Displaying items by tag: News from the Worldwide Pregnancy Help Movement

HEARTBEAT INTERNATIONAL ANNUAL CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT for INTERNATIONALS ENGAGED IN THE PREGNANCY HELP MOVEMENT

Heartbeat 2025 International’s Annual Conference is coming!

When: April 29, 2025 (In-Depth Day)
April 30 - May 2, 2025 (Conference Dates)

Where: Birmingham, AL
or Virtually (in your most comfortable chair)

Heartbeat International strives to assist individuals in other countries who serve in pregnancy help outreach offering alternatives to abortion. Our annual conferences provide the greatest opportunity for diverse training, broad networking, and inspirational encouragement to our international affiliates.

We offer a limited number of financial scholarships for internationals who apply and are accepted. We invite individuals such as the key leader/executive director, staff member, volunteer, counselor, and/or board member who is currently serving in an international pregnancy help organization to apply. Eligible pregnancy help organizations are life-affirming non-governmental organizations, e.g. pregnancy resource centers, medical help clinics, maternity housing, and non-profit adoption agencies that hold values consistent with Heartbeat International. We also invite individuals demonstrating a strong and verifiable desire to open a new pregnancy help effort in their country/region and learn more about the pregnancy help ministry. All scholarship applicants must be affiliated with Heartbeat International, either directly or through a joint affiliation network partner.

Preference is given to those:

(1) affiliated with our international partners (Pregnancy Help Network, Pregnancy Care Canada, Pregnancy Help Australia, Centro de Ayuda para la Mujer Latinomerican, Association for Life of Africa, Movimento per la Vita, ProVida, Be’Ad Chaim, and Pregnancy Support Services Asia) and
(2) those that access available local/regional training, especially those provided by our joint affiliation partners. We will verify affiliation, good standing, and attendance at trainings with these organizations and (3) direct affiliates in good standing with Heartbeat International. If you have received a scholarship in the last three years, please do not apply. Only one scholarship may be offered to any organization.

Each scholarship is granted with the expectation that the recipient will use the conference experience to strengthen their ministry or to lay the groundwork for a new ministry. Scholarship recipients are therefore expected to attend In-Depth Day, all keynote sessions and workshops, as well as the closing banquet. International scholarship applicants should be somewhat fluent in English. Heartbeat conferences are presented in English and translation is generally not available.

WE'RE SORRY. WE'RE NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATION SUBMISSIONS.

Questions may be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

by Andrea Trudden, Vice President of Communications & Marketing
Heartbeat International

Walking through busy streets. Sleeping at a hotel with music playing in the hall. The 2022 European Pregnancy Help Leaders Summit was a very different environment from the sirens and chaos the Save a Life pregnancy help team left in Ukraine.

Alina was 39 weeks pregnant when the war started. Now, her very life was at risk and the reality that her husband could be sent to fight in the war increased the stress. 

A pregnancy center director of the Zaporizhzhia Save a Life location, she knows the pressures when faced with an unexpected pregnancy. Add a war to the typical pressures a woman has in that delicate moment of her life, and Alina knew that pregnancy centers in Ukraine would be needed during wartime. And so, her work continued after being displaced from her home in Zaporizhzhia.

In the midst of the war sirens and vibrations from the blasts, Alina gave birth to her son, Mark, in a make-shift bomb shelter. It was humbling, and a great reminder of the beauty of life. This little baby boy brought a light of joy in a moment of darkness. 

With her new baby, her two-year-old daughter, and husband, Alina moved West toward safety. Here, she sought out a pregnancy center to continue serving women who sought pregnancy help. Her newborn baby by her side, Alina started meeting with women — some local, some displaced from the southeastern and eastern parts of the country — to provide compassionate care and a listening ear as they discussed their futures. 

She humbly told us, “Please don’t think I’m a hero. I’m not a hero. And I’m not brave because I wanted to leave. I wanted to run for the sake of my children, but I would rather die than to disobey what God has called me to, which is to stay.”

Similarly, Alla, the national director, manages seven pregnancy centers throughout Ukraine. A widow with a sixteen year old and an eleven year old at home, Alla channels her hope and energy into the centers. Under her leadership, Save a Life centers have expanded across the nation.

She acknowledges that the loss of her husband to cancer when her children were young helped motivate her to get involved with pregnancy centers to be a pillar of support for women. Today, her children help by volunteering their time at the pregnancy centers as well, bringing them together in the work to save lives. 

Nadia travels between Ukraine and the United States to help raise awareness for Save a Life. In August, they hosted their annual conference in spite of the war. With more than 100 in attendance, this was an encouragement that God is at work in Ukraine through pregnancy help.

Understanding the risk of travel at this time in Ukraine, these three women joined 17 other countries at Heartbeat International’s European Pregnancy Help Summit in Bucharest, Romania. At the summit, they were able to share their experience both in living in a war zone and in serving in a war zone. As many of the European nations are serving Ukrainian refugee women, the insight Nadia, Alla, and Alina provided was timely and meaningful.

This team of women was an example of courage and strength, once again showing the world that women are capable of being mothers and accomplishing the work they are called to.

Heartbeat International invites you to the long-awaited and much-anticipated European Pregnancy Help Leaders Summit.

You are invited to Bucharest, Romania, September 15-17, 2022 for in-person networking, training, learning, and encouragement with like-minded leaders from the pregnancy help movement across Europe.

• What: 2022 European Pregnancy Help Leaders Summit
• When: September 15-17, 2022
• Where: Bucharest, Romania
• Affiliate Cost: FREE for two individuals from any Heartbeat-affiliated organization (Not affiliated yet? Click here!)
• Cost for Non-Affiliates: €189 per person

Register now!

Heartbeat is offering registration and accommodations (including breakfast and hotel meals) for two persons per affiliated organization. (This offer has limited availability and registration will be first come, first served.) We look forward to hosting you.Registration includes:

• 2 nights stay in double occupancy room
• Breakfast
• Lunch on Friday and Saturday
• Dinner Thursday Night

How to register your two leaders for free:

The Summit registration is FREE for two team members of an affiliate. When you are filling out the registration form, at the bottom of the form, click on Affiliate Double Occupancy and the cost reflected underneath should be 0.00. Then you register your second participant. Before you hit submit, double check to make sure that the total cost is still 0.00. Your credit card will not be charged so long as you click on "Affiliate Double Occupancy" (see screenshot below). 

If you want to register more than two people from your organization, at your cost, you will need to fill out a new form, registering with appropriate information and then just click on single or double occupancy. The cost reflected is per person. 

Contact Ellen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you run into any technical difficulties.

Thank you for your interest in affiliating with Heartbeat International. By joining Heartbeat, you join the largest pregnancy help network in the world with more than 2,800 organizations in over 60 countries. 

Affiliation for international organizations is just $70.00, and we are happy to offer you a complimentary affiliation for the first year. Whether you are a first time affiliate, or a second or fifth time affiliate you may email efoell@heartbeatinternational.org for a code. 

Upon affiliating, please contact username@heartbeatinternational.org to obtain your username and password - this unlocks access to many additional benefits.

Your affiliation provides you with a 20% discount on all resources found in the Store as well as online courses offered in the Heartbeat Academy. 

We offer leadership and development resources, in addition to a variety of other key training materials pertinent to your work. We also help to fund the regional organizations that offer direct training and assistance to individual life-affirming organizations. 

>> Click here to Affiliate <<

Thank you again for your heart to serve, to reach and rescue women and their children. It is my pleasure to serve you. 

Recommended Affiliate Resources Recommended to All Pregnancy Help Organizations

• View benefits of affiliation
• Our Commitment of Care and Competence
• Heartbeat’s Center Defense Toolkit
• Raising the Standard free course for affiliates
• Identifying Fake Clients
• Defending Your Online Reputation
• Free Publications
• Complimentary materials
• Free eNewslettersincluding articles such as Dealing with COVID Fatigue
• Heartbeat Academy

When a media request comes into your organization's inbox, how do you respond? 

As an organization, you should have a media plan in place in order to guide you in both nurturing new media relationships and having a rapid response plan for times of negative press. Join Heartbeat International and Alliance Defending Freedom International as we discuss how to engage the media. 

Date: 22 October 2020
Time: 12:45-16:15 GMT+2
Where: At Your Computer (details will be sent upon registration)
Presented by: Heartbeat International and Alliance Defending Freedom International

This forum is exclusive for Heartbeat International affiliates. There is no cost to attend, but you must register as space is limited. 

If you are not a Heartbeat Affiliate and are interested in learning more about joining Heartbeat International's Pregnancy Help Network, click here.

European Forum - Presenters

Andreas Thonhauser serves as director of external relations for ADF International, where he is responsible for building the organization’s media presence, forming alliances with key influencers and supporters. He acts as communications liaison with ADF International’s distinguished team of allied attorneys and organizational partners, managing all aspects of public relations and development Thonhauser has spoken at institutions like the UN, the EU Parliament, and international conferences and provided comment on topics like the persecution of religious minorities, parental rights, and freedom of education for international media outlets, including both popular news publications as well as scholarly journals. He regularly provides trainings in communication strategy, leadership, reputation and social media management. Thonhauser earned an MBA from the WU Executive Academy and a Master’s degree in German Philology/Anglistics and Americanistics from the University of Vienna. Prior to joining ADF International in 2015, Thonhauser worked for a European publishing house where he focused on strategy and business development.

Pastor Woody was raised on a dairy farm in Brunswick, Maine as a Quaker. While stationed in Germany with the Air Force, he was introduced to the Gospel in a personal way, and trusted Christ in 1978. He has now pastored two churches; both of them in Germany, and both of them ministering primarily to the American military community.

Since 1997, he has been involved with the ministry of the Kaiserslautern Crisis Pregnancy Center as a board member. In order to minister to a wider community, the center was renamed Heartbeat Crisis Pregnancy Center and was moved to the city of Ramstein, where Pastor Woody has been privileged to serve as board chairman since 2008.

Ellen Foell, Esq. has been with Heartbeat International since 2012 serving first as legal counsel and now as the International Specialist. She supports the leadership team in providing research and advice on pro-life trends and issues affecting Heartbeat International and its affiliates. Her work also involves general business, organizational and nonprofit issues, as well as interfacing with other pro-life organizations and attorneys who desire to assist pro-life organizations.

Ellen is a 1982 graduate from Case Western Reserve University School of Law. She has lived overseas as a missionary in Thailand, has practiced as a law clerk, associate in a law firm, and as an associate corporate counsel. She left law firm practice to begin her work in the pro-life movement in 1989 as a defense attorney for pro-life activists. She and her husband, Phil, have four children, Deborah, Anna, Sam and Paul. Her passion is teaching the Bible and working with international students on the Ohio State campus.

Jor-El Godsey serves as President of Heartbeat International, the largest affiliation network of pregnancy help organizations in the world. Jor-El leads a staff dedicated to equipping, empowering, and encouraging the thousands of leaders serving in Heartbeat affiliated life-affirming pregnancy help centers, maternity homes, and adoption services, in the U.S. and on every inhabited continent. Jor-El oversees Heartbeat’s core mission to reach and rescue lives at-risk for abortion through far-reaching programs that include Option Line and Abortion Pill Rescue Network

Heartbeat International’s Annual Conference is swiftly approaching!

Heartbeat International strives to assist individuals in other countries that seek to serve in pregnancy help ministry. Our annual conferences provide the greatest opportunity for diverse training, broad networking, and inspirational encouragement to our international affiliates.

We offer a limited number of financial scholarships for international conference participants who apply and are accepted. Scholarships vary due to demand, and scholarships may cover as much as:

• event registration fee(s),
• conference meals and
• hotel accommodations related to the conference.

We invite individuals such as the key leader/executive director, staff member, volunteer, counselor, and/or board member that is currently serving in an international pregnancy help organization to apply.

Eligible pregnancy help organizations are life-affirming non-governmental organizations (e.g. pregnancy resource center, medical help clinics, maternity housing, non-profit adoption agencies) that hold values consistent with Heartbeat International.

We also invite individuals demonstrating a strong and verifiable desire to open a new pregnancy help effort in their country/region and learn more about pregnancy help ministry. All scholarship applicants must be affiliated with Heartbeat International, either directly or through a joint affiliation partner.

Preference is given to those who:

1. are affiliated with our international partners (Africa Cares for Life, Canadian Association of Pregnancy Support Services, Pregnancy Help Australia, Centro de Ayuda para la Mujer Latinomerican, Association for Life of Africa, Movimento per la Vita, ProVida, Be’Ad Chaim, and Pregnancy Support Services Asia) and
2. access available local/regional training, especially those provided by our joint affiliation partners. We will verify affiliation, good standing, and attendance at trainings with these organizations, and
3. are direct affiliates in good standing with Heartbeat International. 

Each scholarship is granted with the idea that the recipient will use the conference experience to strengthen their ministry or to lay the groundwork for a new ministry. Scholarship recipients are therefore expected to attend all keynote sessions, workshops, and in-depth day, if available. International scholarship applicants should be somewhat fluent in English. Heartbeat conferences are presented in English and translation is generally not available.

It will be a hard close on January 30, 2020. That means that no applications will be accepted after January 30, 2020. Do not delay if you want your application to be considered. Late applications will not be considered.

Please refer to the FAQs here | Click here to access the scholarship application

Most questions should be answered immediately on our FAQ page, but please feel free to direct additional questions to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

by Ellen Foell, International Program Specialist
Heartbeat International

I recently returned from a trip to Johannesburg, South Africa, site of the 2019 Africa Cares for Life conference on "Bold Thinking, Courageous Steps." Africa Cares for Life currently has 73 member life affirming organizations stretching from Capetown at the southern tip to Pretoria in the north. With over 70 participants present at the conference, I had the incredible blessing to see how God is moving in a different country with a different historical context.

The conference had a mix of black and white South Africans. There were five nations represented. I heard English, Afrikaans, and a variety of other ethnic languages being spoken (South Africa has 34 languages with 11 official languages). But everyone at the conference was there to reach out with the Gospel of Life, to renew their communities and to rescue women, families and babies.

I had the privilege to present a keynote on Conscious Cultural Competence and three workshops on spiritual refreshment as well as mission focus.

Africa Cares for Life came into being through the faithful work of Gail Schreiner, 20 years ago. ACFL and Heartbeat have been in a formal joint affiliation partnership since 2008, a partnership which benefits and expands the reach of both organizations. Daniele Gradwell has attended several Heartbeat International annual conferences and has reciprocated with invitations to Heartbeat staff to participate at the ACFL conference. 

In 2018, Africa Cares for Life significantly increased its reach and impact. In 2018 alone, they were able to provide 4,110 consulting hours, equip 600 volunteers, and provide for more than 85,000 women and men who received pregnancy help and support.

This is just a glimpse of what we can do together! Thank you for continuing to share the Gospel of Life where you are and remember that around the world, people just like you are doing this work as well. And praise God for that!

by Gayle Irwin, Guest Writer

The Caribbean island of Saint Lucia welcomed its first pregnancy center a few months ago, and with help from Heartbeat International, staff members are fulfilling an unmet need for the nation’s pregnant women.

Helping Women and Families

“Women who have unplanned pregnancies in Saint Lucia live in extreme poverty,” said Cindi Boston, vice president of mission advancement for Heartbeat International. “There is a massive need. When you have a new start-up and have fewer resources, it takes time. But, they are doing very well.”

Boston took a team to the country a few years ago to work with the staff and supporters. Training included how to interact with clients, how to establish and manage a board of directors, and specific teaching to nurses and doctors on ultrasound techniques, which was taught by a Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer (RDMS). Just a few months ago, the Family Centre officially opened as part of the Caribbean Centre for Family and Human Rights (CARIFAM).

Tammy Stearns, RDMS, Sarah and Heartbeat Vice President Cindi Boston

Nadine, a doctor in training, Tammy Stearns, Cindi Boston, Dr. Ginny, and Shawna Charles

This organization was started in 2012 by Sarah Flood-Beaubrun, a strong pro-life advocate who was a member of the nation’s Parliament. She saw the increasing pressure upon the country to embrace abortion and decided to create a pro-life, pro-family organization to help solve the country’s social and economic problems as well as in response to attacks on fundamental human rights and the family.

Located in the West Indies, Saint Lucia is part of the Lesser Antilles. With an international outreach, Heartbeat has conducted summits and other trainings in the Caribbean, said Ellen Foell, the international program specialist at Heartbeat.

“Trying to advance the pro-life movement on an island can be isolating,” she said. “Heartbeat recognizes this and seeks to come alongside these organizations and centers.”

Nearly all pregnancy centers in the Caribbean are less than five years old, she added.

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Dedicated Volunteers

The Family Centre is managed by a three-person volunteer team: Nadine Khodra-Jn Baptiste and her husband Mitchell Jn Baptiste and Shauna Charles.

“We share the responsibility for oversight and working within the centre on a weekly basis,” Nadine said. “The Family Centre has been operating virtually for over a year. We opened the physical doors in May 2019.”

The community has been supportive, and many attended a blessing ceremony, she added.

However, opposing groups didn’t take long to implement advertisements luring women toward abortion, Boston said.

“After the website went up, there was a quick response from the pro-choice side,” she said.

The Family Centre meets needs not addressed by abortion organizations, with services and programs to help women find courage and hope to continue their pregnancies. The center offers pregnancy testing, ultrasound, options counseling, educational classes, material needs such as supplies for the baby, and post-abortion counseling.

Tweet This: The Family Centre meets needs not addressed by abortion organizations; they help women find courage and hope to continue their pregnancies.

“In addition to lack of resources, family tensions run high when an unexpected pregnancy occurs,” Nadine said. “The mother-to-be becomes even more confused because of all the contributing factors. Hence the need! If we can support in a loving environment, provide guidance and clarity, make family interventions, et cetera. Essentially, we can greatly lessen the likelihood of an abortion.”

Janine’s Story

That took place for “Janine” in an extremely unique situation. She was referred to the Saint Lucia center from Germany, Nadine said. 

“She was a St. Lucian who went to Germany to get married to a man with which she had had a long-distance relationship. The relationship became an abusive one very soon after she moved in with him,” Nadine said.

Within a few months, Janine decided she couldn’t stay in that relationship and sought to return to Saint Lucia. However, she also realized she was pregnant and reached out to an organization in Germany. That group contacted The Family Centre in Saint Lucia, seeking help for Janine.

“I met with her soon after she arrived and realized that there were other medical complications that would make it extremely difficult for her to carry the baby to term, despite the fact that she wanted to have her baby,” Nadine said. “In addition to counseling and emotional support, we were able to help her get funding to assist with her treatment and advanced monitoring of her pregnancy. Her healthy baby was born later that year.”  

Looking Toward the Future

A situation such as Janine’s prompts The Family Centre staff to look toward the future. As they continue to meet the needs of the island’s pregnant women, they envision being of greater help.

“We’d like to expand our reach and range of services to a fully-fledged state-of-the-art pregnancy and birthing centre which specializes in at-risk pregnancies,” Nadine said.

Heartbeat will continue to be guiding force for St. Lucia and other pro-life pregnancy centers around the world.

“We invest a lot [into international training],” Boston said. “We raise a lot of funds so that our international friends can come over [to a conference] every year. In fact, each year we have 30 to 45 internationals coming.”

Nadine and the rest of The Family Centre staff recognize the vital assistance given to them and other centers across the world.

“We are especially thankful to Heartbeat International for the training and support that they have provided us with over the past few years. Their contribution is a key component to the success of our organization,” she said.

This story is reprinted from the August 5, 2019 article at Pregnancy Help News.

by Ellen Foell, Esq., International Program Specialist

Heartbeat had the honor of being present at the first pregnancy center opened in Belgrade, Serbia

It is always a privilege to travel on behalf of Heartbeat International, whether it is to Arkansas or, in the most recent case, to Serbia, for the 2018 European Pregnancy Help Leaders’ Summit. A small Heartbeat team, which included as an honorary Heartbeat member, Mike Spencer from Life Training Institute, met with representatives from 16 organizations and 14 countries—from Romania to Ireland to France—to network, fellowship and share challenges, victories and current issues facing the pregnancy help movement. Topics covered in breakout sessions included a range from self-care to engaging the church and digitally reaching donors and clients.

In that kind of setting, one sees the hand of God working behind the scenes in so many instances (perhaps because one is actively looking for the intervention of God in the context of 14 languages, different alphabets and cultures, and a good dose of jetlag). Maybe one instance that this writer found most dear was the presence at the Summit of four women from Ireland, still reeling from the recent vote abolishing the eighth amendment of the Irish Constitution banning abortion just four months before.

As they face legalized abortion for the first time in their country, their attendance at the Summit was truly due to the providence of God. They needed to connect with other European pregnancy help leaders, to be encouraged and to reevaluate pregnancy help in a country committed to a path of abortion. In addition, they needed to connect with an attorney who might be able to help their centers in Ireland deal with some specific new legal challenges. They wanted to know if Heartbeat knew anyone who might be able to help.

Imagine their delight and praise to God to be told that one of the plenary speakers was an Irish barrister working with Alliance Defending Freedom who would make time during the Summit to speak with them.

That is what God is up to. That is the way God works. He is still working his purposes out day by day and year by year such that one day abortion will be unwanted throughout Europe—and the world—and unthinkable in the generations to come.

Ellen Foell, J.D., Esq., who previously served as Legal Counsel to Heartbeat International, has recently rejoined the Heartbeat Ministry Services team as International Program Specialist. Ellen’s introduction to pro-life work came as part of a team that defended peaceful, pro-life protesters. Ellen worked as a trial lawyer for many years after graduating from Case Western Reserve University. As legal counsel for Heartbeat, she was instrumental in laying the groundwork for several international initiatives, including our Europe Pregnancy Help Leaders Summit.

Ellen’s heart for the international program at Heartbeat is fueled by her family connections to Asia and Europe, and she is familiar with several languages. We’re thrilled to have Ellen working with the Heartbeat team again, so we decided to do a quick interview to share our excitement!

What did you do before with Heartbeat and what do you hope to do in your current role?

My last “gig” with Heartbeat was as Legal Counsel, a position now well-filled by Danielle White, Esq. I was in the position just under 5 years, and it was a wonderful experience. I had the chance to meet with lots of affiliates, do lots of legal reviews, do some teaching, and basically do all things legal for Heartbeat.

I always loved the mission and vision of Heartbeat, so when I had the chance to come back in a role with even more contact with affiliates, I was really excited. I see the pregnancy help movement across the globe is growing more and more. Look at what just happened in Ireland, a country where we never thought legalized abortion would come, and it did. Heartbeat is in a position to come alongside the pregnancy help centers where the political climate is changing. We have a lot to offer, and a lot to learn from these new organizations starting out, trying new things in new places.

What did you do with yourself between 2015, when you concluded your time as Heartbeat’s Legal Counsel, and now?

I finished writing a book and started getting it ready for publication. I have been doing some work representing ministries and nonprofit organizations. I’ve also been doing some court-appointed work.

I did court-appointed work because I have such a long history of desire to help children. When you do this here, you often get appointed to represent either parents, children, or the best interests of children in abuse, neglect, and dependency cases. I really like it because you get to look at all the facts, and help the court find out what’s in the best interest of these children.

At the same time, it’s like putting band-aids on this incredible cultural systemic problem. It’s frustrating because you can put the band-aid on, but you’re not dealing with the foundational piece, which is life is sacred. God sees the life of this child as sacred, and God sees the lives of these parents, regardless of what they’re doing, as sacred.

One of the reasons I really wanted to take this position is that Heartbeat really deals with the foundational issue – that life is sacred. You can apply a billion band-aids, but if you have not addressed the foundation piece, if you’re not trying to help create and transform the pro-life gospel in a culture, you’re gonna be applying band-aids for the rest of your life. People need to do that anyway until Jesus returns, but I really want to make the years I have left count, and I think this is the way to do that.

What’s one thing that you’ve already really enjoyed coming back to Heartbeat?

I love being a part of a team. It’s encouraging to be with like-minded people again. It’s encouraging to be with people who have a vision to see a world in which abortion is unthinkable.