Steve Wagner
Only Two Questions?
Only Two Questions?
Rebekah Dyer
Masked Conversations
Masked Conversations
Steve Wagner
Should We Flip-Flop When Someone Flips Out?
Should We Flip-Flop When Someone Flips Out?
Steve Wagner
Conversations with Helen and Lisa
Conversations with Helen and Lisa
Steve Wagner
One Person Can Change the World
One Person Can Change the World

recent updates

One Person at a Time

In this Impact Report, we share the names and pictures of some of the people with whom our team interacted in 2022. Please join us in praying that God will take the seeds we planted and change the world, one person at a time. Pray each person would love and protect the children in their care. Pray for healing from past hurts, and pray each heart would become open to God.

Would you join us in committing to pray for each of these people in the coming months?

You can use the images below (7 total) to pray through the list from your phone or other device with us this year?

To view more pictures and read recent stories of conversations, see other recent posts on the JFA blog.

There’s still time to give a year-end gift to help Justice For All train many Christians to reach one person at a time in 2023. Thank you for supporting our team and for praying along with us.

I found him gazing into the sky

Years ago, prominent Christian philosopher J.P. Moreland was in Wichita to speak at a conference and we invited him to come to our office to engage our trainers in Q&A. A few minutes before the Q&A was to begin, J.P. wasn’t in the room with our staff. I wandered outside and found him gazing into the sky. He explained that he had to purposefully take time to give thanks.

At the start of every working day, our team pauses to pray. A common refrain among our prayers is “thank you for all of JFA’s supporters.” Like our friend J.P., we feel we must purposefully give thanks. I’d like to pause now and say these same words now in your presence: We thank God for you. We thank God for your partnership in helping at our office, in volunteering with us at outreach events, in providing space in your home for JFA activities, in providing better-than-restaurant meals and better-than-hotel accommodations for our teams on the road, and in praying persistently that God would use JFA’s efforts to finally make abortion unthinkable. You have provided funding during the pandemic and the 2020 year-end so generously and sacrificially! We are struck with awe by God’s faithfulness through you: We thank God for you.

Since that day looking up at the sky, J.P. has very publicly and very candidly revealed a bit more of why he must give thanks: he has struggled for a long time with debilitating anxiety and depression. Whether we struggle in the same way or not, would you join me in thanking God for his work through JFA? And please allow me to also say those same words to you: thank you.

The following updates from JFA trainers shows some of what God has been doing through you and JFA:

To learn more about J.P.’s book on anxiety, click here: Finding Quiet.

Please enjoy and give thanks with us!

Freedom House Ambulance Service and Justice For All

Dear Friend of Justice For All,

Up until 1967, there were no paramedics as we know them today. In Pittsburgh, for example, people needing emergency medical care were transported to the hospital by police...or by the morgue!

Enter the Freedom House Ambulance Service. Trained by Peter Safar, the doctor who helped create cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and encouraged laypeople to use it to save lives, these pioneering paramedics in Pittsburgh brought emergency medical care to people on the street and also during transport to the hospital.

Freedom House paramedics with ambulance (Image: Univ. of Pittsburgh)

I learned about Freedom House from a recent episode of the 99 Percent Invisible podcast. It struck me that the work of Justice For All (JFA) is very similar to the work of Freedom House in at least three ways:

1. Seat Work and Feet Work: When Dr. Safar and his team trained Freedom House workers to provide medical care, they did give them some education with books in a classroom setting, but they didn’t stop there. These medical mentors also went out in the field with the Freedom House workers, supporting them while they showed they could indeed provide first-class medical care in real emergencies. As you would expect, the medical mentors wouldn’t consider these workers to be “trained” until they had shown skill in the activity of providing medical care. Lives depended on this second step in training. In the same way, we don’t consider a participant in a JFA event to be “trained” until he or she engages in a real conversation using what we’ve taught. This is why we encourage participation in “Feet Work” outreach events, why we provide conversation starters for everyday life, and why our mentors stand at the ready to help.

“... In the same way, we don’t consider a participant in a JFA event to be “trained” until he or she engages in a real conversation using what we’ve taught.”

2. We Train Non-Experts to Change the World Because They Can: Most of the Freedom House paramedics were poor, black men from the Hill District. In late 1960’s Pittsburgh, many would have thought it impossible that these men could do anything worthwhile, let alone excel in the field of medicine. Still, Dr. Safar and others believed in their potential and trusted them, and they saved two hundred lives in their first year of operation! In the same way, we at JFA focus on training people from every walk of life, many of whom have no expertise in philosophy or science. Some have never talked to anyone who disagrees with them about serious worldview topics. It might seem odd that we trust these non-experts when lives hang in the balance, but now we can depend on thousands we have trained to graciously change hearts about abortion.

3. Even the Highest Quality Training Can Crumble If Not Protected: The Freedom House paramedics were mistreated by a mayor determined to shut them down. Sadly, even after concerted efforts of whites advocating for the incredibly skilled black men of Freedom House, the mayor succeeded in effectively draining the Freedom House of funding and re-inventing it with white workers. In a similar way, JFA’s training program can falter without needed funds and without God’s help through your prayers. Sometimes I feel like Dr. Safar and his fellow medical mentors. The JFA trainers in whom you and I have invested and the people we’ve trained together over the years—all of these are incredibly skilled. I long to see them more fully realize their potential to reach more people. Pray for opportunities for us to partner with more groups to train more advocates. Consider donating to JFA to keep our training program strong. To be sure, we don’t face the same racism the Freedom House faced, but we do face today’s culture of “tolerance” in which our peaceful work can be branded in false ways by those who see it as harmful, which would make our work difficult or impossible. Pray with us for protection from these outside forces.

Thank you for partnering with us to teach all people that, with God’s help, they are worthy of being entrusted with such important work. It’s a joy to watch such unlikely life-savers change the world.

Steve Wagner, Executive Director

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Encouragement for Conversations: See Calendar.

Teach Kids: See www.jfaweb.org/kids.

Recent Instagram Posts

 

A Breakthrough at the Water Pump

Dear Friend of JFA,

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Recently my family invited me to watch a more recent version of a movie I saw in grade school (The Miracle Worker, Disney, 2000). The movie tells the story of Helen Keller, a blind and deaf seven-year-old, and her teacher, Anne Sullivan. In contrast to many in Helen’s life who saw her as a hopeless cause, Anne tenaciously labored to draw out Helen’s incredible intelligence and potential.

Imagine the challenge of teaching language to someone who is blind and deaf! Anne felt at many points like she was getting nowhere. Over and over she would spell with sign language into the palm of Helen’s hand, and over and over it seemed that even though Helen imitated beautifully, she did not comprehend the meaning of the hand signs. Then one day Anne and Helen experienced a breakthrough at the water pump. In The Story of My Life, Helen described it:

Suddenly I felt a misty consciousness as of something forgotten — a thrill of returning thought; and somehow the mystery of language was revealed to me. I knew then that “w-a-t-e-r” meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free!

We create conversations about abortion, longing for every person to experience this same moment of comprehension. While many have dismissed pro-choice advocates both within and outside our church communities as a hopeless cause, we train pro-life advocates to labor with each person, not discouraged when one approach doesn’t work. Some have called Helen’s experience a miracle. That’s apt. In the same way, while we labor with the best dialogue tools we have, we also rely on God to work a miracle in each person’s worldview. Thank you for partnering with us to help the blind and the teacher of the blind alike, that many may “come to see” the inherent value of every human being.

- Steve Wagner, Executive Director

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Change Hearts and Save Lives!

Encouragement for Conversations

Join JFA dialogue mentors for an informal, no-pressure time of discussion and prayer, all dedicated to finding new ways to engage people in conversations in everyday life. See the JFA Calendar for new dates and times.

Lesson Plan for Kindergarten to Grade 4

Download “The Baby’s Heart Beats Like Mine” at www.jfaweb.org/kids for free!

An Update from The Executive Director

Dear Friend of JFA,

JFA volunteers often say that gathering the courage to show up to a JFA outreach event is the hardest part of their JFA training experience. For those who are willing, though, starting that first conversation can be the most important step in learning to dialogue. God seems to enjoy using that willing step of a fearful participant to create beautiful things from their conversations. After COVID-19 changed our outreach plans for the spring, JFA’s trainers were put back in the shoes of new volunteers as they focused on a new, intimidating form of outreach: creating conversations via social media.

Having little social media experience, JFA trainer Kaitlyn Donihue was not looking forward to online dialogue. Indeed, many on our team were disappointed with the prospect of exchanging productive in-person conversations for social media “equivalents” we predicted would be inferior in just about every way. Kaitlyn was willing, though, and like each of our new outreach volunteers, she initiated one conversation at a time and trusted God for the rest.

Recently Kaitlyn shared a story from a social media conversation that amazed our whole team. (Click here to read her story, “Nail Party Evangelism.”) Despite Kaitlyn’s fear and discomfort, God used Kaitlyn’s openness to create something surprising and beautiful. Are you willing to take the same step in hope of experiencing God’s work through you? See below to register for online workshops and our brand new “Encouragement for Conversations” program!

- Steve Wagner, Executive Director

Online Learning Opportunities


“7 Conversations in 7 Hours”

7/20-8/31: Mondays, 8-9 PM Central
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Makeups to be scheduled soon!

“Encouragement for Conversations”

Thursdays at 3 PM Central

“Having been in the pro-life movement since 1980, this training is nothing like I’ve ever experienced. At our local [pregnancy] center, we are making it essential for our Client Advocates (in addition to their regular training).”
— Mike Brady, Reflecting on JFA’s “7 Conversations in 7 Hours” Online Workshop Series

After a Recent Workshop at UNK

Comments after a Recent Workshop at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK):

"I feel like I could apply most of this in a conversation." – Sierra

"I feel a lot more confident now with talking to other people about abortion.  The dialogue practice with a partner was especially helpful." – Marilyn

"[The day after the workshop, during a class discussion on abortion], I didn't know if I was going to say anything, but finally decided to use the argument I had learned [the night before]." – Megan

The day after the JFA workshop, Megan found herself in a class discussion of whether or not it is morally acceptable to abort children diagnosed with Down syndrome in utero.  See "Megan Schools Her Classmates on Abortion" by Jeremy Gorr for the whole story, including what Megan said, how it impacted her class, and a picture of Megan at the JFA outreach event later that same day.

Can We Tell Other People What to Do? (#MindBlown)

In election seasons, it is very common for people to talk about what the law should be on abortion.  When that is the topic, it is also very common to hear some version of the following sentiment:

“I’m pro-life, but I can’t tell other people what to do.  Therefore, abortion should be legal.”

JFA trainer Rebecca Haschke did a beautiful job of helping a young man reconsider this sentiment in a conversation she described in a recent letter entitled #Mindblown.  In this man’s case, he felt that because he had religious reasons for his point of view on abortion, he was disqualified from making a case that abortion should not be legal.  I think you’ll be encouraged to see how this young man came to see things differently in just minutes.  In the process, you’ll witness Rebecca’s manner, and you’ll learn a sequence of questions you can ask when you confront this sort of concern in conversations with friends and neighbors.

Members of JFA’s training team interacted with the topic of Rebecca’s letter recently.  You can read some of their reflections and post your own at the JFA blog.

Confidence Creates Conversations - Andrew's Story

Andrew gained the confidence to create conversations in a matter of a few days.

Andrew gained the confidence to create conversations in a matter of a few days.

Imagine how many lives would be saved and how many hearts would be changed if all of the people who have pro-life views would regularly talk about abortion with their pro-choice friends. Often, pro-life advocates don’t raise the topic, and when it’s presented to them on a silver platter, they don’t dare speak up. That is why Justice For All’s training program is so vital.

In our March Impact Report, "Confidence Creates Conversations," JFA trainer Jeremy Gorr and one recent JFA volunteer, Andrew, reflect on Andrew’s experience with JFA. Along the way, they illustrate how confidence is built little by little, through the right kinds of activities.

Thank you for partnering with JFA to serve pro-life advocates like Andrew and help them gain the confidence to become the sort of powerful pro-life advocate we imagined above, able to create conversations that change hearts and save lives.

[Note: This was posted on May 4, but was back-dated to sync with the content so that JFA's content can be viewed in order through the blog.]

Bridges Builds a Bridge

Keawe Bridges (holding brochure) talks with a student at the University of Oklahoma in March 2015.

Keawe Bridges (holding brochure) talks with a student at the University of Oklahoma in March 2015.

Keawe Bridges learned recently that talking to pro-choice advocates wasn't the only thing worth doing at a JFA outreach event.  (Keawe's alma mater, Christian Heritage Academy, is a regular partner of JFA's.)  You'll be encouraged to see how in his first conversation that day, Keawe built a bridge for a pro-life student who didn't know how to defend the unborn.

Then, in another conversation with his pro-life friends and a pro-choice student, he was able to build a bridge for all of them at one time.  

Read both stories in JFA's November Impact Report, "The Student Becomes the Trainer," written by Joanna Wagner.  Joanna's short report includes numbers that also illustrate JFA's impact in 2015.

Comments from Recent Events

“I was very curious of what abortion was. I never realized abortion was this horrible. Seeing the baby in the mother’s womb made me realize we all have rights and we are all created equal.” – Grace

“I need to stand against abortion. I also need to ask others what they think about abortion.” – Christopher

“I didn’t understand much about abortion, but now I know for sure that abortion is wrong.” – Joy

“I learned that abortion isn’t something we can fight with harmful words, but we fight it by asking questions and helping people understand.” – Conner

“[I learned] how I can have a conversation about abortion and maybe save a life, even at my age.” – Carley

Can Ten Seconds Change Minds?

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It all started at 1:40 AM at a stoplight on Pacific Coast Highway in Hermosa Beach, California.  My July newsletter tells what happened there and how one good thing that came of it was a sound bite that is still making an impact on how people think about abortion 13 years later.  The short letter, Ten Seconds Can Change Minds, includes stories of real conversations from JFA trainers Jeremy Gorr and CK Wisner.

Here are a few additional notes on the topic of the letter:

  1. See more of the conversation with the women at the stoplight in an excerpt from my original write-up on the incident (a one-page reduction of my August 2002 newsletter): Got Ten Seconds?
  2. Admittedly, there are some limitations to the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist."  Even though it has a logical structure similar to a syllogism, it shouldn't be expressed by pro-lifers as an air-tight argument to which no responses can be made.  I use the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" instead in the same way a soccer team uses a kick-off.  The sound bite just gets things started.  It helps me to put something on the table and then shut my mouth to allow the other person to talk, to respond, to think with me.  In this sense, it is purposefully incomplete.  It invites questions.  So, I suggest to pro-life advocates to take care in the amount of weight they give to these three sentences, expressed on their own, without clarification.  In other words, don't toss the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" out there as if just in saying these three sentences, it should silence all debate.  No, on the contrary, it is meant simply to get productive dialogue started.  One of the main limitations is the fact that these three sentences only implicitly make reference to the fact that the unborn is a whole organism.  In my view, this is an essential clarification pro-life advocates must make in their conversations about the unborn.  So, the unborn is not just living (like any cells or tissue of any species) and is not just human (like HeLa cells) but it is a special sort of living, human tissue that is integrated and organized in a specific way - the same way that you and I are integrated and organized, as a whole organism.
  3. To illustrate the above point, note, for example, the way in which PZ Meyers misunderstood the intended purpose in using a version of the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" by Kristan Hawkins, the President of SFLA; note also the detailed critique of the PZ Meyers piece by Clinton Wilcox.
  4. Exercise 3 in JFA's Interactive Guide teaches you to use the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" in conversation.  You can see how I would clarify the "organism" point (see Note #1 above) in the "Imitate" section of Exercise 3.  Get the Interactive Guide here.
  5. If you’ve enrolled in our “Learn at Home” program by completing the exercises at www.jfaweb.org/learn-at-home, the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" should look familiar to you.  It comprises the first ten seconds of the one-minute sound bite featured in Step 2.
  6. The 10-Second Pro-Life Apologist has been referenced and utilized by many pro-life advocates and organizations, including SFLA, Trent Horn, Amy Hall, Brett Kunkle, and Josh Brahm.
  7. Has the "10-Second Pro-Life Apologist" helped you in your conversations about abortion?  Share your story in the comments below.

Note: This post originally appeared at "Human Beings Matter More," the personal blog of Steve Wagner, JFA's Executive Director.

We Can't Wait (in More Ways than One)

Amanda with Kim's Baby

Amanda with Kim's Baby

After twenty minutes with a JFA trainer, Amanda shared a JFA Brochure with a friend who decided not to kill her child ("Lucy" in the photo).  After one hour in a presentation with a JFA trainer last month, Emma and her sister went to talk to kids in the park.  Their mom said,

They said that a few of the things you said gave them the confidence to go ahead and give it a try.

In my June letter you can read how these stories remind me that we cannot wait for everyone to find two days to participate in JFA's flagship training program, and that everyone can benefit from two additional offerings: our presentations and our new "Learn at Home" program.  JFA can't wait to use these opportunities to activate...More Advocates.

Or, don't wait to read the letter. Go directly to our new "Learn at Home" program.  In just one hour, it will equip you to...Change Minds on Abortion.