 Pennsylvania of March for Life. And I'm with my friend here, Catherine Olehann, who works for March for Life, the National March for Life. And tell us a little bit about our audience, what you do. So I work for the State March program. So PostRoad, this is an initiative that we're building out to host state marches across the country. So whether that's in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, getting folks out to stand for life in their communities. So I'm hoping all of you are making your way to get ready to go to the March for Life 2024 in DC as well. And I wanna ask you this question, because our viewers need to know what we're trying to do is mobilize people to get them off of the front row and get them onto the front line. Why is it important to march PostRoad? Sure, so PostRoad is a common misconception that we no longer need to march for life. And this could not be further from the case because with Road overturned, the power to decide pro-life policy is in the hands of the people. This means that it's not only up to your state legislators, but it's still up to your federal legislators to decide federal abortion policy. This is why we need to be in DC in January, marching for life, letting them know that we will still hold them accountable and we want them making lives that defend the dignity of both mother and child. Thank you so much, Catherine, for all that you're doing and making your stance for life. Listen, we need to continue to pray for people like Catherine and all those that are helping with March for Life. Won't you be a part of this wonderful momentous event coming up in DC and in your state? When they have a March for Life coming to your state, we need you to get off the front row and to get on the front line. Let's make a stand for life. Even as she mentioned, Roe v. Wade has been overturned. Yes, it was a great victory, but it's also a call to action and a call to battle. Let's make every state starting in Pennsylvania a pro-life state in Jesus' name. Welcome, welcome, welcome to another special edition of Hope Today Life in a Post Road World. I'm Jay Anthony Gilbert. I'm here with my lovely, beautiful wife, Tiffany. So good to be back with you again. Yes, it's good to be here with you. We're doing our thing today. We are doing our thing. And you know what? March for Life is coming up January 19th. It is, it is. It's an awesome time for us to, I love that word mobilize. Mobilize. Mobilize as a church. Mobilize as a Christian body. Listen, we need to make sure that we just don't go, we don't just stay at the front row. We go to the front lines and do something. That's right, that's right. So we're so excited and listen, the purpose of this show, I'm so thankful to Cornerstone Television. We are so thankful to Cornerstone Television for giving us this opportunity to start off the beginning of 2024, standing for life. We want to inform and we want to also inspire you to get on off of the front row and to get on to the front line in Jesus' name. It's so important that we understand Roe v. Wade being overturned was a great battle that was won but we still gotta win the war. It's been given back to the state and it's time for us to rise up and to do our part in Jesus' name. Who do we have coming up in just a moment? I'm so excited. I feel like I want to take off my shoes and run around the studio. I mean, he is a, I called him, I told you before, I called him a master mobilizer. He is really a master mobilizer. We had an opportunity to meet him at the March for Life in Harrisburg and he was the keynote speaker there. But boy, I mean, first of all, he's an awesome man of God. Second of all, he's done some mighty, major things in the pro-life community and after he got done speaking, I was like, all right, what do we do? We gotta do something, we gotta move. We gotta, I mean, he just encouraged me so much so I'm excited to have him with us today. Yeah, he's gonna be great. And listen, we're also here because we wanna give you a call to action. If you wanna know more about pro-life pregnancy centers, I want you to go to VoicesfortheUnborn.org. We have a pro-life pregnancy center right here in Pittsburgh that is saving babies hand over fist, snatching them out of the clutches of hell in Jesus' name because that's what the devil wants to do, try to take these women to hell and allow these babies to be murdered, but we're not gonna sit back and do nothing. We are gonna rise up and be a voice for the voiceless and so I'm so proud of you and the work that you're doing in East Liberty. It is so awesome to see what you guys are doing. Amen. Well, we do it together. You know, I always tell people it's not like a one church or one couple piece. It's a body of Christ. We all have to come together and link arms and join in this fight to really make a difference. Amen, amen. Yeah, all right. So we have with us David B. Wright. He is the founder and former CEO of 40 Days for Life which mobilized more than 750,000 volunteers and 700 cities across all 50 states. The prayers and efforts of the organization have saved get this 14,643 babies brought 177 workers out of the abortion industries and close 96 abortion centers. David is also the owner and president for Be Right, Inc. which is a strategic consulting firm to help faith-based organizations attract more people, raise more funds and achieve more impact. David, welcome to Hope Today. It's great to have you with us. Oh my goodness. I'm so excited to be here, Tiffany Jay and it is a blessing to be here after we got to spend time together in person in Harrisburg. So thank you for having me on. Yes. Well, listen, tell us a little bit about how did 40 Days for Life come about? Oh, wow. You know, it really was the culmination of two ingredients. One of those ingredients was frustration and the other ingredient was prayer. So I was living at the time in the town of College Station, Texas, which is the home of Texas A&M University. And the frustration was that our community a few years earlier had had a Planned Parenthood Abortion Center open in our town. And we were heartbroken by this because we knew that children were perishing in our town on our watch, women were being wounded in our town on our watch and we were frustrated because we didn't know what to do. How could we stop this injustice? How could we rescue those being led to the slaughter as scripture tells us to do? And so out of just desperation, frustration, a group of us, myself and three others who worked at the little local pro-life group there, we sat down at the wooden table in the office of that pro-life organization and we prayed. And that was that second ingredient of prayer. And so for one hour, we did nothing but call out to God and say, what is your will? What do you want us to do? How can we be part of the solution to this crisis of abortion? And so as we prayed, the first thing that God put on our hearts was a timeframe. It's a very spiritually significant timeframe, the timeframe of 40 days. We read throughout scripture and we see that timeframe over and over again. Maybe God's tried to teach us something, right? But when we read those stories in biblical history, we see that frequently they were a time of transformation, either changing the lives of a believer or changing the world, but also it was a time of testing faithfulness to see would people be faithful to what God was asking? So as we prayed, we felt, well, God's asking us to be faithful, we believed, because children were dying, women were being wounded. We need some transformation in our community. So we said, let's do something around the 40 day timeframe. So we kept praying and there were three activities we felt we needed to do for 40 days. Number one was prayer and fasting, because we know that with man ending abortion, this seems impossible, even in this post row landscape we're in. But with God, all things are possible. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. So we felt we needed to pray, but the second half of that was we needed to fast because in scripture we're told that some demons can only be driven out through prayer and fasting. So we said, okay, we need to pray and fast. We need to encourage our community to pray and fast. The second thing we felt led to do was to go to the place where lives were at risk. So to gather in the public right of way peacefully outside the local Planned Parenthood Abortion Center to bear witness to the injustice of what was happening inside, but also to bring light into that darkness and where two or more gather in our Lord's name, He promises to be present in our midst, to bring His presence there to that place of hopelessness and despair where lives are lost and women are wounded. So we said, we've got to gather for 40 days outside of that facility. So prayer and fasting, peaceful vigil. And the third thing we felt led to do for 40 days was community outreach because we know that the most powerful form of advertising in the world is not, I'm sorry, it's not even this show. It's not a television ad. It's not our billboard on the side of the road. It's word of mouth. It's when the people who are right now watching us, listening to us, talk to their friends, their family members and fellow believers. And so we said, we've got to spread the word about the sanctity of life to everybody in our community. And we had a team of college students that literally said, we'll go door to door for 40 days, inviting everybody in our town to be a part of the solution to this crisis. So Tiffany, Jay, we finished that hour of prayer and we felt that we'd been given this clarion call to do something, 40 days of prayer and fasting, 40 days of peaceful vigil, 40 days of community outreach. But we were scared, not sure if it would work and not sure if we wanted to do it. But realizing that children were at risk, women were at risk, we said, we've got to act. And so we launched two weeks from that day, the first ever 40 days for life campaign. A thousand people participated in it. We saw abortions go down by 28% by the grace of God. And then after that campaign ended, it began to spread city by city, town by town, state by state and eventually nation by nation to where it's now spread to 1400 cities across all 50 states and 64 nations. Now more than a million volunteers have participated in 40 days for life campaigns. And by the grace of God, we've seen hundreds of workers, as you mentioned, leave the abortion industry and we've seen over 150 abortion centers close their doors now and go out of business for good. So God answers prayers, God will move if we are willing to ask Him what He wants us to do. And then as He reveals it to us, are we willing to say, yes, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. When we do, He will move us off of the front row to the front lines and we will see Him move in a way that will save lives, change hearts and impact eternal souls. You know, it's amazing, David, when people step out with nothing, how God brings something out of nothing. We did the same thing with our center. We didn't have any money. We didn't have anything. We launched out and we have seen the favor of God and the goodness of God and just His hand upon everything, just like you're mentioning. Obviously we're not as far along as you are, but it's amazing when people step out and do it, God will bless them. Let me ask you this question. You've seen over 177 workers come out of the abortion industry. How did you guys go about doing that? I wish we could say we did it, but it really comes down to God again. So we have to humble ourselves and submit to His holy will and then He can work through us. So how can we allow Him to work through us? So first of all, we really need to focus our prayers on those who work in the abortion industry. We need to look at them and realize they are not the villain. They are victims of a villain and the villain is Satan in this whole situation. Abortion is a spiritual battle. So if we're willing to look at them and say their but for the grace of God, go any of us, then we need to love them and we need to witness to them about why life is sacred and that there is hope, that there is healing for them. And that's really the story of all of these workers. So the one that most people may have heard about is Abby Johnson. And so Abby was the director of the Planned Parenthood Facility outside of which we did that first 40 days for life campaign. So Abby was there yelling at us through the fence. She was giving us a hard time. She was working her way up to become the clinic director and eventually a Planned Parenthood employee of the year. But what finally broke her heart was when she was called into the procedure room and she witnessed an abortion on an ultrasound. She had never witnessed an ultrasound guided abortion before. But when God finally peeled the scales away from her eyes, she watched a 13 week old baby lose his fight for life in the womb on that ultrasound screen. She said, I can't do this anymore. But then she went back to her office and through her tears, she looked out and she saw the people who had always loved her, who had always offered help to her. And she said, that's where I need to go. So she ran to those local people running the 40 days for life campaign. Within a few hours, I was on the phone with her. I was in Mississippi that day working with a pro-life group there. And we were helping her get legal assistance, helping her to get healing and everything else to move out of the abortion industry. But if we had been only confrontational to her, if we had been judgmental of her and just condemning of her, as opposed to showing her the love that Jesus Christ calls us to share with everyone, right? We're all sinners, but we have to have that understanding that we have to bring the love of Christ to help others heal and find forgiveness. And so Abby was able to leave the abortion industry, find healing, and eventually she was able to take that to whom much is given, much is required. She had this beautiful experience of love and redemption and healing. And from that, and I encouraged her and was on her initial board, she started a ministry called And Then There Were None, which today has helped more than 700 other workers leave the abortion industry as well by having that same understanding of the power of prayer, love, compassion, and that everybody is a sinner but needs healing in Jesus Christ and pointing them towards that. And then when they're ready, when God peels the scales away from their eyes, when they're ready, there are people there who will love them and help them out of the journey. That's the story we've seen time and time and time again. Well, David, I love that. And I love to always hear about the transformative power of the Holy Spirit. You know, in our center, one of the things that we do, we pray every morning. And one of the things that we pray for is we pray that the abortion clinics in the area would be shut down. Tell me a little bit about, what was the key to seeing 96? I looked at that number and I'm like, wow, 96. Abortion centers shut down. Yeah, well again, I'll go back to the spiritual component as the foundation, right? We've got to pray and we've got to pray for our communities to be rid of these places that are doing so much harm to children and to women. But then what do we do practically? Well, I think of this. I was trained in the pharmaceutical industry in business, right? Before I got into ministry work. And so we always understood business and sales in this supply and demand. We have an equation in business. So you've got to have a supply of a good or service and you have to have demand for that business to succeed. So abortion is a business. Fundamentally, why do they run abortion facilities? Because it makes a whole lot of money. Why do they commit these abortions? It's because people pay 800, 1200, $1400 for an abortion where the abortionist has no doctor-patient relationship and just goes in, commits this act and collects the check and then goes to the next room and the next room and keeps doing it. So we have to understand that an abortion center is a business and it needs those two elements to continue to do what it does. There needs to be a supply, which means there need to be people that are willing to work there. There have to be vendors, providers, external places. There has to be electricity. There have to be all the things that allow for that supply to exist. So that's the one part of the equation, but the other part is the demand. And the demand is, there have to be people who feel that, oh, abortion's my only way out and I've got to avail myself of Planned Parenthood or this abortion provider. So what we do in solving the problem, and Tiffany, what you do at your pregnancy center, you're primarily addressing the demand side. When somebody is in an unexpected pregnancy and they're scared and there's a lot of social pressure on them, you're helping her to know it's okay, we love you, we'll help you, we'll walk with you through this journey. And as a result, she's no longer susceptible to the propaganda and the sales pitch for abortion that Planned Parenthood or the abortion industry would give her. So you're bringing down one of the sides of the equation of the abortion industry. When we go out and pray outside of these facilities or when we are able to help workers leave the abortion facility, that is bringing down the supply of the various things they need. They need to be seen in the community as blending in. They need to have workers. They need to have suppliers who are willing to furnish them with, hazardous waste disposal and all these other things. When those things start to go down, when their tax funding goes down and in Texas, that was a major key as we were simultaneously while reaching the hearts and minds of the women and helping to save the children and trying to draw the workers out. We were also working with our state officials, what the March for Life encourages us to do, right? Be engaged in the civic part of this battle. We are encouraging our elected officials to defund Planned Parenthood of millions of dollars of taxpayer funding. And when that eventually happened, that was a straw. They couldn't get by without that supply of funding. And so facilities start closing their doors. So just to kind of wrap all that up and just put it together for each of us, it's pray as if it all depends upon God, because it does. And then work like it all depends upon us because God wants to use us as His hands and His feet. And if we're willing to drive down the supply side of the equation, if we're willing to drive down the demand side of the equation and do it all in love where we're drawing those who have been victims of the villain out of the abortion industry and we are continuing to save lives and impact eternal souls, that's where we will see God move in a profound way, transforming our communities, transforming our states, transforming our nation and the entire world. Amen to that, David. You know, can you take a minute because I'm sure there's somebody watching right now that they're hearing you. And as my wife calls you the great mobilizer, they're ready to get off of the front row and get onto the front lines. If they wanted to get involved in the fight, what would you say to them to say, hey, this is how you can start. And then would you do me a favor? After you do that, take a minute and just pray for those to have the boldness and the courage to get involved. Yeah, yeah. Well, thanks, Jay, for asking that. So the first thing I would say is, as people of faith, God knows where He wants us in this effort more than even we do. So the first thing is bathe this in prayer, whether it's right now while you're watching the show or maybe as soon as the show is over, get down on your knees or go to a prayer closet or whatever your style of prayer is and just say, God, I'm here. Use me, send me where you want me and be discerning of what it is that you feel He is asking of you. Assess your talents, assess your skills, assess your experiences. God has prepared you for some unique irreplaceable role in this struggle. I was just talking the other day with Abby Johnson, the former Planned Parenthood director and with her, not long after she left the abortion industry, she started to have other workers reaching out to her and saying, hey, you've been where I am and you came out, how did you do it? And I started to say, Abby, this could be what God wants to use you for because you've been there, done that, to whom much is given, much is required. You had this beautiful journey of conversion and healing. Maybe you're supposed to reach back and help others. So for the person watching, a person listening, find where God may want to use you and then start testing the waters. Maybe go volunteer at a pregnancy center, get involved there and donate for sure because that's some of the most important frontline work that can be done right now in this post-rural landscape. Walking with women in the messiness of real life. Go to a March for Life. Go to the National March for Life in Washington, DC and they'll have all these different organizations there talking about different facets of the movement. Find your place and get involved. Go participate in a 40 days for life in your community during the spring or during the fall when those campaigns are going on. Get involved in the civic process, find your place and let's go to the Lord and let's ask Him to guide your heart as you discern and say, where God can you use me? Heavenly Father, I love you and I thank you so much for bringing us together. Dear Lord, help each of us to understand how we can use our gifts, our talents, our experiences to glorify you, to be a light in the darkness, to protect mothers, to save children and to bring an end to this injustice of abortion. For the person watching right now help them to know what they can do. Their time, talent and treasure, how it can make a difference and help them say yes to you and get engaged to get off the front rows into the front lines and to make a difference and glorify you in the process. We ask all of this in Jesus' most precious name, amen. David B. Wright, thank you so much for what you're doing, your stance for pro-life. You did a phenomenal job last year at the March for Life in Harrisburg. Thank you for your time here and just giving us these words of wisdom to help us stand for life. It's an honor and a glory to be with you and thank you so much for the show. I'm excited to be a part of it. Amen, God bless you. Well, are you mobilized? I got an extra fire, set a fire on me. I mean, I'm ready to go again. Amen. I mean, it's awesome what he's doing, what he's done by way of the Lord. I'm just excited to see what's coming up next with him. Amen. And it's so important, ladies and gentlemen, the purpose of this show that we remind you that we want to mobilize you to get off of the front row and onto the front line. Our prayer is, is that you will now say, I'm gonna step up and do something. I'm going to go support a pregnancy center. If you're looking for one, you're looking at two people right here in Pittsburgh. Voicesfortheunborn.org, you can go there right now. And there's three ways that you can partner with us. One, you can pray. As a matter of fact, why don't you take a minute because let's see what would be January 27th. We're gonna go down there like he does for 40 days for life and we're gonna pray. What happens on that day? That's right. So this is an opportunity for us. Again, to mobilize, to come together and to link arms as a body of Christ and really to pray in the spirit and really to increase our faith, to see God and expect, expect God to move in those abortion clinics. So yeah. The fourth Saturday of each month at 8.30, we meet down at our clinic, one block from the largest abortion provider in our area, 8.30 a.m. to pray. If you're looking for a place to pray, please come and do so. Number two, even as David said earlier, you can find a local pregnancy center if you wanna go to Voice for the Unborn. You can do that wherever it is though. Find one that you believe in, maybe talk to your pastor, to their church and get involved with them and participate. Find out what your skill set is and start involving yourself there. And then the last one, you can plant a seed. You can sow, you can partner. David mentioned that we need support now more than ever in order to save the lives of the unborn. Now, I was thinking about how when they went down there and he said they prayed and fasted. There was a story of a woman, remember that came by and she was so angry with everybody. But people continued to pray. What happened when the people prayed for her? You know, it was so interesting because again, you saw the hand of God move there. There was a young woman, she was so upset by our presence there. She pretty much went down the line and she said, well, you go, you know where, you are, you know what? She used some words that weren't very kind, but we continued to pray. We didn't retaliate. We didn't say anything back. We continued to pray and God touched her. She actually went over to a store there. God touched her. She came back and she apologized to each and every one of us. And not only did she apologize, she gave us the why behind why she was feeling the way that she was. And we had an opportunity to minister with her. We had an opportunity to build relationship and to pray with her as well. And you know, Pastor Jay, I just want to share this as well. When we were down there, you know, there's so much happening in the spirit. We were down there, we were praying and this is why we need you. This is why we need every one of you. This is serious. And we were on the block and there was a couple that rode past. A guy had dropped off his significant other to go in there to get an abortion. And he got out of his car and he did this little dance around the car. And it was interesting. We've never really seen anything like that before. So somebody asked him, we were just so intrigued by it. Somebody asked him, hey, listen, what are you doing Miss Dance for? He said, well, listen, I'm doing a satanic dance because we're sacrificing our child. Wow. That's what's happening, everybody. That's what's happening. That's why it's so important for us to get up and move and do something. We can't just be in our homes. Yeah, prayer's important, but we need to get out and do something and to be about something. We need to mobilize, you know, because this is what's happening. Satan is out there and he's doing some crazy things in and around people. But we know, Pastor Jay, we know we have the victory. We have the victory in Christ. And that's the reason why ladies and gentlemen, we are bringing this to you to inform you and to hopefully inspire you. This is why we need to pray. This is why we have to come together. Did you hear what she just said? A guy gets out of his car, does a dance. We're down there praying, does a dance. It says we're offering a sacrifice to Satan. This is what happens in the abortion mill. This is what happens in the abortion. This is what's happening in your backyard. You know what God spoke to me? This is important. I want you to catch this. When you stand before God one day after hearing these words and he says, what did you do to further the cause of pro-life? What are you gonna tell him? You are given an opportunity right now to say I can make a difference. I can do something. I can partner. I can pray. I can participate. I'm willing to come together. I'm willing to plant. I'm willing to sow whatever it is needed in order to take the pro-life cause to the next dimension. It's been given back to the states, ladies and gentlemen. And God is asking us, what are we prepared to do in this day and hour? And it's so important, Pastor Tiff, that we rise up and that we take it back in Jesus' name. Absolutely. And you know, it reminds me of what David shared about how when they all got together and they helped close these clinics down, they worked together as a collective body to bring these abortion workers out into truth and light. You know, and so I just think we need to continue to work together and to move forward. That's why we need each and every one of you. We need each and every one of you. So come and join us January 27th. We're gonna be down there praying. We hope that you will. And don't forget January 19th, the national March for Life is coming up. I hope that you're going to be there. We are going to be there. We're taking a bus up there. It's gonna be an awesome time. And we hope that we will see you there. And I'm so thankful again to Cornerstone for giving us this wonderful opportunity to do this special edition of Hope Today where we are focusing on life in a post-world world. Next week, we are gonna have a powerful, powerful woman here, a former abortion minded woman that shows life and the joy she's experiencing. And she's even gonna have her beautiful baby boy with her. You're not gonna wanna miss it. It's gonna be great. We hope to see you next time on Hope Today.