May the Wilberforce be with you.

This past week has been extremely packed and extremely wonderful.

I'll work backwards and start with the weekend.

This weekend SFLA put on their Wilberforce Training Weekend for the 11 Wilberforce fellows they've selected for the school year. These fellows get appointed a national pro-life leader to be their mentor whom they skype with throughout the year, and they are in communication with SFLA all year as they work to bring change to their campus, and do assigned leadership and pro-life readings. The Missionaries got to join the training weekend, and it was incredible.

I'm actually not in this photo (because I'm not a Fellow), but here are the 11 Wilberforce fellows with Kristan and Brendan. This is the face of the pro-life generation. It's real. 

Friday at work we spent the day preparing for the weekend, and Friday evening's part of the program was mainly introduction. The Missionaries actually left the program early to hold out spot in line at the Imax theater where we saw a 10:30 showing of The Dark Knight Rises (the third movie in the Batman trilogy). This was something we had planned to do for weeks as one of the staff's weekend events (Amanda, social media coordinator, is OBSESSED). It was a pretty good movie, but made getting up the next morning pretty darn difficult!!

Saturday's theme was Pro-Life apologetics. Scott Klusendorf of the Life Training Institute led most of the day's sessions, and despite being tired, I was captivated by his expertise at conveying the pro-life message smartly through biology and philosophy, and in a manner accessible to the average person. I've heard many defenses of the pro-life position, and there are many different strategies in which to defend life, but Scott simplifies the whole discussion into one question: What is the unborn? If we can establish that the unborn are indeed persons (through biology), and then establish that human life has value (through philosophy), we can make an effective case. Scott has amazing materials and resources for people who want to become pro-life apologists.

Not in this photo either, but here's Scott Klus engaging us with apologetics. Note Chris and RJ's striped shirt theme.      RJ was a MedSFLA intern, a Fellow from last year, who spent just this past week in DC with us. 

Sunday was all about activism and practicality: how do we make a pro-life nation a reality? We heard from almost all the SFLA staff about their areas of specialty:

• Phil, the Northeast Field Director who boasts an athiestic, vegan, pro-life worldview, spoke about Activism (protests, tabling, graphic image displays)
• Amanda, Social Media Coordinator who placed her own son for adoption a few years ago, spoke about domestic adoption 
• Ashleigh, Pregnant on Campus Coordinator who spent 2 years volunteering at Maggie's Place, a home for single mothers, spoke about the need for college campuses to become more friendly to pregnant and parenting students
• Tina, Assistant Director who spent numerous years working for Rachel's Vineyard, spoke about the reality of post-abortion healing 
• Jon, Director of Med Students for Life, spoke about the MedSFLA initiative and how through spreading MedSFLA groups across the nation in medical schools, we are going to see a shift in our lifetime in the practice of medicine (Med Students for Choice is at EVERY medical school in the U.S.)
• Kristan, Executive Director, spoke about SFLA's Get Out the Vote initiative and why it is vitally important that pro-lifers pledge to vote pro-life first in this upcoming election. 

We also heard from one of the nation's leading medical experts, Angela Lanfranchi, MD, FACS, on the Breast Cancer-Abortion link. 


I'm telling you, it was incredible. I learned so much and was set on fire for this cause even more. It was also amazing just to meet the 11 Wilberforce students from across the country who are also passionate for the cause. And after the weekend ended, the Missionaries went to mass down the street together, and then Leslie and I spent our first night home in over a week with Maureen, Dan, Nola, and PBS's Masterpiece theater. 

Epilogue:

We may have a different look about us, but we
are following in the footsteps of this dude. 

William Wilberforce was a leader of the movement to abolish the slave trade in the British empire in the early 1800s. He was an incredibly influential leader, but had to persevere for decades before seeing the change he desired in his nation. The pro-life cause champions him as a mentor in the fight for justice. You can see why: 

“You may choose to look the other way but you can never say again that you did not know.”

“We are too young to realize that certain things are impossible... So we will do them anyway.” 

“Accustom yourself to look first to the dreadful consequences of failure; then fix your eye on the glorious prize which is before you; and when your strength begins to fail, and your spirits are well nigh exhausted, let the animating view rekindle your resolution, and call forth in renewed vigour the fainting energies of your soul.”