Kathleen Carpenter, President Temple University Students for Life, and featured Speaker at the March for Life Rally
For those involved in pro-life activism, the battle can sometimes feel overwhelming. Pair that with what you hear on the news and the clips from college campuses. It can be very easy to get discouraged.
Yet, often what we do not see or hear enough about are the success stories. The stories that usually begin with an individual and a single conversation. It would be great if each of us had the ability to round up and fire up a group of five, ten, fifteen plus people and there are certainly gifted speakers and people that have accomplished these feats. However, for many, all it took was single conversation. The witness of a passionate pro-life friend/mentor and a single testimony.
When I first became President of Temple University Students for Life, I was nervous and even a little afraid. I had always been pro-life but had never done anything about it. Perhaps right now, you may be in the same boat. You might be super passionate, but don’t have a group in your church or school community or even know where to start.
An easy place to begin is with people in your sphere of influence- family, school, or church and having a conversation. At Temple, this was the formula that led to our success. Due to the pandemic and other factors, we did not have a well- established pro-life group, so I decided to meet individually with the few people I had on my list and have conversations with them. I wanted to hear their story and how they came to be pro-life, and most important, if they would be willing to join me in building a group and committing to a weekly engagement plan. To my surprise, not only did I realize these people shared the same passion, the conversations allowed us to bond in a way to become a strong, committed leadership team of four young women in less than a week. From the beginning of the semester on, we continued to employ this strategy, inviting friends and engaging everyone we knew in our community, one by one.
A lot of people have this idea that they need to have the perfect words or be an eloquent speaker, but the reality is, THE TRUTH ITSELF IS POWERFUL ENOUGH. When spoken in love, it can have profound effects on lives and hearts.
Never underestimate the power that a single conversation you can have in your school or church.
You can reach out to Kathleen at kathcarpenter19@gmail.com.