Teachers Saving Children^® of Pennsylvania Inc.

Pam Stenzel will speak in Hersey, Palmyra, and Harrisburg schools in April. She is a nationally known speaker who discusses 'the abstinence advantage" with candor and humor. A free evening session is open to the public at 7:30 PM on April 7, 2004, at Hershey High School, Hershey, PA. Pam is the founder of Enlighten Communications, Inc. Check on her Pennsylvania schedule at the above wesite or at enlightencom.com/calendar or by telephone at 1-888-978-0108.

On September 27-28, 2003, over 700 people gathered at the new Hilton Hotel in Scranton for the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation Convention. With the leadership of Executive Director Michael Cipocioppo and his energetic and very capable staff, an impressive list of educators, experts, and pro-life advocates, many nationally known, presented first-rate workshops. The topics included: Media Bias, Planned Parenthood, Cloning Human Embryos, Minority and Church Outreach, Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act and Project Women in Need (WIN), 2004 Elections state and national, Euthanasia, Stem Cell Research, and Abortion-Breast Cancer Research. Teen sessions included abstinence talks by a 2000 Miss America participant and by Gary Cangeni, creator of the comic strip, "Umbert the Unborn."

Among the registrants were many chapters of Pennsylvanians for Human Life.

The Saturday night banquet speaker was Janet Parshall of Focus on the Family. Bishop Timlin of Scranton offered the invocation. Others at the table included the Rev. Clenard Childress, Jr., of radio's "Urban Prophet," who has appeared on New Jersey radio WOR-TV's "Black Experience," as well as Father John Kowalczyk, Orthodox pastor, and the Rev. Jerry Major of Youth for Christ.

A Life Achievement Award was presented to Molly Kelly, renowned chastity educator, who has rebounded from personal and physical hardships and is her famous and energetically humorous self again.

In the hotel Sunday, religious services were available. There were pro-life exhibits and a silent auction.

At the prayer breakfast, the dynamic Rev. John Trigilio, Jr., riveted his audience's attention as they exploded in applause and laughter. One of his main points is that abortion will not end until family values are applied in families with a mother and a father.

The Reference manual was given to participants and included a great amount of pertinent information, such as Lobbying by Letter, Visiting Your Lawmaker, and More Effective Letters to the Editor. Tapes of the conference are available by mail from the Pro-life Federation at 4800 Jonestown Road, Ste. 102, Harrisburg, PA. 17109, or by telephone at 717-541-0034.

Consider attending the next conference at Valley Forge in 2005. You will not be disappointed.

Pat Bartow, a new member, has agreed to try her hand at editing our newsletter, with this issue being her editorial debut. Pat lives in rural Lancaster County, PA. Her professional experiences include working as a registered nurse and teaching in a school of nursing before she transitioned to work as a middle school guidance counselor, a position from which she has retired after 23 years. She is also a licensed psychologist and has most recently worked in psychological counseling.

She and her husband, John, also a retired educator, have one daughter. However, they also have an "honorary son," whom they informally adopted into their family in 1986, and have the privilege now of grand-parenting the two sons which his wife and he have. That experience, along with the fact that their daughter and son-in-law are in the process of adopting a child, have highly sensitized the Bartows to the plight of the unborn child and the need to care for society's children.

I am here to tell you a story. It is a true story that isn't pretty, but yet it is a beautiful story.

In 1953, a young married woman became pregnant. Ordinarily that would be good news, but the baby was not her husband's. He was stationed in Germany at the time. Her sister-in-law who was a Christian advised her to go to Germany to be with her husband, and pretend that the child was his. She refused to do this and live a lie.

She wrote to her husband, telling him what happened. He assured her that everything would be all right. She was relieved until the day she received divorce papers from him. You see, he had just bought a grocery store in a small town and feared that people would not do business with him with that kind of scandal in his family.

The woman was extemely fearful because she had no money and no parents to support her, and the father of the child deserted her as soon as he realized she was pregnant as a married woman. She went through a very unstable time. There were no agencies, as now, to assist people in that circumstance. She believed Satan's life that so many women today believe, that she would be so much better off if her pregnancy were ended.

She threw herself down a flight of stairs to end the pregnancy, unsuccessfully. She then took a poisonous substance, which also did not work. Her third attempt was an invasive procedure that some women in the past went for in back alleys, but that was also unsuccessful. She finally gave up and decided that she would have the child and if it were to be a boy she would give it up for adoption, and if a girl she would keep it.

On December 24, 1953, she gave birth to a healthy, normal baby girl. Had abortion been legal in 1953, I would not be here to tell you this story. Praise God, I was determined to be born.

Life was very difficult for my mother and me. We lived very poorly in Philadelphia, at times being evicted from apartments due to lack of money. When I was about five years old, my mother's ex-husband, Paul Schwartz, who was a caring person and could not stand to see us living like that, offered to re-marry my mother and take us out of Philadelphia to Harleysville, PA, and live with whatever happened with the town's people and his business. He took such good care of us and saw to it that our needs and many wants were met. Unfortunately, he passed away very suddenly from an aneurysm.

When I was 16 years old, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour, and my mother told me that she too was a believer who had drifted away from the Lord. She then started growing in Christ. I did not give this testimony publicly while my mother was living, never wanting to embarrass her, especially since after that difficult time she recommitted her life to Christ and was a wonderful witness for the Lord. She had always been a wonderful, loving mother to me. She was very thankful that events did not go the way she initially wanted them to, and she and I always had a very close relationship.

I share this testimony to give people hope, to say that God is faithful, especially to women who have had an abortion in the past or will contemplate having an abortion in the future. God saw fit to give me life, grow up in a loving family, live in a nice community, marry a wonderful man, and become a pastor's wife.

We do not know what God has planned for each child, but He does have a plan. I thank God every day for giving me life. Not every story ends happily like mine, but every person that truly seeks God's will in difficult situations will be loved and cared for by Him. He will care for you in ways you could not imagine, and you will never regret choosing life for your unborn child.

Are you aware that The Catholic Witness (August 22, 2003) featured Teachers Saving Children^®of Pennsylanvia, Inc.? In an article written by Jen Reed, readers were told that "Teachers Saving Children^® enables educators and administrators from both public and private schools to join in promoting a respect-for-life mentality in their field," and, "...provides a home base for members to take a stand against the pro-choice positions of such teachers' unions as the NEA and AFT." Ms. Reed quotes a board member, Deacon Michael Grella of Prince of Peace Paris in Steelton, as saying, "For a profession that is primarily focused on the development of children, it is strange that the national organizations do not support the cause of life." In the article, Michael describes the Teachers Saving Children^® philosophy, focus, and activities. Also featured in the article is another of our board members, Jeff Remington, who described his personal motivation for being involved, stating that when he and his wife lost a baby born prematurely at 19 weeks, "It really hit me at that point that babies at that age are aborted, discarded, and unwanted by many people...That really opened my eyes more than anything to get more involved in Teachers Saving Children^®..." Ms. Reed also references the Teachers Saving Children^® website.

Concerned Women for America has an important new video which reveals the truth about the effect of abortion on women and men (Family Voice, September-October 2003). CWA's video, entitled "Hidden Truth: What You Deserve to Know About Abortion," includes women's stories about the reality of abortion, "From the breakup of relationships to clinical depression, pain, bleeding, sterility, miscarriages, and breast cancer...and trauma even many years later." The video is available for a donation of $15 to Concerned Women for America, 1015 Fifteenth Street NW, Suite 1100, Washington DC 20005. The CWA website is www.cwfa.org.

Board member Jeff Remington will be placed on the ballot as a NEA delegate representing the southern region at the July 2004 convention. If you are in his region, look for Jeff's name on your PSEA ballot. Jeff says that if he is chosen as a delegate, he will need support and strategy from the PA and Ohio groups. He wants the message of Teachers Saving Children^® to be heard! (Have YOU considered becoming a rep to the NEA National Representative Assembly, to make your pro-life position known?)

A suggestion from Jeff Remington...this is the letter Jeff sends to his local when asked for a PACE donation: "I have chosen not to support PACE until the NEA repeals the new business item #1990-65 that supports and promotes abortion on demand: 'NEA will oppose any legislation which will erode the status of Roe v. Wade.' As a teacher, it has been my vocation to promote the safety and well being of children, not to promote their destruction. NEA at the very least should be neutral on this issue. PACE money may contribute to such issues as abortion on demand. I cannot, in good conscience, support such political action. Respectfully (signature)."

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