Have you ever heard about pro-life drag racers? Neither had I until a few months ago when I came across Fred Jaramillo on Twitter.
He and his son Phil of Jaramillo Motorsports, based in New Mexico, race dragsters, along with their support team (their wives Deanna and Jennie) travel the southwest, racing their vehicles and raising awareness about babies and the pro-life movement.
Intriguing: fast cars and babies? Really, really fast cars. They have 1,000 horsepower engines and they drive at speeds up to 184 miles per hour!
LifeNews caught up with Fred via email to find out more about his ministry.
“Jaramillo Motorsports took on the Choose Life logos to promote a message of life to woman who could be contemplating abortion because we felt called to do more in our stand for life. We realized that many people were unaware that one in every four babies are aborted and that we were in a position to help educate others through the exposure that we get while on the race track and while traveling to racing events.
We felt that with as many abortions taking place each and every day that we could be interacting with young pregnant women who were in that position still wondering what to do and we felt that this was a great way to meet them where they are with a better message than what the abortion industry has in mind for them.”
Not only do their dragsters have “Choose Life” emblazoned on their sides, they also got a huge “Choose Life” sticker for their trailer so that they impact fellow drivers along the thousands of miles they travel annually to race.
Fred and his family have reaped great benefits from their family hobby/ministry: “We stepped out in faith and really were rewarded with meeting great people who have offered us positive support and who often thank us for what we are doing and that’s a great feeling.” Undoubtedly (considering the huge percentage of the population who statistically will be involved in an abortion in their lifetime), through their efforts they have saved lives through their racing and their attendance at fairs and other events that pro-life groups invite them to.
Fred and Phil (and their dragsters) are supported by their local Knights of Columbus but always need more support helping getting the word out. If you are interested in their ministry, you can reach Fred by email at [email protected]. They travel throughout the southwest but primarily to Arizona, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Nevada, Kansas and their home state of New Mexico. If you are a pro-life organization and are interested in having the racers come to your event, feel free to reach out. You can also follow Fred on Twitter.
We’ll let Fred have the last, encouraging word: “We might not know what kind of effect we have, but with your prayers we will continue to do what we can and maybe one day God will show us that we made a difference in someone’s life.”
