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.”

Men Healing from Abortion

You pick up the stone on a Friday. At some time over the weekend, you’re supposed to put it down.

The stone can represent many things–your sin, your bitterness toward yourself, toward someone else. It’s the burden you’ve been carrying. It’s been the rock in the pocket of your heart for years.

But over the next few days, you’ll finally be able to put it down. And you’ll finally find healing you didn’t know was possible.

Such is the experience of many men attending a retreat to heal from abortion.

A typical situation begins with two people who come together in passing or in love–but always in passion.

She becomes pregnant.

He doesn’t resist when she says she’ll have an abortion–even though she may be hoping he will take a stand on behalf of their child–that he will choose to stand by her.

Or perhaps he pushes her to abort the baby.

Or perhaps he will learn of the abortion only after it’s already happened.

He’s often the neglected one in such situations.

Since before Roe v. Wade, we’ve heard that abortion is between a woman and her doctor. It’s nobody else’s business.

Except it doesn’t work that way–even though it may take him years to understand that the wound from abortion is the stone that has been weighing him down.

In The Tears of the Fisherman, Kevin Burke writes:

“[Many men] do not associate the symptoms they are suffering [depression, addiction, inability to maintain relationships] with that abortion event in their past. Even if a man is aware that he is hurting from participating in the death of his unborn child, there is no safe place to share that burden.”

He has no place to go–either because no one else knows about the abortion or because those who do know don’t want to discuss it.

Burke explains why healing is so important:

“When you went through that abortion experience the natural need for you to grieve the loss of your child and your parental relationship with your son or daughter was also aborted. For some men and women, forgiving self and letting go of the burden of self-condemnation feels like letting go of the only real connection with their unborn child or children.”

Yet there is hope–for both men and women. Hope comes, not in forgetting, but in honoring and remembering. Healing ministries provide the opportunity to remember, to name the child, to repent, to find forgiveness.

Burke’s book lists the following:

Abortionforgiveness.com is part of the Silent No More Awareness Campaign.

Menandabortion.net helps men find healing and works to raise awareness of men’s abortion pain in counselors, pro-life workers, and society at large.

House of Esau offers weekend retreats for men seeking healing from abortion.

And Rachel’s Vineyard is a ministry for married couples, parents, and grandparents. This ministry provides the stone that symbolizes the burden of abortion.

Burke quotes an attendee of a Rachel’s Vineyard Weekend Retreat: “After I picked up my rock, I was inspired to share with the group. ‘I’ve been carrying this rock for 14 years. I’ve been emotionally dead for that long.’”

He is dead no more.

Laying down the burden of death brings new life.

Reposted from 9/26/19

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 Advertisement.

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