Dear Partners and Friends,
 
Just a reminder: we are doing much more than the Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) and the Reproductive “Choice” Campaign (RCC). We regularly speak to Christian youth about abortion, which is critically important because Christians are almost as confused as the rest of the culture when it comes to abortion. That is why we speak to churches, schools, and youth groups every chance we get. We challenge you to arrange for us to speak at your church. You will save lives if you do.

Fletcher and Jane

CBR—Educating a New Pro-Life Generation

Fletcher speaks to 300 high school students at the Christian Academy of Knoxville. Many students expressed a change of heart about abortion.
One of the most important things we do is train our young people. This is true for us as parents and Christian leaders; it is also true of us as pro-lifers. We must teach Christian young people to obey God’s commandments: to avoid killing, to avoid sex outside marriage, and to defend the helpless. We must also teach them about the forgiveness available through our Messiah. Over the past few months, we have spoken to hundreds of students at Christian colleges, high schools, and churches. Why haven’t we been to your church? Why haven’t the Christian young people in your church been shown the truth? We leave that as a challenge to you!!
 
Christian Academy of Knoxville. On February 27, 2003, Fletcher returned to the Christian Academy of Knoxville (CAK) to lead a high-school chapel program. Some of the faculty had been concerned about the Harder Truth video, but they listened to our arguments regarding the importance of the video and approved the presentation. In addition to Harder Truth, Fletcher showed video of prenatal development, warned students about lies they might hear from the abortion industry, and showed them how CBR was changing hearts and minds. Mr. Donald Snider, the CAK Principal, had this to say:
After we have clarified the confusion among Christian youth, many are eager to do whatever they can to stop the killing. These students will display bumper stickers on their cars because they care more about saving innocent children than they care about how their cars look.
Dr. Armstrong handled the issue of abortion with expertise and grace, and the vast majority of our students responded to his message with positive remarks on the student response sheet. Without reservation, we would reschedule Dr. Armstrong for future engagements.

In fact, nearly 95% of the students agreed that teens need to see our presentation. Many expressed a change in attitude, saying that they would have considered abortion before, but our pictures had changed their minds. Many of these Christian kids told us they didn’t know much about abortion and didn’t have a strong opinion either way, until they saw our presentation. Appalling, but not surprising. Think about it; how many of the kids at your church have seen the Harder Truth video? Thankfully, the faculty at CAK didn’t just talk about being pro-life; they proved it with action.

Many students had good things to say about our presentation. Here is just a sampling:

 I need to be more active against abortion. (M/Sr)
 
Now I am against abortion, not just in my head, but in my heart. (M/Jr)
 
It helped me realize the need to do something. (M/Jr)
 
It had always seemed like a political issue that I didn’t have enough information to have an opinion on. (F/So)
 
[The most important thing I learned was] not to have sex before marriage. (F/So)
 
[I learned that] I need to take action. (F/So)
 
It just opened my eyes to the cruelty of abortion. (F/So)
 
I have always been against abortion mainly because it was what my parents believed and now I am completely against abortion [on my own]. (M/Fr)
 
[I learned to] never have an abortion and how important saving sex for marriage is. (F/Fr)
 
Abortion is worse than I thought it was; I didn’t know very much before. (M/Fr)

How Teens Describe Our Presentation:

powerful -- very convincing
informative -- very persuasive
super/awesome -- enlightening
great program -- life-changing
helpful/thorough
thought provoking
a real eye-opener
West Park Baptist Church. In January, we met with the youth at West Park Baptist Church (WPBC) on two Wednesday nights. Having the extra time allowed us to emphasize God’s commands not only to refrain from killing, but to defend and protect the helpless who are being led away to slaughter.
 
WPBC is to be commended, because this church, more than any other in Knoxville we know of, protects its young people from the culture’s lies about abortion. WPBC regularly teaches its youth about abortion, showing the Harder Truth video so that young people in that church are not confused about who the unborn child is and what abortion does to him. If you want to protect the young people at your church from the lies about abortion, please contact Jane Bullington at 865-609-9033. She’s waiting for the phone to ring right now! (You haven’t called, yet??)
 
Johnson Bible College. On February 19, 2003, Fletcher and Jane visited David Wheeler’s Fundamentals of Youth and Children's Ministry class at Johnson Bible College (JBC). Most of the students were themselves ignorant about abortion. One commented specifically that he “didn’t know anything pro or con about abortion” before our presentation. Several were amazed to learn the facts about prenatal development, that the heart is beating a mere 3 weeks after fertilization. Fletcher emphasized the need to use age-appropriate graphic visuals in teaching about abortion, and many were convinced that they must do this inside the Church.
 
Fletcher explains to these future children’s and youth ministry leaders that pictures are a critical component of any effective pro-life education program.
Kentucky Mountain Bible College and Mt. Carmel High School. On April 24, 2003, Fletcher traveled to Vancleve, Kentucky to speak to the chapels at the Mt. Carmel High School (MCHS) and the Kentucky Mountain Bible College (KMBC). The presentations were similar to those described for CAK and JBC. One female student at KMBC could not understand why nobody had ever showed her how violent an abortion is. Others realized for the first time that Christians have a responsibility to speak out. They were convinced that abortion education, including graphic visuals, must be a necessary part of any Christian education program. We pray that they will have the courage to provide strong pro-life education when they leave college.
 

On this cold day in January, thousands of teenagers were able to see the truth about abortion, perhaps for the first time in their lives.
March for Life, Washington, D.C. Believe it or not, we educate more confused young people at this annual event than any other single event of the year. Buses packed with Christian school students come from all over. But many of these students are not there to stop abortion; they actually know very little about abortion. For these students, a bus ride with their friends beats going to school (on this or any other day), so they come. And so do we. We set up our Genocide Awareness Project (GAP) along the March route, near the podium. Students who don’t know much about abortion are not likely to learn much by listening to political speeches for an hour, but just a glance at our pictures will convince many of them that abortion really is an act of violence that kills a baby.
 
 Fletcher explained to one AP reporter that we show pictures of abortion for the same reason that the Holocaust Memorial Museum displays pictures from the concentration camps: to expose an evil that is beyond imagination. His quote was carried by major newspapers nationwide.