Natural Family Planning International

Please read and consider helping us!
This year NFP International has provided—                                        

• Support for the NFP ministry in Slovakia.
• Free online NFP instruction.
• NFP class instruction in six states.
• Free brochures, charts, prayer and rosary booklets, and related NFP articles online.   
• Free NFP counseling.
• Weekly blogs on related NFP issues plus daily blogs during NFP Week in July and World Breastfeeding Week in August.

Our most time-consuming project in the last few months has been a revision of the online manual.  It will be more complete and slightly longer but still quite short and in the same readable question-answer format.  It may be ready for posting online in December will be published in a printed format shortly thereafter. 

When we started this apostolate in 2004, one of our goals was to offer a unique service of online self-instruction, either free or very low cost.  So far it’s been free.  We have really been gratified that without any marketing budget, the NFPI website is getting to be widely known and used.  The most popular “page” is Chapter 2 of our online manual.  The second most popular page is our web-blog.  Last year we had visits from 168 countries—and using 60 different languages—and 81% of those were new visits.  We know from thank-you notes that couples are using the manual for self-instruction, and we think that the new version will be even more helpful.

The NFPI apostolate remains unique.  To the best of our knowledge, it is the only American NFP effort that teaches ALL of the following:
1.  Ecological breastfeeding as a form of natural family planning.
2.  The covenant theology of human sexuality as an easy way to grasp the teaching of Humanae Vitae.
3.  Systematic NFP with different answers for different situations.
4.  The need for a sufficiently serious reason to use systematic NFP to postpone pregnancy.
5.  The immorality of using masturbation and sodomy during the fertile time as a form of “NFP.”

Another goal has been to make the NFPI website the “go-to” site for scientific and theological support for natural family planning.  We have a long way to go, but we have made progress.  The website is probably unique in its coverage of research dealing with breastfeeding and natural baby spacing.  Articles dealing with the sexual revolution and related matters will help students gain a perspective on the birth control culture wars. 

We have three goals for 2009. 
    1.  We need to increase our support for the NFP apostolate in Slovakia.  The cost of living there is increasing because Slovakia is going on the euro economy and because of general inflation.  This is true missionary work and we appreciate your help with it.

    2.  We need to develop further our online NFP education, and we need to develop a teacher training course.

    3.  John and I continue to work as volunteers for NFPI, and thus our operating costs to provide the online services have been minimal.  But we need financial support for the development of NFPI here in the States.

Please help NFPI to do more to help build a culture of life.  There will be no culture of life without stopping legalized abortion, and there will be no stopping abortion without a wide-spread rejection of contraception.  And that will happen only when there is a widespread acceptance of natural family planning.  And of course, that’s not going to happen without the widespread teaching of Humanae Vitae and the practical help of NFP instruction.  That’s what NFPI is doing, so every dollar you give to NFPI helps to build a culture of life, one step at a time.  We really need your help.

During the year we send out only three fund appeals t our donors: Lent, Fall and Advent.  That is all we have time for, and we do not want to bother our donors with frequent appeals.  We ask that you consider a generous donation this Advent season.  In appreciation, we will send you a free autographed copy of The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor upon request.  Because of a special discount on this book, your entire donation is still tax-deductible.

A major donor has offered to match the first $12,000 in gifts received during December.  Your generosity thus becomes doubly effective.

Checks can be made to: NFP International
                                       P. O. Box 11216
                                       Cincinnati OH 45211

May God continue to bless you and your loved ones during this Advent season.

In his service,

John and Sheila Kippley
Natural Family Planning International is a 501-c-3 organization.  All contributions are tax-deductible.

$2 BOOK SALE: Sophia is having a special $2 book sale through Dec. 12th.  Can you imagine buying Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood for $2?  We bought 25 books at that price!

What keeps us going?
At several conferences during October, people approached us with surprise that we are no longer with CCL but have started NFP International.  Then they would ask about the differences between the two organizations.  Some may have wondered, and some of you may wonder, why we didn’t just quit after our separation in 2003 from the Couple to Couple League, an organization we founded in 1971.  Wasn’t it time to relax?  After all, we had spent 32 years promoting eco-breastfeeding as a form of natural family planning, the covenant theology of sexuality (a busy man’s theology of the body), and a sympto-thermal method which taught all the fertility signs and different rules for different situations.  We could have quit, but then we realized that CCL was changing or dropping what we brought to the League.  Even CCL called their changes an “extreme makeover.”  Because of this, we felt called to start NFP International to keep alive what we had started.
    One of the things that keeps us going is positive feedback. In this blog, we share some of the feedback that encourages us to continue.  We have offered free NFP instruction via our online manual and will continue to do so.  What gives us happiness is that the free online manual and other offerings at the website are being helpful to others, as you will see from the quotes below.

“I just wanted to say thank you for keeping up the website and for writing the Art of NFP. I got the book through CCL’s home study course, 6 months or so before they switched to the new student guide. I’ve since purchased the student guide because I wanted to know what was in it. I’ve thought time and again how glad I was that I got the old book when I learned.  I just feel like there is so much more information.  And the emphasis on the moral aspects have been important to me as I have tried to expose many of my friends to NFP, many of whom already use artificial birth control.  I’m really glad to have found this website.  It’s a great reference and being able to download the guide and charts for free is a major plus for financially struggling newlyweds.  You are reaching younger Catholics and providing us with the resources necessary to reach out to our friends.”

“I just wanted to write a quick note to say thank you for the website.  It is very helpful for those of us who need a refresher course on NFP, and so easy to access and read.  So thank you very much.”

“I am a Natural Family Planning Coordinator for our diocese.  We have too few teachers and too few students. I have received inquiries about classes but the couples would often be too far from me or one of our other teachers.  I find myself frequently referring couples to your website.” 

“I will download the manual.  Thank you very much for your help.  God bless you too for having this site and promoting this beautiful alternative to other methods that are not healthy (for the spirit, body or mind).”

“I’m new at NFP. I didn’t practice ecological breastfeeding/NFP with my daughter and got pregnant with our son when our daughter was 6 months old.  I’m still nursing my son who is 13 months old and JUST got my cycle back. I’ve been charting for a week now and I’m loving this. So many of my friends use medical ways to control their fertility. I feel it is so harmful to the body.  I’m so thankful for groups like this and glad I googled NFP!”

Next week: Comments on ecological breastfeeding as a form of NFP.  Kudos to Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle for her book The Domestic Church in which she relates how she spaced her babies through breastfeeding and writes that ecological breastfeeding is a form of natural family planning.  In her book, she recommends Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood for the spiritual and physical aspects of breastfeeding.

Sheila Kippley
The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding: The Frequency Factor, 2008
Breastfeeding and Natural Child Spacing, 2008, classic edition
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood, 2005
www.nfpandmore.org

One of the joys of having free instruction via the online Natural Family Planning manual is helping others around the globe. Some have contacted us for counseling; a few have been referred to us by their NFP teacher.
   We believe that our NFPI program remains the most complete program in the world. It alone, along with associates in Europe and a few other places, promotes ecological breastfeeding, supports Humanae Vitae with the covenant theology of sexuality, offers a wide variety of methodological options, and it appears to be alone in stating that certain immoral behaviors are wrong.
   We will make some changes because of our teaching experience with the manual, but essentially the content will remain the same, the same content we have taught since 1971. Our goal was to have a manual that was free, short, and easy to understand. Thus we decided to use a simple question-and-answer format.

Improved Online Manual
We used the manual for classroom instruction starting in January and have made some changes as a result of that experience. Although the content remains essentially the same, we added material to Chapters 1 and 2, and we switched Chapters 3 and 4.  A revised Index will be added later. The second most popular reason why people visit our website is to download all or parts of the manual. We encourage those who download the manual to print all four chapters on 3-hole paper for insertion into a binder. The improved online manual is still under 100 pages.

Improved Chart
The chart at the Home Page of the NFPI website has also been improved. We continue to provide this blank chart for anyone’s use free of charge. Learner couples can download on 3-hole paper and add the charts to their NFP binder.

USCCB approved: The USCCB approved our online manual and placed NFPI on their website as an approved Home Study program. This was an unexpected blessing. We are committed to the NFP movement and the approval of the USCCB meant a lot to us.

Thanks
We frequently receive thanks for our website manual when someone seeks counseling. Here are a few to share with you.

“First I would like to thank you for the extensive information available on your website. My husband and I are unable to attend an NFP class, and are now learning the cross-check method thanks to you. Thank you for making the information and charts available without cost.”

“We cannot thank you enough for following God’s plan for your life and helping numerous Catholic parents discover NFP, ecological breastfeeding, and the true beauty of natural mothering.”

“I just wanted to thank you and John for your work at NFP International. I had missed your influence at CCL and was glad to see you are still involved in the work of teaching NFP. Your tutorial on the method has been a big help to me tonight–thank you so much for making it available for free!”

“I do agree that if more NFP teachers were familiar with the Seven Standards (and even the “Six” standards once solids are introduced) that we would see more moms with postponed infertility. Couples like us are so, so blessed to have you and your husband to guide us and teach us to have a loving and fulfilling family life through breastfeeding and NFP! I really felt called by the Holy Spirit to let you know this.”

My thanks to those who have written.  I would ask every reader to pray for the NFPI apostolate and for us personally. 

Sheila Kippley
NFP International
Breastfeeding and Catholic Motherhood (Sophia)
Natural Family Planning (e-book at this website)