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

A Person Is a Wonder (Conversations Letter, Christmas 2015)

Steve Wagner, Justice For All (www.jfaweb.org)

“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! 

---

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.