January, 2008: Thanksgiving

Dear prayer friends, As I shared with you last Thursday, yesterday we had an important presentation of Center for LIFE in a private university.  We received an invitation first form a client to attend her class and give a presentation in her class, and suddenly because of all the discussions and interests of the students, the professor invited us to the main auditorium for another presentation to other students. 

Yesterday we were able to show a video "", and in three hours we also had discussions about abstinence, sanctity of human life and post-abortion stress in women.  We couldn't leave the auditorium without sharing the gospel with over 220 students that joined this event.  There is no way they could find truth purpose in their lives without Jesus in their hearts. 

Here some highlights:

• As we prayed about it before the event, we really felt we should focus on women that would be there and had abortions before.  That's what we did. 
• We arrived much earlier to the conference auditorium, what a surprise to see already a big group of students already waiting in the auditorium (not usual in our culture context).
• One of the students asked "Why do you think there is so much abortion in our country"  It was a good question and I was happy to see that there is a conscience of what a big issue abortion in in our country. 
• There were main authorities of the University who also attended the conference. 
• When it was quite a long time and I wasn't told about the break time, I asked the students about the time.  They just answered "The break time was over already a long time ago, just keep on... no worries". 
• After the conference there were important discussions with two young ladies at the coffee shop.  It was quite hard to have a counseling time in the middle of so much noise, therefore they committed to visit us. 
  

Again, thank you for the prayers. We are so thankful and excited to see the way God is opening doors!

2008: January Prayer Request

Dear prayer friends, during the Christmas holidays most of our volunteers and staff members take their vacation time, as common this season in our country.  A Thursday during that week we received four girls who already came with a positive test result and the four of them were abortion minded.  Today I have the great pleasure to share with you that yesterday I was able to speak with the last one of them, and she also said "yes!  I am keeping the baby." Praise The LORD for four lives that will be born in the next couple months. 

This week we had the wonderful news of these girls, and there are new girls with whom we have started a discipleship.  As I was reading on the files of the girls I couldn't stop to amaze how God transform the life of people, they are not even the shade of the girls we met months or years ago.  My prayer is that they become of God that He will use to empower others. 

Also this week I received a call from one of our clients.  She invited us to join her class of "Ethics in the career".  As part of her speech in the class she wanted her class to meet people that in her eyes develop a leadership with high ethic values.  It was a total honor her invitation and of course I confirmed our presence.  Yesterday in the morning we attender her class and there were more students than we expected.  We had a great time sharing about Centro de Vida with over 70 students of different careers.  As expected there were many questions form the students, specially regarding the attention of abortion minded clients, the sanctity of human life, the RU-486 pill, etc.  The teacher and the students were so interested in the presentation that we got another invitation to come back.  The teacher is organizing a meeting with the double of students of this university and we will have three hours time in the main auditorium of the university.  Pray that as we share about Sanctity of human life, abstinence education and Post Abortion recovery many students can turn their faces to God and glorify Him with their lives.  The presentation will be on January 18th, 2008 at 8:30 A.M.

 

2007: Thanks

Dear friends, thank you so much for your faithful prayers about the items exposed last week. 

Here some great news about them:

On Friday November 30th I was picking up our legal entity paper!  It is a total miracle.  Knowing our public system, it wouldn't have surprised me if they had told us to wait until the next year.  What's next?  The next steps are still some paper work until we can say that it is fully done, but absolutely what was stopping everything was our Governor's sign.  We expect to finish all the process before the public system start vacations (which is right before Christmas)... therefore we will highly appreciate continue prayers on this matter.  I hope to say in few weeks...  "The process is done!"

Our annual strategic evaluation & planning went really well.  I can't be more thankful about our Board Members.  They are leading us with a complete commitment and servant hearts.  There are great challenges for us next year, and we do believe God will do great things among us.  I will be sharing more about our plans in next correspondences; it is our desire to be accountable to you with our work in the ministry. 

2007: Legal entity papers

If God put in your heart to pray for one of the items, just take a couple of minutes right after reading them and pray over it.  I can't think if any more effective way to make things happen.  There is nothing impossible to God. 

We need urgent prayers regarding our legal entity papers for Center for Life.  At the moment we just need the Governor's signature and the governor's office said we should have it tomorrow, November 27th.  Unfortunately we have been hearing same story for quite a couple months.  Please pray that we could be able to get it ASAP.  There are a lot of legal papers we need to work on, and the legal entity paper is a requirement for all of them (Bank accounts, get the ultrasound machine from the migration office, etc.)

Also tomorrow we will be working on our annual strategic planning, 2008 with our board members and volunteers.  We look forward to do His plans and not ours.  As praying about this matter this morning God brought this word:  "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes"  Isaiah 54.2

2007: Prayer request

Lorena visited us about two months ago and at that time realized she was pregnant and took pills attempting to abort her baby.  She came back this week for counseling because of her emotional hardship telling us she had aborted her pregnancy.  After counseling we decided to take her to the clinic so  physician could check on her.  It was a beautiful surprise to see that everything with her pregnancy was OK.  and the baby was healthy.  She is shock and doesn't know for sure what to do.  Would you take a minute to pray that she would make the right decision this time?

2007: Third Anniversary

We just celebrated our third anniversary, a special occasion to formally announce and sign the legal papers designating Center for Life as an independent organization apart from World Concern. 

Most who celebrated with us were clients, volunteers, friend from different churches and Christian Organizations.  It was a great time to share how The Lord has blessed us. 

In Three years:

-  We attended more than 1100 visits by women. 

-  More than 80 women who were abortion minded decided to continue with their pregnancy.

-  More than 300 women started a relationship with Christ.

Aren't those great blessings?

What a blessing to hear form Dalia tell her own story.  She said, "I am not a teen, but still although I'm 28 my pregnancy was a crisis."  She shared with all of us how God became her strength and her hope and even though her boyfriend didn't want the baby, she could press on because of her trust in The Lord.  She was abortion minded, not anymore. 

Lives like hers are our inspiration to fight daily a culture of death.  Let me share with you why am I part of a pregnancy care center.

• Because at this moment there are many women that are lonely and believe they only have one option.
• Because there are already many hearts that have been broken due to abortion.
• Because abortion has knocked on our doors many times already.
• Because sometime, someone gave us the opportunity to live.
• Because we can make a difference.
• Because we are responsible to a generation.
• Because we can not be quiet anymore.
• Because if we are quiet, God will bring others.
• Because it is time the world knows that God has lifted people to defend human life.

2007: Some small - great visitors

Looking at the pictures of these babies and how the lives of families have changed because of them, amazes me at God's grace for letting us serve in this ministry.  We don't understand why, but He did and we are grateful. 

We started the year with sweet visits from these little ones, some of them we had not seen since they were in their mother's belly!

I must say that for all the sweet moments we have, we also have some sad moments.  One of the sad moments was with a 19 years old girl who already has a 2 years old baby.  We met Carla when we were starting the ministry almost three years ago.  In that opportunity, she was pregnant and decided to continue with her pregnancy. 

As a street vendor who only makes $2,50 a day and does not have family, it has been hard for her, but we have see her growing in the faith as God provides for everything.  We were even able to connect her with a Christian family to provide her with a home and love.  Unfortunately, a few months ago, we lost contact with her.  Finally she showed up at the Center.  When she stops in, she cheerfully uses the excuse that her baby misses us, but this time there was something different.  After a while she finally said, "there is something I am not sure if I should say", my response was "How far along are you?"... "four months"... it was the beginning of a deeper conversation. 

Tania shared that she actually had an appointment for an abortion, but before going to have it, she started reading her Bible and everything that was shared at the center with her about sanctity of human life came back to her mind.  After that, she made her decision not to go through with the abortion. 

There were different emotions going through my mind.  I was sad because of the way she was deceived again, I wished I could have been there for her when she was dealing with her crisis and at the same time I was happy and proud of her decision. 

Tania has come to the right path... Who has not fallen out of step once in their life?  She is repentance and is trusting her future in God's hands.  She decided to place her baby up for adoption... would you pray with me for Tania's spiritual journey form now on and for committed christian parents for her baby?

Update January, 2008:  When the baby was born Tania decided to keep her baby.  He is a healthy boy.  She keeps coming to Centro de Vida often.