The weather remained cooperative all day. I arrived on campus with four other JFA team members. We were ready to start conversations at 9 am and would be there until 3 or 4 in the afternoon, depending on the weather. Throughout the day, we were joined by volunteers who had attended our training workshop the previous day.
Outreach moved slowly for the first two hours. I had a few short interactions with students who were willing to stop and chat before their classes. One student followed me to the side of the exhibit pictured above, where we discussed the nature of the unborn. He and I talked for a long time about human development.
Right at 11, the action started. One young lady wearing pink walked up to our sign and quietly wrote her objections on the Free Speech Board. On the side not pictured in the above photo, there are two contrasting realities: the care that people give wanted babies, and what happens to babies who are unwanted. One is a story of a Spina Bifida baby on whom a doctor performed a very precise surgery to repair the problem. It's a powerful example of the lengths people go to in order to protect and nurture wanted babies. Next to this story on the exhibit is a picture of a fetus aborted at 9 weeks. It's very difficult to look at and represents what happens to thousands of unwanted babies. The lady in pink said calmly that these examples were faked and used for propaganda. Steve, our director, did his best to meet her objections and respect her. She stated over and over again, "the ribs aren't developed by 9 weeks. I don't know [when they do develop], but it isn't then." After a few minutes of her trying to look up sources on her smart phone, but not finding any, and disregarding our sources, she finally said, "I don't know why I'm talking to you about ribs. It doesn't make a difference. In the end, a woman should still have control of her own body." She walked away.
During the time she had been there, she drew a crowd from how vocal she became. Those four or five people stayed to lecture Paul, our Chief of Operations, on the basis that his opinions and facts were invalid simply because he was a man and not a woman. He patiently listened and tried to understand them. After a long time, one lady in that crowd, who did most of the talking, looked at him and her demeanor relaxed. She said something to the effect of "you've been listening to me this whole time." She asked him for a hug before she walked away with a completely different attitude than she arrived with.
The rain came barreling in at 3pm on Monday. It was perfect. We wrapped up our conversations and took down the exhibit. That night, it rained again and caused us to delay our outreach by one hour on Tuesday. Nevertheless, we were back for our second and final day of conversations.
We bring a poll table to almost every event we host. "Should Abortion Remain Legal?" is the most common question we ask college students to weigh in on with their opinion. Sometimes we bring pads of paper for them to sign, but on rainy days, we use Popsicle sticks instead. Students can write their two cents on a stick and poke it into the foam on the YES or NO side. This picture with the poll table was taken on Tuesday, the next day. Grace is talking to a young man and I'm talking to a girl named Sierra*.
Sierra was one of the crowd who gathered around Paul on Monday, the day before. Her complaint at the time was that "only men were here trying to shove this offensive topic down women's throats." She was so concentrated on Paul that she didn't notice Grace or I standing around the exhibit, even though we were there the whole time. She left our exhibit unwilling to engage in conversation. On Tuesday, Sierra came back to add a Popsicle on the YES side. She addressed one of our volunteers saying, "did you bring any girls with you this time?" I was standing directly behind her, so I opened up conversation with her and watched in amazement as her combative spirit disintegrated during our conversation. We listened to each other, raised questions for each other, and found common ground all throughout the conversation. She heard our purpose and appreciated our gentleness and compassion in how we address the issue of abortion. In the above picture, we're laughing together. I didn't think that would have been possible 24 hours previously when I first saw her. After we talked, she, too, walked away with a completely different perspective.
Both days of outreach were difficult. It was hard to get students to stop and dialogue with us. And yet, God knew exactly what He was doing. The stories I told here are just a handful of the beautiful, challenging, and inspiring interactions we experienced. God took care of us with the weather and He blessed our outreach incredibly, teaching us to trust and be still as we watched Him work in Minnesota.
No comments:
Post a Comment