Meet PassionLife
Mission Statement
PassionLife works as a prolife global missions partner to missionaries and indigenous Christian leaders, where the plague of abortion, infanticide and gendercide is especially concentrated.
In such places we disciple people in a biblical worldview of human value, teach them how to make the case for life in a secular culture, see abortion guilt and grief as an entry point for the Gospel’s offer of forgiveness and freedom, and provide models of pregnancy crisis intervention services that they can adapt to their culture and neighborhood.
Core Commitments
The Word of God: We are primarily teachers of the Word. We carry an earnest commitment to teaching it accurately, contextually and with passion. We trust that in so doing, God brings to the hearer conviction, repentance, resolve, joy, true knowledge and good works.
The People of God: Despite her weaknesses, the Church continues as God’s chosen instrument of personal transformation and social reformation. It was the Church spreading the Gospel through ministries of mercy that led to social reformation in the past— Sati (widow burning) in India, twin-killing in Africa, and foot-binding in China. Our approach to ending child-killing is to help the Church reject abortion wholeheartedly and faithfully rescue mothers and babies from abortion through the development of pregnancy crisis intervention services.
The Gospel of God: We’ve discovered that prolife work is most effective when viewed through the lens of the Gospel. For example, it is helpful to see that women and couples in a pregnancy-related crisis are in a crisis of faith. Abortionists appear as saviors ready to deliver them from their difficult circumstances. Rescuing her unborn involves helping her trust that God has a plan and a provision for both her and her baby. In addition, exposing abortion proves a true entry point for the forgiveness and freedom of the Gospel for those bearing the guilt and grief of past abortions. It is the gospel of God that cleanses the conscience that we might serve him freely going forward.
The Team
John Ensor
President
Starting in 1991, John led the effort in Boston to establish a network of six ultrasound-equipped pregnancy help centers. In 2006, he joined Heartbeat International and piloted Heartbeat of Miami, a minority-led, ultrasound-equipped, pregnancy help ministry now serving amidst 30 nearby abortion business.
John writes books on things he is most passionate about; the gospel, marriage and prolife ethics. He and his wife, Kristen, have been married for over 40 years. They have three married children and three grandchildren. They live in Roswell, GA.
Mark Nicholson
Executive Director
Heartbroken by the high infant mortality rate in their grasslands area and the family chaos that resulted, Mark and his wife established Nomad Infant Rescue & Care (NIRC), a locally-led medical initiative to provide education, resources and medical equipment to assist the perinatal needs of young nomadic families. NIRC also provides ambulatory care and crisis pregnancy counseling.
Upon returning to the US in 2013, Mark came onto the Board of Directors for PassionLife and transitioned to serve as the movement’s Executive Director in 2016.
Mark and Dana have been married since 1997, and they have four teenage children. They operate a small clean-foods farm outside of Winston-Salem, NC
Jeanne Pernia
Pregnancy Help Training Coordinating
Since 2007 Jeanne has reached out to people around the world, sharing her testimony of grace and redemption. Jeanne’s 2013 biography Conquered details her story – from her beginnings in the abortion business to her subsequent journey as one of South Florida’s most widely recognized leaders in the Pro-Life Movement. She continues to share her passion for post-abortive healing and pregnancy counseling by leading weekend healing retreats and is now preparing for an expansive mission establishing the Sanctity of Life teachings in Cuba.
Jeanne is passionate about providing life changing education on the sanctity of life, particularly in the Latin-American community and Spanish speaking countries around the world. She and her husband, Albert, have been married for over 30 years. They have three grown children, two sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law, and eight grandchildren. They currently reside in Miami Lakes, FL.
Passionlife board of directors
John Ensor
President
Quinn Skinner
Board Chair
Quinn, a life-long Navy officer, has served on the Board of Directors for pregnancy help centers in Boston and South Korea. He currently lives in Montgomery, AL with his wife (Kristen) and four children. He has served as the PassionLife Board Chair since January 2018.
Peggy Benicke
Secretary
Peggy serves as Executive Director of Robbinsdale Women’s Center, a pregnancy medical resource center in Minneapolis. Peggy’s background in business and marketing and her personal experience with crisis pregnancies have enhanced her leadership role at RWC. Peggy and her husband Ralph have two grown daughters.
Dawn Nelson
Treasurer
As a supporter of global missions and the sanctity of life, Dawn is excited that PassionLife is uniquely positioned to bring the gospel of life to some of the neediest areas of the world. After spending fifteen years in human resources in the banking industry and with an MBA in HR and IT, Dawn has focused on family, church, and community involvement in recent years. Activities have included homeschooling, local school board president, and church leadership positions. Dawn and her husband, Stan, live in the Chicago area. They have two adult children, a wonderful son-in-law, and two grandchildren.
Mark Bolvin
Mark has over 30 years of experience primarily in the chemical and renewable energy industries. He is currently the President and CEO of Mohegan Renewable Energy and serves as an elder in his church. He and his wife, Fern, live near Boston and have three grown children and three grandchildren
Mark Schlup
Mark is a chemical engineer who grew up in Latin America and travelled extensively throughout the Caribbean, Central America, and Mexico during his working career. Having witnessed the hardship and courage of people who live in areas of the world that have limited resources, a desire to become involved in a mission that promotes the value of human life from conception led to PassionLife. Mark has been married to Dana for 42 years and lives in Atlanta. They are blessed with 3 adult children and 7 grandchildren.
Piroscka Ventura
Piro, originally from the Dominican Republic, has been married to Rad for 29 years and is a mother of four. She travels Latin America as a Defense contractor. Her own experience with abortion and forgiveness has galvanized her desire to serve the Church and women around the world in desperate need of guidance and support, sharing her testimony and leading women through abortion recovery Bible Studies.
John Cissel
Our Story
PassionLife was formally organized in 2012 with the hope of expanding prolife work into a global missions movement starting with countries suffering the highest rates of abortion worldwide. For 5 years, PassionLife worked exclusively in China. They developed a simplified and rapidly reproducible approach to teaching biblical bioethics and pregnancy crisis intervention that came to be called the “4 Questions.” It produced 4 corresponding outcomes; a heart to…
TREASURE human life.
REJECT abortion.
PROCLAIM forgiveness and freedom.
RESCUE the innocent, one mother at a time.
Within 5 years, over 3 million people took up this 4 point challenge. In 2017, we expanded our efforts to Cuba and Vietnam. PassionLife currently works in 9 languages and 21 countries.
Statement of Faith
The PassionLife community of directors, staff, volunteers, donors and prayer partners are united in the historic Christian faith, as articulated in the Apostles Creed.
The Apostles Creed
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried: he descended into hell*; the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from there he shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit; the holy, catholic church; the communion of saints; the forgiveness of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. Amen
Theological Conviction and Collaborative Effort
PassionLife is Protestant, Evangelical and primarily Reformed in doctrinal convictions and theological perspective. Our approach to bio-ethics training, pregnancy crisis intervention and, after-abortion trauma counseling are heavily influenced by these convictions.
Yet we strive to “play well with others.” When it comes to social reform–ending slavery in America, twin-killing in Africa, widow-burning in India, foot-binding in China, or abortion worldwide, Christians have always worked with others outside their theological perspective.
At some points we are theological co-belligerents. But if it seems right to work with others to rescue a child from a burning car, it seems right to collaborate where possible, to faithfully answer God’s call: Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter (Proverbs 24:11).