far has been having people join him in prayer.
“I had a couple of young people stop and say they could pray with me for a while,” he recalled.
So, there they prayed, together on the sidewalk.
“We’ve had a number of things like that,” he said. “People are really supportive.”
His relationship with the Planned Parenthood staff is mostly cordial.
“I get one of them who waves at me,” he noted. “The other two do not wave, but we’ve not had any problems with them.”
Mr. Drake trusts that his efforts, coupled with God’s merciful blessing, will bear meaningful fruit.
“I hope it saves some babies and that maybe we get a little closer to closing these places down,” he said.
Prayer power
Mr. Drake and his wife moved to Solo in 1961.
He’s now preparing to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church at St. Mark in Houston.
“It’s a great community,” he said. “I’ve got a bunch of them praying for me. I’m getting a lot of support.”
He’s convinced that anybody who wants to get 40 Days for Life going in their community can do so.
received outside of Mass would count for the purpose of the indulgence.
“The Gift of the Indulgence” goes on to tell us that “for the sake of those legitimately impeded, confessors can commute both the work prescribed and the conditions required (except, obviously, detachment from even venial sin).” That is, if a Catholic is truly unable to receive Holy Communion through no fault of their own, a priest confessor can adapt the indulgence’s requirement accordingly.
Jenna Marie Cooper, who holds a licentiate in canon law, is a consecrated virgin and a canonist whose column appears weekly at OSV News. Send your questions to CatholicQA@osv.com.
