Take ten

college students, stick them in a 30-foot RV and send

them on a three-month walk across America from the

Pacific Ocean to Washington, D.C., and what do you get?

No, not

another voyeuristic TV hit special, but Crossroads, a

powerful group of teenage disciples in modern day U.S.A.

Crossroads

began six years ago as a few students from Stuebenville

University setting out across this country, attempting to

raise concern about the escalating problem of abortion, a

procedure some government officials said would be kept

safe and rare. Coupled with the growing specter of

euthanasia, capital punishment, mass murders and other

forms of violence, abortion forms the heart of what Pope

John Paul II is calling a "Culture of Death."

Today,

there are now 20 or more young people in two walks -

one through the north and one through the south. They

continue their attempt to raise awareness of this silent

holocaust and the reality of its horror, seeking to turn

the hearts of individuals back to the loving Father,

giver of all life, seeking to re-establish a

"Culture of Life."

This past

weekend they walked through Georgia, and I joined them

from midnight to 6 a.m., walking from Suwanee to

Gainesville. Along the way we prayed for the land we were

walking through and the people living on that land, that

they would come to know the immense value of every human

life.

The

following day we rested long enough to go back down into

Atlanta to pray outside the Atlanta Surgi Center, an

abortion mill on Spring Street that specializes in late

term abortion. It was a beautiful day that began on a

hopeful note, as the first girl who entered the clinic

exited before her boyfriend could park the car, and

pronounced that there was "no way" she was

going to do this. But soon things settled into their

normal routine, with women entering with greater

frequency, and leaving in gut-wrenching pain.

Often times

those who promote abortion speak of the

"options" they make the individual woman aware

of so that she can make her own decision. However, I know

that the "counselors" inside were trying to

convince the women, in any way possible, that either this

"thing" inside them was not a child, or was

somehow so deformed or would bring problems so great,

that he or she should not have to endure the difficulty

of such a life. Many former abortion providers testify to

this fact.

But in an

attempt to curb my anger at this murder of the innocent,

I prayed that the Lord would show me the true intention

of the hearts of this clinical staff, which I might have

been totally misjudging. Not 15 minutes later, as we

continued to kneel across the street in prayer, a young

woman came down the street looking for the clinic, with a

sister or friend at her side - carrying a car seat

with a small infant inside!

Immediately

my interest was piqued, and I watched as they climbed the

steps to enter. No sooner had they reached the door than

the policeman on duty stopped the mother and said,

"You can't bring that in here."

It was

against the law of the clinic to bring in a living,

breathing baby outside of the womb. In a swift and curt

moment, the hearts of the staff had been revealed. They

knew exactly what they were doing, but did not want the

mothers waiting to have to confront the awful truth, a

truth they had stifled their consciences to serve. The

presence of a living, breathing baby child was just too

much for them to bear.

Crossroads

has gone on. They have a long way to go to get to D.C. by

Aug. 10. But the problem is still here. We have a cancer

within us that no ultrasound or X-ray can expose, but

that the brief statement of an officer revealed with

harsh reality. We who stand by idly ignoring it will

suffer the loss no less, as the hand suffers the loss of

the heart.