Dear Friend,
A special “Giving Tuesday” is upon us today, which was created to encourage the financial support of ministries and charities in response to the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis.
America is the single most charitable nation in the world. This is a place where hearts and wallets are regularly opened to help those in need. I am looking forward to seeing the remarkable generosity that this Giving Tuesday will inspire and produce!
Since the beginning of the year, we have done quite a bit of work fighting evil, promoting good, and building for the future. I would like to present a report to you on some of that work and ask you to please consider making a special gift at this time in support of it.
Over 200 supporters came to Tallahassee for our Annual Pro-Life, Pro-Family Days event. Our special speakers were two Orlando Massacre Pulse survivors Angel Colon and Luis Ruiz, along with the remarkable Walt Heyer. Walt was born as a man, had a gender reassignment surgery and lived as a woman for about a decade and then detransitioned back and then married his wife. We also argued in the Legislature this year for the passage of a bill which would prohibit minors from getting gender reassignment surgeries. Next year we try again.
We led the passage of the parental consent before abortion bill in the Florida Legislature. Last year in the fall, we formed a statewide coalition of pro-life groups to unite around the passage of the parental consent bill before abortion bill. This is a huge victory that will clearly save lives as minor daughters are required to enter the conversation with parents and get written permission before ending the life of that parent’s grandchild. Gov. DeSantis has not signed this bill into law yet but has promised to do so.
Florida Capitol Project was a great success in Tallahassee bringing dozens of pastors to the Capitol to do nothing but pray for, care for, and develop relationships with state legislators. Under the leadership of Dr. Kevin Baird, we are bringing the shepherds of God’s church, to the shepherds of God’s government. We are already seeing amazing results as we are bringing the transforming power of the Gospel to the lawmakers in Tallahassee. This is a remarkable project to see real change and which really needs your prayers and support.
We launched CalledToVote.org, an online voters registration website. A fully automated and paperless process, this will be our number one priority for the next five months. Statewide elections in Florida are razor thin and there are simply not enough Christians who are registered. This website is actually built to serve all 40 states where online voter registration is allowed. Several others have been and will be using the site we built here in Florida.
We organized and held one of the first Coronavirus conference calls in the country featuring US Senator Marco Rubio. The phone lines were immediately jammed because over 800 pastors called into a line limited to 500 callers. We took care of that and it will never happen again. Over 14,000 people have listened to that high-level briefing and interview.
We launched COVIDChurchAid.org to help churches with the CARES Act funding that was provided by Congress and President Trump. Hundreds of churches across the country have used this site and benefited from it.
We planned and are holding the Christian Leadership in a Pandemic Webinar Series. This is four weeks of panel discussions on relevant topics to the COVID situation we are now in for pastors and other leaders. Last week we did a Zoom webinar on Re-Opening the Church. This week on Thursday we will have members of the Governor DeSantis’ Task Force to discuss “Re-Opening Florida and the Economy.” The final two weeks will be showcasing state of art technology tools from George Barna, and others then finally, envisioning pastors with the “Art of Neighboring” with Dave Runyon.
I have also done dozens of media interviews, including TV, radio, and daily newspapers arguing for our values in the public square and trying to bring a Christian perspective to the news and events of our day.
We have been researching judicial candidates. There are several critical judicial vacancies in the state courts across the state. Our research team keeps tabs on the judges–who they are, what they stand for and whose names are being nominated and sent to the Governor. This has been a priority of ours for the past 15 years and we continue to bring influence and weigh in regarding judicial appointments.
Since we had to postpone our Annual Policy Awards Dinner from May 2nd to sometime in the fall of 2020, we had to forgo holding our largest fundraiser of the year. This has placed us behind schedule in our fundraising.
Additionally, the 2020 fall Presidential election is quickly coming up and we are currently working to produce issue-based voter guides, amendment views, judicial information and other voter tools to help you know who the best candidates, judges and amendments are to vote for. These are very time consuming and expensive to produce but we know that thousands benefit from these educational tools.
We believe the work we do is unique and effective. We are able to accomplish a great deal, each year, and make a tremendous impact on a very tight budget. But we can only continue our work as the Lord provides through friends and mission partners like you.
Would you please make the best gift you can right now to support our work at this critical time?
Thank for your support and prayers. We are grateful for them both.
Sincerely,
John Stemberger
President
PS- You can give an online gift here.
Florida Family Policy Council
4853 S. Orange Ave, Suite C, Orlando, FL 32806
[email protected] * Phone: 407-251-5130
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