We started out the day on a Thursday morning in April-Larry and Virginia Watson and I headed for RIPON, a small town on the outskirts of MODESTO. Our goal was to leaflet RIPON HIGH as the students walked out for their lunch break. As we started to distribute literature, I was surprised that there were so many students coming out for such a small town, and we managed to reach a large percentage of them - approximately 300. Their attitude in accepting the packets was a little better than in the larger cities. One of the teachers came out when we were just about finished stating that the public sidewalk in front of the school belonged to the school and that we should do our leafleting across the street. I told him that since this street was accessible to the public, he was wrong, but didn’t pursue the matter any further.

     Later that day we distributed literature at DOWNEY HIGH SCHOOL in Modesto. About seven school busses lined upon Coffee Road, a heavily trafficked thoroughfare, just before dismissal time. Throngs of students came out of the school, a good many of them headed for the busses. The kids accepted our literature willingly, even taking the packets that we were handing to them through the bus windows. Afterwards, we got into a heated debate with seven or eight students about a half block away from the school as we were headed for our car. There was the usual bad language and denial of God’s existence and Christian beliefs. At one point, a young man about 16 years old told me to leave with every word in his demands underscored by the F word. A young girl standing there told him to shut up, saying this was a public sidewalk and everyone had a right to be there.

     The last school of the day was SOMERSET JUNIOR HIGH. There were the usual cars parked around the school occupied by parents picking up their kids. The students’ willingness to accept the literature was in sharp contrast to the trouble that followed. Before we left for the day, I began answering the questions of a small group of junior highers. We talked about premarital sex being wrong I told the young girls that having sex with immature boys was "just plain dumb, leaving out the fact that it is against God’s law. Boys will use you - then throw you away. God created sex for marriage where there is a commitment, and the children born have both a father and a mother to take care of them." Some stood there, just listening. Others were asking questions. One girl said she used to believe that abortion is wrong, but now she didn’t think so. When she talked about how important it is to finish school rather than have the baby, I responded by asking her if she didn’t think that was a selfish attitude to kill a baby to finish school? She looked a little startled and didn’t respond.

     At one point a pretty brunette student about 14 years old (her boyfriend who looked about 12 was standing close behind her as we talked) asked, "WHAT IF YOU’VE ALREADY HAD SEX?" (in response to my remarks about staying pure). "WELL, YOU CAN STOP," I told her, "BUT IT TAKES PRAYER. DO YOU WANT TO BE HAPPY OR MISERABLE?" I asked. "BREAKING GOD’S LAWS WILL ONLY MAKE YOU UNHAPPY AND WILL EVENTUALLY SEND YOU TO HELL." I told them they must have a relationship with Jesus Christ, not "just God." We stood and talked for almost 45 minutes. When I handed them tracts about being born again, they all accepted them. I turned to the 14-year-old girl with the boyfriend as I left and told her I would pray for her. She looked very sincere as she thanked me.

     Later on that night, our LIFE LINE telephone rang off the hook. By the remarks made by complaining mothers (one had confessed to an abortion) I could tell that one mother must have been the instigator. About 10:30 PM that same evening I received a call from the MODESTO BEE on our hot line number. I talked to a reporter for 10 minutes, but did not give him my name. The next morning, just about 10 hours later, a one-sided article (the BEE is a liberal paper) appeared entitled Anti-Abortion Pamphlets Upset Parents. The newspaper did describe our literature in detail, however, including parts of our article on moral purity, yet very little of what I had said to the reporter appeared in the article. The last two sentences of the article were a quote from me: "THEY’RE KILLING THEIR BABIES. SOME PARENTS THINK THEIR 12 AND 13 YEAR OLDS ARE INNOCENT (BUT) THEY’RE INTO SEX-DEVIL WORSHIP IN HIGH SCHOOL. THEY’RE NOT INNOCENT." The following day another article appeared entitled Abortion Foes Didn’t Break Law - Fliers Given to Students Protected by Free Speech.

When I moved from Fremont to Modesto, I threw away all of our tote bags which were dog-eared and torn from much use, on the premise that we would buy new ones for the next school year. This never occurred as the few stores where I had shopped for them were not carrying them.

     It was our first visit to the Modesto schools.. We stood across the street from MODESTO HIGH SCHOOL a few minutes before the lunch break - Shawn and Sheryl Jipp (plus two little Jipps) and I waiting for the students to congregate near a grocery store where they were accustomed to "hang around" during the lunch break. Almost immediately I was confronted by a young man with a nice face and a cowboy hat. He was about sixteen years old. He began a steady stream of filthy language, all related to the literature we were passing out. After a while I crossed the street carrying a large grocery store bag full of literature instead of the usual tote bag and began to give the packets to the students in the front of the school. One young man asked me to give him a supply so he could help pass them out to the students (which I could see him doing later). After a while, I recrossed the street to my previous location near the grocery store. By then, there were approximately 20 students sitting standing and talking to each other.

     An attractive blond girl about 17 immediately told me to leave. Her vocabulary was interlaced with the F word, at least four times in every sentence. "DO YOU REALIZE THAT THE LANGUAGE YOU ARE USING IS MUCH WORSE COMING FROM A GIRL?" I told her firmly. "YOU’RE NOT IMPRESSING ME. I’VE HEARD IT ALL." Again, she began screaming insults at me. The abuse became so heavy that it was impossible to finish a sentence. Every minute or so, I felt someone touching my shoulder in a provocative way. Finally, someone (I presumed the person touching me) gave a karate-like chop to the paper bag I was holding under my right arm, and the literature fell in bundles at my feet. Immediately one of the boys who had been arguing intensely with me stooped down and helped me pick it up. I held onto the bundles and stood my ground. A few minutes later two girls, who were not among the original group of students standing there, came up with two replacement bags. They said nothing as they took the bundles out of my hands and placed them in the new bags.

     The paper bag incident had a calming effect on the kids standing there, with the exception of the young girl with the obscene mouth who continued her tirade of abuse. I told her that she seemed to be troubled about something. She denied it. I then said that God loved her, but that He hated sin. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN?" she asked sarcastically. I repeated what I had said and added, "JESUS SAID, ‘IF YOU DON’T DO THE THINGS THAT I SAY, I WILL NOT KNOW YOU.’" I looked at everyone and challenged them: "ISN’T ANYONE GOING TO STAND UP FOR GOD?" They all stared back and said nothing, except for one male student who said he would in a mocking way. I told them that Jesus in me was giving me the courage to stand my ground in spite of what they did.

     Finally, as I began walking away, I asked my young opponent for her name saying that I wanted to pray for her. She surprised me when she gave me her name - Jennifer - but she added that she didn’t want my prayers as she screamed more epithets. (During the course of our "conversation", she revealed that her father was a preacher who lived in the Eastern states.) As I walked away to another nearby area where students were standing, the boy with the cowboy hat came with me. "ARE YOU FOLLOWING ME?" I said to him, laughing. I handed a packet of literature to another young man. He told me he was for abortion but "I’LL TAKE ONE JUST TO PLEASE YOU." (I took this as an act of sympathy over the paper bag.)

     As I left the scene to locate Shawn and Sheryl, the boy with the cowboy hat was at my heels. I turned around and said "HI!’ "WOULD YOU PRAY FOR ME?" he asked. "SURE," I said. "WHAT’S YOUR NAME?" I asked. "BRIAN," he said, with a slight flippant tone, and walked away.

     Later that night, as I was getting ready for bed, I felt a feeling of "why do I have to do all of this" attitude overwhelming me. The antagonism of the students that day was so severe that it had left an after-taste, as I thought of the humiliation that I had experienced. I turned on the radio. The first words I heard were: "GOD PICKS SOME OF US TO DO THE DIRTY WORK." I thought of another unpleasant incident that had occurred a few years ago when a similar bunch of students spit all over the back of my jacket as I talked. A year later when I was a few miles away at BERKELEY HIGH SCHOOL, a young man came running toward me: "I KNOW YOU. YOU’RE THE ABORTION LADY." he said with a friendly tone and smile. "I FELT SORRY FOR YOU WHEN THEY WERE SPITTING ON YOU!" I immediately recalled what had happened, and how I had confronted at least thirty kids with the words, "ISN’T ANYBODY GOING TO STAND UP FOR GOD?" I looked at the young man and said, "AND HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT GOD NOW?" He looked at me for a few seconds and then lowered his eyes. If my actions were remembered a year later by a tough kid, the Lord must be using my humiliation, I thought. The incident of the paper bag breaking would be something the students would not soon forget, and it involved standing up for Jesus Christ!

Manteca High School (located just a few minutes north of Modesto) is an ideal spot to distribute literature, I thought as I parked the stationwagon on a cross street and walked to the front of the school. Directly across the street were two fast food places providing a gathering place for teenagers during the lunch break.

     As I handed him our literature, a tall, good-looking male about seventeen looked at me quizzically, asking whether "it was pro-choice or the other side." After I told him it was pro-life, he refused to take it and began telling others not to take it. Later he was in the forefront of a discussion I had with several teenagers in front of TACO BELL.

     We talked about premarital sex being the root cause of abortion and the AIDS implication. I dramatically showed them the picture of a dead baby in a hospital bucket and told them that this was the result of "sexual irresponsibility." "ARE YOU GOING TO BE HERE TOMORROW?" the tall teenager asked. When I told him we had other places to go, he said, "WELL, I WAS THINKING ABOUT BRINGING SOME COAT HANGERS TO SHOW YOU."

     I told them there was a natural punishment for everything we do wrong including abortion. God didn’t make 10 Suggestions; He made 10 Commandments. "WOULD YOU IGNORE THE TRAFFIC LAWS? YOU’D END UP GETTING HIT. EVERYTHING WE DO WRONG - DRUGS, PREMARITAL SEX, ALCOHOL HAS A BUILT-IN PUNISHMENT. THE ONLY WAY TO HAPPINESS IS TO FOLLOW GOD’S LAWS." I began to witness to them about Jesus Christ, telling them that they must have a relationship with Him in order to be happy. "YOU DON’T MEAN BEING ‘BORN AGAIN’, DO YOU?" my young opponent asked. "AS A MATTER OF FACT, I DO," I said as I whipped out a religious tract (THE NEW BIRTH) from my pocket. I handed it to one teenage boy who accepted it. When I gave it to my adversary, he took it and then brought out a cigarette lighter, about to burn it. "DON’T DO THAT," I said, "YOU MIGHT REGRET IT." As soon as I said that, the kid who accepted the tract grabbed it out of his hand. "I’LL BET YOU HAVE A CHRISTIAN MOTHER AT HOME, DON’T YOU?" I said to my opponent "MY MOTHER WENT TO CHURCH ONCE IN HER LIFE," he responded. "DOES YOUR MOTHER EVER TALK TO YOU ABOUT GOD?" I asked. "NO," he answered. "MY MOTHER AND I DON’T TALK MUCH. HEY, WHY ARE YOU ASKING ME ALL THESE QUESTIONS? IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS." "YES, IT IS MY BUSINESS," I answered. "YOU’RE MAKING IT MY BUSINESS BY SOME OF THE THINGS YOU ARE SAYING. I’M TALKING TO YOU BECAUSE I REALLY CARE ABOUT YOU. I WANT YOU TO FIND CHRIST IN YOUR LIFE." The young rebel implied that doing it God’s way had to be boring. "HEY," I said, "WHEN YOU FIND JESUS CHRIST, IT’S NOT BORING. HE BRINGS YOU A NEW LIFE OF PEACE AND JOY. I WOULDN’T TRADE PLACES WITH YOU FOR ANYTHING." As I left to go on to the next school, I noticed at least a dozen teenagers were standing there, listening to us. I waved to a few friendly faces who waved back with some enthusiasm.

I joined Bob Powers in Berkeley where we experienced some of their usual hostility at Berkeley High School. One young girl went into a rage screaming obscene epithets at me while two girls tried to calm her down by holding onto her arms on both sides. They continued to restrain her as she continued to yell. A woman in her late thirties came up to me after having picked up a handful of literature that had been tossed in the street and sidewalk as the students walked to a nearby lunch place. She complimented us and continued to pick up the literature for us. A 16-year-old Hispanic boy stood there just about all the while we were there, arguing about the existence of God and Jesus Christ. He gave the usual foolish arguments so common for a rebellious youth. Finally, I asked for his first name, which he gave to me, and when I told him he probably had a Christian mother at home (I knew he had considerable experience in confrontation) he looked a little embarrassed and said "yes." Soon after that he walked away into the school.

     Our next stop was U. C. Berkeley. We began leafleting all the cars and motorcycles parked along Bancroft Way, reaching several hundred. Everything went smoothly except for one young woman taking off the literature from the cars at one point. When I told her she was breaking the law by removing the literature, she gave me an evil grin and said "I KNOW."

     Our last school was MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. HIGH where we experienced some trouble. These junior high students are more mature for their age than the average. (It may be because they are the children of the radical Sixties’ generation.) Most of them are brash and highly vocal. After we were through with distributing literature, I stood on the corner surrounded by about a dozen junior highers all clamoring for attention. One small blond girl had a large mouth as she kept espousing the pro-death rhetoric. Bob Powers came over with pictures of the AMERICAN HOLOCAUST (a graphic expose of an incident occurring in Los Angeles County where thousands of aborted babies were discovered in a shipping container) and held them up for the kids to view. They were impressed but lacked the real concern which would have been displayed by sensitive kids. (Apparently, the hardening of the heart process had already begun to take place.) By then the school administration had obviously called the police, as I was suddenly interrupted by a policeman asking to see what we were distributing. I handed him a picture of the baby in the hospital bucket - FIVE WAYS TO KILL AN UNBORN CHILD. He stood there for about a minute studying it and then muttered, "PRO-CHOICE, HUH?" I guess he thought we were pro-abortion and were advertising the different ways we had to kill babies! I wasn’t about to tell him otherwise as he hurriedly got into the police car and sped off.

     It was a rainy day in February which was the scene of a distribution of literature at TRACY HIGH SCHOOL in Tracy., California - two lunch dismissals. This school is located in a sprawling rural area easily accessible to a freeway. Across the street from the school are the usual lunch-time targets for the kids - places to eat and a small shopping center. Whenever I saw students gathered, I approached them with our material. I was impressed by the friendly attitude of most of the students. They all accepted the literature. Only one or two packets were thrown on the wet sidewalks. At the first dismissal I talked to a group of five or six kids and complimented them on "how nice they are. Maybe it’s the weather," I said, jokingly. One young man, who was doing most of the talking said that I was nice too.

     After having a hot dog at one of the lunch places, I returned for the second lunch dismissal. It was still raining. This time I encountered a semi-hostile group of kids ironically standing in the same sheltered spot as the previous friendly ones. They made their usual comments about "what if a girl is raped - suppose she has to go through having the kid - how could she love it?" "LISTEN," I told them. " YOU UNDERESTIMATE A MOTHER’S LOVE. I KNOW I COULD LOVE A CHILD IN THAT CIRCUMSTANCE. THE BABY IS INNOCENT. IF THE MOTHER KILLS THE BABY, SHE BECOMES A MURDERESS AND IS FAR WORSE THAN THE RAPIST."

     One of the girls stood out from the rest because of her very obvious hostility. After an exchange of comments in which I told them that God made the rules and I didn’t and that unrepentant abortion could send you to Hell, she told me that her mother had divorced her father. "I HAD TO WATCH HIM BEAT HER." She said, "AND THEN THE CHURCH KICKED HER OUT AFTER THE DIVORCE." "DID SHE MARRY AGAIN?" I asked. "YES." she answered. "WELL, THE BIBLE SAYS IT’S WRONG TO MARRY AGAIN. THE CHURCH HASN’T ANYTHING TO DO WITH IT. IT’S THE WORD OF GOD THAT SAYS IT’S WRONG." When I witnessed to the kids about Jesus, this young lady told me she didn’t believe that Jesus is God. She finally said that her whole family believed in Jesus except for her. "THAT’S WONDERFUL!" I said. "THEY’RE PROBABLY ALL PRAYING FOR YOU. YOU’RE GOING TO FIND HIM," I remarked with a smile. (I noticed she had suddenly lost most of her hostility.)

     At the end of our conversation, one boy asked me whether it was a sin to smoke marijuana. I finally pulled out some tracts (THE NEW BIRTH) from my raincoat pocket and asked the kids if they wanted one. One girl said, "OKAY, I’LL TAKE ONE." There were about six kids standing there. Three of them took the tract as they left.

After the 2:10 dismissal at DAVIS HIGH, we went over to ROOSEVELT JUNIOR HIGH for their 2:30 dismissal. One of the teachers who was apparently on yard duty asked me what I was distributing. When I said "pro-life materials," she said nothing. Many, many students came out of this junior high located on a busy corner in Modesto. They had to wait for the traffic lights to cross the street which made it easy to reach them. I was amused by a boy about twelve years old on a bicycle who pulled up to me and told me that a couple of the teachers at FREMONT SCHOOL (grammar) wore pro-choice buttons and had pro-choice bumperstickers on their cars. (I think he thought I could do something about it.)

     The next day I received a call from Channel 3, a big Sacramento TV station. The woman reporter wanted me to appear on the evening newscast along with a complaining mother of a twelve-year-old girl. "WHY ARE YOU TARGETING THESE YOUNG PEOPLE?" she asked. I told her I didn’t particularly like the word "target." "WE’RE TRYING TO EDUCATE THESE KIDS BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT RECEIVING THIS EDUCATION IN THE SCHOOLS." I said. "WE’RE NOT GETTING PAID FOR THIS WORK. WE ARE DOING IT OUT OF LOVE AND CONCERN FOR THE BABIES AND THEIR YOUNG MOTHERS. IF THE KIDS ARE OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE SEX, THEY’RE OLD ENOUGH TO KNOW THE CONSEQUENCES." (This statement was later announced on TV as coming from VOICE FOR THE UNBORN.) I told her it was not the first time we had been on television. "AND PROBABLY NOT THE LAST," she added.

     I told this reporter that the complaining mother should be more concerned over the fact that 4,000 babies die every day in this country. Instead of complaining, she should be volunteering her help. "ASK THIS WOMAN" I told her, "IF SHE WERE IN NAZI GERMANY DURING THE HOLOCAUST PERIOD AND THERE WERE PEOPLE DISTRIBUTING LITERATURE TO EXPOSE THIS OUTRAGE, WHETHER SHE WOULD BE ATTACKING THE PEOPLE DOING THE KILLING OR THE PEOPLE DISTRIBUTING THE LITERATURE." I told the reporter that I would have to decline the offer of appearing on Channel 3, and I also refused to give her my name.

     The next day on the Friday night newscast (and on the following Saturday morning), the complaining mother appeared on TV, but the picture of the ABORTED BABY DISCARDED IN A HOSPITAL BUCKET also appeared!! The spiritual blindness of members of the news media never ceases to amaze me! They criticize VOICE FOR THE UNBORN for showing an abortion picture to junior high school students, and then they themselves show the same picture to millions of people! I wonder how many more junior high school students and younger children saw that picture on their TV screen. As a result of two women going to a junior high school for approximately fifteen minutes, millions of people who had never seen what an abortion looks like were instantly educated. The Lord indeed multiplies the loaves and the fishes!!!

BEYER HIGH SCHOOL in Modesto was our destination for a very warm morning in early October. The students were coming and going from lunch on a well traveled path in a park which led directly to the school. One black male student stands out in my memory. He reminded me of Charlie Chaplin with his solemn face, small stature and pants drooping below his ankles. He stood leaning against a small building (restroom) in the middle of the park-the only shade available for several hundred feet-neatly dressed wearing a red baseball cap (a gang symbol), shirt hanging over his polyester pants and spotlessly clean shoes. I approached him with our literature which he refused to take, and we immediately got into a discussion. After telling him there was a natural punishment from God for what we do wrong here on this earth, he said with a matter-of- fact tone in his voice, "I KNOW. I’VE ALREADY BEEN PUNSIHED." He unbuttoned the top button of his shirt and exposed part of an ugly scar. He said he almost died in an auto accident after he had been stealing cars., etc. He told me he still wore the gang clothes but had more or less turned over a new leaf and wasn’t imvolved anymore.

     Then he started talking about the condom, saying how his friends were using them (I suspected he was too). I immediately told him they had a 15% failure rate and that his friends would end up getting AIDS if they kept having sex. I told him we have to do it God’s way or we’re headed for Hell. This really upset him. He handed back the tract which I had given him, THE NEW BIRTH (which he had accepted after we started talking), and told me, "I’M NOT GOING TO READ IT ANYWAY." He started walking in the direction of the shopping center where the lunch places were located and said angrily, "I’M NOT GOING TO HELL! YOU ARE!" A wave of compassion came over me, and I touched his shoulder telling him about the love of Jesus.

     I thought that was the last I would see of him, but there he was again after we had stopped distributing literature and were about to leave. He came toward me, and I could see his attitude had changed. I told him to keep thinking about Jesus. "YES, MA’AM," he said with a sincere tone in his voice. "I HOPE EVERYTHING GOES WELL WITH YOU IN YOUR LIFE," I added. "THANK YOU," he answered as he walked toward the school.

As I waited at a convenience store across the street from DOWNEY HIGH in Modesto, the kids began to cross the street toward me, and I handed them our packets of literature. This was a good spot for discussions with the students as they waited for public transportation. One sixteen-year-old girl standing near the entrance to the store with her two friends said she was "pro-choice" as I handed her our literature. The transition from pro-choice (which I refer to as pro-death) to pro-life was immediate as she stood there studying the material and asking questions. "I’M GOING TO SHOW THIS TO MY MOTHER," she announced emphatically as she walked away.

     We got into many conversations with the students. I was amazed at one boy about fourteen who said to me, "WHAT’S THAT MEAN - ABORTION?" I proceeded to explain it to him in detail. Three boys were looking at the pictures, and two of them were making the usual wisecracks typical of young boys that age. The third boy told his companions that they shouldn’t be joking about something so terrible. I overheard some of them saying, I’ll have to show this to so and so, implying that there was a pregnancy problem with some of their friends.

After coming back from a day of distributing literature, I never fail to realize the importance of what I am doing. The surprise on the students’ faces shows their lack of education on this vital issue. I’m planting the seed for their future, as I bring them the powerful pictures of aborted babies which brings TRUTH into their lives. Not only are they educated on what abortion really is, but they are being told that ABORTION IS WRONG BECAUSE GOD SAYS IT IS with quotes from the Bible and references to Jesus. In a school system where God is excluded, this literature is MANNA FROM HEAVEN!