JFA accomplishes its mission of making abortion unthinkable for millions through volunteers who develop confidence to start their own conversations. How did one JFA volunteer named Rebecca come to believe she could do this? JFA’s intentional mentoring process.
In this Impact Report, JFA mentor Jacob Burow shows the steps he and JFA’s other mentors take to help volunteers like Rebecca learn to start life-changing and life-saving conversations. -Stephen Wagner, Director of Training
Rebecca (red hair on left) meets Jacob Burow, the JFA trainer who will mentor her through the training program.
I noticed right away that Rebecca was very inquisitive. During a break in the seminar, she stayed to ask question after question. With a background in debate, she was intrigued by the arguments we taught, but she was especially fascinated by the way we teach people to dialogue.
On the first day of outreach she listened intently to my conversations, noting how I started them, as well as how I navigated them using the various techniques we teach in the seminar.
Rebecca and Jacob discuss her questions before she starts her own conversations.
After listening to several of my conversations, Rebecca had questions. We sat and talked about pro-choice arguments and the best pro-life responses to those arguments. I could tell that Rebecca was ready for her own conversations, so I challenged her to start one.
“I was thinking I would just listen today, and maybe talk to someone tomorrow. Is that alright?” she asked.
“You can,” I replied, “but you might regret it.”
“What do you mean?”
I explained how other volunteers had reported after the outreach that they were sad not to have overcome their fears sooner. They realized how many opportunities for life-changing conversations they had missed.
“I would be happy to go with you to listen and help if you get stuck,” I encouraged her.
Rebecca listens to Jacob in conversation on her first day of JFA outreach at the University of Central Oklahoma.
“No, I am going to do this alone. I’ll come back if I have questions.”
I was proud of her as she headed off to the Justice For All Exhibit. Later I went to check on her and found that she had already had eight conversations. I answered a few questions, and then she was ready to get back to it. By the end of the day she had had five more in-depth conversations. Here is what she said about the experience:
“It was not difficult to decide to attend a Justice For All (JFA) seminar. I competed in a debate league during high school, and I thought debate and dialogue sounded right up my alley; however, I hadn't been at the seminar long before I realized they were teaching us something more than a mere debate strategy.
By participating in JFA's seminar, we were trained in the art of graceful engagement… I came to understand how to effectively discuss the daunting subject of abortion which, in the past, was a subject I had tried to avoid…
Justice For All was unlike anything else I had experienced… [The mentors] showed me how to reach out to those who don't know truth, and they challenged me to step up my game… I understand now that I don't need to militantly attack those who do not agree with my stance on abortion.”
Thanks to being personally mentored through the JFA training program, Rebecca has the tools and confidence to start this conversation and many others beyond the outreach.
Rebecca learned to show humility and respect in the process of starting tough conversations. I challenged her to continue starting conversations about abortion after the JFA outreach.
That’s actually a challenge for all of us. Too often we desire to stay in our own comfort zones, but that is not where we will find the conversations that we need to have. That is not how we are going to grow as good ambassadors. Rebecca continued,
“God was very good to have me stumble across Justice For All; I am grateful to Him, and to you all. I would like to express a special thanks to my mentor, Jacob, for taking the time to answer my questions and to teach me so much.”
My colleagues and I at JFA are ready to help you step out of your comfort zone and step up to the challenge that is before us. Let us help you learn, like Rebecca, how to share the truth about abortion, one person at a time.
- Jacob Burow