My vision began about 39 years ago, I knew God was calling me to do something. Slowly I began to realize that it had something to do with pro-life matters. I finally learned how to get involved as a lobbyist for Kansans for Life. Eventually I became the Church Coordinator for KFL. Long about 2001 several pro-life organizations in Topeka began meeting once a month to network and I represented KFL.
One meeting in 2002, I brought some visitors, a husband and wife. They had never met Pat Hollomon, (then director of the Crisis Pregnancy Center) before. Pat began sharing about how people come to regret abortions that some never wanted in the first place. She started telling about the need for a garden for people to grieve and heal from abortions, miscarriages, and stillbirths. The husband had a surprised look on his face and began describing a beautiful garden he had in mind. Pat and his visions were the same! We knew this was of God and determined to discuss it with our individual entities. However no entity could do anything about it at that time because the groups had their focus and their missions already established.
Throughout the next year God began speaking to me about post abortion. I was really busy with the Church Coordinator job and a teen group but it was getting clearer that He thought I should be a director of something. My mind had to wrap around that first, then my husband and son-in-law suggested that I start a whole new group. I began praying about that. Finally one day I was working on something in the KFL office, talking on the phone, a normal conversation, when I knew that there needed to be a new group. I knew He was calling me to found a new group.
October 2003 I founded Christians for Life. I spent the next year getting the 501c3 set up; getting officers together and setting up for post abortion bible studies. Charles and Rujira Rightmeier came on board. Charles became and still is our treasurer. Soon came to our annual meeting late in 2004. I shared with the group about vision of the memorial. Charles moved that we make the memorial a special project for CFL and set aside funds to purchase land. We voted to do just that.
Maranatha Baptist Fellowship, Topeka’s pastor, Gary Roten donated funds for some of us to go to Chattanooga, TN on an exploration tour to look at the National Memorial for the Unborn. That team brought back information about how they went about getting that facility going.
Early in 2005, we had about $200 saved up and it was suggested that we look at land. We looked at the $200 and decided to pray about location, layout, and things like that. We prayed for about two weeks when Evelyn Ibrahim called and said she had some acreage that she wanted to donate. She said that her deceased husband had bought several plots of land through out the city. This particular acreage was purchased 1989 because a priest had a vision of building a memorial garden with a chapel!
Evelyn’s son had kept the front of the property mowed but they did not know that under the underbrush lurked such things as old sofas, shower stalls, scrap lumber, an old Econoline van was strewn about, lots of old tires and much more.
Charles Rightmeier volunteered to be Grounds Keeper. His plan was to get the underbrush cleaned out, then the tires, last everything else. Three volunteers came to help Charles. They cleaned out much of the underbrush. This created another challenge. The challenge was what to do with the mountain of brush. It was against the city rules to burn it. We could dig a hole and bury it or chip it down. This was a huge stack, chipping seemed to be the way to go but no one had a chipper. Maranatha came through again and helped with the chipper and someone to run it.
Now we were ready to tackle the tires. A youth group from Central Park Christian Church in Topeka came and stacked some. Some individuals and most of the officers of CFL finished stacking them. The next step was how to get them out to the dump. The count on the tires was 600. Eventually the City of Topeka hooked us up with a Women’s Prison force to haul them away.
Third phase was the debris that turned out to be over two tons. A small bible study group and individuals came several times and stacked the debris in piles along the three paths that developed as we went along. Ferrell Construction came with an earthmover and a driver and scooped the piles into large garbage bins.
About this same time Schwerdt Design Group made a rough drawing of the wall, chapel, and offices so we could better describe what we have in mind.
By the end of 2006 we had the land cleaned and began to pray for direction. Objections began to come forth because the location was not favorable to some. They thought we should sell it and buy in an area they thought was more favorable. The officers came together and prayed. We prayed individually and all came to the same conclusion. God gave us this land. It is located across from two cemeteries. The land originally was purchased for a memorial. It was land that had been abused and thrown away but thanks to the labor we had been given was healed and beautiful, just like lives are being changed, healed and beautiful. The trees are tall and simply gorgeous the way God meant them to be like His purpose for our lives.
The beginning of 2007 brought new vision. We had a meeting with Dr Rod Rogers of Dynamic Giving, a consultant for churches. He helped us to see we needed some organizational changes and we should put our focus and resources on the memorial wall.
We named it Heart of America Memorial Wall for the Unborn. Secondly we decided to build it in three phases-phase one the wall, phase two the chapel, phase three the offices. Next we had the land surveyed. Legacy Photography made a DVD. New brochures were made up. We raised $15,000 through donations from individuals and churches, a special event, and calendar sales. The total estimated cost for phase one is $53,000. We still need about $38,0000.
Our financial plans to keep the grounds up are donations from individuals and churches, distribution of the Christian Business Directory, and web site sales. There will be a small fee to engrave the names on the wall to defray our cost. Donation bricks can be used to landscape and the funds will help begin the next phase.
I pray that someone will hear the call and see the need. I pray that person(s) will not hesitate to send their contribution to help meet the need for this first phase.
Barb Saldivar - Founder and Director