Pregnancy Resource Centers Growing Worldwide
By Virginia Cline
 “I feel like I am not alone any more… Thanks so much for the training, effort, care, support, and help of you and all the wonderful staff of Heartbeat International,” said Lucy Popova of Bulgaria.
Each year since 1998, thanks to our strategic partners like you, Heartbeat has been able to provide scholarships for international training at our conference.
Lucy Popova came to the Heartbeat Conference telling us that she felt like the only pro-life person in Bulgaria. Now she says, “I feel like I am not alone any more… Thanks so much for the training, effort, care, support, and help of you and all the wonderful staff of Heartbeat International.”
This year 17 full or partial scholarships for our 35th Annual Conference in Orlando in May were awarded to the following:
Gail Schreiner and Yvette Rodgers (South Africa); Christina Brauner Nielson, Kirstine Guldager Madsen, and Lena Hansen (Denmark); Edward Mwansa (Zambia); Lucy Popova (Bulgaria); Rachel de Ocampo and Margaret Robinson (Belize); Lola French (Canada); Anne Foster and Mary Kavanaugh (Australia); Cristina Valea (Romania); Sylvia Beukes (Namibia); Ruth Yeboah (Ghana); Margaret Cuthill (Scotland); and Rossana Soto Caballero (Mexico).
The Netherlands and the United Kingdom also sent representatives to the conference.
More than 180 pro-life workers gathered in the Philippines in April for a two-day training provided by Heartbeat President Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D., and Rindy Brooks, Heartbeat consultant.
Afterwards Peggy met with the Board of the new pro-life group, Pregnancy Support Services of Asia (PSSA), to strategize next steps and to consult on structure, Board development, and more. 
“Even in a country where abortion is illegal, like the Philippines, women are still vulnerable to abortion,” explained Peggy. “There is a free-standing so-called ‘women’s health’ clinic in Manila that [they say] performs illegal abortions. The drug Cytotec which causes chemical abortions, and often many complications for women, is also readily available on the black market.”
“Pregnancy center development overseas is ten to twenty years behind the U.S.A.,” said Peggy. “The people in the Philippines are absolutely wonderful and gracious and want to learn everything we know and do,” said Peggy.
Last year, Heartbeat provided training in the Netherlands, Australia, Ukraine, and Russia. In addition to our 835 pregnancy centers in the U.S., Heartbeat International serves 136 international affiliates in 36 countries and has provided training on five of the seven continents: Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and North America.
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Humbled by Opportunity to Serve at Option Line®
By Joe Young, Option Line Director
[Note: Joe Young became the Option Line director in February. Option Line® (800-395-HELP) is our
24/7 call center that connects callers to their closest pregnancy center.]
 What an exciting opportunity it is to join the Option Line® team of dedicated professionals committed to Christ and His life affirming message!
When God first called me into ministry, He gave me the desire to effectively minister to the needs of the family. As I have ministered to children, teens, and adults, I have felt the pain associated with abortion and witnessed the long-term effects of that choice on family members. The physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual ramifications of this decision cannot be ignored.
Jesus took His message of hope to the streets. He presented the truth of God’s unconditional love to those who were considered outsiders. Jesus understood that the war was being fought everyday in the lives of ordinary people and the battles are in the decisions that make up our lives.
 Every day, Option Line® consultants present that same gospel to women who are scared, hurting, and confused. Deuteronomy 30 explains that we must make the choice to live in the fullness of God’s blessing. Verse 19 states: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.”
God’s desire is for us to live, not merely exist, but to really live the “abundant life” that Jesus has provided for us.
The phone consultants, administrative staff, pregnancy resource center directors, and you, our ministry partners, all work together to present the living face of Christ to people challenged by real world pressures.
In my new role, I have been impressed with the dedication of the incredible staff at Option Line®. I am humbled by the awe-some opportunity that God has given me to serve Him here.
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Dr. Kennedy Praises the Work of Heartbeat International
D. James Kennedy, Ph.D.
President, Coral Ridge Ministries; Senior Minister, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church
 “The innocent unborn and women desperate for a ‘solution’ find life-saving help every day from Heartbeat International and its nearly 1,000 affiliated pregnancy centers. Because of the work of this wonderful organization, little children are gazing into the loving eyes of their mothers. I heartily recommend Heartbeat as an organization worthy of your support.”
Truth for Lies is a powerful book by Dr. James Kennedy about the top ten myths of abortion. It dissects the common claims, such as Abortion is only a woman's concern, Aborted babies are unwanted, and I am personally opposed to abortion, but…, and gives you the truth with compelling facts, statistics, and descriptions. It also includes listings of pro-life literature and organizations.
This and other books like Eyewitness to Partial Birth Abortion are available at www.coralridge. org or by calling 1-800-988-7884.
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Heartbeat Launches Initiative to Plant Centers in Major Cities
By Rev. John Ensor, Executive Director, Urban Initiative
“I am only one,” wrote the American abolitionist and orator, Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909), “but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And what I can do THAT I ought to do. And what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I shall do.”
These words of resolve have pressed me forward on many an occasion in our Great Cause to make abortion unthinkable. They pushed me forward when we opened a tiny pregnancy resource center in the inner city of Boston some years ago.
I think of them again when I consider the over-whelming needs and vastly underserved cities of America. How the pregnancy center movement needs to become an urban movement! I lay hold of them again when I consider the situation in Miami, Florida.
 At present, there is only one ultrasound-equipped pregnancy center in Miami. Another center recently opened part-time and with all volunteers (blessed first steps).
They are up against 37 abortion facilities (not counting hospitals.) I visited seven in just one neighborhood! They are in shopping strips and across the street from schools. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars competing against themselves in full page ads in the yellow pages.
When I consider how God delights to honor small steps and persevering faith, then I am emboldened by Hale’s resolve. As I meet folks in Miami, I am hoping they will take up Hale’s resolve with me. Then I pray that as we spread the word, hundreds and eventually thousands will repeat them.
Imagine the seed money that could be available if each of us (along with our pregnancy centers) took up Hale's resolve and tithed monthly to this Great Cause. I have. I am only one. But I am one!
Our goal is to open three to five ultrasound-equipped pregnancy centers in Miami in the next two years. If you are one person willing to join me in Hale’s resolve, call me at Heartbeat International or sign up at www.heartbeatofmiami.org.
Caption: Abortion facilities plague Miami. Currently, only one ultrasound-equipped pregnancy center exists (First Choice, marked with dot). We hope to add three to five more in the next two years.
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Heartbeat Conference More Than a Learning Experience
By Peggy Hartshorn, Ph.D.
 “Sometimes I feel like a lone voice in a different land. So, I was thrilled to be with so many people of like mind. I wanted to attend everything! I have been telling everyone I can about the experience,” said Claire. “This was an eye opening experience,” said Kate. (Claire and her daughter Kate Picone, LifeSavers from New Jersey, commenting on the 35th Annual Heartbeat International Conference held in Orlando May 17-20.)
One of the impressions I am left with after this year’s gathering of nearly 650 people from 38 states and 14 other countries is the DEPTH of the work we are involved in. When we talk about “saving lives” it does mean literally saving the lives of babies who, had their mother not come into a pregnancy center for counseling, would probably have been aborted. But it also means saving the lives of the mothers, perhaps their physical lives (because “safe, legal abortion” does result in death for some women), and surely their emotional and spiritual lives.
We are about the dignity of women and men and their God-given roles as nurturers and protectors of life, all made in the “image of God.” We are about the family as designed by God, the basis of society. We are about sharing the “Good News” and building a Culture of Life. 
Our conference is a spiritual, intellectual, emotional, and social experience. Many people work very hard to make it a reality each year, but it is the Lord who brings forth the fruit, and we at Heartbeat have the blessing of seeing that fruit grow and mature.
I hope to share that fruit, as it continues to develop, through all our communications with you, the LifeSavers who make all of this possible, so YOU can be enriched and encouraged, like I am, and so your faith, hope, and love in and of the Lord will increase and multiply!
Mark your calendar now for our next conference April 18-21, 2007, so we can meet you in St. Louis!
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