A couple of years ago I was on my couch (probably playing video games) when God laid it on my heart to run a pro-life page on Facebook. So I prayed about it and saw that there were so many pro-life pages that were started, but were inactive for quite a while.
So I prayed about it some more, trying to figure out what God was calling me to. I eventually came across a post on Take My Hand, Not My Life that they were looking for a new administrator. It was started by a group of Filipino students for a class project, and the project was done and they weren’t able to keep up with it.
So I contacted them, and a few months later, I took over. I floundered around quite a bit, and then I noticed that a page from British Columbia was “liking” and commenting on a lot of the stuff that I was posting. So I contacted Heather Sudnik from British Columbia, realizing that she had just started up a page for her community, and made a new friend at the same time. We supported each other and helped each other out while we floundered along. A few other pro-life Facebook page administrators from different parts of the world also started asking me how to do certain things. So I started a support group of different pro-life page administrators. Eventually, out of that came the theme days for pro-life social media.
Shortly after The Center of Medical Progress released their first video from my heart’s desire was to have a theme day about Abortion Survivors. Just about everyone in the Pro-life community knows Gianna Jessen’s, Melissa Ohden’s, and Claire Culwell’s stories. However there are lesser known abortion survivors in the support group such as Carrie Fischer and Nik Hoot’s adoptive mother. I wanted to share their stories too. I really wanted the world to hear their stories, alongside with Gianna’s, Melissa’s, and Claire’s. That theme day turned out to be a big day all around.
CMP released video #4 that day, Planned Parenthood’s website was “hacked by extremists”, and RU-486 was approved by Health Canada. Satan was working overtime to block these people’s stories from being brought to light. The only good thing that happened that day (beside our first theme day) was the new release of CMP’s latest video. And God had ordained that day long before any of us were born. I was reminded of His Grace and remembered that He is much bigger than this; so let’s see what He has for us.
Since then, we have had many theme days, which included Adoption Stories Day, Pregnancy And Infancy Loss Awareness Day, Sibling Saturday (which was about siblings that lost other siblings due to abortion), and Father’s Friday (which dealt with father’s who lost children to abortion.) Over the years, it seemed like every time I shared a story or a meme on my page about how it’s wrong to abort babies who were conceived in rape, I would get some backlash about it. That is why it’s been on my heart to do a theme day celebrating the lives of those conceived in rape for quite a while. I just wanted the ideal timing for it.
Kevin Albin (one of my wonderful co-administrators) and I have been talking about it since November. I had the March for Life in the back of my head, thinking that the two should be close together. I remembered reading an article written shortly after the DC March For Life last year. Women who were conceived in rape or had given birth after rape were marching together; so it seemed like a natural fit to put the two side by side. That’s how we chose January 19th, 2016 to celebrate the lives of those conceived in rape!
I have been friends with Juda Myers of CHOICES4LIFE for a while, and familiar with Monica Kelsey’s work with the Safe Haven Baby Boxes, and learning more about Rebecca Kiessling’s (pictured above) organization Save the 1. They have all been extremely supportive in what I am doing. I think that it’s so important to share their stories, to tell the world their lives have value and to end the stigma around babies conceived in rape and incest.
Kevin shared his thoughts:
“My reasoning behind wanting to celebrate the rape-conceived, is because A. No child deserves to live with the stigma that they are unwanted or a demon for their mother due to someone else’s evilness, and B. No mother should have to relive the nightmare by ‘correcting’ one vicious deed with another evil! I know three people personally who are rape conceived, and while they are the greatest people in the world, they are still too ashamed to talk about it because they are constantly being put down by family members and treated like a mistake!! I want to do my part to help erase this most unfortunate stigma”
Monica, Rebecca and Juda also shared their thoughts:
“As a person who was conceived through rape and almost aborted, I am reminded everyday how precious life is. As we celebrate the thousands of lives who were conceived through rape, I pray for a day when we value ALL life, every day, and that our worth exists simply because we do. As a firefighter/medic that saves lives for a career, I am thankful that my life was saved so that today I may save others!” Monica Kelsey, Conceived in rape
“I’m very grateful to Tennille and Kevin for wanting to celebrate the lives of the rape-conceived in this way. I’m always in awe of people who aren’t in this people group themselves, but are able to empathize with the plight of all of those born and preborn who are. Save The 1 is thrilled to be participating in this special day!” Rebecca Kiessling, Conceived in rape
“Working with moms/children of rape conception my heart breaks hearing stories of abuse & rejection. It brings me to tears that Tennille, J.R. and Kevin would want to celebrate our lives when most are calling for our death. I was conceived in the mind of God not the loins of man. I’m so grateful to all who understand & do everything to defend our lives. You & our mothers are true heroes.” Juda Myers, Conceived after 8 man assault
So here I am, 2 years later, a girl still on her couch, reaching people she never would have imagined, meeting people from every corner of the world through her laptop, spreading the word on abortion in many different ways and sharing how it affects everyone. And now I am reaching you as well.
When it comes to the rape-conceived, my husband J.R. puts it this way:
“Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood in the cross-hairs of persecution and stigma. And yet the Grace of God maintained him. The truth is hardly deniable by his wise words, and yet he survived, flourished and blessed us, despite being appointed to die. We are told that it is acceptable to abort the children of rape victims because they are appointed to die. They stand in the same cross-hairs as Bonhoeffer did, but should be allowed opportunity to the same grace as he was. These children conceived in rape are viable, sacred and valuable.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his own words:
“Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And that is nothing but murder.”
Abortion is never ok, no matter what the circumstances are. These theme days are my way of shouting that from the rooftops and the couches of the world. Please join us in this Facebook event and please share Celebrating the Lives of Those Conceived in Rape.
LifeNews Note: Married six and a half years Tennille and J.R live in Saskatchewan with their cat Tiger. Tennille has served as a Care Aid for 15 years while J.R. has been a chef for 20. They are hoping to adopt children one day soon.
