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Our mission: Help people learn to value life from conception to death and receive God’s love, forgiveness and gift of eternal life.
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Praise the Lord for a wonderful beginning to the new pro-life ministry in Odessa, Ukraine! Your prayers and gifts have made it possible. Thank you for investing in a ministry that will protect the lives of future generations of Ukrainian children. When Miriam Wheeler, MD, arrived in Odessa in August 1998, she saw immediately the great need for such a ministry. As she began to see patients, she heard heart-breaking stories of women injured by abortion and grieving their lost children. The ABWE team of missionaries started praying for additional help to initiate a pro-life ministry. God answered this prayer by calling nurse practitioner Holly Friesen to Ukraine, after she had served at a pregnancy care center in Lima, Peru, for two years. With Holly’s arrival to Odessa in January 2010, we were able to begin strategizing for the future. You can see from the highlights how God has orchestrated our progress to build a solid foundation. We are delighted to share our continuing progress with you through quarterly updates.
Our Ukrainian partners on our steering committee have caught the enthusiasm for the ministry. One of our pastors coined the name for our organization, “Choose Life!†This is the umbrella organization for all of our pro-life activities, and Dr. Wheeler is chairman of the Steering Committee. The first ministry we developed is “Forgiven and Set Freeâ€-- the small group Bible study for women suffering from emotional trauma related to abortion. Dr. Wheeler is also director of the post-abortion ministry.
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Over forty women have completed the
“Forgiven & Set Free†Bible study.
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This has given us a solid foundation for the entire pro-life organization, as these women receive God’s healing and become our most effective advocates. Listen to some of their testimonies:
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“I was 18 years old when I aborted the only child I would ever conceive. For years I was depressed about my infertility, seeking relief from alcohol and drugs. God wonderfully saved me and delivered me from these addictions, but I was still discouraged and feeling much pain and guilt from my abortion. After going through the course, “Forgiven and Set Freeâ€, the Lord took away all my guilt, healed relationships with my mother and husband, and gave me great joy and assurance of forgiveness!â€
“I had been a believer for many years, but still dealt with anger, irritation, despondency, problems with my relationship with my husband, and fear of doctors. I had asked God’s forgiveness for my abortion when I was saved, and was sure of my salvation. When I heard about the post-abortion Bible study, I agreed to go because I wanted to help other women. Then God revealed to me that many of my own problems stemmed from my abortion! The Lord helped me find full healing and restored relationships.â€
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The pregnancy care center is the second aspect of “Choose Lifeâ€, and the most appropriate name in this culture is simply “Women’s Centerâ€. Holly Friesen is director of this center and is eager to share God’s love and hope with women facing a pregnancy that seems too much of a burden to handle at a difficult juncture in their lives. The Center will also offer prenatal and parenting classes, evangelistic Bible studies and discipleship courses. We thought it would take a couple of years of the center functioning to identify a woman who could become the Ukrainian director of the “Women’s Centerâ€. We were thrilled when God pointed us to a member of our steering committee who was looking for work this spring and ideally suited for such a position. Our steering committee voted unanimously to name Luba Abramova as the assistant director of the Women’s Center. Holly will mentor Luba for at least two years before turning the full responsibility over to her.
Thank you for your interest and continued prayer support.
Do you want to know more about “Choose Life�
Check out our website: ukrainemedical.abwe.org
e-mail: Miriam Wheeler - mrwheeler@abwe.cc
Holly Friesen - esperanza@abwe.cc
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