It was a pleasantly cool day in early March when I made my way down the 99 freeway to the city of STOCKTON. Located in one of the poor districts of that city is FRANKLIN HIGH SCHOOL surrounded by houses and yards mostly in a rundown condition.

     The first girl I approached with a packet of literature when told to save it for a pregnant girl - you might save the baby - said: "I already have. My cousin was pregnant and I talked her out of an abortion. I’m going to show this material to her so she can see what she almost did!"

     I made my way to the sidewalk area where there were six large yellow school busses parked. (I always feel nervous around school busses because of the hostility of some of the pro-abortion bus drivers.) Soon the kids came out - sometimes six abreast - making it difficult to reach all of them on the first try. After the busses began to pull away (thank God, no trouble), I walked back where many students were standing on the sidewalk apparently waiting for city busses to arrive. There was very little literature thrown on the ground. Just about all of these students - a mixture of black, Hispanic, white - responded well to my friendliness as I handed them the packets saying that it was pro-life - against abortion.

     One girl upon entering a bus told me she already had two children. I asked her how old they were. "One and three" she responded with a nice expression on her face. The only person who challenged my viewpoint on abortion that day was a girl who started arguing with me with a belligerant look on her face. "What about rape?" she asked. "The mother can put the child up for adoption if necessary," I replied. "Why are you pushing your views on us?" she asked. "I’m just m aking suggestions," I replied. "Abortion is wrong because God says it is - THOU SHALT NOT KILL" "Well, that doesn’t apply to me because I’m an atheist," she stated. "Look," I said to her. "Just because you say you don’t believe in God doesn’t mean He doesn’t exist. One day you’re going to be staring at Him on Judgment Day, and He’s going to be as BIG AS LIFE!!"

     I started making my way back to my car, here and there reaching someone I had missed. One girl touched my arm as I walked by saying, "Don’t be discouraged!" "What makes you say that?" I asked. "Well, the way you’re looking down." "Listen, I’m not discouraged and I won’t be discouraged. I go to many schools and I’m saving lives." I said to her. She nodded her head in agreement.

After spending over a half hour leafleting parked cars in parking lots across the street from Modesto High School and arriving home, I received a phone call from an irate young man, "What right do you have to put your material on my car!!" he stated angrily. "I have a $16,000 car which I worked hard for - every penny of it. I don’t need someone putting this garbage on my car."

     We talked about ten minutes. Every second I expected him to hang up on me as I was challenging his very shallow viewpoint. In fact, I told him he sounded very shallow. "Hey, I said to him, "it looks like you’re putting your car ahead of human life. The Bible says you can’t serve God and mammon, which is money. You are making a god out of your $16,000 car. If God decided to take away your ability to earn money, maybe you would change your thinking on how important your car is." "It’s up to the individual what they want to do," he said. "I’m for choice." "You mean you’re for murder," I corrected him. He mentioned that maybe it was important to reduce the population. "Do you realize that we are now below replacement level in this country?" I said

     "Let me ask you a question: How many babies do you think they kill every day?" " Why are you asking me questions?" he answered. "Look," I said, "I know you are very young and you think money is important, but you’re on the wrong road. God fortunately gives us a free will. He doesn’t make robots, but unless you put God first in your life, NOT YOUR CAR, and obey His Commandments, you’re headed for Hell." I then told him that over 4,000 babies die every day by abortion. "We’re saving lives when we distribute literature," I said. "You know you have to realize that money isn’t important at all, but human beings are. Your family, people around you, they’re important - human life." "I treat my family well," he defended himself.

     "Do you believe we are either going to Heaven or Hell when we die?" I asked him. He said he did but that God alone would judge him. "Listen," I said, "God gave us 10 Commandments, not 10 suggestions. One of those Commandments is: THOU SHALT NOT KILL. Read the Bible." I told him I owned a car worth $1,000 because saving lives is more important to me than cars. "I spend my time trying to stop abortion." (I think I really impressed him by that comment because he couldn’t think of an answer.)

     After a few more minutes of discussion in which I brought up his attachment to his car a few more times, saying he was making a god out of it, he finally hung up: "I’M SORRY I WASTED YOUR TIME, BUT I GOT TO GET BUSY AND GET READY FOR HELL," he said sarcastically. (I knew I had reached this young fellow on some level. Of all my discussions with young people, Hell bothers them the most.)

It was a cool day in early November with the threat of rain in the air. I parked my car across from the long front area of BEYER HIGH and headed for the walkway near the tennis courts, which is city property. Many kids gravitate in that direction coming across the schoolyard and onto the tennis court area on their way home.

     I passed out my material to a few kids apparently waiting for the students to come out. They accepted it and stood around talking about it at great length. One young man walked over to where I was standing and asked for the literature "to give to his mother" he told me. Later he came back and said, "Ma’am, I don’t know how to say this, but I’ve gotten two girls pregnant and I don’t know what to do." It was obvious to a long time conversationalist with high school students that this young fellow was putting me on. I laughed and told him I didn’t believe him. "I’ve seen it all," I said. Later he returned again trying to get my attention by twisting up the packet and stomping on it. I ignored him as I was too busy passing out literature.

     One young man honestly confessed he had gotten a girl pregnant.. "What did she do?" I asked. "Well," he answered, a little sheepishly, "I guess she got an abortion." "That’s too bad, isn’t it?" I said. "You’ll always be wondering about the baby. Only God can take a life," I said. "ABORTION IS MURDER!" He looked at me as though he agreed with me. Later as I was reaching down to pick up a discarded packet, this same young man was walking toward me. Following my lead, he picked up two packets and handed them to me. "I’ve still got mine" he assured me, lifting up his jacket so I could see it in his back pocket.

     Another young man yelled out: "If you have sex, you better have the baby! if you get pregnant!" Another girl said, almost defiantly: "Everybody deserves a chance to live!" They were obviously upset over seeing abortion literature. I felt that quite a few kids that day got a good look for the first time on how evil abortion is.

     When I returned home, there were two messages from angry mothers on my LIFE LINE answering machine. One of the messages was: "MY NAME IS BARBARA CARPENTER (very unusual to give her name.) I want to know why you think it is necessary to pass out this material to 14-year-old girls. My phone number is ---------------.You don’t have to call me but make sure you don’t give my child anything of that nature again. Shame on you for passing out this pornography to children. Believe you me I will be mailing a letter to the newspaper. I just hope God forgives you." (She later mailed a letter to the MODESTO BEE in which she did us a favor by revealing that a 13-year-old girl could get an abortion without parental consent.)

     It was about a month later and crisp 50-degree weather as I parked my car directly across from the front entrance to Beyer High. I thought about Barbara Carpenter’s letter to the MODESTO BEE the previous week and felt some reluctance to go back so soon as I thought I could have some sort of trouble. I began to ponder over how really ridiculous my situation is. In this day and age we have to tell people not to kill children - their own babes in the womb!! A little later I mentioned this thought to a tall male student who immediately realized the point I was making by giving me a nod of agreement.

     Ten minutes after I had been distributing literature at a crosswalk in front of the school I spotted a Modesto city policeman walking toward me and I knew I would be challenged. He was a middle-aged man of short stature who looked me directly in the eye and rudely and belligerently stated that there were parents who didn’t like what I was doing and why was I doing it. Soon after he was joined by a tall, pleasant man about 35 who soon proved to have a different attitude. They both stood there watching me (apparently waiting for me to do some outrageous thing.) They mentioned the literature packets that had been discarded in the very busy street and asked me if I intended to do something about it. "It’s not my responsibility," I said. "I didn’t throw them there. Even so I will pick up some of them on the sidewalk but those in the street I am not going to risk my life over." "Oh, we didn’t expect you to do that," they both said.

     I told these two gentlemen that I wouldn’t have to be here on the sidewalk if the truth about abortion were told in the schools. I mentioned Planned Parenthood giving their message about condoms, abortion, sex ed, etc. and that I was giving God’s MESSAGE! The tall man then told me that BEYER HIGH has an abstinence-based curriculum, and I said, "That’s wonderful! I’m glad to hear that."

     They continued to stand there watching me, and I finally said to them: "If you think you’re intimidating me by standing here watching me, you’re wrong. I’ve had lots of experience doing what I‘m doing - I’ve been to hundreds of schools. In fact, I almost enjoy the attention you are giving me," I joked, "because it proves what I am doing is very important or you wouldn’t be out here." When I told the tall 35-year-old that all my efforts in front of the school were worth it if I saved one baby, he nodded his head in approval. I told them that there are over 4,000 babies dying every day in this country by abortion and that our population is going down, down. "If it weren’t for immigration here in California, there would be a lot of empty houses," I stated. "We’re living in a wicked world. Here I am being criticized for trying to save babies’ lives!"

     "Thank you for behaving so well and for having such a good attitude," the tall man said as he turned around to leave. "Thank you for being polite," I answered. The Modesto policeman (obviously embarrassed by the nice exchange of words) feeling a little sheepish over his earlier belligerency, extended his hand to me asking to see one of our literature packets which I gave to him.