Emily with her fiancée Nathan engaging a college campus (Courtesy of their GoFundMe page)
In 2016, I friended an outstanding and incredible young woman named Emily Faulkner. At the time she was a college student at Colorado State University. Since we connected on Facebook ,we have shared each other pro-life's posts, supported each other in our fight for the unborn, and even met face to face at the SEEK Conference in San Antonio.
Recently, Emily and her fiancée, Nathan founded a non profit with a simple pro life message. Here's my interview:
Who you are? Where do you live? Originally? Parish? What work you do to advance the culture of life?
I was born and raised in Colorado and received my Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from Colorado State University in May 2017. I grew up in Parker, CO going to church at Ave Maria Catholic Parish. I always knew I was going to be a veterinarian, and my degree and goals through college reflected that (but as I got more and more involved in pro-life work, I realized that God was not calling me to be a veterinarian but to be a pro-life activist). I began to get involved with the pro-life movement around my second year in college. Although I had always been pro-life because of my upbringing, I had little to no idea what abortion really was and what it meant to be “pro-life”. I first got involved with the Students For Life club at my school when I was 19. The club, however, was only focused on reaching out to those at our campus church who were already pro-life. I knew we needed to do campus outreach as well. Eventually everyone from the club graduated or left, so I became the sole member and made myself President and revived the club. After I did that, I recruited more than 20 people to the group and we were doing pro-life activism regularly on campus. We brought many pro-life speakers to campus in an attempt to engage the large pro-choice community in dialogue. One thing I am most known for is suing my University over a pro-life free speech issue. I wanted to bring a pro-life apologist to speak on campus and was denied funding because they (the board who decides where the funding goes) did not like the topic of abortion and it was too divisive. I proceeded with a lawsuit and won.
After I graduated, I got a job as a Field Representative with the Leadership Institute and traveled to Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont and New Hampshire to do campus activism with pro-life and conservative clubs.
After my 3 month contract was up, I moved to the DC area and began work as a fundraising consultant for conservative campaigns. It wasn’t long, however, before I really felt God telling me to make a leap of faith and start my own pro-life organization.
Let Them Live was founded by myself and my fiancé, Nathan Berning, to identify pro-life advocates at the local community level, train them on alternatives to abortion and how to be effective in the movement, and mobilize them to volunteer their time trying to end abortion. We are currently working on becoming a 501(c)3 non-profit! In addition, we have already fundraised and donated $2000 to a local DC pregnancy center Maternity home and made a trip to Florida to do activism on college campuses with Created Equal, to show people what abortion actually looks like. We are currently fundraising for our pro-life trip to Ireland. Ireland’s 8th Amendment to their constitution recognizes the unborn as human and protects them from abortion and it is in danger of being repealed. Just like the USA legalized abortion in 1973, Ireland is about to make that same mistake. Myself and about 10 others will be traveling to Ireland to try and keep that repeal from happening.
As far as where I am living right now, I currently am hopping around all over the country (and world) doing pro-life work. We have friends and family all over the country that we stay with and we are really blessed.
Talk about your ministry. What drew you to starting it?
I realized that I could no longer sit idly by while millions of babies die every year because of abortion. At one point it really hit me that if I don’t do something about this then I would be knowingly standing by while a major injustice happens. My heart only wants to do pro-life work and there is no separating me from that now!
How has your Catholic faith brought you to where you are now?
I realized that I could no longer sit idly by while millions of babies die every year because of abortion. At one point it really hit me that if I don’t do something about this then I would be knowingly standing by while a major injustice happens. My heart only wants to do pro-life work and there is no separating me from that now!
How has your Catholic faith brought you to where you are now?
I would not be where I am without my faith in God. This work is hard beyond belief. Money is always going to be tight and the emotional toll is high but everyday I just remember that Jesus didn’t have an easy or comfortable life either. In fact, he calls us to just the opposite. Being uncomfortable is where I find the most growth in my faith. And God always pulls through. Somehow when I think I may not be able to afford something or that my work is going to fail, God always helps me out. I rely fully on my faith to do what I do. I cannot do this work without God and God needs my hands to do this work, so it is like a partnership!
How many members are in your group? How have you met them?
Right now, just my fiancé and I are the ones running the show. However, through our Facebook engagement we have been able to reach out to over 2,000 people (and growing). I have connected with people all over the country who are pro-life. You could say that I am building an army of pro-life warriors. Several of our close friends who support us so much that I consider a part of the team. I have met them over the years (and mostly through the Leadership Institute).
What are some activities you do together?
Even though it is just my fiancé and I right now, we travel all the time. He has his own start-up businesses in the private sector but he will help me out on social media (and with activism from time to time!) I want to just use this space too to mention that I could not have done this without Nathan. He inspired me to follow my pro-life heart, he is my rock and my biggest supporter and God knew what He was doing when he put us together!
What are some of your goals going forward? How can we help you get the word out
Right now I am really trying to raise money for our Ireland trip. My fiancé and I will be there for a month doing activism and because pro-life work is my full-time job, we cant necessarily afford it. But this is crucial work. This is the vote between life and death for hundreds of thousands of lives. Anyone who reads this who wants to give to our cause would be very welcome to do so on our GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/send-us-to-ireland-to-savethe8th) and invite your friends to like our Facebook page “Let Them Live”! And prayers, as always, will always be needed.
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