A pro-life outreach organization that began because of the heart of one midwestern child and her family now touches the hearts of children in the same state and beyond through a unique education program.
Based in Omaha, Neb., Heart of a Child Ministries started touching lives with a pillow-making ministry, raising funds for pregnancy help organizations in the area. Founder Nikki Schaefer’s daughter, a young child at the time, learned about abortion and wanted to do something to help women choose life for their unborn children. The Schaefer family began making and selling themed pillows, donating the funds, as well as supplies like diapers, to pregnancy help organizations. Today, thanks to a special education program known as Celebration of Life, more than 30,000 students from kindergarten through 12th grade have come to recognize the value of human life, from unborn children to people with disabilities.
“We have four different, age-appropriate presentations,” Schaefer said.
A recent school visit resulted in a significant percentage of older students changing their minds from pro-abortion to pro-life.
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Highest ‘conversion rate’
In March, she and her team experienced the highest conversation rate, from pro-abortion to pro-life, that they have seen. Upon speaking with students at Blessed Sacrament Catholic School in Lincoln, Neb., 87.5 percent of the 16 students who considered themselves pro-abortion in some capacity changed their minds by the end of the presentation, Schaefer said.
“Fourteen out of those 16 had a conversion, she told Pregnancy Help News. Isn’t that something? Praise God! This is the highest we’ve had.”
The average conversion rate of 57 percent, she said.
Schaefer’s organization conducts student surveys and evaluations to discover students’ beliefs regarding abortion and what the students learn and are impacted by at the conclusion of the program. They also encourage students to provide their thoughts. She shared some of those comments with Pregnancy Help News:
"I feel like I can make a stronger case for pro-life myself despite being 14 years old."
"I know that babies are fully people in the womb."
"[I learned] that everybody is important no matter what."
The principal shared this with Schaefer’s organization:
“As a recent mother of a little girl with Down syndrome, hearing Jeremy Bowers talk about the value of every life resonated with me. The high percentages of babies who are aborted with Down syndrome around the world are absolutely heartbreaking, and it's important for our older students to see this hard truth that the world has so unjustly accepted. Having the opportunity to see and interact with a baby who is yet to be born made the value of life in the womb much more tangible for kindergarteners through eighth graders. I believe this experience has shaped them in a way to begin changing this culture of selfishness and death to one of love and life.”
Heart of a Child Ministries created and uses the 4S Education Model,™ implementing science, scripture, stories, and service.
The science component includes fetal development, using plastic models and live ultrasounds (depending on the grade level).
Scriptures include the Genesis story of creation and the Psalm reflecting being knit in the womb.
Stories are shared by various speakers, including the father of a young man with Trisomy 18 and a person with an adoption experience.
Service allows the school to help a local pregnancy help organization through a diaper and supply drive and/or collection of monetary donations using baby bottles.
Schaefer and five other team members took part in the Blessed Sacrament presentation, including the father and son man with Trisomy 18. The school finds the pregnant women who serve as models for the live ultrasound.
At least two more school visits in Nebraska are planned by the end of this school year, she said.
Impacts on students and beyond
Students are often deeply impacted, experiencing a change from being pro-abortion to pro-life, by the stories and live ultrasounds, Schaefer said. With the Blessed Sacrament students, 53.8 percent of those who were pro-choice before the presentation said they were most impacted by the stories shared and 46.2 percent were impacted by the live ultrasound.
Tweet This: Students are often impacted by Heart of a Child Ministries stories and ultrasounds, changing from being pro-abortion to pro-life.
Sometimes new stories unfold. That happened during a presentation at a school in Grand Island, Neb., located about 150 miles southwest of Omaha. As the speaker talked about working with abortion-minded women, a man inched his way from the back of the room to the stage, Schaefer said.
“He said, ‘This is the first time I’m sharing this, but I want you guys to know, this isn’t just a woman’s issue,” she recalled.
The man shared how when he was a teenager, his girlfriend got pregnant, and they had an abortion. The man said he’s struggled his whole life with it. When he knew the Heart of a Child Ministries team was coming, the Holy Spirit prompted him to share his story so that he might prevent this from happening to someone else.
The man, whom she later learned was a teacher at that school, also talked about the various struggles he experienced after the abortion, including alcohol abuse, and said that the decision not only affected him but others who loved him. He told the boys to stand up and be warriors for their future wives and children and encouraged the students to “choose to wait,” Schaefer said.
“It was amazing! You couldn’t hear a pin drop,” she said. “It was so powerful! You could just see how affected those kids were by his testimony.”
She added, “It’s also a testimony of how the Holy Spirit uses our ministry to bring forth the unexpected.”
That teacher may join her team and share his testimony with future groups, she said.
“Every time he shares his story, he is healing. He is finding purpose in his pain,” Schaefer said.
Beyond Nebraska’s borders
Other organizations are taking the education model to reach and teach children and youth. For example, the Archdiocese of Boise, Idaho, has partnered with Heart of a Child Ministries. Schaefer plans to travel there in June.
“I love their approach!” she said. “We have partnered with three organizations in Boise – Choose Life Idaho, the Archdiocese of Boise, who has chosen teachers, and a pregnancy help in the community.”
The pregnancy help’s sonographer will work with the other organizations, Schaefer said.
“That model is a little different,” she said. “I love to see the Holy Spirit work in these different models.”
Additionally, an Alabama pregnancy resource center is implementing the program, and two centers in Nebraska will go through the training.
Having statistics from the various school visits has been helpful in launching the education program in these other places, Schaefer said.
“We are really developing our statistics and evaluations,” said Schaefer. “We are expanding across Nebraska and to other places, and we are training.”
“We want to equip them so they can go out into their communities and do this type of educational work,” she said. “We feel it’s important to develop very solid statistics, and the more groups that are using our model of education, the more important that is. We want to develop a best-practice approach.”
Schaefer believes the program will grow throughout the country.
“Accumulating statistics and having a good model with evaluations is important as we get more people involved,” she said.
New endeavors coming
Recently Schaefer hired a new staff member with hopes of making inroads to Nebraska’s public schools. The organization will focus on teaching fetal development if that becomes required in science classes, something the state is seriously considering, she said.
Additionally, Schaefer is working on a new program in conjunction with the Archdiocese of Nebraska in Omaha.
This program will involve using photos of fetal development each month of the school year – a new month on the school calendar will have a corresponding photo of fetal development in the womb for that month. This component would be attached to science curriculum in the Catholic schools in the area. Also, at the end of the school year, the organization’s Celebration of Life presentation will take place in the schools.
“The thought is, if we put this front and center with the kids, we’re going to solidify them on having a deep understanding of fetal development and that the baby is a human being,” Schaefer said.
The plan is to finish the curriculum this summer and pilot the program with three schools.
“Our program is growing, and it’s very exciting,” Schaefer said.
