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Yes, Boys and Girls, Your Sex Actually Is Science

Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created. Genesis 5:2 ESV~

The [Congressional] resolution seeks to ban transgender women from using female restrooms inside the Capitol, barring both House members and employees from “using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex [sic].” “Biological sex” is not an accurate nor a scientific term, but is used by opponents of transgender people to dehumanize them and deny their equal access to society. GLAAD

Some might look at the above statements and call one faith and the other science.

Both statements are truth claims. Only one aligns with science.

After three boys, my daughter and her husband received the blessing of a baby girl. A few years later, my daughter noted, “How much she talks!”

Girls talk more than boys. They talk earlier, and have larger vocabularies.

Data backs that up, including brain chemistry.

That’s science.

Male and female pelvic bones vary in at least 15 different ways. That difference enables women to deliver babies, something men can’t do. That difference also allows forensic scientists to identify human remains. The pelvis tells scientists whether the remains were male or female.

That’s science.

When I attended Penn State in the late ’80s and early ’90s, there was an office, now apparently defunct or otherwise elusive to an internet search, with regard to Womyn, misspelling intentional to differentiate the female of the species from m-e-n. To say w-o-m-y-n was to keep m-e-n from being part of our self-definition.

That’s not science.

The apparent attempt to change language didn’t catch on.

But language does change, and it takes on confusing elements when some intend to foster confusion.

Language changes when we twist the meaning of a word–when we change science, the pursuit of understanding reality, to something someone decides they want it to be.

Language twisting jettisons reality.

When I was 10, I looked up to my two older brothers and wanted to be like them. If someone had offered me a chance to “become one of the boys,” the idea may have intrigued me.

I settled for becoming a tomboy, limited options that I had, but before long I discovered I liked being a girl.

Childhood moves quickly. Children grow, develop, and change their minds.

It’s why we don’t let them pierce their ears or drive or vote.

But many today are willing to allow them to do permanent harm to their bodies, bodies nearly all of them will come to accept given time.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Our new website milicomathersreads.com is accepting reviews for middle reader books–especially those written by middle school students. Message me at readgoodbooks@milicomathersreads.com or in the comments below.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Wandering Swallow is published by EA Books Publishing. Restoring the Shattered in published by Morgan James.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Endorsement and Student Reviews for Wandering Swallow

Wandering Swallow: Release Date, December 2, 2024

I’m grateful to Annie Yorty for this endorsement of Wandering Swallow:

From the first to the last page of Wandering Swallow: A Young Girl’s Quest for Freedom, Nancy E. Head captured my attention—and my heart. Her vivid descriptions and masterful storytelling transported me behind the heavy curtain of North Korea’s dictatorship into the life of Hana, a young girl who longs for an unnamed concept—freedom. Head also weaves supporting characters with disabilities into the plot in a way that is real and respectful of their value and abilities. This story is sure to enlighten and inspire both young and mature readers.

Annie Yorty, speaker, podcaster, and author of From Ignorance to Bliss—God’s Heart Revealed through Down Syndrome and 25 Symbols of Christmas: Finding Jesus—A Devotional.

Student Reviews:

Every Friday during the fall of 2023, I read aloud a new installment of Wandering Swallow to my middle school students. One sixth-grade girl told me, “It’s my favorite part of Friday.”

Here are some other responses:

Lillie says, “I love how the book is always so exciting. There’s never a moment that is boring.”

Evan says, “I like how it’s mysterious and how its details are so good. I also like how they go everywhere to escape and how Lù kè has so many allies.”

Grady says, “I think that this book is great. I love it. It leaves you on a cliffhanger, so you are always anxious to read more. I think it should be published. It’s great.”

Emma says, “My favorite part is how much detail is in the book. This book is really good and probably one of the best books I’ve ever read. This book is very exciting and nerve-wracking. That’s why I like it.”

Josiah says, “I have not heard or read of a book quite like this one before. I like how it has some biblical references.”

Sophia says, “I really like the book because I usually read other kinds of books, and now I feel like this is the kind of book I enjoy reading. When this book is published and in stores, I will definitely buy it.”

Drake says, “I would love to own a copy of this book.”

Ava says, “I can’t wait to see what happens next.”

Zach says, “Overall, while I am not usually a fan of historical fiction, I find this book quite interesting.”

Trinity says, “I just like the setting, action, and the history behind it all.”

To maximize exposure for the book, please purchase it on Amazon on Monday, December 2, 2024.

Our new website milicomathersreads.com is accepting reviews for middle reader books–especially those written by middle school students. Message me at readgoodbooks@milicomathersreads.com or in the comments below.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Wandering Swallow is published by EA Books Publishing. Restoring the Shattered in published by Morgan James.  I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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What Will We Do? How Will We Now Live?

I was in the little half-gym with middle grade students at recess on this day 23 years ago. It was Tuesday, the only day my fellow teacher, whose classroom sat across the hall from mine, didn’t cover recess.

She’d turned the little black and white television on in her room only to see reports of the first plane hitting the first World Trade Center tower in New York City.

Other planes crashed, the second tower, the Pentagon. A field a little more than an hour’s drive from us in Pennsylvania.

Our school day dissolved into silent horror peppered with occasional whispered questions.

Who did that?

Why?

What will happen next?

The teacher across from me worried: Her father was supposed to have been at the Pentagon that day.

I called my son, then an army reservist. “Turn the television on. You’re going to get called up,” I said.

“No, we won’t. Our unit isn’t big enough.”

Perhaps he truly had confidence that would be so. Perhaps he hoped to soothe his mother’s worry.

Two years and a few months later, he was among some few soldiers plucked from the small unit to fill out a larger one to go to Iraq.

He remarked several times last year. “It’s been twenty years” as if in disbelief that time could pass so swiftly.

Twenty years ago. A milestone of memory.

The world changed that day in 2001 as we knew it would, but then we didn’t know how it would change.

In many ways, it also stayed the same.

We didn’t fix the Middle East through his deployment–or in the next two his brother served.

Our everydays seem the same. We get up in the morning. I still teach. Work, family, and faith fill our days.

Children grew up. More grandchildren followed and now three great-grands have arrived into this same and different world.

On September 11, 2001, we woke up and went to work and school feeling safe, feeling the glory of a beautiful day–the kind I now call a 9/11 day.

The uncertainty of life on earth came home to us hard that Tuesday morning 23 years ago. An uncertainty other people in other places and times have endured as a constant.

We live in history. Every moment of every day.

And every moment asks us.

What will you do with your time?

How will you now live?

Photo Credit: Unsplash

Our new website milicomathersreads.com is accepting reviews for middle reader books–especially those written by middle school students. Message me at readgoodbooks@milicomathersreads.com or in the comments below.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Dust to Dust

For you are dust, And to dust you shall return,” Genesis 3:19b.

Lent starts today. For many, even some Christians, it’s just another day. But it begins a season I mark every year now.

As a child, I didn’t work very hard at Lent. I’d decide to give up potato chips until there were some potato chips around. Then I’d switch to something else, like chocolate. And then, to something else. I was like Huck Finn deciding what not to steal today.

Then for many years, I didn’t mark Lent at all.

I don’t remember when I started again. My discipline about food hadn’t advanced far from what it was when I was a child. I ate too many potato chips when they were there. And too much of anything made of sugar any chance I could get.

I’m not overweight–or not seriously so. I bounced around within 20 pounds or so since hitting 40. But Lent isn’t about weight control. It isn’t a diet plan. It’s a desire to work with God to get control of food. To keep food (or anything else) from having control over me.

To honor Him in what and how much I eat.

It’s about discipline and sacrifice–albeit small sacrifice. The discipline isn’t just one of physical appetite. There is a spiritual element in all we do.

And in sacrifice, we acknowledge that we aren’t in heaven yet. Today begins a place where sometimes we partake and sometimes we abstain. It’s a place where we do better when we don’t have it all. But it’s hard because what we want is all around us. All we want. All the time.

Everywhere we look. So we need discipline and with it comes sacrifice.

The discipline and sacrifice remind us.

Lent reminds us that others don’t have it all around them all the time.

Lent reminds us heaven is ahead of us. We are not there yet.

Lent reminds us that He carried a cross.

He sacrificed. For us.

In the meantime, we work. We struggle at times.

We can only imagine heaven. We yearn for it. We even confuse this world with it sometimes.

Only one dwelled there and then came here.

He did not have to imagine. He knew. Yet He came.

Remember.

Photo Credit: Pexels


 

Our new website milicomathersreads.com is accepting reviews for middle reader books–especially those written by middle school students. Message me at readgoodbooks@milicomathersreads.com or in the comments below.

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Who We Were Made to Be

“Male and female created he them, and blessed them.” Genesis 5:2a, KJV

“What sort of world might it have been if Eve had refused the Serpent’s offer and had said to him instead, ‘Let me not be like God. Let me be what I was made to be–let me be a woman,'” Elisabeth Elliot.

When I was in tenth grade, I imagined what life would be if I were someone else. I imagined myself as a girl in my class who wasn’t too tall or too plump, as I saw myself. She had the cutest layered hair cut. Not in the style of Farrah Fawcett, who had yet to achieve fame, but who would seed a crop of feathered hair across our nation.

Instead of wondering who I was, who I was supposed to become, I worried more about what people, especially boys, wanted me to be. That was who I wanted to be.

Around the time I was musing within my high school mind, many of the world’s women imagined what life would be if they could only be like men. Not actually men, mind you. Just like men.

So in the ’70s women wanted to be like men. But they couldn’t be like men because men don’t have babies. Men could have sex casually and choose to avoid the consequences.

So women wanted abortion. And now men have sex with them and push them to abortion, at least some of the time. Sometimes, it’s a girl’s or woman’s parents. Sometimes, it’s her abuser, her trafficker. No matter the situation, her choice isn’t as free as abortion supporters had promised it would be.

Women wanted to be like men and still pay a big price for behaving as men sometimes do.

Now a new possibility emerges on that same front, a vaccination to prevent pregnancy. And it seems possible that such a medication is on the horizon for women.

It sounds like a great idea. No hormones.

No side effects?

Not so fast.

Immunizations get our bodies to attack cells we don’t want.

“[W]hat comes of immunizing a woman against herself? For this is precisely what a birth control vaccine would do. Where other forms of contraceptives attack the female body’s natural cycles, a vaccine would deputize the work of pregnancy prevention to her own flesh, teaching her cells to become belligerents against their own. It would bring the war on womanhood right down to the cellular level, teaching her body to strip itself of the very thing that makes it female,” Carmel Richardson.

Many men and women today who are de-transitioning from trying to become the opposite sex are learning that what we want when we are young often changes later on. Some treatments are permanent. We can’t always turn back from what we decided in our youth.

Brenda Baletti quotes Brian Hooker, PhD. PE: “The big question [about a contraceptive vaccine] that comes to mind is ‘reversibility.’ It is very difficult to turn off an immune response complete with memory B-cells after it has been turned on. My fear is that many would be left permanently sterile from this type of vaccine.”

Richardson points out that, at the least, “’People with especially enthusiastic immune responses‘ could end up infertile for several years.”

Imagine abusers and traffickers threatening, forcing the vaccine on their victims, not bothering to persuade, not concerned with consequences.

As Eve learned the hard way, trying to be who we want to be without regard to God’s intentions doesn’t produce the desired result. A deal with the devil never pays as it promises.

Women striving to be “like men” has led to today–when men want to become women and women want to become men. Social movements keep moving. They don’t stand still. From the ’70s to today, people seek new, self-created identities.

The recently departed Dr. Timothy Keller reminded us that “identity is received, not achieved.” We can never make ourselves into something better than who God intended for us to be, who he specifically gifted us to be.

Attempting to create ourselves anew is distorted pride.

Elisabeth Elliot quotes Isak Dinesen to define an undistorted God-centered pride, a good kind of pride, as “faith in the idea that God had when he made us. A proud man is conscious of the idea, and aspires to realize it. He does not strive towards a happiness, or comfort, which may be irrelevant to God’s idea of him. His success is the idea of God, successfully carried through, and he is in love with his destiny.”

Our attempts to recreate ourselves in mentally conjured images are Eve’s sin, distorted self-pride. Idolization of self.

Social movements move. They do not stand still. Nothing stays put. We will not reach an end that says, “I am content with the person I am,” unless we come to God’s view, who he had in mind when he made us.

Fulfillment lies in following his plan.

Let the Creator be the Creator.

Be the creation he made.

Photo Credit: Pexels

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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A Place in the Picture

Once windblown sand without direction,
I am now glass, colored by life, faith, and love.
 
Sand heated, tinted, shaped, and planted,
Part of a larger picture.
 
Cracks and fissures healed and yet healing,
Whole glass within the framework,
 
Supported by Spirit,

Surrounded by glass like and unlike me.
 
Light shines to the world through me, through us,
A piece in the picture of the Bride,
 
Glass arranged just so to shine light and show the image,
Glass, waiting for the King’s return.
 
He waits to heat, shape, heal cracks,
And place you just right,
 
So His light and image can shine on another,
Windblown sand without direction.

Photo Credit: Pexels

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Your Favorite Color in the Land of Darkness

“The light shines in the darkness. But the darkness has not overcome the light.” John 1:5, NIV~

What’s your favorite color? It’s a simple question. But it’s one Yeonmi Park found impossible to answer.

When Park was 13, she and her mother decided to escape from North Korea. Her sister had gone ahead days earlier. The girls’ father planned to follow later.

Park and her mother, as Park’s sister had, paid a broker to get them across the Yalu River thinking they could get jobs in China and be free.

Free–even though the citizenry of North Korea has no word for the concept of freedom or justice. Or an understanding of the pronoun I. There is only we, Park says in her book In Order to Live.

When they got to China, Park and her mother learned they were to be sold as prostitutes or wives for Chinese farmers since the country’s one child policy had created a dearth of women through sex-selective abortion.

Park watched helplessly as a broker raped her mother. Exploitation continued until they met Christian missionaries.

You might think the gathering between grace and those seeking freedom would be one of joy. But the missionaries told Park and her mother that their work in a sex chat room, the only work they could find because of their illegal status, the only work they could do to eat, was sin. They were “dirty”. They must repent or risk their entire group being captured and repatriated to North Korea.

That possibility was no small threat since North Korea typically executes defectors.

Park felt as judged as she had in North Korea during the daily self-criticism sessions.

Park was 15 when they arrived in South Korea through Mongolia. The South welcomed defectors from the North. Yet the transition from oppression to freedom was not a simple one.

Imagine growing up in a society where you almost never have to make a decision, what to wear, where to go, what your job will be, even what to eat because famine meant you ate what you could get–even dragonflies and roaches.

Park had no way to answer questions like What do you think? or What is your favorite color? She even thought that, if not for the death sentence that would ensue, it might be better to go back to North Korea where there was no burden to make decisions.

We in America give no thought to such questions. We know what we think. We know we’re right, most often without listening to those who disagree with us.

And we know which colors we prefer for our clothing, houses, and cars.

We take so much for granted. Our abundant food, our electricity that is reliable for the most part, our freedom in matters large and small.

Such abundance and freedom impressed Park–even in China, not a country most in the West would point to as a bastion of liberty.

North Korea is a land of, not only spiritual darkness, but also physical darkness. The photo above is a satellite image of electrical light at night. One bright spot indicates the capital city where dictator Kim Jong Un resides.

Darkness comes in different forms. Park was surprised and pleased to learn that South Korea had a law forbidding men to beat their wives. Abuse in the North is common and accepted. It’s not that the law is unenforced. There is no law against abuse.

North Korea is a land of darkness, physical, spiritual, moral, and intellectual.

America is a land of artificial light with a sense of freedom that is sometimes deceptive.

What’s your favorite color? You need light to perceive color.

You need light to understand oppression and to navigate freedom.

Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12, NASB~

Escape the darkness. Embrace the Light.

Photo Credit: researchgate.net

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Satan Always Lies

The painting Checkmate used to hang in the Louvre in Paris.

A man is playing chess with the devil. It looks like the devil has won.

We don’t know how much the painter Friedrich Moritz August Retszch understood about chess. Paintings don’t usually come with written explanations.

Even so, a legend has attached itself to this one.

A chess grand master visited the Louvre and studied the painting.

Although the man in the painting appeared to be losing, although an observant, forlorn angel stood by mourning another lost soul, and although Satan was congratulating himself for a win, the chess board told another story.

The man still had a move to make, and that move could lead him to victory.

When the Israelites had their backs against the Red Sea, God had another move.

When Jesus was dead, and evil appeared to have won, God had another move.

God will always have another move.

He may appear to have lost, but God has already won.

My pastor recently told this story as part of an exceptional message. Enjoy!

Photo Credit: Haven Today

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Same War, Different Uniforms

Faithful Christians of different traditions are soldiers in the same army, but our uniforms are different colors. It’s as if we somehow believe it is not a war we are fighting but a game we are playing. And the soldiers with different colored uniforms are players on a team we oppose—a team of bitter rivals—rather than our fellow soldiers who hold to the same creed and battle the same enemy.

Imagine two nations, each warring against the same evil foe. The world is in peril as the evil enemy conquers more and more countries, stealing more and more hearts. The enemy troops are captives. The soldiers who fight the enemy are duty bound volunteers whose mission is to call the enemy’s troops to freedom.

Further imagine the general of one nation trying to discuss battle strategy with a general from the other. The generals do not speak the same language, and no one is present to translate. Some individual soldiers continue to engage in battle—some effectively, some even in concert with allies in different uniforms. Their efforts are small and uncoordinated. 

Other soldiers don’t know what to do, so they do nothing but fret about the war to the soldiers of their own units.

Both nations have the same goals, but they use different strategies. Some work well; others waste time, resources, and energy fighting the same battle here, but sending no soldiers there. The needs are great, but the work is lonely and calls for reinforcement.

Because the nations’ customs and foods are different, they misunderstand each other. These misunderstandings distract both from the crucial battle against the enemy. They imagine their fellow soldiers as the enemy.  The two forces end up fighting each other. 

Many who have not joined either are confused. The enemy succeeds in drawing them outside the battle lines, outside the reality of the war they themselves need to win. The evil enemy takes even more ground, captures even more souls.

The army that fights the enemy has a long history. When its fight began, the army was a small corps of committed fighters; most gave their lives in battle. From the army’s very inception, from its beginning with only twelve generals, the enemy had infiltrated the ranks.

A betrayer was within the ranks of the army’s greatest leaders. For the first 500 years, division happened within the army.

The forces of good were the faithful who battled forces of evil, the corrupted betrayers. Infiltration continues to this day and sparks confusion among those who might otherwise become soldiers. Some people like wearing the uniform but would never actually engage in battle. They are not true soldiers.

Aside from infiltration, the enemy has two main battle strategies. The first is persecution. His intention is to kill as many soldiers as he can—the most typical war strategy. It not only eliminates opposition, but he supposes that it deters new enlistments. This strategy is often faulty. Our army grows in the face of persecution, and our cohesiveness is at its peak when our trials are plenty. The soldiers wearing different colored uniforms work together best during times of persecution.

His second strategy is more subtle and more insidious. He lavishes our established, well-entrenched forces with wealth, comfort, and divisiveness. The divisiveness is often thinly veiled self-righteousness. We make judgments about each other based on those who wear their uniforms lightly or even deceptively, or we accept someone’s misinterpretation of another’s worship language. For Satan, this second strategy has been his most effective throughout history.

The primary battlefield of this war is within people’s hearts. Here is the battlefield we have most neglected. Here is the front where we must win.

Photo Credit: Pixabay

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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What Can One Person Do?

“What is urgently called for is a general mobilization of consciences and a united ethical effort to activate a great campaign in support of life. All together, we must build a new culture of life”– Pope St. John Paul the Great

The above quote comes from The Vulnerable People Project’s website.

The story of VPP begins with Jason Jones who got his high school girlfriend pregnant. He joined the army to prepare to support her and his child.

As the child of a teen mother, Jones grew up with the dream that he would be a father in an intact family, and his “children would be happy and safe.”

While still in training, a phone call dashed his hopes as his girlfriend’s father explained: “I know your secret, and it’s gone.” His girlfriend wept that she had not done it. Her father had forced her to have an abortion.

This mother was in her third trimester.

At the time, Jones was an atheist. But he understood that his daughter, whom the couple had already named Jessica, had become a murder victim.

He had never been to church. He’d had no interest in politics.

From that day forward, he “committed his life ‘to protecting women and children from the violence of abortion.'”

His commitment was real. It would take years before it became a commitment of faith. As Jones worked to protect the innocent, to protect the vulnerable, he rubbed elbows with people of faith. He worked with Christian organizations and studied political philosophy.

He came to know the truth of Christ, the meaning of freedom.

Jones produced the movie Bella (and other films) and used the proceeds from DVD sales to promote the film’s prolife message in pregnancy resource centers and prisons.

His accomplishments don’t end with films, and they aren’t limited to saving the unborn. His effort begin there, and now reach far and wide.

Medical treatment for girls ISIS has displaced.

Efforts to free Catholic bishops imprisoned in China.

Bringing clean water to refugees in South Sudan.

Providing water, food, medicine, and other aid in Darfur.

Rescuing those left behind in Afghanistan when the US withdrew.

Providing coal and food for Afghans during winter.

Jones is now married and the father of seven children.

You may have said to yourself at one time or another: I’m only one person. What can I do?”

Jason Jones show us that one man’s efforts, with God’s blessing, can go beyond what we could hope or ask.

Photo Credit: Vulnerable People Project

Nancy E. Head’s Restoring the Shattered is out in paperback! Get your copy here!

Permissions: You are permitted and encouraged to reproduce and distribute this material in any format provided that you do not alter the wording in any way, do not charge a fee beyond the cost of reproduction, and you credit the author.

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the entities I have mentioned. Restoring the Shattered is published through Morgan James Publishing with whom I do share a material connection. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”