This was the perfect semester for Mary St. Hilaire to make her entrance into the JFA community as an intern. Given the COVID-19 shutdown, that may sound odd, but God knew the type of people we would need for this particular season.
Mary was eager to finally start the internship for which she’d been preparing. In anticipation, she said,
“Justice For All (JFA) is a group that I have known about and loved for several years now because of the way they approach the pro-life movement. JFA's goal is to educate people, specifically college students, on the reality of abortion and the humanity of the unborn through respectful dialogue. JFA's approach is not one of hate, judgment, or condescension, but of love, understanding, and openness. This is what attracted me to them. My passion for the pro-life movement put in me the urge to do more to save the lives of the innocent, and JFA is truly the perfect fit for me.”
We soon realized she was right, and that she was also a great fit for us!
I had the privilege in 2019 of following up with Mary several times about her desire to impact the injustice of abortion. Through our phone calls, her application, and the interview process it became clear that Mary genuinely wanted to help, was willing to work hard, and would enhance our team. She didn’t disappoint.
Hailing from the Lincoln, Nebraska area, Mary took her faith, her unbending pro-life convictions, her work ethic, her joy, and her sense of humor to Wichita, Kansas and didn’t look back. We could see that her family had prepared and encouraged her in some amazing ways!
Mary started as an intern in late January and quite quickly jumped into her two main tasks — creating conversations on college campuses (becoming a trusted advocate on our team) and learning our speaking material well enough to be able to contribute to our training events within weeks.
This semester will always be remembered for the impact of COVID-19 on our society, the shutdown of schools, the cancelling of events, and how it pushed our ministry to enhance our outreach and training tools online. It changed our plans, but it didn’t ruin our mission. This cultural moment has allowed us to take new chances, learn new things, and it was actually the perfect semester for Mary to start with us.
We are so thankful for the way our schedule worked out, abnormally packed for February. Mary started the semester off with a total of 11 outreach days and 4 interactive training events. She also helped in our office and learned speaking parts, making for a wild six weeks. If the schedule had been lighter, she would have had far less practice by the time the COVID-19 shutdown happened. Instead, she emerged a much stronger advocate through events in Denton, Albuquerque, San Antonio, and Dallas. By the time she completed our spring break mission trip at UT Dallas (March 9-11), Mary had also successfully contributed to our training seminars by delivering our “One Central Question” section (aimed at simplifying the abortion conversation), and she did a great job. She was polished, energetic, clear, and enjoyable to watch.
The Dallas trip helped all aspects of Mary’s job come together in a dynamic way. She helped with the speaking and brought a good amount of experience to outreach conversations there at UT Dallas. The mission trip team had enjoyable team building experiences together as well.
