Emma Wiltshire (right) with CBR volunteer Kalan Walker.

Emma Wiltshire is a pro-life Christian who labors with the fine folks at the Athens Pregnancy Center in Athens, GA.  She also attended Passion 2014.  In fact, she is the bold young lady who gave an impromptu sidewalk speech to her fellow conference goers, exhorting them to put their faith into action for preborn babies!  (Passion Part 3)

Emma penned some excellent observations about our outreach at Passion:

I have worked at a pregnancy resource center for a little over six months.  But after this weekend, my heart has never been so broken over abortion.

I attended the Passion Conference in Atlanta where 20,000 college students gathered to proclaim the name and fame of Jesus Christ.  I watched people surrender their lives to their maker and accept the love, forgiveness and freedom of being in relationship with Him.  It was an unbelievable experience.  As we flooded the streets of Atlanta for our evening dinner break, I saw extremely graphic pictures of aborted babies at just ten weeks, posted on signs.  The images were disturbing, but what was more disturbing were the reactions of my peers to the people holding the signs.  “No thank you, I’m pro-life already.”  or  “No I don’t want any brochures or papers.”  The majority of students didn’t say anything at all; they simply ignored the display and the people all together.

I spoke with one of the [CBR staffers] and he was astonished by the students lack of participation.  He said,  “Surely students coming out of a Christian conference would be more receptive.”  There is a difference between saying you support a cause and actually doing something to support it.

I was tormented for the rest of the dinner break,  just thinking of the students who carelessly walked past the exhibit.  Were they turned off by the graphic images?  Did they not understand that it was a plea for help and not a protest?  My mind was spinning as I walked back into the arena for the last session.  I looked around the enormous room packed full of 18 to 24-year-olds, 20,000 of them to be exact.  Then I had a vision of what it would look like to save an empty seat for every aborted person in the state of Georgia last year alone … 33,000 silenced voices … 33,000 empty chairs.  Even though the room was packed full, all I saw was a vacant building.

I haven’t been able to get this image out of my head since Saturday.  I know that abortion is seen as as political issue that is highly controversial.  But I also know that it robs humans of life and haunts post-abortive men and women.  It doesn’t matter how a person was conceived;  they still have a right to exist.

Please hear me when I say I am in no way condemning those who have had abortions before.  Because I am a Christian I believe there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and that the blood of the cross can wash away any transgression.  God’s redemption knows no boundaries, and I know many women who are post abortive that He has healed and made new.

That being said, lets put an end to it.  Let’s not tiptoe around the issue anymore, let’s be bold in our faith and our convictions and speak the truth about abortion.  Education is the only way we can shed light into a very dark aspect of our legislation.

If you find value in these words or agree with me, please don’t just like this post.  Share it.  Start a dialogue with friends, classmates, co-workers and family.  Don’t condemn those who have had abortions but love on them and show them that their story can help another person from making the same mistake.  I know my words are probably going to offend and maybe enrage some people, but I just felt I had to speak up for the 1,388,937 people that would have been my age if they hadn’t been aborted in 1991.

Thank God for brave Christians like Emma!  My prayer is that the young people of Passion, like Emma, will rise up and be “in it to end it” for the victims of slavery and for the victims of abortion in their own backyard.  Both are important to God’s heart (Proverbs 24:11-12).

Submitted by: Lincoln Brandenburg

We handed out nearly 4,000 brochures!

Like water gushing around a river rock,  herds of young people swarmed past our signs, on their way into and out of the Passion Conference.  How would they respond?

“I’ve never seen these pictures before…  I didn’t realize abortion was this bad!”  Some were arrested by the pictures of abortion victims.  They stopped and responded with compassion,  wanting to know how they could help.

Our volunteers and staff were glad to speak with them and even prayed with some.  We showed them how to win hearts, change minds, and save lives in their own churches and schools.  One young woman,  herself a pro-life advocate,  was very grateful and moved by our outreach.  After speaking with us at length, she turned to a group of fellow conference-goers and pleaded with them, “We need to pay attention to this message.  This is just as important as human trafficking!”

What does God think about this? CBR volunteers David Harbin and Todd Childers discuss with a passerby.

Some were not so happy to see us, and they told us so!  An Atlanta police officer even rolled down his patrol car window and blared through a bullhorn, “You people are doing a great job scaring folks with these disgusting pictures!”  His negativity was a positive sign … that he needed to see our message!  We pray that his disgust with the exposers of abortion will be transformed into compassion for the victims of abortion.

The most common response we saw was no response.  Many of the young students of Passion had not thought much about abortion before.  It is likely that many of them internalized their thoughts, rather than speak with us.  And that’s OK.  They will remember the images of abortion victims long after the conference.  God will use what they saw to work in their hearts over time.

Sadly though, many of these young Christians were noticeably apathetic about the injustice they were seeing.  One young man, when asked what he thought about the display, replied with disgust, “I’m on my way to dinner right now!”  Many tried to ignore us, declining or throwing away our literature.  Our volunteers were grieved to tears by the scores of Laodicean responses.  How could so many Christians be “neither hot nor cold” about the killing of innocent preborn children?

Was our outreach at Passion effective?  Thousands of Christian’s eyes were opened to the injustice.  The empathetic were galvanized.  The apathetic can no longer trivialize.  And at least one baby was saved (see Passion Part 2).  Decide for yourself, but your humble corespondant would say it was definitely effective!

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

See Passion Part 3 for one of our most encouraging responses!

Submitted by: Lincoln Brandenburg