As the final days of 2025 unfold, it is traditional for organizations to look back and take stock of the events that have shaped their mission, their work, and their families. This reflective period, often characterized by a sense of quietude following the Christmas season, allows for a necessary review of how God has demonstrated His power and might throughout the year. For PassionLife, the year 2025 has been a journey defined by both significant breakthroughs and sobering disappointments, all of which contribute to the ongoing effort to promote the Gospel of Life on a global scale. By reviewing these milestones, we can better understand the progress made and look forward with anticipation to the opportunities awaiting us in 2026.
The Strategic Foundation of the Mission
To understand the context of our 2025 review, one must first recognize that the work of PassionLife is grounded in a critical data point: only 3% of all annual abortions worldwide occur within the United States. This realization shifts the perspective of the moral crisis of abortion from a domestic political issue to a primary world missions challenge, as 97% of the crisis exists beyond American borders. We are driven by the biblical commission to rescue the innocent and bring good news to the guilty, acting as stewards who target countries where abortion, infanticide, and “gendercide”—the specific targeting of baby girls—are most concentrated.
At its core, this ministry remains a Gospel-centered, kingdom-driven movement. We have observed that the crisis of abortion often opens hearts to eternal and spiritual considerations, even among those who do not typically consider themselves spiritually minded. Consequently, the salvation of individuals is a natural byproduct of a biblically based approach to life-saving work. Maintaining this marriage between life-saving efforts and life-transforming Gospel work requires intentionality; history shows that many organizations, such as the YMCA or Harvard University, began with Christian foundations only to eventually drift into purely social efforts. We remain committed to God’s precepts, relying on the power of the Holy Spirit rather than human effort alone.
Generations of Leadership and the Latin America Breakthrough
A primary highlight of 2025 is the expansion of leadership, specifically through the extensive travels of Jeanie Perernia, who visited nine different countries this year. Her work in Latin America has been particularly fruitful, with our Latin America team reaching nations like Mexico, Cuba, and Argentina. In an exciting development, a staff member from Colombia even traveled to Korea, extending the team’s influence far beyond its traditional geographic scope.
This growth represents the fulfillment of a long-term goal: the transition from a founder-led ministry to second and third generations of leadership. When PassionLife began in 2012, the work was largely centralized around founders traveling to China. Today, national leaders are not only managing the work in their own countries but are training others and crossing borders to plant new ministries. This disciple-making model is particularly satisfying as it ensures the sustainability of the mission.
Jeanie’s personal background adds a profound layer of “anointing” to her work; as someone who ran an abortion business with her mother decades ago and experienced the trauma of abortion herself, she now shares her testimony of forgiveness and cleansing through Christ. In 2025, Jeanie extended her reach to India, where she utilized her expertise to train women in counseling and help them establish pregnancy offices.
India: The Nest and the “Number One” Challenge
India has presented some of the greatest challenges to our mission, yet 2025 provided a beautiful breakthrough in Eastern India. We celebrated the opening of a “Nest”—an acronym for Neighborhood Empathy in Special Times—just outside of Kolkata. This facility serves as a mother’s home for those needing temporary residence while considering their options, and it includes a dedicated counseling office for those at risk of abortion. To our knowledge, this is the first pregnancy health center ever opened in Eastern India, representing a small-scale victory that we hope to multiply thousands of times across the nation.
The urgency of the work in India cannot be overstated, as India is now considered the “new number one” location where abortion and infanticide are most concentrated. Consequently, our financial commitment to India is shifting dramatically; while we spent less than $15,000 there in 2025, we have set a goal to raise $250,000 for the Indian mission in 2026. This reflects a massive increase in our commitment to tackle the crisis where it is most severe.
Navigating Disappointments: Mozambique and Alexandria
A comprehensive year-end review must honestly include disappointments. In early 2025, a planned mission to Mozambique was abruptly halted when civil unrest led the government to deny our access just days before arrival. While this was a setback, such experiences are part of the reality of international missions.
Similarly, our expansion into Egypt—the first Muslim-majority country we have ever worked in—yielded mixed results. While we experienced a very passionate and exciting turnout in Cairo, a subsequent training session in Alexandria saw only four people in attendance at the start. While it is tempting to feel discouraged when traveling across the globe to speak to such a small group, we recognize that the “right four people” are always worth the effort. Often, these small beginnings are the necessary groundwork for building relationships that eventually lead to hundreds of participants in future years. We do not despise these small starts, as we trust the Lord is in the midst of them.
The Power of Persistence: The Guatemala Miracle
The value of enduring disappointment was perfectly illustrated in Guatemala this year. In 2020, a major training event in Guatemala City was shut down due to global circumstances, and for years, it seemed as though the door had closed. However, in 2025, we finally received an invitation to return, and the results far exceeded our expectations.
The demand for training was so high that the host church had to stop accepting registrations at 800 people due to fire codes. We provided these leaders with translated “four questions” booklets, which serve as the biblical foundation for answering the moral crisis of abortion. By the end of the day, the attending pastors committed to training their own congregations and fellow ministers. Remarkably, they have set a visionary goal to train 1.3 million people in Guatemala. This outreach, which grew from a five-year-old disappointment, stands as the largest single outreach in the history of PassionLife.
Triumphs in China and the Transformation of Cuba
In China, a late-year trip revealed that over 2,000 babies have been rescued from abortion through the efforts of those trained in our curriculum. Beyond individual rescues, we are seeing a significant cultural shift; the concept of helping women in pregnancy-related crises is becoming much more widely accepted within institutions and the government. This creates a “wide open level ground” for us to encourage further growth in 2026.
Our work in Cuba continues to be an awe-inspiring example of national transformation. In 2025, we held a national retreat in Havana for leaders across the island to celebrate their progress and engage in “iron sharpening iron” training. The results are statistically staggering: Cuba, which held the rank of number one in the world for abortion rates for several years, has dropped to number four in 2025. There are now over 50 churches in Cuba with organized pregnancy help ministries and at least 22 established pregnancy help centers. Since we first arrived in Cuba nine years ago, the transformation has been a work of God that “buckles your knees” in marvel.
Structural Growth and Stewardship
From an organizational standpoint, 2025 was a year of necessary structural expansion. To remain good stewards of the resources entrusted to us, we added three new members to our board of directors, bringing highly skilled life experiences to our leadership team. We also filled two new staff positions in the United States. Over the last few years, Passion Life has grown from a small entity into an organization with a $1.5 million budget, funded primarily by small donors, churches, and pregnancy centers.
Despite this growth, we maintain a lean operation; we do not have a central office because we prioritize sending as much funding as possible directly to overseas missions. Looking toward 2026, we are seeking to hire a Director of Asia Initiatives to oversee our expanding work in that region. We are also encouraged to see that funding is already falling into place for several major projects scheduled for the coming year.
A Call to Action for 2026
As we transition from 2025 to 2026, we invite our supporters to consider their role in this global mission. Year-end giving often accounts for upwards of 25% of an organization’s yearly budget, providing a critical foundation for the months ahead. We have introduced a specific challenge for those who value life and the Gospel: the “Coffee Cup Challenge”.
This challenge asks individuals to consider if they would be willing to give up the equivalent of one cup of coffee per day—roughly a $50 to $75 monthly pledge—to fight the intentional killing of innocent babies worldwide. This commitment allows us to rescue mothers and babies from the violence of abortion in the neediest places on earth. We are deeply thankful for those who weigh this invitation in their hearts and join us in this work.
This article is adapted from the episode transcript.