Thank You and Overview of Ottawa's 2022 40 Days for Life Campaign

from Helena Szakowski

Church and Ministry Coordinator

Ottawa’s 2022 – 40 Days for Life Campaign

Dear 40 Days Reps and Friends:

We Thank God, first and foremost, for enabling the planning and completion of our now 17th 40 Days for Life Campaign in Ottawa.

Thank you, particularly, to our Main Coordinator, Wanda Hartlin, for her perseverance, expert communications, and organization work, and to her family members, Bernie, and Cynthia, for providing our sound equipment and helping at our rallies. Thank you to our 40 Days Committee members for their support and advice, with special thanks to Jim Cairney for his visits to pastors leading up to the campaign. Also, to John Pacheco for our website, to Bernard Couture for updating our Facebook page, and to Debbie Duval of Campaign Life Coalition for obtaining our city permit and coordinating our Zoom meetings. Thank you to the preserving prayer warriors who were out at the vigil site many, many days, throughout the campaign, and for those who were providing us with hourly participation numbers. Thank you also to pastors, deacons, and religious sisters who carved out time to participate in the public prayer vigil.

It is with gratitude that I convey my sincere thankfulness to all 40 Days Reps who took on this important and vital role in the campaign. Your efforts have contributed to a most encouraging coverage of prayer hours whether at the vigil site, and in some cases through church Adoration vigils, or a prayer-at-home vigil day.

Our outreach to churches and ministry groups in the late summer resulted in 28 churches, 3 ministry groups, and 1 lay community, committing to out-on-the-street vigil hour participation. In some cases, churches committed to a vigil on the street for the first time. Overall, when considering the commitments on both of our website calendars, 22 of the 40 days were committed prayer days on the street, plus there were close to 4 committed prayer days in church, and 1 prayer-at-home vigil day, for a total of 27 committed days.

Thank you to 3 special ministry groups who took on-the-street vigil days, namely Couples for Christ, and the young adults from NET and CCO.

Thanks to our out-of-town pro-life visitors to our vigil site from St. John Parish, in Perth, ON, St Mary parish in Carleton Place, and 1 frequent visitor from Renfrew.

Thanks also to the Knights of Columbus Councils that got behind their parish’s 40 Days prayer vigil day. This is such a boost and an encouragement to assist with filling our vigil hours.

With the Supreme Court in the United States no longer providing protection for the abortion industry, abortion facilities are shutting their doors rapidly in that country. At the same time, God has been encouraging us to persevere with these campaigns, and as of today, according to the American headquarters website, 310 known lives have been saved, 2 abortion workers quit, and 14 abortion facilities closed, since just prior to this fall’s international campaign. The final international results for this fall’s campaign will be known in the coming weeks. To God be all the glory!

To date, these international 40 Days for Life vigils have resulted in closing 131 abortion facilities, saved well over 22,000 known lives, and led to 242 workers leaving the abortion industry. Tens of thousands of women and their families have been spared the pain and trauma of losing those little ones through these public prayer vigils. If there’s ever a time to be involved in this cause, it’s the present moment. May God bless you abundantly for all your efforts in support of these campaigns!

For the least of our brethren,

Helena Szakowski

Church and Ministry Coordinator

Ottawa’s 2022 – 40 Days for Life Campaign