I appreciate your reading this appeal. There are some great things to report since our Lenten fund appeal, six months ago.
1. Father Mark Watkins, pastor of St. Lawrence Church in Cincinnati, has joined the Board of Directors of NFP International. Before he accepted the pastorate of this parish in a challenging socio-economic area, Father Watkins was the vocations director for the archdiocese for 13 years and did excellent work in that challenging area. Dating back to 1894, St. Lawrence is the mother church of the west side of Cincinnati. In late 2007 Father Watkins asked us to teach NFP in his parish because he wanted his engaged couples to take the course. We taught our first NFP International course there in early 2008, and Father Watkins has told us that he notices a difference in the couples after they have taken the course. Word is getting out. Our course that started on September 9th had couples from three additional parishes.
2. Our website activity is encouraging. In August we received 16,000 visits from 100 countries. Most of our visitors come to read our weekly blogs or to download the NFPI manual. While the numbers of NFPI teachers and their students are still small, the numbers visiting our website and downloading the manual are significant and even somewhat impressive. In August, 9080 visitors viewed the method-related chapters and 1198 viewed Chapter 1, the chapter on the religious reasons for using NFP. A 21-year-old woman sent the following:
“I just searched out NFP instructions on the web, because although classes are available in my area [southeastern Michigan] I am not able to afford them right now, and find they conflict with my work schedule. I am planning to go off the pill and use NFP very soon, and I want to thank you for offering this free resource.”
–Received by email September 07, 2009
3. At a national meeting of Catholic family life ministers in June, I was one of eight presenters about our respective NFP programs. We were all given an outline to follow that included what we taught about procreation. An attendee told me I was the only presenter to mention the need for “serious reason” to use systematic NFP to avoid pregnancy. Some conservative critics of the NFP movement allege that NFP is coming across as Not For Procreation. Do they have some basis for saying this?
4. La Leche League recently issued a little booklet, Breastfeeding Guide: Tips & Products. Half of the booklet was devoted to helpful tips for successful breastfeeding and the other half to their catalogue. Sheila’s book, The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor, was listed on the first page of this catalogue. Here is what LLL said about her book:
“In this book, the author analyzes research and focuses on the seven mothering behaviors that define ecological breastfeeding. This form of baby care is the gold standard of going for the green. It is eminently healthy for mother and baby and will save parents many times the small cost of this life-changing book.”
5. We are happy to tell you that Jozef Predac has managed to find another source of partial funding. Thus his need for our funds is reduced by half which is more manageable for us. We are delighted that NFPI can continue to support him and his family. Jozef and his wife are true apostles of chaste NFP throughout Slovakia, and they are making progress. We thank our donors for making this possible.
6. Our users’ manual, Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach is now in printed form as well as online. It’s available in both perfect-bound and spiral-bound editions; we prefer the spiral-bound version for classroom use, and it’s available at the NFPI website. Fulfillment is done by lulu.com and amazon.com for both versions. For quantities of the spiral edition, orders through lulu.com are usually cheaper.
7. Our blogs draw lots of visitors each week. See the upper right corner of our website. We blog weekly most of the year but daily during NFP Week and World Breastfeeding Week. This year we wrote daily on the marriage covenant during NFP Week in July, and daily on breastfeeding infertility during World Breastfeeding Week in August.
8. The Home Study course is now complete, and it’s available in three different versions.
1) Couples can learn on their own without registration. That’s how we learned the method in the Sixties. They simply purchase the manual or download it for free, download free charts at the website, and purchase a BD digital basal thermometer.
2) In the second version, couples donate and register for the Home Study Course, and we provide testing related to the text of the manual including chart interpretation.
3) The third version is similar to the second but is oriented to engaged couples who are taking the Home Study Course as part of marriage preparation. Here we evaluate their test material and charts, and we provide a course completion certificate once the couple demonstrates a basic knowledge of the Triple Strand.
9. The basic NFPI Teacher Training program is now complete. We are now prepared to train teachers.
10. We are greatly pleased to announce that the basic NFPI program is now complete and consists of these elements.
The student text, Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach.
The website and our weekly blogs
The Home Study Course for beginners and marriage preparation
Teacher training
You will notice that all of this has been done by John and Sheila Kippley working as volunteers.
Now the tough part begins. We need to recruit and train teachers, and we need to raise funds to support a small full-time staff.
Why do we need funds? After all, if we are teaching good numbers of couples via the internet, why does NFPI need funds?
First of all, we don’t know for sure how many visits to our website manual translate into new couples practicing chaste and generous NFP.
Second, even if the numbers are high, they are a very small fraction of the couples who marry in a Catholic church each year. The best way to reach larger numbers of young engaged and married couples is through a regular NFP course.
Third, maintenance of the website requires monthly charges for space and periodic charges for changing the contents. And we certainly need funding to help sustain the teaching of the Triple Strand approach in Slovakia–$9920 in 2010.
Fourth, John and Sheila aren’t getting any younger. While the Lord has blessed us with good health and energy, others need to take over. We work solely as volunteers, and we can do that because we live on our Social Security income. Full-time family people don’t have that opportunity. We need to raise funds for a small full-time staff.
Our prayer is that NFP International will become a widespread and long-lasting agent of evangelization and promoter of ecological breastfeeding and systematic NFP within the Church and the culture. We want it to be both a spiritual and a corporal work of mercy. That will happen only with God’s very special graces, so please join us in praying for his help—every day.
It is God who made woman in such a way that her baby’s suckling will provide natural spacing if she lets the baby suckle frequently. Everyone deserves to know about ecological breastfeeding.
It is God who made woman in such a way that cervical mucus occurs during her fertile time and her temperature goes up after ovulation. Everyone deserves to know both of these fertility signs.
It is God who has revealed that man and woman may not take apart what God has put together in their marriage covenant, and it is God who likewise teaches through his Church that husband and wife may not take apart what God Himself has put together in the marriage act—the procreative and unitive aspects. Everyone deserves to see the marriage act as a renewal of the marriage covenant.
It is God who has given us a great gift in the Magisterium of the Church, and the Magisterium does teach authoritatively in Humanae Vitae. Everyone deserves to know these things. If you agree, please support the NFPI teaching effort.
NFP International is unique among English-language NFP programs in combining all these aspects of chaste natural family planning and Christian marriage. Please help this work of evangelization with your prayers and generosity.
We now have to start the difficult work of finding dioceses and parishes that will welcome NFPI’s complete approach to natural family planning. We need to start the difficult work of increasing the level of financial support. I will gladly travel to interested dioceses and will teach the full course on a weekend where there is sufficient interest. I will especially welcome the opportunity to talk with seminarians. We welcome your ideas for growth and service.
Please remember the work of NFPI in your daily prayers.
NFPI’s fiscal year ended September 30 about a thousand dollars in the red, and its current balance is under $15,000. Our expenses for 2010 will be more than that, and that means we urgently need your support. We have less than a hundred donors. Please be as generous as you can to help this work of evangelization. It’s important for couples, for the Church, and for our country. We greatly appreciate every gift, large or small.
Natural Family Planning International Inc. is a 501-c-3 not-for-profit organization.
Donations are tax-deductible.
In special appreciation for your gift of $50.00 or more, we will send you a complimentary copy of Sheila’s recent book, The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor. This offer is good only if we can mail it to a United States address.
Please make your check payable in U. S. $ to NFP International.
And mail it to NFP International, P.O Box 11216, Cincinnati OH 45211.
In his service,
John F. Kippley
President, www.NFPandmore.org, nfpandmore@nfpandmore.org