Pray for Conversations - July

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Catherine, right, prays for a woman at a Justice For All outreach event.  We have learned a great deal from Catherine’s focus on God and on prayer.  Please join us now in praying for her!

We thank God for Catherine Wurts and for God's work through Catherine's years of service with JFA.

Please pray with us for Catherine Wurts as she leaves JFA this month to pursue graduate studies.  As a JFA volunteer (2006-2008) and a JFA staff member (2009-2017), Catherine has directly impacted thousands of people through conversations during outreach events, through her public presentations, and through personal mentoring of participants in JFA’s Abortion: From Debate to Dialogue Training Program.  In addition to her roles as dialogue artist and trainer, Catherine served as JFA’s Intern Recruiter and Trainer Certification Specialist.  More importantly, Catherine encouraged our staff towards a deeper devotion to God and to prayer.  We thank God for the sacrifice and devotion Catherine has given to JFA’s staff, volunteers, and mission over these many years, and she will be sorely missed.  Please pray for God’s guidance for Catherine throughout her graduate program and beyond, and pray for the conversations Catherine will create in the coming years.  See Catherine's staff alumni page for some of the highlights from her work with JFA through the years.  In the comments section below, you can leave a note about what her work has meant to you personally.

(Note, see also our Event Calendar for a list of events about which you can pray, including upcoming major events in IN, MN, TX, and OK.)

Featured Resource: Stephanie Gray Featured on Talks at Google

Can you imagine a skilled pro-life dialogue artist speaking at Google headquarters?  What if that presentation then was posted by Talks at Google on its YouTube channel?  This is exactly what’s just happened.  We’re ecstatic that our friend Stephanie Gray has recently been featured by Google.  By watching, you can both learn from her moving presentation and help it surpass 100,000 views (as of this post, it has over 98,200 views).  In her talk, “Abortion: From Controversy to Civility,” Stephanie modeled powerfully how sharing stories, questions, and thought experiments can transform your conversations about abortion.  The whole talk is just over an hour long and is certainly worth watching.  If you’d like to start with a short segment, however, we’ve highlighted two minutes from the Q&A portion (53:26 - 55:26).  Listen for Stephanie's great advice on starting conversations in a pro-choice environment.  (Steve Wagner notes that he and Stephanie both look back to a support-raising retreat they attended in 2001, led by Scott Klusendorf, as formative in the pro-life work they went on to do and continue to this day.) 

Featured Conversation Starter: "Equal Rights for Whom?"

Use the post, “Equal Rights for Whom? — Stephanie Gray at Google” to start a conversation in a natural way with a friend who has any perspective on abortion.  The post is written with the pro-choice person in mind and features a two-minute clip from Stephanie Gray’s talk at Google in which she discusses the UN Declaration of Human Rights.  Then the post asks two questions that get the conversation started.  To view the post and share it on social media, use the links below.  If you use this tool to start a conversation, please let us know how it goes!