Impact Report
November 2020
In this Impact Report, we’ll describe how throughout the tumult of 2020, God helped us bridge both ideological and physical divides to continue to connect people to the truth that only God can clarify and the healing that only God provides. You’ll also see how God turned the frustration of lockdowns into good fruit, including a new online training program you can help us promote starting now! We give thanks to God for you and your partnership in the work of bridging the divide.
- Steve Wagner, Executive Director
University of New Mexico, Feb. 2020
As we look back at a year filled with discord, debate, drama, disease, and death, it’s easy to get discouraged.
University of Texas at San Antonio, Feb. 2020
Our culture seems to be completely overcome by division, and as if the usual ideological division was not enough, now various versions of lockdowns have made physical division a reality as well.
Early this year, as in past years, our team at Justice For All (JFA) set ourselves to live out our habit of stepping across the ideological divide. We go to people who disagree with us. We train pro-life advocates to come with us. One passion motivates us: kindling affection for the forgotten, beginning with women in distress, the smallest humans on earth, and those who differ from us in appearance or beliefs. What happens to this work, though, when a physical divide confronts it?
Susanna Dirks with a University of Texas at Dallas student in March 2020
During this time of Thanksgiving, will you mark with us the ways God has continued to work through the JFA team to help us bridge both ideological and physical divides, connecting people to the truth only God can clarify and the healing that only God provides?
In February and March, JFA teams trained volunteers in New Mexico and Texas, engaging five campuses in discussion about abortion (pictured).
Interactive Online Workshops, May-Nov. 2020
When COVID-19 hit, we refashioned our in-person training into an interactive online workshop series, complete with step-by-step instructions to help participants create conversations on abortion in everyday life. (See JFA’s June 2020 letter for one story from a participant.) Over the next six months, we produced 105 hours of training for over 130 people in 27 states, including many states we have not been able to visit very often (or ever!). Participants from Canada and France also joined us!
In addition, during the months we were unable to conduct outreach in person, our staff explored a new outreach venue: social media. We had little hope it would come to much, but we were determined to try. Our team was pleasantly surprised that there are plenty of opportunities for engaging strangers and friends online. (Kaitlyn reflected on one special conversation in our July 2020 letter.)
JFA presented workshops in person in seven states this fall (CA, CO, KS, OH, OK, NE, and MI). Then, replete with masks, our team was especially thankful to be able to spend two days interacting with students at the University of Oklahoma.
Kaitlyn teaches equal rights during an online JFA workshop in Nov. 2020.
While we’re excited about each of these 2020 efforts, we’re not satisfied. We know that every Christian needs training, and with no increased cost, our video conferencing software can handle about ten times the number of people who on average participated in each of our workshops this year.
That’s why we’ve set a goal of registering 800 people for our interactive online workshops taking place from January to March 2021. While we will also plan in-person events, these online events cannot be shut down by COVID-19 restrictions, so they are the most sensible place to put our most robust efforts.
Rebekah Dyer (right) with a University of Oklahoma student in Nov. 2020
We need your help to bring this training to so many people. Do you want to take a next step to “bridge the divide” and help us create thousands of conversations in 2021?
Go to www.jfaweb.org/love3 to learn more about JFA’s online workshops beginning January 18. Register to attend, and invite friends to join you. Thank you for partnering with us in spreading the word about these workshops, and in giving to JFA. Your gifts help provide this free training for others.
University of Oklahoma, Nov. 2020
Staff members pictured: Rebekah Dyer, Jon Wagner, and Mary St. Hilaire
Banner Image by Andre A. Xavier on Unsplash
You can also give a gift at JFA’s Donate page to provide training for others.
* Previously titled “7 Conversations in 7 Hours,” Love3 refers to conducting abortion conversations in a way that actively loves the woman, the child, and the person with whom we’re speaking.