I sent a message to our email list in 2017 that is just as relevant today as it was then. It’s a quick read, so I decided to feature it in this Impact Report along with numbers illustrating JFA’s impact in 2019. The letter puts our impact in its proper context, as God was pleased to accomplish these things through us —through you working together with the JFA team in a multitude of ways. Has this letter sparked a desire to help JFA in one of the ways listed? You can give a year-end gift using the enclosed giving form or using our Donate page. You can share other ways you plan to help JFA in 2020 using our Contact page. — Steve Wagner, Executive Director
We at JFA have a thought we want to share with you. It’s about your answer to the following questions:
Did you pray for one of our events this year?
Did you pray regularly for us?
Did you lead your church in praying?
Your support in all of the forms described in this post helps our team of dialogue artists and volunteers create conversations during outreach events like this one at Benedictine College (and afterward). Conversations have the power to change lives one person at a time. For stories of changed lives, see recent reflections from Kaitlyn, Jeremy, and Rebekah.
Did you host a JFA staff member or volunteer in your home during an outreach trip?
Did you provide a meal for us?
Did you give to our Intern Scholarship Fund or Staff Support Fund?
Did you give a monthly automatic gift to our Training Program Fund (General Fund) or to support the
work of one of our missionaries?
Did you set up a speaking event for one of our staff in your community?
Did you make an appeal to a pastor to consider partnering with JFA?
Did you call or email a JFA staff member to encourage him or her?
Did you volunteer at a JFA event and create conversations with pro-choice advocates?
Did you use JFA’s monthly Resource Bulletin or other materials to create conversations with people in your everyday life?
Did you speak up when someone in your everyday life brought up the topic of pregnancy, unborn children, women in distress, or abortion?
Often we worry that you, our friends, feel like you are not truly contributing to our work unless you give money. We worry that you may put any giving that is not financial in a sort of “second-class” category. Giving financially is certainly one important way to partner with JFA, but all of the activities we’ve listed above are essential, and we do mean essential, to our work of training Christians to create transformative conversations that can help save the smallest humans on earth (and their parents) from abortion.
Surely we cannot do our work without financial support, but we trust God will provide the support we need. Just as surely, though, we simply cannot do our work without these other gifts you have given this year. Without host homes, our team wouldn’t be able to create conversations on campuses across the country. Similar things could be said about every item listed in this letter. And we trust God to provide these needs, and he has provided for us mightily through you.
Consider this: none of our conversations will have any impact on anyone without God moving in each person’s heart before, during, and after our interactions. When you pray along with us, you place your trust in God as the one who brings about change.
Our team wanted to take this moment to say thank you for partnering with us so faithfully through these very real gifts we’ve listed earlier in this letter. The stories we’ve shared this year are very truly your stories. The impact numbers we share below very truly represent your impact.
Thank you for your many sacrifices in so many different forms this year. We consider you to be such an important, “first-class” member of the JFA team. We thank God for you.
