In June we had a team from the States come and we were
given ultra sound training.
With the addition of our ultra sound equipment and training
we now offer free ultra sounds every Thursday afternoon.
2008: June
Apolo!
In June I traveled with Marvin, a doctor friend and a volunteer at Centro de Vida, by bus (over 40 hours!) up into the mountains to a little town called Apolo where we worked with local missionaries for a week giving abstinence presentations to local high school students. We had the opportunity to broadcast our message on the local radio station every night that reached 30 communities! While we were attending to their spiritual needs Marvin was active attending to their physical needs.
We also trained church leaders to give the abstinence presentation so we would not be needed every year. We also counseled with teens and married women in the local churches. Were shocked to find through a survey we handed out that 20% of women reported been sexually abused. This is an area of ministry that we would like to expand into in the future. Overall we presented our abstinence program to over 300 students.
2008: Life Celebration!
Birthday Celebration
Last month we celebrated life at the center. It was the birthday of one of the babies whose mother was abortion minded when she was expecting her. What an honor
when we were asked if she could celebrate her first birthday with us.
I remember so clearly when Cynthia (Our Client’ director) shared with me for the first time (Approximately 19 months ago) about this case. She was returning to Centro de Vida from the closest clinic. She took the girl to the clinic for an ultrasound and they both were walking in silence after the ultrasound test. Cynthia was so excited about what she saw on the screen, that suddenly she knew Rosario was going to carry the baby, so she asked: “What are you gonna name your baby”, “Andrea” Rosario replied. “Andrea? That’s a beautiful name, I would name my baby
girl Andrea too if I had one” Cynthia said. That was more of a confirmation than what she was expecting to hear. Andrea was going to born. Cynthia was being honest when she said that if she had a baby girl she would name her Andrea.
At Andrea’s birthday came also Heidi. Heidi is Rosario’s best friend and roommate and is part of our discipleship program. She shared with us one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard. I wish I could share with you everything she said word by word. I wish I could remind all of it. It was a humble prayer.
Of thanksgiving of how much Andrea’s presence in their lives helped her to become better people as they turned to God.
Please, celebrate with God for being the life-giver, celebrate with us for Andrea’s life.
Pray for more Andrea’s to be born, for more Heidi’s to be convince of God’s work in their lives. And, consider what you can invest financially this month to advance the life-giving work in Bolivia. Thank you for standing next to us in the battle for life.
2008: Our New Boutique!
Yes, this is how our boutique looks like! Our volunteer Vanessa made a great effort in putting all this together.
The boutique is a place where women who decided to continue with their pregnancies can come to "buy" different items for themselves and for their babies. The money that they can spend here is earn at the center through the pre-natal classes, discipleship courses, etc.
All the items that we receive at the boutique are provided by our local church family in the city and for our girls whose babies don't use those clothes anymore.
If you are interested in getting more information of how this program works out, just contact us.
2008: Coming up... Learn to Earn Program
I know many of you may wonder... What's that? Well, Vanessa a volunteer of Centro de Vida is working hard painting, organizing and decorating the boutique for our girls. Women who are clients of Centro de Vida will be able to get points as they participate in the Bible Studies, prenatal cares classes, video sessions, church attendance and every month they will be able to get items at the boutique of the center with these points earned. Soon you will see a picture of how it looks when all is finished. Many of us can't wait to open this program for clients!
2008: Volunteer Training
On March 29th and April 5th we had our volunteer training in "How to counsel women facing an unplanned pregnancy". Our training was based on the IBI manual. The IBI (Intimacy Before Impact) manual is a manual that LIFE International has provided to the centers overseas and volunteers of Centro de Vida have worked in the translation. Almost 350 pages full translation... great, great work!
2008: Salmos 23
Few weeks ago I had a surprise visitor. It was a beautiful young lady, at first when I saw her I couldn't recognize her, it was just when she mentioned of her life that I could easily remember who she was. We even met her parents (and she never knew of that). She was involved in a relationship that her Christian parents didn't consider healthy (we neither), therefore when they got to know she was coming to Centro de Vida, they wanted to know us personally. On that time she wasn't pregnant and after coming for a while suddenly she disappeared. It was until I saw her back that I got to know what happened to her. She said that few weeks later she found herself pregnant and considering abortion. She had the pressure of her boyfriend, her parents and actually her boyfriend's sister gave her some pills. She said she remembered all our talks and she wanted us to meet little Matias, whom in her words "we are part of the reason why he lives today". I don't have words to describe how I felt when I saw this precious little one of three years old... it just broke my heart when she asked him to tell me what he just learned, and he said with his sweet words "Salmos 23, Jehová es mi pastor nada me faltara" (Psalms 23, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want).
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