Lauren Bell
Follow our moms and babies!
“Babies Go to Congress” on Capitol Hill
Moms and babies meet with Congressional offices to share their experience and why they chose life thanks to the pregnancy help network
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The most effective pro-life event on Capitol Hill, Heartbeat’s Babies Go to Congress™ event takes moms and babies directly to their the elected officials in order to share the positive impact of the pregnancy help movement in their lives.
Heartbeat’s Babies Go to Congress brings real-life stories about how pregnancy help centers save lives all over the United States.
More than 85 moms and babies have visited nearly 200 Congressional offices since the first Babies Go to Congress in 2009. Directly connecting with elected officials offers insight into the pregnancy help movement, which has been gaining media presence in light of the last election season.
Click here to follow the event today!
WHAT: Babies Go to Congress – Join moms and babies as they meet with Congressional offices and share the news that Pregnancy Help Centers are good for America!
WHEN: Thursday, January 24, 2013 | 8:30 a.m.
WHERE: Capitol Building, Washington D.C.
Foot Soldiers Armed with Love
An artist who committed suicide after an abortion, a friend who had a dream about the artist and a pregnant girl in a dark woods, a Bishop who met a man on a train who accused the church of abandoning people in the dark woods . . . all this was used by the Lord, almost 40 years ago, to prompt one of Heartbeat’s founders to say “yes” to His call to provide light to those in darkness.
This story and others, including her personal story, is told by Peggy Hartshorn in Foot Soldiers Armed with Love: Heartbeat International’s First Forty Years.
Moving stories, mixed with historical pictures, and interesting facts about the thousands of heroic Foot Soldiers in the pregnancy help movement, will encourage you and illustrate how the Lord is using YOU to make abortion both unwanted now and unthinkable for future generations.
"As this history lovingly documents, from humble beginnings, Heartbeat International has grown to become one of the most significant and far-reaching pregnancy help ministries in the world. Heartbeat is involved in the active, day-to-day mission of touching individual lives with God's grace. I cannot imagine a more important calling than that!"
-Jim Daly
President, Focus on the Family
This book, only available until this limited edition has sold out, can be shipped for a suggested donation of $20 or more.
Send a Message to the White House
Remembering Roe: Pro-Life citizens unite to end abortion
RememberingRoe.com, in partnership with Red Envelope Day, hopes to send 1.2 million pro-life messages to the President on January 22, commemorating the 1.2 million babies aborted in the U.S. every year since 1973, when abortion on-demand became legal as a result of Roe v. Wade.
Pro-life citizens are encouraged to join this effort by visiting RememberingRoe.com and clicking the red, “Send a Message” button on the website’s homepage.
Led by Heartbeat International, more than 10 pro-life organizations have united to form RememberingRoe.com, an interactive website commemorating the 40th anniversary of Roe, the insidious Supreme Court decision that has led to the killing of more than 54 million unborn children in the United States alone.
Just as Americans will never forget 9/11, the day on which nearly 3,000 lives were lost in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, so too, we will never forget Roe v. Wade, which has allowed nearly 3,300 unborn children to be aborted every day for the last 40 years.
RememberingRoe.com provides a centralized venue for the pro-life community to declare, “We will never forget.” The website provides tools to share stories, post prayers, and register to join a national prayer webcast January 22 at 3 p.m. (EST).
Go to RememberingRoe.com and see how you can participate in the unique pro-life event.
WHAT: Remembering Roe – virtual prayer event
WHEN: Tuesday, January 22, 2013 | 3:00 EST
Meet the Moms and Babies - January 2013
Mapi and Marella
In February 2007 I found myself in an unexpected pregnancy.
I was alone in this country trying to make it on my own. I was not married and I was not sure how the baby’s father was going to handle the news.
I went to a doctor and he told me that I was at a 90% risk of having a Down Syndrome baby because I was 35 years old. He recommended that I have an abortion. I felt all alone, desperate and all I could do was cry.
As I was driving home, I turned the radio on and there was a gentle voice answering questions at a Christian talk show. She was saying how this organization could help women with an unwanted or unplanned pregnancy. She said that Heartbeat of Miami Pregnancy Help Medical Clinics could help. I was not sure how they could help but I was desperate.
When I called the number, I spoke to Martha who told me that they could offer alternatives to women that did not want or could not have their baby. She asked to meet with me just to talk and share with me the options that I had.
I had already made an appointment with an abortion clinic but I decided to meet with Martha first. She arranged for me to have an ultrasound. That is when I saw my baby for the first time and heard her heartbeat. The ladies in the clinic treated me with much love, dignity and respect, never judging me and giving me the opportunity to see my baby. They offered to help me with different resources and also a plan of adoption. They spoke about faith, about life. Even if my baby was indeed Down Syndrome, there were people willing to adopt her. At that very moment I knew I did not want an abortion. How could I end the life of my baby?
We prayed at the Clinic and I felt strong even though I knew there were very difficult times ahead of me. However, I didn’t feel alone anymore. I felt there were people that cared about me and the baby with no hidden agenda, with no other interest than my well being.
Martha kept her word to be there for me. She followed up on me. I was a total stranger, yet she treated me as family. I felt more encouraged that I wanted my child more than anything.
The girls at the clinic continued to follow up with me making sure I had the resources I needed it. The joy came back to me and I had hope to face tomorrow. I no longer felt alone, I felt I had a new family that truly cared.
When the time came to have my baby girl, Martha and Jeanne (the Clinic Director) where in the hospital with me. When my baby Marella was born, she became the first baby born to this wonderful ministry.
Five years have passed and my daughter Marella is everything for me. She fills my life with joy and she is the most beautiful gift I have ever received. I work as a Realtor and I am able to raise my daughter with everything she needs and her father is a very important part of her life. He loves her and helps support her. She takes dancing and music lessons. She also takes art lessons and paints beautiful pictures that I proudly frame. She is intelligent and well behaved doing wonderful in school.
I thank God for Heartbeat of Miami Pregnancy Help Medical Clinics. If it hadn’t been for them, Marella wouldn’t be here today and I might have never had the opportunity to experience the blessing of being a mother.
Help Promote Remembering Roe
Remembering Roe is an opportunity for our nation to come together to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the insidious U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
As we mourn the lives destroyed by Roe, YOU are invited to join together in solidarity on January 22, 2013 for a national day of prayer and fasting to end the violence of abortion. From 3:00-4:00 p.m. EST you can pray with the National Pro-Life Religious Council* in a very special “hour of prayer” webcast.
Please sign up today to show your commitment to join with the Body of Christ in prayer as we go to our knees together to end abortion.
"They all joined together constantly in prayer..." Acts 1:14
After you have registered to pray with us on January 22, you have to opportunity to invite your community to join you.
Acts 1:14 refers to the early church, saying: "They all joined together constantly in prayer..."
We are called to do the same. Take time to download free graphics (like the image shown above) in order to promote this prayer event to your church, family, friends, and community. Encourage them to register to pray with us to commemorate this somber anniversary. There is great power in unified prayer!
New Year’s Resolution
I deleted an app from my iPhone this afternoon.
It was a good app, and free when I got it. But, as I read through Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions, as I do every year, I became instantly convicted that this app—which I just downloaded yesterday—has already wasted too much of my time.
Edwards, regarded by many as the finest American theologian ever, jotted down 70 resolutions over the course of several months in 1723, and these have stood the test of time as some of the most brilliant, yet simple resolutions a Christian can make.
Several of them cut like a boning knife through my flabby heart, not the least of which is Resolution No. 5:
Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but to improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
Not one moment wasted. Not even when I’m waiting at the airport or stuck in traffic. Not even when I’m early to an appointment—a rare event in any case—and have 15 minutes to kill. To Edwards, a truly godly man, those 15 minutes didn’t belong to him in the first place, and therefore, were never his to kill or make alive.
I love this resolution of Edwards, not only because it sounds ambitious to the point of heroic, but because it is so squarely biblical. It’s nothing more than a simple restating of the Apostle Paul’s instructions to the church at Ephesus:
Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. (Ephesians 5:15-16)
I want to imitate men like Edwards and Paul, who understood and embraced the gospel so wholeheartedly that every moment became an opportunity to capitalize upon and make the most of, for my ultimate joy, for the good of others, and for the glory of God.
Step 1: Cut out the Fat
The first step to capitalizing on the precious opportunities that each moment represents—to really redeem the time and make the best use of it—is to prayerfully quit doing things that do waste time. There goes that iPhone app. Is Facebook next? Pinterest? Maybe.
That’s what Edwards means when he resolves to “never lose one moment of time,” and it’s what Paul is shooting for when he warns his readers to watch how they’re walking, “not as unwise, but as wise.”
Can you picture Jonathan Edwards, the third president of Princeton, frittering time away on Facebook or Twitter? Or, can you picture the Apostle Paul, commissioned by Jesus as a servant and a witness to the resurrection, burning time on his cell phone while he waits for the bus?
Step 2: Capitalize on the Moment
Following the pattern set by Paul in Ephesians 5, Edwards counters his negative goal (to not waste time) with a positive objective: “to improve (each moment) the most profitable way I possibly can.”
This “improvement” starts with the heart. Are we actively seeking Christ where he is to be found—in his Word and among his people, the Church? Are we actively seeking to embrace the gospel so that we can say with Paul, “the love of Christ controls us”? (2 Corinthians 5:14)
This is what Paul means by “making the best use of the time,” and there is no app for it.
This kind of living takes discipline, study, and Christian community. And this is the kind of living that will really make a difference in the world, including the people you interact with on an everyday basis.
Baby Safe
In Fishhoek, South Africa, "Marc and Veronica" hold their newly adopted baby girl and praise God that, after six long years of waiting, He has answered their prayers.
Cradling their daughter, "Jenna", in their arms at the site where she was left by her birth mother, the beaming parents know firsthand the value of the work Baby Safe International is doing.
For Marc and Veronica, the thought of Jenna’s probable fate without Baby Safe’s life-saving innovation is unimaginable. At just a day old, Jenna would likely have been a victim of infanticide—infant exposure—had it not been for the availability of Baby Safe’s deposit box, which empowers desperate mothers with a real choice to preserve the life of their baby.
In South Africa, “baby dumping,” as it is called, is an increasingly common occurrence in both rural and urban areas. Some babies are found in plastic bags in rubbish heaps, others in storm drains, abandoned fields, ditches, alleys, or even in rural homemade toilets.
Some of these children are found, thankfully, alive, while others are found dead—upwards of 500 in the Western Cape of South Africa in 2010 alone—and still more are never found. This sad fact tells us that baby dumping is, by its very nature, widely unreported.
Baby Safe, a nonprofit Heartbeat International affiliate, specifically targets this injustice in its region, just outside of Cape Town, by producing and distributing “baby safes,” where mothers can leave their babies anonymously as a real alternative to the horror of infanticide.
The box has a variety of safety features to insure that proper care will be given to the baby who is left by his or her mother. When a baby’s weight is detected inside the safe, a team of dedicated staff are immediately notified, while a safety backup system assures the baby will be promptly rescued by Baby Safe volunteers.
Through the production and distribution of these boxes, Baby Safe is carefully building a network that enables desperate mothers to choose life for their babies. This network is spreading throughout South Africa, and has broken through the northeastern border to Swaziland.
While its visible efforts are focused on providing an alternative to infanticide for desperate mothers, Baby Safe’s long-term vision is to connect with at-risk women before they reach the point of dumping their babies, with holistic direction that includes Bible studies, parenting classes, nutrition education, and even exercise and dance classes.
To learn more about Baby Safe, and to find out how you can help, visit TheBabySafe.org.
The Stewardship Foundation
As one of our core financial partners, I recommend a service that you may not have access to – and one that may be especially relevant in the next few weeks.
As you are no doubt aware, it appears inevitable that certain “tax cuts” (such as the capital gains tax) will expire at the end of this year. There may be great benefits that you and your family – and the charities you support – could experience if you make certain financial decisions BEFORE the end of this year.
If you are interested in learning even more, you need to make a phone call by December 15 (see my final paragraph) to complete your decision making by December 31.
Some of those decisions may involve charitable gifts that not only bless the charities of your choice, but also help you lower your taxes (and some may even supply you with an on-going income stream)!
Until now, Heartbeat has not had a way to help our donors with such decision making. Just this year we have developed a relationship with The Stewardship Foundation, headed by two gentlemen that I have known for several years – men who are strong Christian husbands and fathers who are 100% pro-life. (One of them formerly even worked for a state-wide pro-life organization.)
This Foundation has already helped one of Heartbeat’s donors who wanted to make a gift of a ring to a pro-life organization. Charities, like Heartbeat, are familiar with donations by cash, check, or credit card, but often do not know how to help a donor who wants to give personal property or give in a more “creative way”! Thanks to The Stewardship Foundation, I have learned about MANY ways of giving that I had no idea about!
If you work with The Stewardship Foundation, you could benefit ANY charity you love – your parish or church, your local pregnancy center, a school, a community organization, including Heartbeat! But what charities you decide to benefit is totally up to you!
The Foundation can help with a variety of ways of giving (and can work with your present attorney or financial advisor if you want), such as:
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- Bequest — a gift of property or cash to an organization under a will
- Donor Advised Fund — An easy-to-establish, low cost vehicle for charitable giving; you set up the fund with your gift, then advise how that money will be distributed to charities
- Charitable Remainder Trust — an irrevocable transfer of assets to a trust that pays you income during your lifetime or pays to your beneficiaries at the time of your death
- Gift Annuity Trust — a charitable donation that reduces taxation and provides you a lifetime income stream
- Charitable Lead Trust — a trust set up to provide yearly payments to your designated charity
- Endowments — your gift creates an invested fund owned by a charity, and earnings are used to support general or specific needs of the charity’s mission
Here is one amazing story, included on the Foundation’s website, of a donor who was helped by the Foundation. This donor chose to create a “charitable gift annuity” which is a simple contractual arrangement between the donor and The Stewardship Foundation. The gift annuity pays a guaranteed fixed sum each year for the life of one or more beneficiaries.
Mary Lou Fisher is an 82-year-old widow who over the years turned $150,000 into over $1.5 million in the stock market.
During the economic downturn of 2008, Mary Lou suffered along with other investors and saw her portfolio lose over 30% of its value.
Now concerned about her health, and knowing that she will soon have heavy cash outlays for health care and assisted living, she would like to sell the stock and put the proceeds in cash and debt instruments.
Her accountant told Mary Lou that if she sold the stock and paid $127,500 in capital gains, her net worth would be about $872,500 and earn only about 4% per year. She would likely pay $12,215 in incomes taxes on an income of $34,900, leaving just $22,685 for spendable income. This worries her.
If, however, Mary Lou chose to gift a charity $1,000,000, she could earn over 7%, or about $74,000 per year from a charitable gift annuity. This news brings the peace of mind she needs to counterbalance her health worries, and the opportunity to make a significant charitable gift lifts her spirits.
Mary Lou now feels that her life has taken on a new sense of purpose. She sees her wealth as more than personal security — she sees it as meaningful.
The Stewardship Foundation, a 501(c)(3) investment ministry, describes itself this way: “an ecumenical, Christian-based foundation that works with all faiths that promote respect for human life from conception to natural death, honors traditional families that encourage the full development of men, women, and children who are created in God’s image; and that safeguard religious freedom as a means to embrace our Creator God, our Savior Jesus Christ, and the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit as we understand them.”