Andrea Thenhaus
"This Conversation Has Opened My Eyes."
"This Conversation Has Opened My Eyes."
Justice For All
Spring Update
Spring Update
Justice For All
A Conversation, a Seed Planted, and a Life Saved
A Conversation, a Seed Planted, and a Life Saved
Kaitlyn Donihue
Bridge to Healing
Bridge to Healing
Kristine Hunerwadel
"Cast Down Your Cares"
"Cast Down Your Cares"

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!

Love3 Participant Has an Extraordinary Conversation…with Her Husband

“[In response to the Love3 assignment to create a conversation], I engaged in a conversation with my husband. I was surprised to hear that he is pro-life but only in certain situations. I kept asking questions to gather information, although I was struggling and wanting to challenge his position. I realized that I need to work on asking questions without the intent to engage, and I also need to work on listening.

“My husband said that he is pro-life, except in the circumstances of rape or chromosomal /health abnormalities in the child.

“I asked him further questions like, ‘Even in those circumstances, are you okay with an abortion in the seventh month?’ Although he said yes, I could see he was unsure of his stance.

“We concluded that he is pro-life except in the circumstances of rape or medical abnormality, and he believes abortions should only be legal in those circumstances...and it should be allowed at any point in the pregnancy, no matter how far along the pregnancy was.

“Afterwards, I asked him about his thoughts on how the conversation went. He said that he was ready to engage in an argument, but that because I kept asking questions, he didn’t feel the need to engage in an argument. He also said that my questions actually made him start to question some of his views and made him think that he might not be right in having certain views.

“I was absolutely shocked about his views, but even more so by his assessment of our conversation, and how he actually started to question his stance by the end of our conversation.”

(Note: This post was featured in JFA’s February 2021 newsletter.)

Instagram Comment

This morning I saw a comment referring to our recent Instagram post about Roe v. Wade (right).

I decided to attempt a conversation, even given the very unfavorable conditions. This post is really a text message format, and it’s a public post rather than a direct message. What’s more, there are no less than ten distinct assertions or arguments in the comment, and some of them refer to complicated issues for which sound bites aren’t helpful.

After a few false starts, I wrote a short response to move the conversation forward, aiming to live out our “Love3” idea by showing equal concern for the pregnant woman, the unborn child, and the person who wrote the post.

Watch the post to see what conversation comes of it. Then share the post and engage others in conversation!

This is just one example of JFA’s attempt to tackle one of the most important challenges facing pro-life advocates this year: getting thousands of conversations started in everyday-life situations. Please join me in praying for the conversations like this one that we’re creating and for insight into the best ways to train participants in our events (see below) to create conversations. We truly need God’s help to engage massive numbers of people in meaningful conversations that can help them change their minds about unborn children.

Love3 Mentions the Woman...What about the Man?

We received a kind note from a supporter recently making a point about our the name of our online workshops, Love3. (Get more information and register now! Workshops begin January 18.) Here’s an excerpt:

What a beautiful theme: to actively love the mother, child, and conversation partner. Perhaps father, known or unknown, should be included in that circle, as well. Changing the hearts of women’s partners could have a huge effect on whether or not a woman experiences an unplanned pregnancy in the first place; and whether she experiences it alone and desperate, or supported, cared for and in partnership.

Perhaps in the future JFA can put together a team, especially of men, to mentor to our young men on campus as to how they can honor women by not engaging in pre-marital sex, by truly thinking through their sexual actions to the probable conclusion, and by actively shouldering the consequences of their actions with manly honesty, unselfishness, and openness to life.

Here’s my reply:

I wholeheartedly agree that men should receive more focus, especially in the ways you have stated in your email. I appreciate the idea of developing a team of men for special focus on helping men develop "manly honesty, unselfishness and openness to life," as you have said. We'll keep this idea in mind as we continue to seek better ways to reach people. You have rightly pointed out how instrumental men are in the process and how important it is that we not forget them.

Let me explain a bit more about the reasons behind the focus on the woman in Love3. Before I do, though, I admit that no name is perfect, and our team is taking new ideas and changes into consideration. When I talk about the Love3 idea in presentations, I talk about loving "anyone dealing with unintended pregnancy and abortion directly," which includes men. So, that was really the intention of this Love3 idea all along.

In trying to find a way to simply communicate what we're talking about in promoting these workshops, however, I found it necessary to simplify this idea down to a focus on the woman. In conversations, there is a reason to give special focus to the woman, after all: she is affected bodily by the child's presence and she can by law get an abortion without the father's knowledge or approval. In addition, when people interact with us, they are many times very keyed in on how we treat the woman who's pregnant during the conversation. While I agree wholeheartedly that men are both affected by and affect greatly the situation of unintended pregnancy, the average pro-choice advocate is not particularly concerned about the man.

So, while I agree that in a conversation we should also have in mind actively loving the man who is directly involved in unintended pregnancy, this does not provide as clear a guide to pro-life advocates aiming to create the sort of conversation that will intrigue pro-choice advocates and cause them to change their mind about abortion. To be sure, bringing up the man and his role at various points is important for helping people develop an accurate view of sexuality, pregnancy, honor, and integrity. But focusing on the man is not as important as caring for the pregnant woman as we seek to help people be open to changing their minds about abortion.

Remember that the moniker Love3 is meant to be a guide for how to proceed in the midst of a conversation in which we're aiming to change someone's mind. That's why we focus in our promotion of Love3 on loving the woman, the child, and the person with whom we're speaking. It's absolutely essential in most conversations with pro-choice advocates to keep each of these three groups of people in our field of vision as we seek to persuade.