THERE almost aren’t enough hours in Lent for Brisbane couple Brendan and Judy Wong.
For five years during the penitential season they’ve organised a “24/7” commitment to prayer among an army of volunteers for the “40 Days for Life” anti-abortion campaign.
As the crusade to “change people’s hearts” continues, the movement’s support for constant “prayer and fasting, peaceful vigils and community outreach” also grows.
Brendan explained how the couple were first spurred into action.
“In researching the US election in 2008 we discovered how pro-abortion (American President Barack) Obama is,” he said.
“Judy’s mother mentioned something called ’40 Days for Life’ was spreading … (and) we looked into it and realised there was nothing similar in Brisbane or Australia.”
After losing his job in December 2008 the father of three said they pulled together the first Lenten campaign in Brisbane “with bliss and ignorance”.
It meant organising “a continuous, 40-day, 24-hour-a-day vigil at the abortion mill … at Bowen Hills”.
The couple haven’t looked back.
Hundreds of others have rallied to support the cause – practically and prayerfully – Brendan the first to acknowledge the generous help and commitment witnessed.
“It has been amazing to see how many Christian faiths support this common fight,” he said.
“We have over 500 contacts in our database and (are) growing.”
40 Days for Life now has a presence not only in Brisbane but also in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Hobart.
Not shying away from the pursuit of holiness and openly promoting the value of human life, Judy said she “admires the Catholic Church for standing firm in the truth, despite what the ‘norms of society’ might be”.
Her husband of seven years concurred, saying, “I love the integrated truth of the Catholic Church with no unanswered questions as to why or how we should live.”
“Being pro-life is an excellent example of this,” Brendan said.
“Whilst some Christian religions permit abortion, the Catholic Church has consistently identified abortion as the killing of a child within the womb and this is murder.
“It can not be condoned.”
The littler Wongs – “blessings from above” – help to spur the cause.
“All of our children are such a delight,” Judy said of Annabel, 5, Elyse, 3, and Caleb, 18 months.
“It’s a privilege to teach them and guide them through life.”
Brendan and Judy have chosen to home-school their children.
“When God formed me in my mother’s womb, He placed a desire to teach in my heart,” Judy, who was born in Pennsylvania, USA, said.
“I grew up teaching others – when I wasn’t in school learning – and from a young age I knew I wanted to home-school my own children one day.
“I enjoyed teaching so much that I took it on as my vocation.”
The couple’s initial meeting was “a God-appointed encounter”.
“God had planned every detail in each of our lives – so it would be possible to meet each other,” Judy said.
Attending her fifth consecutive World Youth Day in Germany in 2005, she felt led by the Holy Spirit to participate in a small-group discussion.
“Little did I know what the Holy Spirit was up to,” the exuberant woman of faith said.
“I found myself literally being pulled to join the group on the right.
“I’m not exactly sure who was doing the pulling – I should have been going to the left – and it turns out Brendan was in the row in front of me and was also pulled to join this group to the right.”
Remaining “deep in conversation” after the group session, the pair “lost each other” but met up again eventually.
They became engaged by the following Easter and married in October of the same year.
Undoubtedly Brendan and Judy’s independently formed faith in Jesus Christ drew them together.
Brendan’s parents met in New Zealand and migrated to the northside of Brisbane in the early 1970s.
The family was committed to Sunday Mass and following a Catholic education, and he went on to involvement with the Antioch youth movement.
Judy also enjoyed a Catholic education and her parents were associated with the Catholic Charismatic Fraternity.
She said it wasn’t until university years however that faith became her “own”.
“During these years I experienced the profound love of Our Father, fell in love with Jesus, opened my heart to the Holy Spirit and became aware of my spiritual gifts and charisms,” she said of undertaking an education degree.
“Living my Catholic faith and being open to God’s plan for my life led me to my marriage vocation.”
It also led to uncovering a shared, deep passion for changing the outcome of abortion through prayer, first and foremost, and re-educating society.
As with all things, Brendan and Judy are willing to be wherever God leads and to live the sacramental and penitential life they were called to.
“We now feel quite at home here,” she said of planting deep roots on Brisbane’s northside.
“(But) if God prompted us to be elsewhere, we would follow.”
For further information about how to help join the Wongs and countless others during or after Lent go to www.40daysforlife.com or phone 0415 475 438.
