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Evaluations from Couples Taking a Natural Family Planning Course

Sunday, November 4th, 2012

At the end of teaching our NFP course, John and I are told by the couples that they are amazed at how much they have learned.  One of our teaching couples shared their evaluations with us and I would like to share them with you.

Here are the evaluations from one NFPI course:
**We learned how to observe & chart in order that we may plan our family in the most natural way, the way God intended.
**Learned that breastfeeding can slow down ovulation.  Great class; was first against or scared about breastfeeding; now I learned all the benefits and I am all for breastfeeding
**Enjoyed the presentation; discovered how my body reacted after taking the pill for the last 5 years; learned more about my cycles after 2 months off the pill  (She had little mucus and delayed ovulation; then it was more normal with mucus patch and an earlier temperature rise.  She is marrying late and hopes to conceive on her honeymoon.)
**Awesome info!!! great job :)
**Talk and stress more on abstinence as 100% birth control especially as this is a “pre-marriage” class!!!
**We have a better understanding as to what NFP is; also, we now know how to prevent pregnancy if we have a serious reason not to conceive; we would have liked more Breastfeeding information, perhaps a whole class!!.  No changes needed; on that note, we enjoyed all the information that was given!

And evaluations from another course:
+ “We learned how to plan our family, and learned how to check when I am ovulating, and it was so fun and exciting when it happened the first time.”  :)
+ “I loved coming to class.”
+ “We really enjoyed this class with all the information you have given us and we have decided to do NFP.  We love the whole concept about it.”
+ “Very good information on how to chart.  Knowing your body better.  Great information on breastfeeding.  Great information on fertility.”
+ “I believe this is a great class that everybody should know about because there is nothing better than it being natural.”
+ “A vast  knowledge on NFP – it is a different way of planning your family that we did not know of; I think it is good to have taken this class to get a new aspect on how to plan your family.”
+ “We got a lot of useful information on monitoring our bodies so we can prevent pregnancy or cause it.”
+ “This was very informative.  I learned a lot about my body’s natural signs for family planning – thank you.”

Anyone can take the online NFPI home study course.  The course follows the teachings in the NFPI manual and is taken by email.

Sheila Kippley

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Natural Family Planning: Find a Priest and Become an NFP Teacher

Sunday, October 7th, 2012

There are couples who want to help others in their Church.  There are also priests who desire to help couples follow Church teaching on love, marriage and sexuality.  These priests who desire the right kind of natural family planning (NFP) instruction for their engaged and married couples might consider making the NFPI course required for their engaged couples preparing for marriage.

Some folks believe that you should not teach the engaged anything about NFP.  But where else will they learn about spacing their babies naturally through eco-breastfeeding?  This is part of God’s plan which involves little instruction and no abstinence.  Where do they learn about being generous in having children?  Where do they learn about the covenant theology of marriage (a way to teach the theology of the body that the couple can easily remember)?

Try to find a priest who wants to make a good NFP course a normal requirement for his engaged couples and become an NFP teaching couple.  Unfortunately, if your priest does not make the course required, then you will probably have no one to teach. Church bulletin announcements rarely bring in anyone to your classes.  The teacher training is free and can be done online.

For more information about becoming an NFPI teacher, contact NFPI.

For learning the method well, read carefully Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach—doing the work as you progress—or take the online home study course.

This is a vitally important ministry.  To learn why, watch this video.

Sheila Kippley
Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor

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7. The Right Kind of NFP Instruction: A Work of Evangelization

Saturday, July 28th, 2012

Results.  This sort of NFP course and appropriate reinforcement from the pastor and the rest of the marriage preparation program can have significant results.  Specifically, I estimate that at least 25% of couples who receive this sort of preparation for marriage will start their marriages with marital chastity—either ready for children on their honeymoon or practicing chaste abstinence if they have a sufficiently serious reason to postpone pregnancy.  Further, the seeds that have been planted will continue to grow, and many of the contraceptors will experience for themselves the wasteland of secular sexuality, so I expect a gradual increase in the numbers of couples who repent and accept full Catholic teaching on love, marriage and sexuality.  With help from the pulpit and an overall parish environment that promotes authentic Catholic spirituality and sexuality, I think that by their tenth anniversaries at least two-thirds of couples who experienced the right kind of marriage preparation and NFP course will be fully practicing Catholics.  After all, about five years before Humanae Vitae in an environment in which we had neither the technical nor theological support available today, about two-thirds of Catholics accepted Catholic teaching, so it is not unreasonable to look for that level of acceptance once again.

What is difficult for me to comprehend is that in 2012 only six dioceses [in the United States] are making any kind of NFP course a required part of preparation for marriage.  Why does any priest or any bishop NOT want Catholic engaged and married couples to know everything I have described as the content of the right kind of NFP course?  The physiology is basic and easy to understand, and it can be taught modestly, even in mixed classes.  The discipleship aspects are crucial for the New Evangelization.  I would like to think that even those who think of themselves as “liberal” or “pro-choice” on birth control would want their people to know all of the above.

After all, how can people make an informed choice without this information?  To paraphrase Romans 10, how can people act rightly unless they believe?  And how can they believe unless they are taught?  And how can they believe and act rightly unless they have the right kind of instruction?  And in today’s context, how will they experience such instruction without being required to do so?

(John F. Kippley is the president of NFP International, the co-author of Natural Family Planning: The Complete Approach, and the author of Sex and the Marriage Covenant: A Basis for Morality and other books, articles and brochures.  He has long been involved in the ministries of NFP and evangelization.)

BOOK SALE:  30% off Kippley books in print at lulu through August 7.

John F. Kippley
Battle-Scarred: Justice Can Be Elusive

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