Unburied Treasure (Part 2)

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In the shadow of the Justice For All Exhibit, Ashley found that God was doing a special work in her life, even as he was working through her to bring hope and healing to three others.

Ashley’s story is one of my favorite treasures that we’ve recently “unburied” from JFA’s archives and posted on the JFA website (www.jfaweb.org) to illustrate how God has used JFA (and in this case the big Justice For All Exhibit) through the years.  Go on a treasure hunt at the following pages:

• At JFA’s “Stories” page you can find Ashley’s story, Christina’s story (“Thank you ... you’ve given me my life back.”), Jinny’s story (“…sorry if I was a little harsh on you…Anyways I think I'm keeping the baby!”), and more.

• The Stories page has sections that are also their own pages. “Dialogue Examples” is a great place to find over 30 word-for-word accounts of conversations experienced by JFA’s staff and volunteers. “Testimonies” features Amanda Coles sharing about a baby she helped save, quotes from our Twitter feed, and links to many volunteer reflections.

• The “Explore Resources” page allows you to quickly find many of the resources available through JFA’s website for free.

Check out these stories and resources.  Every page of our website is easy to read on any device (“responsive”) and easy to share with friends on Facebook and other social media sites.  (See www.jfaweb.org/unburied-treasure for more links to more pages.) 

Please don’t miss Ashley’s moving story.  It is sure to increase your confidence that God is concerned about and at work among those with shame from unplanned pregnancy and abortion.  As we are in the midst of building new big exhibits, we pray that God will use these tools to help volunteers like Ashley bring hope and healing to many more students in the coming year.

Note: For ministry notes about recent JFA activities, see this separate post.

Ministry Notes for January 2016

We’re hard at work on three projects this month:

• Pro-Life Movement Events (January 21-24, 2016): JFA staff members are making connections with pro-life students and organizations at the March for Life events and at the Students for Life conferences in both Washington D.C. and San Francisco.  JFA is also attending the Evangelicals for Life conference in Washington D.C.  Read our updates from these events on our blog (www.jfaweb.org/blog) or on Facebook (www.facebook.com/trainthousands).
• New Exhibits: We’re aiming to finish the design, printing, and construction of two exhibits by the end of March.  Pray for wisdom as we select panels.  If you’d like to learn more about the specifics of the project or if you have an interest in contributing financially to help make it a reality, please see www.jfaweb.org/invest or contact me (316-683-6426).
• Planning JFA’s 2016 Calendar: Pray for our connections with college students and college ministries.  We’ll update you soon with the specifics of our 2016 calendar.

Note: These ministry notes were meant to accompany the JFA Conversations Letter for January 2016.  The monthly letter is available on the JFA Blog, and you can sign up to receive the monthly letter in your inbox or mailbox here.

This Is How Minds Change

Watch this video (3:17) of one of JFA's very gifted trainers, Rebecca Haschke, interacting with a young man at the University of Nebraska.  This young man was on the fence about abortion, but not for long.  

It's our passion at JFA to find people who don't know what they think about abortion (which generally means they at least tolerate it) or who flat-out disagree with us about abortion.  Then we attempt through dialogue to help them love every human being, especially the unborn child and her parents, so often forgotten and abandoned to abortion today.

Here's how you can help JFA staff and volunteers create thousands of life-changing conversations with abortion-choice advocates in 2016.

Or, you can share this post with a friend and encourage them to join you in giving to JFA.

Thanks for helping JFA change hearts and save lives!

 - Steve Wagner, Executive Director

Give them a screwdriver

Rachelle interacts with a student at the University of Kansas in 2012.

Note what Rachelle said after her experience with Justice For All:

"Question: Have you ever tried to take a screw out of the wall without a screwdriver or knife? Not a pleasant experience. Well, attending the JFA training was like being handed a powerful drill after bloodying your fingers trying to get a screw out of the wall." - Rachelle

You can partner with JFA to give Christians like Rachelle the tools (and the real-world practice in using them) that will help them reach friends and strangers with truth and love:

Thanks for helping JFA train hundreds of Rachelles in 2016!

-Steve Wagner, Executive Director

P.S. You can read more from Rachelle's reflection on her JFA experience here.

JFA volunteers Antionette (green) and Rachelle (black) interact with a student at Yale University in 2012.  Antionette now leads a pro-life ministry called Mafgia.

Six Christmas Reflections

For an explanation, see my 2013 Christmas Reflection, "Tech-Getherness?"

A few days ago, I posted, "A Person Is a Wonder," the sixth in a series of Christmas reflections in which I think about the meaning of the Incarnation of the Son of God as I share some of my family's Christmas joys (like The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and Amahl and the Night Visitors) and my personal conversations on college campuses.  Here's a list of all six reflections:

• 2015: A Person Is a Wonder (read or listen)

• 2014: A Tale of Two Gifts

• 2013: Tech-Getherness?

• 2012: Presence - The Best Presents Don't Come in Packages

• 2011: Messing with the Pageant - Is Imogene Worth It?

• 2010: "Let Me Take Him My Crutch."

Changed Minds

Paul Kulas interacts with two students at the University of Oklahoma in November 2015.

In my November newsletter, "Unfinished Business, Part I," I noted for my supporters that shifting one’s position on abortion is a big change.  For many pro-choice people to seriously change their views—which would mean that they will now take active steps to protect human life from conception—it typically takes time and contemplation.  Making a shift of that magnitude would mean that one could go from promoting abortion and even taking a friend to get an abortion to promoting life by helping a friend not get an abortion and aiding that mother after the birth of her child.  It is a blessing and very encouraging, then, when we see a complete change in someone’s position unfold before our eyes.  A few JFA staff members have written letters within the last year that highlight some of these dramatic, abrupt changes of mind in pro-choice students:

• #Mindblown – Rebecca Haschke
• “You totally changed my perspective!” – Jeremy Gorr
• Ten Seconds Can Change Minds – Steve Wagner
• Lightbulb – CK Wisner
• The Power of a Picture – Rebecca Haschke
• From One to a Crowd – Rebecca Haschke 
• "You're making a difference." – Jeremy Gorr
• Stories – Other great stories on our new website

When these abrupt changes happen, though, we humbly recognize that the change has resulted also from the work of others who cultivated the ground, planted seeds, or watered the ground before us.  We shouldn’t expect to see a complete change of mind in every conversation then, because minds change gradually.  Rather, we may praise God for the small changes and progress that He allows us to see in almost every conversation.  I highlighted two of these conversations from my own experience in my newsletter this month, "Unfinished Business, Part II."

A Person Is a Wonder

“This seminar reminded me that I must remember that I am talking to people…”

— Kaitlyn, 2015 seminar participant

My kids and I participated in a live nativity a few weeks ago.  We donned the garb of shepherds and angels and walked towards a rustic stable where actors from local churches were waiting with live goats and sheep to take a photo with us. 

I was the last to enter the stable, a poor shepherd.  As the crew helped my kids find a place where they could be seen by the camera, I looked around.  It was fun to be standing next to three wise men in robes and crowns.  As the photographer got ready to take the shot, he asked us to look at him.  Instead of following directions, I did the only thing that made sense to me at that moment, I looked down at the baby Jesus (in this case a doll) and my mouth hung open, my eyes bright with amazement.

Adorazione dei pastori (The Adoration of the Shepherds) by Mattias Stomer (17th Century) 

Photo Credit: Palazzo Madama

Click.  Click.  And that was it.  We moved towards the door of the stable to give others a chance.  My kids stopped to interact with the animals as I waited outside, and then we went together to the dressing room to disrobe.  When we retrieved our picture, it looked pretty comical.  Everyone except for me was looking directly at the camera.  I was the only one looking at the baby Jesus.  To me, the photo was merely a distraction from the main event: being in the presence of a person – a very special person named Jesus.  (I identify with the shepherds in the Mattias Stomer painting.)

I’d like to suggest that what happened at the live nativity is a good metaphor for the challenge that we face throughout every day: will we allow ourselves to be captivated by the persons in our lives or will we be distracted from them?  Will we be captivated even by strangers, by our enemies, our spouses, our parents, our kids, our friends, and by God himself?  Each person I come across in a given day is a wonder, worth every ounce of my focus.  When I check my smart phone for the time or the weather, the wonders of new email messages, Wikipedia, and YouTube all cry out for attention, but these wonders aren’t wonders at all, when compared to a person.  And what is this letter you’re reading, when compared to the person who might be near you right now?

JFA veteran staff member Paul Kulas focuses his attention on a University of Oklahoma student in November.

JFA veteran staff member Tammy Cook listens to a student at the University of Oklahoma in November.  I'm very proud of our team at JFA.  Every member of the team aims to appreciate the wonder of the person in front of them, even as they are advocating for the lives of unborn human persons.  See more pictures of the team in action here.

Each member of our team faced this same challenge every time we conducted an outreach event this year.  We want to save the lives of tiny unborn human persons, but in order to do so, we are confronted with another reality, a college student who is also a person with a bundle of conflicting beliefs and desires.  At our University of Oklahoma outreach in November, I talked for a second time to a woman I’ll call Diana.  Diana wasn’t any more enjoyable to talk to the second time than when I met her in March of this year.  She displayed the same haughtiness, the same self-importance, the same close-mindedness and tendency to lecture rather than listen.  I became confident I wouldn’t be able to change Diana’s mind on any point, and while I looked for an opportunity to gently bring a close to our conversation, I had to work to focus my attention on this person.  As I did, though, I was experiencing a different sort of love, the sort that gives without hope of return.  This is what a person calls forth from us: giving our attention just for the sake of appreciating the wonder of the person and the God who created her.

May I humbly suggest that you and I dedicate ourselves this Christmas to being captivated by the wonder of the persons around us – the strangers, our spouses, our kids, and even those, like Diana, who annoy us?  And let us not neglect to depend on God in the midst of every interaction, that we might also be captivated by him – the one who created every person.  Merry Christmas! 

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Ministry Notes

 

YOU CAN HELP JFA MAKE ABORTION UNTHINKABLE

You can still give an end-of-year gift using our Credit Card giving page, our Donate page (for other giving methods), or by calling 316-683-6426.  Thank you for standing with us! 

 

Recent and Upcoming Events

JFA staff members will be at the Students for Life Conferences and March for Life events in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco in January.  Pray that God would orchestrate for us the connections we need to make with student pro-life clubs and the other pro-life advocates we would like to train to make abortion unthinkable in the coming year.

For recent events, see www.jfaweb.org/calendar and www.jfaweb.org/photos.

Bridges Builds a Bridge

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

JFA Responds to the Shootings in Colorado Springs

Justice For All (JFA) condemns the use of violence to stop abortion, and we're deeply grieved by the recent shootings at the Planned Parenthood in Colorado Springs.  Our love for unborn children, their mothers, those who disagree with us about legal abortion, and every other human being involved in the abortion debate leads us to seek to change public opinion about legal abortion through non-violent dialogue.  We train those opposing abortion to ask questions with an open heart, listen to understand, and find common ground when possible, even as they are making a reasonable case for human value, encouraging people to consider truth, and gently challenging false ideas.

I thank God for...

...minds and hearts changed. See especially recent newsletters from Rebecca Haschke and other team members posted at our Dialogue Examples page.

...forty-eight individuals and couples who have made a new commitment to support JFA’s Training Program Fund or one of JFA trainers on a regular basis so far this year. 

...my JFA staff colleagues who each display exquisite skill in loving both the unborn child and the pro-choice advocate, but who join me anyway each day to prayerfully depend on God to be the “stronghold of the oppressed” and the “helper of the orphan” (see Ps. 9-Ps.10, esp. 9:9, 10:14).

The Student Becomes the Trainer

Impact Report: November 2015

Keawe shares the JFA Brochure during outreach events at the University of North Texas in 2014 (above) and the University of Oklahoma in 2015 (below).

I looked into a crowd of 200 faces on October 1, as I prepared to deliver a chapel presentation to grades 7-12 at Christian Heritage Academy (CHA) in Oklahoma.  In the eight years since I was a high school student sitting in a similar high school auditorium, I've talked with many friends and acquaintances facing unplanned pregnancies or struggling with past abortion decisions.  I hoped that this morning I could inspire these teens to get equipped for similar interactions, knowing that they might make the difference for the little ones whose lives will be in the balance in their friends' wombs all too soon. 

Not only did Keawe give this pro-life OU student ways to respond to pro-choice concerns, he even went a step further and began to step into the pro-choice role so that the pro-life student could get a chance to practice the conversation.  Interactive practice is vital to JFA’s educational philosophy, and Keawe had caught the vision. 

He caught that vision so well, in fact, that the next day he was even able to help a few of his classmates to begin putting their thoughts into words when they were stumped in a conversation.  Instead of jumping in and taking the conversation over for them, he helped them stay in the conversation and “learn by doing.”

Two of my high school colleagues decided…to try the survey approach.

One of the two was a bit shyer and had less experience, so I accompanied them just to help out in case they ran into any confusing conversations.  At first I just sat on a nearby bench to watch…  Once they had reached the end of the survey [with one woman], the two administering it hit a bit of a snag as they seemed unsure how to continue the conversation. 

“JFA training staff made 65 presentations to 4,313 people in 2015.”

Seeing the unscheduled dramatic pause, I gingerly got up off the bench and walked over to join the conversation…  Since I had been listening to the answers the woman had given during the survey, I readdressed one of the situations in which she had said she would be okay with abortion; however I didn’t correct her…  [Instead, I presented] her ideas in ways that my peers were able to recognize [those ideas] as common pro-choice arguments [so that my peers could offer a] rebuttal.  By the end of the conversation, we were able to clear up any confusion the woman had had, and she agreed with us on all points.

CHA students and JFA staff members pause after a day of  outreach at the University of Oklahoma in March 2015. Keawe is in the first row, second from right.

“251 volunteers participated in a JFA “Feet Work” outreach event for the first time in 2015.”

When Keawe shared these stories, I was astonished by his ability to converse with pro-choice advocates, but I was even more astonished by how he had caught the vision for training others.  This should not have surprised me, though, since JFA had given me the very same gift when I was Keawe’s age.  JFA training was what originally equipped me for dialogue, gave me opportunities to practice good conversations, and inspired me to take on the responsibility of training others.  It’s simply what JFA does.

“JFA conducted 36 days of outreach on 15 college campuses in 2015.”

This year, JFA trainers started this process with 4,313 people at 65 presentations and workshops, by convicting the hearts of young and old alike about the inhumanity of abortion and the need to create a different kind of conversation about abortion.  We took that a step further with 728 participants at 32 seminars, equipping them for dialogue through hours of teaching and interactive practice.  Finally, 251 people took the critical step of creating dialogue with pro-choice advocates at a JFA campus outreach event for the first time, and this prepared them to create conversations in their own spheres of influence.  It’s a joy to see that for Keawe the process came full circle as he began equipping others to make abortion unthinkable. 

- Joanna Wagner, for the JFA Team

Comment

Keawe’s inclination to take what he had learned from JFA and help other pro-life advocates tells us something about his personality and his upbringing, but it also tells us about the encouragement and training he received through the Salt and Light program at his high school, Christian Heritage Academy (CHA).  The Salt and Light team endeavors to “train American Christian leaders for every sphere of society,” and we’ve been privileged to partner with CHA and its Salt and Light program since 2007.  Salt and Light Director Aaron Ferguson has said, “JFA is the best thing we do as a school.”  We’re gratified to hear that, because we think partnering with the CHA community to train world-changers like Keawe is one of the best things we do!

- Steve Wagner, Executive Director

Unburied Treasure (Part 1)

In a 11/6/2015 email to supporters and readers of JFA, we referred to three items of "unburied" treasure on the new JFA website.  Below, we give hints and links (in parentheses) to help you find each item.

• Ashley: Read Ashley's story of what she called a "divine appointment" at the University of Colorado at Boulder.  (Ashley's story is referenced on the Testimonies page and on the Stories page, and has its own page here.)

• Video of the Unborn's Heart Beating: See the unborn's heart beating within his chest in a crystal-clear video image.  (The new What Is the Unborn? page has videos of the unborn in the womb, quotes from pro-choice philosophers, and testimony from scientists, all supporting the idea that the unborn is a living, human organism biologically.) 

• Steve's letter sharing perspective on the Planned Parenthood videos: The new JFA Blog is accessible through the About section of the main menu.  The post about the Planned Parenthood videos is here.) 

What about those Planned Parenthood videos?

They have made quite a ruckus.  Released over the past three months by the Center for Medical Progress, ten undercover videos have exposed executives from Planned Parenthood and its partner organizations discussing details of transferring tissue from aborted children for use in research.  In all of the media discussion generated by these videos, four sentences by Kirsten Powers (“Crush Planned Parenthood,” USA Today, 7/22/2015) were perhaps the most important. 

After noting that Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards apologized “for the uncompassionate tone her senior director of medical research” used when talking over lunch about different ways to “crush above” and “crush below” the parts of the fetus to “get it all intact,” Ms. Powers put things into perspective:  

“But the problem here is not one of tone.  It’s the crushing.  It’s the organ harvesting of fetuses that abortion-rights activists want us to believe have no more moral value than a fingernail.  It’s the lie that these are not human beings worthy of protection.” 

Ms. Powers nailed it.  The problem with Planned Parenthood becomes clearest when we focus on the unborn child and the abortion that takes her body apart. 

This is a good test to apply as you watch the discussion about the videos continue to unfold in the media, in House subcommittee hearings, in your church, and among your friends on Facebook.  There’s limited value in discussing funding, lawbreaking, the transfer of tissue for research, the character of individual workers, and anything else about Planned Parenthood, if we don’t, in almost the same breath, clarify that the problem with Planned Parenthood is that the unborn child is a child, abortion takes her body apart, and any organization that takes an unborn child’s body apart should stop doing that.  Otherwise, the case against Planned Parenthood makes very little sense to pro-choice advocates who are listening to us.

This brings me to another important aspect of the Kirsten Powers article.  She got the focus on the child exactly correct, but she also published her comments in USA Today, a paper with a broad-spectrum readership of 1.6 million, the third-largest circulation for a US newspaper according to Wikipedia.  In other words, Ms. Powers modeled for us what we should be doing with the Planned Parenthood story and any other story like it: talk to pro-choice people and try to persuade them.  Talking amongst ourselves has some value, to be sure.  Pro-life advocates need to be more active in opposing abortion, and the videos seem to have energized many pro-life advocates.  This is a good thing.  If we aren’t at some point finding pro-choice advocates and the forums in which they develop their beliefs, though, we will never make abortion unthinkable for a strong majority in the United States.  And surely, that is essential for bringing the dehumanization and destruction of unborn human children to an end for good.

The Planned Parenthood videos, then, call to mind two important pro-life priorities: (1) keep the conversation focused on the baby and on the abortion that takes her body apart, and (2) engage pro-choice advocates in conversation about those realities.  To the extent that the Planned Parenthood videos help us to accomplish either or both of these, they are an asset.

In "Ministry Notes for October 2015", I detail some ways that JFA is working to find pro-choice people, to engage them in a conversation about the unborn child (and the abortion that kills her), and to equip pro-life advocates to do the same.

Ministry Notes for October 2015

At JFA, everything we do is aimed at creating life-changing dialogue with pro-choice advocates and equipping pro-life advocates to change hearts and minds.  Here are a few things we’ve been up to lately:

JFA HAS A NEW WEBSITE

Check out JFA’s new website.  It’s packed with features that help pro-life advocates participate with JFA, learn from JFA online, and share JFA with friends, including:

• Our Passion – Why do we exist? 
• Stories – Read about saved lives and changed hearts.
• Our Team – Find new feature pages for each JFA trainer.
• Explore Resources – Find all of JFA’s online resources.
• Blog - You're there already!

JFA CONDUCTED 11 DAYS OF OUTREACH ON 9 CAMPUSES IN 4 STATES IN THE PAST 2 MONTHS

See pictures from JFA’s recent work on some of these nine campuses via the new JFA Blog (more pictures and updates coming soon): 

• Fresno City College and Fresno State University (CA) [with Right to Life of Central CA]
• Colorado State University (CO)
• University of Kansas and Wichita State University (KS)
• Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, University of Georgia, and University of North Georgia (GA)

JFA IS BUILDING A NEW EXHIBIT

Pray for us as we work to print and construct at least one new large-scale campus outreach exhibit in November, for use in 2016.  If you’d like to talk to me about the specifics of the project or if you have an interest in contributing financially to make it a reality, please contact me using this form.