Summer Camp Day 4
Dear Parents,
Each day during the camp thus far we have done sword practice. As the more skilled boys pit themselves against the TFP members, they have a chance to win a coveted pin inscribed with the quote from scripture about “putting on the armor of God”. This has led to some rather interesting challenges and a very healthy spirit of competition. Each boy is trying his hardest to increase in skill so they can beat each other in a duel but more than anything, they want to take down their teachers. Thus during fencing, archery, and even ping pong, there have been challenges thrown down to every comer. Many a confident counselor has gone to bed with a bruised ego and sore muscles after being foolish enough to compete with ten or more boys in these contests. One begins to feel a certain kinship for the Crusader knights who had to fight overwhelming odds each day after a long day at a TFP Summer Camp.
If there is one thing
that can be called a crusade today, it is the fight against abortion. It is
always important to put one’s training to a real live test. So that is what we did today. The boys have been practicing their arguments
and perfecting their debating skills throughout their stay with us and were
finally able to put them to use. It is
all very well to convince a friendly audience what is right or wrong but today
was different, we were not talking to a friendly audience. As the boys geared up for the campaign, the
feeling of joyful anticipation, tinged perhaps with a little fear of the
unknown, was palpable.
There was of course the normal hustle and bustle of getting the vans loaded and the water containers into the truck. The signs were distributed and the banners were furled. Each piece of the apparatus we were to use on the campaign was tested and then stowed in the vans. Then the boys loaded up and all waited for the command from our chief to get the extensive caravan moving. Finally came the order, “Lets move out Gentlemen!” Every heart thrilled and the vehicles headed off the property towards our objective.
Alas for modern
technology, although everyone had a GPS and we were traveling mostly together,
half the group got hopelessly turned around before we were able to identify the
appropriate parking lot. There we all regrouped
and walked toward the Planned (non)Parenthood Center in Aurora. Being somewhat isolated from any main foot
traffic area, there was little pedestrian interaction, although there were
plenty of cars who started honking the minute they saw our signs and did not
stop until after we stowed them away.
The actual building looked very much like a prison, surrounded by a huge
open field and security cameras covered every inch of the facade. I don’t know what they thought of us but it
was probably the most colorful group of people they had ever seen there since
we were dressed in the medieval scapulars and had dozens of flying banners
reminiscent of the Middle Ages.
One man did come to
talk to us and he was not happy. He
first accused us of being hypocritical because we were in favor of saving
babies but we were endangering traffic by our display (supposedly he had almost
gotten into a wreck earlier because of the “antics” of a pro-life group). I patiently had to explain to him that we were
from out of state and could not have been the same group because we were not
even near the place at the time he stated.
It quickly became clear though that he had issues with what we were defending and not how we were doing it. Hopefully Mr. Rex can put up some snippets of
the debate for you to watch at a later date.
The boys, needless to
say, were thrilled to the marrow of their bones, but there were not enough bad
people to go around, so they had to be content with listening keenly to the
debate. During the afternoon session, after
the campaign, Mr. Rex played back the video that we had shot and asked the
participants to form a rebuttal. The
answers were very good and will surely be used next time they go out to pit
their wits against promoters of the unnatural sin of abortion.
The battle for the
unborn is ongoing and there is no end in sight at this time but we are in no
way dismayed. We have that tremendous
promise of the Blessed Mother, “In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” So we, following the example of the saints, do
everything as if the outcome depended on us, knowing that in reality, it all
depends on God. With that absolute
confidence in the final outcome I can cheerfully say Good night.
In Jesu et Maria
Michael C. Shibler
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