God hears and answers prayers. View this email in your browser PRO-LIFE VICTORY IN LAS CRUCES

In August of 2014, the community of Las Cruces was shocked to learn that an abortion facility was getting ready to open in our “City of the Crosses.” In response, local pro-life citizens rallied and quickly organized our first 40 Day for Life campaign, which we launched ten days early in order to be present in prayer and peaceful protest from the very first day that “Whole Woman’s Health of New Mexico” was supposed to have their grand opening. With over 200 volunteers committed to praying and fasting in shifts on the sidewalk in front of the proposed facility—initially for 16 hours each day—their scheduled “grand opening” was not so grand, and was in fact delayed by almost exactly 40 days.



While the facility did eventually open—despite licensing and zoning issues—the resolve and determination of the pro-life community was loud and clear. With this facility now operating full-time to harm the women, children, and families of Las Cruces, how could we as a church community only respond part-time? Since that time, Las Cruces has participated in five 40 Days for Life campaigns and multiple peaceful protests, totaling thousands of hours of prayer and fasting by hundreds of volunteers from dozens of local churches, including processions, rosary rallies, prayers of exorcism, songs of praise and worship, blowing of the shofar, Native American prayer ceremonies, prayers in Latin, and countless other devotionals.



Each campaign, we have held our midpoint “March of the Crosses” led at different times by pro-life leaders, pastors, priests, and our local bishop, to line and march the street in front of the abortion facility, not only in tribute to our city’s name, but to bring the “the message of the cross” which is “the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18) to the place where it has been needed most. We have seen dozens of volunteers train as Sidewalk Advocates for Life, to actively and compassionately reach out to abortion-minded women approaching the abortion center, who most of the time are not “pro-choice” but instead feel that they have no choice, to redirect them to our local Care Net Pregnancy Center for free and loving care. Throughout all of this, we worked diligently to consolidate our efforts into one nonprofit organization, launching the Coalition for Life of Las Cruces, modeled after similar ministries by the same name in other cities which have been successful in dramatically reducing abortion at the local level, even to the point of abortion facilities closing their doors for good.



With this coalition, we raised tens of thousands of dollars to launch this ministry full-time to organize, fund, and grow all of these efforts with training and guidance from pro-life champions across the country for a high-level of focus on (1) community stand and pray vigils, (2) trained sidewalk advocacy, and (3) local educational outreach. From the onset, our mission has been simple: to see God bring a peaceful and prayerful end to the violence of abortion in Las Cruces.



It is my incredible honor to announce...





MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!



As of January 25, 2017, all signage on the former "Whole Woman's Health" abortion facility has been removed, their office emptied, and their Texas-based call center confirms that their Las Cruces location has been closed!



We have been continuing to investigate this closure further to ensure that it is permanent , and not a relocation or change of abortion providers, but at this point we are sufficiently comfortable announcing that our mission has been accomplished!



First... all praise and glory to God! We will soon be organizing and announcing an opportunity for all of us to come together in prayers of thanksgiving and celebration of God's goodness and mercy, so stay tuned!



Second... thank you! I have no doubt in my mind that this is God's work in direct response to YOU and the persistent and earnest prayers, fasting, and sacrifice of this incredible community of the Crosses.



Third... we are not going away! Not only will we be continuing to monitor the situation, but part of our planning from the very beginning has been to not only see abortion end in Las Cruces, but to then continue to build up the local culture of life so that it never comes back to our community!



Just because abortion has ended in Las Cruces does not mean that crisis pregnancies will end! When we called the WWH hotline, after telling us that the Las Cruces location has closed, the very next thing they did was refer us to the nearest abortion facilities!



Crisis pregnancies will continue to exist, so many Las Cruces women will continue to feel like they have no other choice but abortion and simply drive a bit farther to Santa Teresa, El Paso, or Albuquerque. We have won our first battle, but the culture war continues. We will soon be announcing our next plans to best help women seeking abortion in neighboring cities, to continue building up a vibrant culture of life, with a vision of helping to forever eliminate the demand for abortion.



From the bottom of my heart, thank you.



Glory be to God,



Mark Cavaliere, Director

Coalition for Life of Las Cruces

P.O. Box 102, Las Cruces, NM 88004

mark@lascrucesforlife.org

575.313.2277