April 2007 Newsletter
Back to Main Newsletters Page"I have become increasingly alarmed at the level of ignorance regarding human life issues among my daughter's age group, particularly among Christian teens. I believe with all my heart that these kids need to hear the truth and are ready to receive it, if only they are exposed to it."
Last week I received the note above from a woman who works at a public high school with a student body of over 1,700 teens. Her purpose for writing was to ask how she could get involved and become a Life Principles speaker.
We receive phone calls and letters like this on a regular basis, and it's absolutely thrilling! Obviously, we're not thrilled by the "level of ignorance" that so many young people have about human life issues. Rather, we are delighted by the dramatic increase in people who are willing to get involved and do something about the problem.
I can remember a time when most phone calls to our office were from people wanting us to speak at their daughter's school or their son's youth group. We still get a huge number of these calls - and we love to do these presentations. But the key to our success is not about how many presentations we do. It's about how many qualified, exceptional, and dedicated people we equip to bring the Life Principles to their own constituencies.
When I speak to an assembly of 500 high school students, I can make a pretty big impact in 45 minutes. But when our team trains a teacher to bring the Life Principles curriculum into her classroom, where she can work with her own students over a number of weeks, and even months, that's where the real transformations happen.
When I present a talk at a church retreat for 60 teens, I can move a lot of young people to look much deeper at the life issues than they have before. But when our team trains a pastor or a youth group leader to integrate the Life Principles into their preaching or religious curriculum, with a long term vision of working, over time, with their own congregation, that's when conversions occur.
Don't get me wrong. We LOVE delivering Life Principles presentations. One hit with our message immediately awakens people to the truth that there is much more to the abortion and euthanasia issues than they have been told.
But cultural transformations happen when we educate, train, and equip the people who are closest to their constituents - the teachers, the parents, the pastors, the youth group leaders, the counselors, the social workers, the health care professionals. These are the people who will make a difference - one life at a time.
That's why we love the fact that about half of the inquiries to our office now come from people who proactively want to be part of the solution -- who want to become Life Principles speakers or facilitators, who want to run Life Principles video classes in their churches, who want to lead discussion groups, who want to become affiliated member organizations, and who want to establish Being With visitation chapters to reach out to the terminally ill in their communities.
It's exciting to watch this ministry grow. Your investment in the work of Healing the Culture has allowed us to create a first-class speaker training program. You have provided us with the funding to write and publish excellent training materials and study workbooks. You have allowed us to produce sophisticated video programs with companion study guides for youth and adults. Your contribution to the mission has made it possible for us to develop programs that can be duplicated worldwide (more on that next month!).
Thank you so very much for being a part of this mission. What you give today builds an army of highly trained and professionally equipped team members. All of them are working in a variety of fields to change hearts and minds, to save lives, and to provide long term healing.
Please continue investing in our work! There is so much to do. In the next few months, our number one priority will be to evaluate the materials and training tools we have used for the past year in order to update and expand old resources and create new tools for new audiences.
Your gift of $25, $50, $100, $250, or more makes a huge difference! Every time you give a contribution, you invest in the tens of thousands of people we reach every year through the people we train. And you add your voice to thousands of others who stand in solidarity with you to claim a better way for our nation.
Please make your investment in the lives of tens of thousands of people. And please jot down your prayer requests so that we can lift you up in our morning intentions. Thank you for being a part of our work.
For Life,
Camille De Blasi Pauley
President
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