Hello everybody, just want to welcome you
guys to this blog! If you guys have been
here before welcome back! For all you guys
who are new, I'm talking to Joe Woodard,
today. He is the leader of
40 Days for Life in Hong Kong and so I'm excited to
talk to him because this is something
that I love and I have a burden for, is the
issue of for life, and for children and
for the unborn. And so for me one of
the first things that I actually got
encountered with after I got saved was
social justice and specifically in this
area of unborn babies. And when I was a 13-year old,
I started to pray I started writing like
papers, documentaries for my school--
public school--and so, I would go to the
Supreme Court in Boston and pray, we wore
this tape called LIFE. It's a
movement called Bound4LIFE. You can...
I can give you more information on the
show notes at the end. But Bound4LIFE...
So, I ended up actually running my
own organization for a couple years,
organization for that organization, but I
want to hear a little bit about
your story. What is your conviction and why
why do you do what you do? You stand,
you know, in front of the Family Planning
centers with the umbrella and just, you
know, pray when no one may see you. Maybe
no one--may or may not see you, but you
consider it valuable and important So, yeah
what's the reason, the motive behind that?
Yeah, that's a great question,
and I really think it started
for me like in middle school when
the pro-life philosophy captured my
conviction as a social justice
issue, as a human rights issue. And I was
also part of a church where
they really cared of course about
families about moms about single moms
and people in difficult pregnancy
situations, and we you know funded
the local pro-life Pregnancy Resource Center.
So I always cared. I was part of
that "culture of life" kind of church, but
as far as actually going to an abortion
center to pray, that's not something
really I got into. I did it once on my, it
was on my 17th birthday. I thought, it's my
birthday, and it just makes sense that I
should pray and be in solidarity with
those who will never have a birthday."
But as far as doing something
like 40 Days for Life, I had no idea or
plan or thought--it wasn't something I
was even very interested in. But...I mean,
we live in in a region where there's
more abortions than anywhere else
in the world. So--not Hong Kong
specifically, but in this part of Asia.
So I was thinking "What can I do
in Hong Kong?"--because I know I'm going to be
here long-term, I think this is where God wants me.
And, "What can I do to build a culture
of life here that will also impact all
of Asia?" And I talked with a bunch of
people about it and prayed for some time
and got some really good advice from
one leader in particular, who
encouraged me to do 40 Days for Life.
And I think he was right, I think that
everywhere that it has happened throughout the world,
40 Days for Life has really
kind of "stirred the pot" of the pro-life
movement, to get funding for Pregnancy
Resource Centers, to pique people's
interest and just make them care,
both about unborn life, and also taking care
of moms, which is one of the most
important things I think churches can do.
That's awesome. Yeah.
I love this story because it's kind of
similar for me, like, as a middle schooler,
I wrote a paper, and I just...
talking about how that conviction
started as a young person and then,
kind of growing and building, you know,
I never would've really thought I would have
fought for the unborn. It's not, you know,
Seemingly, in natural...today, sometimes it
seems insignificant. But if we recognize
that we all started that way... Right, of course.
It's really important to pray for...
40 Days for Life, and also for the
pro-life movement. And I also love
that this is a catalytic organisation,
which is simply that--what you're doing
is causing the church to stir--
to be stirred about this issue... Right.
and have passion for it. Or, it's causing the
negative kind of stirring, where people are
against it. And I don't know if you've
experienced both of those.
But for me--in my high school, when I
was starting to do stuff like that there
were some people that did not...were not
having it. And there were other people who
were just like, coming alive--like, "I want to
do this! I want to be a part." So, with that
being said, some people are watching this
and they're going to really be
encountered by this issue for the
unborn. How do you think they can get
involved, first, with 40 Days for Life, but
also just in any way possible. Any
personal way that you think.
Yeah, well as far as 40 Days for Life,
40daysforlife.com is where to start
and I know the people who run it,
both in America and England,
and also some other countries,
and there's one actually starting in Taiwan
this fall, which is really exciting.
But as far as,
as far as just general work,
I mean, my motivation--
yes, it is a human rights issue I believe,
but also, my prayer has always been
that God would turn the hearts of parents to
their children and the hearts of
children to their parents and so for
Christians who are praying to prepare
the way of the Lord, Malachi 4 says
that's the way to do it... Yeah.
...that that's the spirit of Elijah.
That's what the church does.
And uh...
And, this is the most obvious issue where
the hearts of parents are not turned
towards their children when they decide
to abort them. So as far as what
you could do--of course, first, pray,
pray and fast, and educate yourself.
Those really are the biggest things,
I believe, for any issue,
any social justice issue too.
The first step is self-awareness... Yeah.
Pray--but, when you're aware of what's
happening, you can actually have a heart
that's broken for it... Yeah.
I just wanted to add that, so... Yeah.
Yeah, and that's why I...
I really appreciate
the way that the pro-life
organizations that I'm familiar with
--and I've been connected with a lot,
for a long time--and that really is their
motivation, and their spirit, their attitude
--despite what you see in the media--it is,
it is actually...it is compassion, it is
prayer, it is peaceful and legal action,
on behalf of families--the moms and the
dads and the children, and everything
they need. And that's why
Christian churches privately are funding
hundreds of millions of dollars that are
going into pregnancy resource centres in
America. And they're helping to
promote the adoption movement there,
but also in other nations. So that's a
really exciting part of the
pro-life movement, too, is how it feeds
into the adoption movement.
So good. I love that. Because we need it.
It's not just, "Okay we have to stand
in front of a Planned Parenthood
or something to pray,
which is always good, but, if we do not
care for those who are not being
cared for, then we're not actually doing
the full story of a culture of life
in that location. Yeah.
So, I love that idea, just to pray,
but also being aware, and,
so many good things about that.
So, currently in the 40 Days for Life in the
spring we're currently in, uh... Day 31.
Yes! So we have nine more days? Right.
yeah until April 9th.
So, what are you guys doing--do you have
any upcoming events that are happening
for this 40 Days for Life
that people can get involved in?
On April 4th, it's traditionally celebrated in
Chinese culture as remembering...
the day of the dead. And so it's fitting,
I think, for people to go to a place where
there's death actually happening every day
and to pray there
so we're encouraging churches to come
and do a worship and prayer and
intercession set for for two hours--
90 minutes or two hours, as they're able to
--so that's going to be a big day, is April 4th
Every day between now and then
we'll have people praying we have a
schedule--trying to fill the hours still
of 12 hours a day, 8am to 8pm every day
we have at least one person there
praying. Right now there's someone there,
in the rain, outside the Family Planning
Association in Wanchai.
And...so, April 4th is a big day too, and then
April 9th is the March for Life. So it's Hong
Kong's Second Annual March for
Life, starting at 2 PM in Sai Wan Ho,
outside Holy Cross Church--it's a
Catholic church--and then we'll be
marching all the way to Wan Chai to
Church of Christ in China Wanchai
Church--it's an Evangelical church. So this
is ecumenical, and also inviting churches
from all over Hong Kong to
participate in the March. And then if you
can come to any part of that between 2pm,
and then 5 p.m. is a party and closing
event at CCC Wanchai Church. And then a
very short candle light vigil outside
the Family Planning Association at
6:30 on Sunday, April 9th.
That's awesome--I love it. And so you can go for
the whole thing, which is awesome. You can
also go for certain periods of time. Maybe
you want to walk for certain parts of it
or, you know, there's different things,
there's different ways you can get
involved. Don't feel like,
"Oh, I only have this amount of time", or "If I do
this thing, then..." Any way possible, get involved.
I know for me, what I do is, every
Sunday I go before church, and I just sit
there and pray. Yeah, I really appreciate that. It's awesome.
So don't... The Lord will use
whatever you have for this during this
event or during the 40 Days for Life.
And so and you have also...it's Life
life in Asia, or... Yeah right. Yeah, Asia for Life dot com
The English version is up. The
Chinese version should be up next week, I
hope. asiaforlife.com
and that'll be the events after 40 Days
for Life, what I'm doing and other
churches are doing to promote and to
build a culture of life in Hong Kong. So
it's really exciting there's a lot of
people--after last year's 40 Days for
Life, a lot of people were motivated and
started to start other kinds of
pro-life ministry, and what was
already happening, to do it even better.
So that's really exciting to see how
there's been more more energy and funding
for all these aspects of
building a culture of life.
For the adoption movement and
education projects, and so many things.
So yeah, praise God! You can come any time,
even if it's ten minutes, during the
March for Life. Can I tell them real quick
about where we'll be? Go for it.
So we'll be walking along the sidewalk
on the Tram route between Sai Wan Ho and
Wanchai. And actually I have knee
problems, and I can't walk the entire way.
So I'll actually have to stop and get on
the tram for part of the way to take a
break. But whatever you can come for,
please come it'll be awesome, it'll be fun,
it'll be joyful. And you'll meet other
people who also care about these issues
too. So good. Well, let's pray really
quick. And--I love that. Jesus, I ask
that You would move in this city--the
city of Hong Kong--for the sake of the
unborn. I ask that your name would be
glorified. I thank you for Joe and for
what he's doing, and I pray for those who are
watching, that they have caught something
that is a burden on the
Lord's heart, on the issue of justice. And
we just thank You that You're going to
do something during the rest of these
40 days, and beyond. In Jesus' name. Amen.
As always, you can check out my
Instagram page, my website, YouTube
channel. Approximately, we have around
four hundred and twenty different views
from 23 different nations have checked
this out, and I hope this will bless you
guys wherever you guys are over the
world. So, I look forward to talking you guys
next time.
For more infomation >> 定点タイムラプス0127@新潟市15:00~15:30 for SOLiVE24☆さえきなつこ撮影 Time Lapse☆南方 - Duration: 0:26. 
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