Growing Up with Justice For All

One of the most critical parts of our work is training Christians to have conversations about abortion so that they can change people’s hearts and minds. It is always great to see this process working in the real world. I saw it recently at a seminar I gave in Phoenix when one of the participants, Rylei, told me her story.

This is Rylei after a conversation at her first outreach event at Colorado State University in 2017.

We initially trained Rylei as a junior in high school at Faith Christian Academy in 2017. Often when we train Christian students, they tell us that they don’t know who to talk to because all of their friends are pro-life. One of her high school classmates commented, “Because of our culture, I rarely even considered abortion and its morality. This [experience with JFA] really helped show what it is and the impact it really has in America.”

The value of our training, however, lasts throughout these students’ lives. In Rylei’s case, she is now a student at Arizona State University with two pro-choice roommates.

I asked her how her JFA training helped her talk to her pro-choice friends about abortion.

Most of my pro-choice friends haven’t thought through their position very much. I was writing a paper for my class on the pro-life position, using the same arguments you guys gave me. While writing the paper, one of my roommates saw me watching a video of a pro-life person having a conversation with a pro-choice person, and said, “Wow, he is really destroying her pro-choice arguments.” So she’s hearing the arguments as I’m researching my paper. So I find ways to naturally bring up the topic of abortion with them.

Rylei also has a passion for doing outreach at her campus. That passion was born from the outreach she did with us in high school. I am always thinking of how difficult it must be for a high school student like Rylei, who was 16 her first time doing outreach, to engage college students on a difficult topic like abortion.

Rylei’s first exposure to Justice For All was during our seminar at her high school in 2017. Here JFA trainer CK Wisner (center, curly hair) leads her mentor group in interactive exercises and discussion as Rylei (facing CK) listens.

That is what makes outreach such an important part of our training program. Once someone overcomes the initial fear of talking about abortion, this newfound confidence can even last a lifetime. One of her classmates at that first outreach experience said, “Outreach taught me that getting uncomfortable is a really good thing. When God is with you, you don’t have to fear.”

I asked Rylei about her outreach experiences during high school.

I love it. Every time. It is so rewarding, honestly. I know the first time I was super nervous, [and] I got thrown right into a conversation. But after you get through the first conversation I feel like it gets a lot easier.

During her senior year in high school in 2018, Rylei joined us for outreach again, this time at Metro State University in Denver.

Rylei is a living example of our training program in action. Rylei left high school with good arguments for the pro-life position, good skills for conversations about them, and courage to actually have conversations about abortion with those who disagree with her position. She was totally equipped for dealing with her pro-choice roommates and reaching her largely pro-choice campus.

Because of your support of Justice For All, we were able to be there to help Rylei each step of the way. She attended a JFA seminar and then an outreach event at CSU in 2017. She participated again in 2018 at Metro State University. And just last week because of a JFA seminar event, we had the privilege of encouraging her to become active at Arizona State University, where she is now a student. Thank you for partnering with us as we serve students like Rylei, so that they can become effective advocates of their pro-life position to their future pro-choice friends—many of whom will face an unplanned pregnancy in their future.

JFA Mentors: Indispensable

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