May 14, 2013

Dear friends and supporters of Izmail Life Care Center.

All the volunteers, staff and clients of the LCC greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Two weeks ago we celebrated Easter and according to our local Orthodox tradition the Christians greet each other with the words “Christ has risen!” for 40 days before they celebrate the holiday of Ascension . Those who have been greeted answer: “He has risen indeed!”  So I greet you according to our tradition and hope you all answered the right way!

Spring is usually the busiest time of the year in the ministry of Life Care Center. We have started March with the visit of two sisters in Christ from Zhytomir who serve the Lord in the pro-life ministry there. We were able to share our experience with them. They took part in the classes for pregnant women, went to schools with us [and]were present at our planning and prayer meetings.  By telling us what they do there they encouraged us to try some new activities in Izmail toward saving lives.

We have finished training (12 classes) 4 new volunteers for counseling and 1 for school work. The group of 4 has graduated the School for Moms and the group of 8 has started.  [For] the first time in the history of Life Care Center [a] couple went through all the classes together and has started coming to the church.  They have already had their baby and the church has welcomed them into a new family. 4 students have started the translational practice and are still working till the end of May on translating the Curriculum “Why Know” for the work with youth. We look at abstinence as the means of prevention unplanned pregnancies and abortion.

At the end of March Life Care Center initiated the contest for the best composition among the students of our local University on “Value of Life” topic.  52 students took part in it. After evaluation of the compositions we agreed on one which showed that the author if it was pro-life.  We planned to reward the winner and to hold the panel discussion with them on the same topic but it was postponed  till the end of the spring break.

In the beginning of April we welcomed the director of the Journey to Freedom ministry in Izmail. Later in the month 2 volunteers with their husbands took part in the Conference Journey to Freedom in Odessa. We plan to start such groups for the ladies with the purpose of identifying and treating Post abortion syndrome.

On the 25 of April Larry Love - the gynecologist and the board member held questions-answers Skype conference with the current group of students in School for moms.

On the 1-2 of May Angela and I went to Odessa again to teach a master-class at the Forum for Christian Psychologists “Family: life or survival”. The topic we were asked to teach was “Helping the families after abortion or pregnancy loss”.

On the 9-11 of May we visited a pro-life retreat held in Western Ukraine. 50 people from different parts of Ukraine came there to share their experience of saving lives and doing preventative work against abortion. It is always good to see that God raised many people in the struggle for life and that we can pray for each other and support each other in different ways.

Prayer needs:
• For possibilities to do more pre abortion counseling.
• For the meeting with the representative of local government and broadening of our ministry through them.
• For the blessing of our plans to start pre-marital counseling as the means of preventing abortion.
• For the health and wisdom of volunteers and staff.

Thank you for your prayer and financial support
Snezhana Popova.
[12.09.13, 15:07:49] Snezhana Popova: http://www.lcc-izmail.org/nl/newsletter-may-2013.html