by Pastor Andrew D. Street

A group from Trinity Bible Methodist Church, working in conjunction with Operation Save America, went to Southside High School (Fort Wayne, Indiana) on Thursday, August 26.  We took hundreds of tracts and several large signs that showed the graphic truth about abortion.  Two signs were of aborted babies at 10-11 weeks.  Two signs were of Baby Malachi at 21 weeks (picture below – read Malachi’s story here:http://www.operationsaveamerica.org/articles/articles/baby-malachi-history.html).  One sign was a live baby, Baby David.  We arrived at 2:15 to be there for when school let out at 2:30.

School officials told us to get to the other side of the street. We told them that we were not on their property, but on the public sidewalk. They said, "Move or the police will move you!"  We told them they may contact the police.

The police told us to move.

I told the officer that I was grateful for the service he rendered. This is small fries in comparison to some of the dangerous situations for which he is expected to risk his life. But I also said that I called the City Right of Way Dept and verified that the public sidewalk was available for public use and that we weren’t going to move. This at least bought us some time while the officer got on the phone.

A mother-hen type of a black lady came out irately telling me, “This is adult stuff, not the stuff for children! You shouldn’t be traumatizing our kids with that!”
I said, “I’ve seen minors go into the abortion clinic here at 2210 Inwood drive, Fort Wayne…"
“No sir, not from here.”
“Ma’am, this issue effects high schoolers.”
“Not mine. You shouldn’t traumatize these kids with that stuff!”
“You know full well that these kids see far worse on the TVs at home.”
(By the way, this is an inner-city, low-income,  high crime rate area. I suspect many kids have seen all sorts of violence on a first-hand basis.) 

Now by this time she had parked herself between my sign and the kids in an effort to hide it from them. So I knew we’d at least have a better chance for dialogue.
At this point she knew I had her, but she wasn’t going to give an inch. “I can’t vouch from what they see at home, but here I’m going to protect them!”
“Ma’am, you’re protecting them from the truth. God is going to judge this nation for this sin!”
“Don’t you talk to me about God! I know all about God! I am the minister of music at my church! God is going to judge you for traumatizing these kids!”
“Ma’am, do you show pictures of the holocaust to these kids?”
“Be quiet, I’m not going to listen to you anymore. This conversation is over, just be quiet.”

(She was still parked in front my sign, the police were on the phone with Right of Way, and the kids weren’t yet out. So I wasn’t going to let her get off that easy.)
“Do you allow Planned Parenthood to come in here? You do, don’t you…God is not going to overlook this sin and you are protecting your kids from the truth.”
At about this time the police said that if I didn’t move the signs, I was going to be arrested. Even though the signs were less than 2” thick and parallel with the sidewalk, they somehow constituted an “obstruction” that would have made children walk into the street. Most of this information was not given to me until I crossed the street.

They wouldn't stop us from passing out information on the school side. So a few continued to engage with the students. The one negative response from the students that our team heard was that we should have been using nice signs of live babies. (We did use one.) But in light of the black  momma’s comments about how her kids didn’t have to deal with this issue, one young lady’s comment was memorable.  She came up to Morgan and said, “Oh! I see – I know why ya’ll came here. This is where all the hoes are.”  I promise you that was her exact word, not mine.

As I stood across the street I would call out to the kids who were crossing. They had no idea I was standing there until I verbally got their attention. You could tell this because when I did, they looked at the Malachi sign and their faces registered a horrified shock. I can’t remember a single student out of the several I spoke with who wanted to leave before I was done talking with them. I ran into a group of 2 or 3 goth boys with black clothes and rainbow colored hair and they were among the most sensitive to receive the message.  As I walked back to the car, I was at the stoplight with a black girl and two white goth girls; they, too, listened until I ran out of words and were in no hurry to cross the street.

Our small team gathered back into the parking lot across the street from the back side of the school where several Christian ministries were housed. While we were sharing stories and loading the cars, there was a group of 10-15 Hispanic students hanging out nearby. I presume they were waiting for some kind of after school program going on in the ministry center. I told my sister-in-law, Mikah, to take a sign and go engage with them. She approached them with the sign of a 10-week old baby who had been aborted and they stood and listened to her until she couldn’t think of anything else to say. One of the girls was a few months pregnant (again invalidating the administrator’s blind belief that this stuff didn’t happen at her school). Someone asked if we had a picture of a five-month-old baby. Malachi was aborted at 21 weeks, so we pulled that sign out and showed them. They stood and listened. Then the mother got to hold my baby, Amos.  We got to have prayer with this group and then departed.
 
While across the street, I was officially served a warning that if I ever step foot on Southside High School property, I was trespassing and going to jail. If I used a sign to obstruct the sidewalk, I would be likewise arrested. This makes going back a little less inviting. But we must and we will. The students deserve it. Moreover, Christ deserves it!

“Pray for those who despitefully use you and persecute you.”