John Ensor: Well, we’re coming to the end of our year 2023, and it’s been a very exciting year. And I really appreciate the fact that so many of you have commented on how much you enjoy receiving our text updates. When we go into the field, uh, this past year, it’s been a real point of connection and there’s nothing that makes us happier.
Then to know that the people who are sending us, uh, feel present with us when we go to a challenging and hard places, whether that’s Romania or China or Cuba, uh, more recently, Chile. And so we’re really thrilled that we can do these updates with you. And, uh, today I just want to welcome you all at the end of the year and wish you a Merry Christmas.
Uh, Mark Nicholson has, has joined, uh, with us today, along with our coworker, uh, Anderson, who lives at Ocampo, who lives down in Columbia. Uh, but welcome everybody to this, uh, Chile update and end of the year summary. Uh, Mark, it’s good to see you made it back from Chile.
Mark Nicholson: We barely made it back. Yeah, I mean, yeah, of course we.
They, they had to, they held my passport for a long time and looked at me like, I don’t know if this guy should come back into the United States. No, it’s, uh, we had a, we had a great trip to Chile and, um, I was glad that we were able to be there with a small team, this time of passion, like representatives, so we had.
Really, there were five of us, John, on this trip. There was, uh, myself and my wife who I, people ask me a lot, does your wife travel with you? She does not often travel with me, but we’re empty nesters this year. And, um, uh, I’m trying to take her on some of the trips just to, to have her alongside, which is great.
And she’s a help. And then we met up with Jeannie Pernia, who is our, our Latin America director for Passion Life. And it’s always good to travel with Jeannie. And um, one of the great things that has happened in Passion Life over the last couple of years is that we’ve been able to really bring on more regional representatives from other countries that we really think of just as staff, teammates.
Brothers and sisters in Christ that we work with in the trenches day in and day out. So Anderson is one of those guys, and I’m going to introduce you a little more deeply to Anderson in just a second, but just to round out the team of five, the last person was Nadu. She’s also a Colombian teammate. She lives in Bogota, Colombia, and Anderson is from Medellín.
Anderson, why don’t you say hello and introduce yourself a little bit. Yes, uh,
Anderson Ocampo: hello everyone. Thank you, Mark and John, for this opportunity to be here. As you say, I am now one year and a half as part of the team. Since the first time I work with John back in 2018 in the long course in the school, the theological seminar.
And to me, that was a response to what I was looking for. You know, the material, uh, Passion Life has developed through the years is so intuitive that You know, some truths, but you need to know how to communicate those beliefs you already have. I found that and I am very thankful with the Lord and, and everybody that has been supporting me all these years to be part of the team and now travel through Latin America.
Mark Nicholson: Yeah. And you’ve got, you’ve got a wife and kids.
Anderson Ocampo: I do. Um, I just had my 10th anniversary with my wife. Wow. I have two kids. And they are growing. They are growing. Uh, they are the ones that I miss the most during the trips. Um, they call me all the times and messages and yeah, it’s happy. To be home.
John Ensor: Yeah. Yeah.
At first, we had Anderson, uh, teaching more locally in Medellín and then around Colombia. And this past year or so, he’s been more and more traveling, uh, throughout Latin America. My understanding is that your daughter was quite angry at you when you left the country.
Anderson Ocampo: Yeah. The last time, uh, she was crying.
I. I felt that, uh, you know, I felt guilty after I shut the door, uh, but I just had to deal with it and come back and, and, and meet my promises to her, you
Mark Nicholson: know. She’s, she’s at that beautiful age where she just really, really, really adores her dad and misses him when he’s gone. That’s, that’s a sweet thing.
What is she, eight or nine? She’s eight. Eight. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah, it is a beautiful
John Ensor: thing. So you guys all went to Chile for about a little over a week. I know you went to three different cities, but again, uh, uh, the text really help people to feel like they’re with you, but now in the kind of a summary fashion, kind of give us some highlights of your time there in Chile.
Well, why don’t we
Mark Nicholson: start with Anderson on that Anderson, can you maybe fill people in on what kind of trip this was, why we went and, um, just kind of what some of the highlights were.
Anderson Ocampo: Sure, sure. Well, this is my eighth country in the last year, Latin America, and we had some expectations to Chile. Every time we try, we, we, we trip, we do a trip on, it’s like a sport trip.
We want to discover what new leaders can feel the fire to start working on this, either with their pastor or, um, medical doctors or, or teacher of, um, high school teachers. And I think this trip to Chile was very surprising. Uh, I think it was beyond my expectations. Because sometimes you go to a place and you do a training, you give your best shot, but there’s not much movement, you know, people become aware.
Sometimes it takes time for people to wake and realize that, hey, God has been speaking about this for years, for thousands of years. So what we found in these three cities, the capital, Santiago, and Linares, and the other one was Serena. is that the couple that brought us, that invited us to Chile, they got it.
I think they got it. They understand what is this about. They understand what God says and they, and they are hands on it already. As a matter of fact, tonight we have a virtual meeting via Zoom with leaders from Chile and other countries, but maybe from Chile. that are ready to reteach the four questions and they want to learn how.
They kind of want to refresh their memory. Um, um, how to do it in a simple way. Okay.
John Ensor: Anderson, let me interrupt you there. Just, just to summarize, a lot of people will know what these four questions are, but I, I’m hoping that we’re gaining new people all the time. So, uh, let me review for everybody. Uh, wherever we go in the world, we try to teach, uh, biblical Christian ethics and crisis intervention in a way that you can hear it, obey it, and immediately share it.
So we’ve simplified a lot of, uh, of things down to four questions. So you’ll hear us talk about four questions all the time. Four questions are number one. What does the Bible say about human life, including life in the womb? This is where you get to establish the foundation of human value and so being made in the image of God and the fact that the unborn actually is human.
Therefore it deserves human protection. Number two, what does the Bible say about the shedding of innocent blood, including abortion? This is the, the, the most difficult of the four questions, because then we’re really looking at. that how God responds to the intentional killing of innocent human beings.
Number three is the good news. What does the Bible say about experiencing God’s forgiveness, uh, from the guilt and the grief of abortion? So here we get to remind people why the gospel is called good news and help them To be washed and cleansed and moved from being a secret into a testimony, uh, wherever they live over this issue.
And the final question is what does God call us to do to stop shedding of innocent blood? And this is where we get into the, uh, good Samaritan model and organized models of crisis intervention, whether that’s using the ultrasound or starting a pregnancy help medical clinic. And so that’s the kind of the foundation of all that we do at passion life.
Go back to Anderson. Go ahead. So you’re going to teach that tonight.
Anderson Ocampo: Yes. Essentially, um, as you say, those are the main topics that, like the big umbrella of our Christian ethics. And people get excited about it, but our main objective is not to just give a conference, but to show people they can do it if they want to do it.
So that’s what I’m going to do tonight. I’m going to show them, hey, you may feel the temptation to speak about a lot of things. But if you keep it simple in the way we have been replicating it in all over the world, you will be more effective. So, um, yes,
John Ensor: there’s a lot of things. So two weeks ago, you’re teaching it.
And this week, those people are getting ready to reteach it, which is what Mark and I say is the definition of our success. Marco, you always say if we, if they don’t start reteaching it within two weeks, then we failed our mission.
Mark Nicholson: That’s right. If they don’t teach it in two weeks, they’re probably never going to teach it because the, the, the details and their memory gets a little fuzzy.
The passion gets a little dim, but this is, this is an important mission principle. Like Anderson said, we. There’s a temptation to expand on it and add all this information and make it intricate and make it an impressive presentation. But if you strip it down and say, what does the Bible say about those four things, John, that you just went over and you teach it in a simple way, then everybody feels empowered to go out and reteach that.
And that way you can start a movement, not just teach a church or a group of people.
John Ensor: Well, that’s pretty exciting, Anderson. So you’re going to be working this evening, uh, circling back with some of the people that you just met less than two weeks ago. Yes. Uh, I just
Anderson Ocampo: checked our, our Google form earlier and we have about 40 people signing out for this meeting, all the leaders, uh, pastors led again by this couple that invited us.
Pulling them and organizing coordinators in these different cities. So my hope is to expand. One hour explaining the basic sequence of each question and then having some Q and a so many people answer some, you know, some doubts and clarification
Mark Nicholson: may have. That’ll be, that’ll be great.
John Ensor: Simple is also a mission.
Principle, as you mentioned, Mark, but the also the other thing, I think it would be helpful to just remind people is it’s a missionary principle to find what we call the man of peace. You know, the people who get it, who are ready. And that’s why I hear Anderson saying that when you got to Chile, you found people highly motivated, ready to go eager, hungry.
Yeah.
Mark Nicholson: In fact, the, the couple that, that really did a lot of the organizing for us, it was like the perfect scenario because. It’s a pastoral couple that the husband is a pastor and his wife, who’s very, very eager to help women and get involved in the ministry this way. And they really did a lot of the organizing, which was a beautiful thing.
Maybe Anderson can describe how well organized this was so that when we got there, we felt like we were off to the races rather than trying to pull people in, but this couple, I think probably an Anderson, you can correct me if I’m wrong. They probably spearheaded getting together this 40 leaders are said that you’re going to meet with tonight.
Almost all of them, I would guess we’re at one of our four questions trainings, and I’m sure there are some people who have been, uh, who have heard that we were there who are going to get on this meeting tonight. to learn for the first time about the four questions. And so as you teach, uh, how to teach the four questions, some of these people are going to be hearing it for the first time, but they’ll be able to go with these other leaders who are going to be training it and hear it for the first time, even as they’re participating.
Anderson Ocampo: Yeah, in fact, I did. I spoke with this couple today in preparation for tonight, and they say, you know, there’s a lot of people that they want to teach the four questions, but we want to do it under the leadership of this church. So I think it’s a, it’s a good problem because people want to do it, and we can’t track it.
But we want to, you know, to have key leaders that they really, after they teach it, they can know what’s the next step, you know, how they are going to help women in crisis in their own community.
John Ensor: Exactly. So you go to a place like Chile, you go to a place like Chile, you see if there’s going to be a spark.
And if there is a spark, then you got to figure out how to fan it into flames and how to keep it burning along the right lines. So, uh, the good news creates more challenges as we go. And Mark, I’m a little surprised you’re even able to join us today because I’m surprised you’re not sleeping in bed, given all the travels that you’ve been through in the last month, but it’s been covered by work.
And
Mark Nicholson: Yeah, I’ve been around the world a little bit in the last month and Uh, to be fair, Anderson has been with me on, on some of those travels, but I, I did go down about a month ago now to meet up with Anderson in Medellín, Colombia. And the two of us taught together at a Christian counseling conference and family life conference, if you will, in Medellín.
And that was really fun. It was a good time for, for Anderson and me to spend some time together, both teaching and just hanging out. We need that as, as staff and as brothers. And then I left, uh, Medellín, Colombia, and instead of coming home, I flew straight to Kathmandu, Nepal, and,
John Ensor: uh, was supposed to meet up.
Kathmandu, that’s like movie kind of stuff. It
Mark Nicholson: is. I mean, you know, hey, it’s, it’s, it’s got a little bit of a mysterious, uh, aura
John Ensor: to it. Is that where you go when you go on a climb up to the top of the world?
Mark Nicholson: You know, when you fly into Kathmandu, you’re looking right at the Himalayan mountains, including Mount Everest.
I mean, so it’s a, it’s a pretty impressive plane ride to come into Kathmandu, especially if you catch it on the right day. Um, but I was in Kathmandu for several days and taught the four questions at two different. Churches with different groups of pastoral leaders. And then I went to India and met up with one of passion life, uh, kind of regional representatives there.
A lot like Anderson is in Columbia. This guy’s an Indian pastor and we taught together in India. And then I came home and I ate a Turkey. Uh, for Thanksgiving and spent a couple of days with my family before I got on a plane and went and met up with, uh, Anderson and the rest of the team in Chile for this week.
So yeah, it’s been an intense, but really enjoyable month of travel.
John Ensor: And while you guys were doing that, I went off to Romania as well. So in the last, uh, month we’ve been to Romania, Colombia. Nepal, India, and Chile. That’s right.
Mark Nicholson: And just a few weeks before that, our teams were in Brazil and Bolivia. So, I mean, it’s, there’s a lot of moving around, uh, this year.
It’s been a, it’s been a great busy year of teaching for Passion Life.
John Ensor: Well, let’s step back then and take a quick, uh, look at the whole year then. Um, uh, we’re going to pull up a couple of slides for you. We’re just going to walk you through it. Um, but just as a reminder to everybody, Um, you know, our, our mission is to go to the places of greatest need and to rescue the most vulnerable, uh, unborn babies and often desperate and abandoned mothers, uh, in the world.
And so in this one slide that you’re going to see here. It’s kind of a, a chart just to remind everybody again, uh, what passion life is all about. Uh, we go out and we try to teach pastors and those pastors end up. uh, teaching their churches, uh, the four questions, the church members get a zeal for rescuing the innocent and they begin to do that, uh, they begin to rescue the mothers and then, uh, uh, And then relationships are formed.
And in many, many cases, these mothers get a lot of practical help. The babies are born. And in some cases, many of these, uh, women and couples actually begin to start a relationship with Jesus Christ. So my summary of what we’re all about is, is that passion life really is a community of people like you and me.
Uh, who are committed to answering God’s call, rescue those being taken away to death. Proverbs 24. That’s kind of our theme call. We teach, we train, we introduce models of intervention, and then we try to do everything in a, uh, reproducing way. There’s another way of looking at our mission that we just kind of use, uh, as, as a graphic.
In this next slide, you’ll see these three, um, pictures of flowers. The first one is a little bit droopy and that’s kind of representing the women in crisis that, that are really, uh, dying on the inside and facing difficult situations. And we know from experience now that when you come alongside these broken flowers and support them.
It’s not too much longer until you get to see, um, life flourishing like a garden. And so we, we, that’s kind of a, uh, uh, pictorial way of suggesting our mission. And, uh, that first slide there, I believe this is in Vietnam, Mark. Uh, where, uh, our, our, our brother Dave waters is serving, but again, just showing that babies start to be rescued and mothers, uh, get help.
And a lot of good things happen once. believers are involved in human crisis. Well, this
Mark Nicholson: and this is the, this is the picture also john, that our ministry is not just about the four questions and training pastors and teaching. Once those things have happened, then this is actually Uh, what we’re looking for.
We’re looking for changed lives. We’re looking for saved babies. We’re looking for mothers who are empowered and rescued from vulnerable circumstances and people who are able to, to grow and thrive and in a spiritual community, ideally.
John Ensor: That’s right. That’s right. Friends in China sent us, uh, this next picture and they just wanted to celebrate the fact that this was another couple, the ones holding the babies.
Um, and many people in China are familiar with having one baby, having two babies is a stretch when you’ve had, uh, 35 years of the one child policy. This is a couple that really struggled and she went to the hospital. Uh, and she was in the hospital secretly to have an abortion when she was pregnant.
Second time. But she met the, the, the lady. Wearing the red blouse there. Sister by. Who is a highly trained now and well experienced in crisis intervention who worked with them. And this is a picture of her and, and some of the other team. They’re making a house call to them. Cause again, it’s not just teaching the four questions.
It’s tracking these women in these couples and, uh, and seeing. how God is going to bless their lives as they get to know his will and move forward from there. And this is a
Mark Nicholson: practical, uh, illustration of the, the false hood of the claim that’s often made against per life people that we only care about babies up until the moment they’re born.
And then we don’t care about the mothers and the babies anymore. You can see these babies are clearly, uh, on their way to their first birthday or so my, I don’t have my glasses on, so I can’t see exactly how old they are, but we’ll stay these, these teammates will stay involved in their lives for many times, for years, depending on what the family’s needs are.
And it’s just a beautiful thing to see them go into their house, just to check up on them and see how the babies are growing and what can we do for you? And how can we pray for you?
John Ensor: That lady that you see in red last time I had dinner with her, uh, her phone must’ve rang about 12 times during the dinner because she and her team are tracking so many mothers all day long.
It’s just, it’s quite a thing to see. Uh, this next one, a couple of mothers, uh, and babies. And in this case, a grandmother from Cuba. Um. Anderson, can you say anything about this one? Yeah,
Anderson Ocampo: well, Cuba, I have been three times there. I know you guys have been there more than I, but I think Cuba is the biggest example that I can find in Latin America.
If it is possible to do it there, it is possible anywhere. I think the people there, they mobilize with the low resources they have, and they start counseling, they organize these rooms, sometimes, you know, in a neighbor’s house, uh, in the room in the church itself, and people just come, and they, you know, and they track them, and they go to their houses, and like this picture, They have a lot of rescues.
They have rescued mothers from aborting. Some of these mothers already have taken multiple abortions. And this is like the rebirth for them. Because they now, they have their children. And the whole family is restored. I have seen maybe 10 women in the same church that were rescued. Now the church is full of people.
John Ensor: That’s right. That’s right. In this next slide. This is our partners in Africa. We just love these people. Uh, we’ve been partnering with them for a number of years. Uh, the lady in the black blouse is Barbara Mwanza, and the man behind her in the suit is Edward Mwanza. And over 20 years ago, they started a ministry called AFLA, uh, Association for Life Africa.
And they’re partners of us. We were with them last year in Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia. Yep. Uh, I have another picture of them with their t shirts. It all says four questions on it. I should have pulled that one up because they’re training in, uh, uh, uh, Mali, uh, just this week they got back from, uh, Burundi. Yeah.
So, And
Mark Nicholson: they’re of course, they’re a, they’re a well equipped pro life organization in their own right. But one of the things that they see, uh, value in is the pastoral training of the four questions. And that’s why we call them partners. They do a lot of things with, uh, women and pregnancy work all over the continent of Africa, but, but teaching alongside of us when we’re able to go to Africa and then going out on their own and teaching the four questions is one of the things that they have implemented as an organization.
John Ensor: That’s right. That’s right. And so this team in the next slide, you can see some of the fruit of their work here. They are presenting a handheld ultrasound and an iPad to a doctor. I don’t know what country this is. And the other picture is in the middle of their teaching the four questions and handing out the fetal models which is always a high point in the day when people get to see what they look like in the womb.
But it’s exciting to get pictures from places that we have never been directly and see the word going out.
Mark Nicholson: Again, that’s a mission’s high watermark, as John says, for us when, when, when John and Anderson are not, and I are not the ones who are out there teaching, and yet we’re getting pictures from around the world of pastors and leaders being trained and then turning around and training one another.
John Ensor: That’s right. In this next slide here, uh, it shows that another highlight this year is we gave out more ultrasound machines in the last 12 months than we ever have in the last 12 years. And that’s a, another good sign that our movement is growing and our opportunities to help move from teaching the pastors, the Bible to seeing the churches equipped and starting to rescue the innocent and then needing them to be equipped to do that in the most effective way.
And so, um, We have a laptop version that we’ve handed out and we have this handheld version that we’ve handed out. And, um, I think we’ve handed some out right in Columbia, Cuba, Vietnam.
Mark Nicholson: Um, and, and in some of the African countries, we took eight ultrasounds on our most recent trip to Africa.
John Ensor: And then we went to Ecuador as well.
I think we gave one there. We did. Yeah. Yeah. Um, in the next slide, you’ll see that, um, this is kind of a picture of all the places that we traveled this year, uh, 12 different countries. And, uh, we didn’t make it to Africa this year, but we will in 2024, but we’ve been busy and in some places cases, uh, Cuba.
And now I’m not even sure how to count Cuba because if I go to Cuba, I’ll count it. Uh, but now I got to start counting those three trips that, uh, Anderson made as well because we didn’t go together. Uh, so some places that we really, really concentrated our efforts in and some are just more of exploratory trips, right?
That’s right. Yeah.
Anderson Ocampo: And John, what you say is that it seems that every, every day, aversion is more concentrated throughout Latin America. That’s right. We get invitations. We get more leaders interested. We get messages, emails. And I think one of the beauties of this work is that we don’t have to control or track our leaders.
Sometimes they do things that we don’t expect or we don’t know, like, I have seen people teaching in a way that I never imagined I have been, you know, I have seen people explaining a text in a way that I, I never thought or, or they come, they come to me after a train and say, Hey, you know, uh, that text spoke to my heart in this way, when you explain this or that, and I think, wow, I never thought about that.
So the power of God is moving. I think God is moving in Latin America. Yeah. That’s a great thing. And, and, and the church is starting to realize about this crisis from within and therefore questions and, and, and all the, uh, resources passion I has to offer meets that
John Ensor: need. Exactly. Exactly. In the next slide, we’re trying to emphasize the fact that if you take a quick look at the entire year, We would say that most of our effort this year has been in, in Latin America with Anderson and Jeanne and they do, and they’re
Anderson Ocampo: actually managing that picture.
That’s a beautiful city,
John Ensor: your house there. No, I don’t see. But for many years we worked exclusively in Asia. And, uh, and, and right now we really expanded our efforts into Latin America and have a whole team of leaders of which, uh, you Anderson are a key part of that. So thank you. Yeah. Explain this next, uh, uh, slide if you could, Anderson.
Anderson Ocampo: Yeah. That’s, uh, that’s if I am on Cuba. Yes. That’s right. That’s very exciting. I was there. I, I was there with Jeannie delivering that ultrasound and they started using it immediately. One of the things that I am very impressed and impacted by the Cuban people is that they don’t think in the limits. You know, sometimes I speak with leaders in our country, and they say, you know, uh, we can’t do that.
We can’t do this. And, and they don’t think about that. They just do it. They just go to the house. They just open this little room right there out. This is the church that doesn’t have a sign or anything. And they allocated a room to organize this. And they just received ladies from the neighborhood. And the pastor and his wife, they are very deeply into this ministry.
They are a pro life church, pro life leaders. They have a telegram group. They communicate more through telegram and they, that’s how they disseminate. This material and they sometimes let know this late is that they can have the ultrasound for free and they have, they can have counseling. So yes, I have been there and it has been, uh, changed that room.
I, I remember when that room was just, um, bricks, you know, I have bricks in my background, but those bricks were, you know, that’s Cuba. They were different. And they pass it. One day I talked to him on the phone and he was in a, in a ladder. painting and organizing everything. I think that was just amazing to
John Ensor: me.
Yeah. I think that most people, uh, even in Columbia, I think you would agree. Uh, are unfamiliar with the level of poverty and the lack of resources that, that the believers and the people in Cuba are suffering under. And that’s why we, we, we’re so encouraged when those people gather their strength and they believe God and they begin to rescue mothers and, and try to find practical, uh, ways to help them, including financial ways.
Uh, it’s inspiring for the rest of us for sure. Yeah. I use
Anderson Ocampo: the stories from Cuba as an example, whenever I. Talk to leaders or training Columbia here in my city and other countries because they need to know the effects that they are having in the rest of Latin America, like their way. So they work. You know, people need to know what they are doing.
Yeah, that’s right.
Mark Nicholson: Getting inspired. Yeah, there’s stories from Cuba go all over the world and inspire Christians in other
John Ensor: countries. And if you’ve got any year end giving to do, uh, people always want to know how much it costs for us to put one of these in a needy place like Cuba. And our best estimate is it costs us about 6, 000 to place this handheld brand new state of the art ultrasound and an iPad in the right place so keep that in mind if you want to contribute.
Thank you. Let’s go on to this next slide mark tell us what this. What this impact study is.
Mark Nicholson: Okay. So we did a contract with an, with an outside organization to do an impact study of how effective our work had been in Cuba. And that meant that we sent, uh, our advancement director down with our, with Jeannie, our, our director for Latin America to go into Cuba and interview women and leaders in places where we’ve been working and collect data and statistics and number, yeah.
Numbers, not so that we can come back and, and toot our own horn about all the, the, the great numbers of people who’ve been affected, but so that we can track our progress and be able to know what’s happening year over year and be able to communicate it clearly with donors, like the people watching this, this very video, here’s what God has, has done with the, with the finances and the sacrifice and the, the generosity that you guys have provided for this ministry.
John Ensor: So this is kind of a reflection of our stewardship commitment is to make sure that we use, uh, funds appropriately. And then, then we measure whether we’re falling short or how we can improve and get the most out of, uh, all of our efforts. So we’re happy about this, that we’re going to be able to send this to anybody.
It will probably be setting it out as a link pretty soon in one of our emails. So watch for that, but this is an independent, uh, study that was. That’s been done and we’re very excited about some of the details and the assessment and some of the new suggestions that we’ve got as a as takeaways. That’s right.
Let me comment on this slide. This next one. This is me down in Cucuta, Colombia. There was, uh, I don’t know, close to 1000 people in this auditorium at the top of that picture. They are probably one of the larger crowds that I spoke to this year. And then the bottom picture is me speaking at, uh, about to the, uh, Rolf conference includes Romania last month, uh, with about 300.
key, uh, Christian pastors, uh, bloggers, artists, uh, radio personalities, uh, doctors and lawyers and other types of things. So one of the things that we’re encouraged over the last year is that, that while we have quietly spread from country to country, uh, our reputation is slowly growing and we are being invited into more, uh, settings in which, uh, We can get to more and more of the key leaders with these four questions.
Exactly. Moving on. Uh, this is kind of a quick look at the growing team. Uh, in fact, I’m trying to think, I don’t know that we hired anybody new in the United States in the last, in 2023. That’s definitely correct. Is that correct? Okay. So we’re about to bring on. Yes. We’re about to bring someone on in January.
We’re excited about, but, but in the last year, year and a half, almost all of our hiring and expansion has been overseas. That’s right. And this is a reflection of some of our team and our partners. around the world. So people want to know how we’re doing. This is another measure point that we really, this is missions.
You know, we want to go to these places that we want to raise up the leaders and then we want to empower them more and more. And you can see Anderson’s handsome face down there on the lower left. Yeah, that’s right. What’s this one all about, Mark?
Mark Nicholson: Well, three years of developing this new fetal model. And this year, right here at this time of the year around Christmas time, we’re able to really introduce it to the public.
And we’re so excited about it. Uh, we have used for years, a fetal model. That’s a lovely illustration of life grown in the womb. It’s a medically accurate depiction depiction of what a fetus looks like at a certain number of weeks of gestational development. But we felt like we needed. To have our own model.
It’s a little younger, a little closer to the time when most women find themselves in the kind of crisis that precipitates abortion, um, and with a little more accurate medical accuracy. So we are releasing this what we’re calling the passion life tiny baby. We call it the tiny baby and you can learn more about it.
at tinybaby. org and we’re going to be sending these new models out around the world now that we’ve, we’ve tested them with doctors and people all over the world. It’s really
John Ensor: exciting. Amen. Amen. I, I think we can put 50, 000 of these out in the field this year with, uh, if we get enough support. So they’re, they’re good quality
Mark Nicholson: models and, uh, we’re, we’ve gotten the production costs down to somewhere around a dollar a piece.
So we can get one of these. overseas and in someone’s hands for about a dollar apiece. We’d like to go, for instance, when we went to Chile, I think we probably took two or 300 of these things and gave them out to participants in the four questions trainings so that not only could they use that to, to turn around and show other people, Hey, this is what life looks like at this crucial point of development within the womb.
Yeah. They can continue to just disseminate that information and pass that model from, from hand to
John Ensor: hand. And then one last surprising development. Mark, I’ll let you come in on this. You know me, I can’t. Well, it’s it’s
Mark Nicholson: surprising for john, but it’s not surprising for those of us who’ve known john for a long time.
This book was, this is a sort of a coffee table style, um, presentational book
Anderson Ocampo: right here.
Mark Nicholson: Yeah, yeah, it was put out by the Florida Family Policy Council this last year on the one year anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade. They decided to highlight, highlight 50 of the leaders who have been most instrumental over the 50 years in seeing Roe v.
Wade fall and leading the pro life cause in the United States and around the world for all that time. John Insor, our president, of course, was chosen as one of those 50 most influential leaders of the last 50 years in the pro life effort. It’s a, it’s a banner, uh, recognition, I think for John and, um, you know, but it’s fitting exactly fitting.
John Ensor: So if people wanted to get a copy of this book, uh, I believe they could go to legacy of life,
Mark Nicholson: legacy of life. com. And there are a couple of online booksellers who would be able to get it to you. But if you look up legacy of life, you’ll be able to order your own copy. It’s a beautiful, beautiful book to have on your, on your, uh,
John Ensor: about a 60, uh, uh, value 57, 60, something like that.
But, uh, again, if you. If you guys, uh, if you guys want to make a, like a monthly donation to us and stay with us month in the month that I will be glad to sign one and send it to you’d be my honor and privilege. So that’s another option for you to keep in mind. Yeah. Uh, so let’s wrap this up. Um, Hey John, I’m
Anderson Ocampo: sorry.
Yeah, let me jump in right there if I may. Uh, one of the things I recommend about this book is that. If you want to understand, if one wants to understand the historical moment of the pro life movement, that, that’s, that’s a good book. I think it shows the builders, a strategist, defines every leader in a different block and kind of gives you an idea of where you’re at so that you can be inspired and, and know that like me, like I’m not a beginner.
I’m not a builder. I’m more like continuing the legacy of those 50 years. And of course, I feel humbled working with you. So, that’s a great book. Well,
John Ensor: we feel humble when we see names like, uh, Ronald Reagan and mother Teresa and other people in this book. I mean, everybody’s building on top of the earlier generation.
And that’s the, again, that’s the nature of the gospel. And, and, uh, you’re going to build on what, uh, Mark and I have developed and then you’re going to be, uh, raising up your own replacement over time. So that’s the nature of the gospel. That’s the glory of the gospel at its best. So, okay, we want to summarize and wrap up and cause I got Christmas shopping to do.
I know you do too. Yeah. Um, but here’s this last slide, Mark, you want to comment on it? Well,
Mark Nicholson: I think it’s really exciting that passion life has only been around now we’re in our 11th year of operation and it just started out as one country, China, and as of this year we’ve expanded out and it really depends on how you count it and how you see it.
We’ve expanded out into at least 3132 Countries where we have been as Passion Life representatives and trained leaders in churches to train others. But if you’re counting, uh, like AFLA, the Association for Life Africa, and these guys who go out on four questions training trips into Burundi and, and other places, we think that we’re up somewhere around 37, 38 countries where, uh, the Passion Life model is actually perpetuating right now.
So that’s a, that’s a really exciting thing. We’re in at least 22 different languages so that we can help. Some of the bigger language regions of the world and it’s not, it’s what that does is it, it shows that the Lord is expanding our influence and we’re pushing the boundaries every year into new places we’re exploring.
And, um, yeah, just really excited to answer the call as it, as it comes from wherever it comes.
John Ensor: Well, it’s at this time of the year that you really have a sense again of how dependent you’ve been on the Lord to provide. And you’re so appreciative of those who have sown into this work. There are many, many demands on our charity.
So I’m, I’m always. Uh, honored, whether someone sends us 10 a month or send us 100, 000 check, it’s just a humbling thing to be such a recipient of partners who believe in the mission and want to be a part of it. Um, and I don’t know what’s going on in your fan on all of your families, but we certainly are so thankful that you’re part of this family passion life.
And we certainly pray that, uh, whether you’re going through hard times or good times, you will sense the presence of the Lord, especially during this Christmas season. And, uh, if you are still able to give, do so, but, but just as important is just to share, uh, this ministry with a friend or two, because we, we, we’d love to be able to double the number of people praying and participating in this mission.
And we think it’s to their joy as much as to our joy. So with that said, uh, blessings on your Christmas day and let us, uh, bind our hearts together. For the hard work in 2024. Amen. Mark. Amen. Thanks guys. Anderson. God bless you guys. Thank you so much.
I think it’s really important for us to investigate who’s doing things well and to see that they are both trustworthy and impactful. I’m going to do that with the things that I give to you and I invite you to do that with PassionLife. And if we pass the test, join us because we’ve got another 12 or 15 countries that we want to get to in the coming year of 2024.
May God fill you with great joy in this season and give you a heart to want to do more with your time, your talent and your treasure. God bless.