November 2005 Newsletter
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"I'm so glad you gave this talk. There's one boy whose grandmother is dying and he so needed to hear your explanation of why God allows suffering"
After a fruitful summer of resource development and strategic planning, last month began our Fall season back on the road, bringing the Life Principles to churches, schools, universities, organizations, families, and businesses everywhere.
And we’re off to a GREAT start! The quotation next to the photograph above is a real comment we received after doing a talk on terminal illnesses, suffering, and the true meaning of compassion. It is heartwarming to know firsthand the difference we are making.
But we couldn’t do anything without your help. So please let me share with you a few of the other wonderful things that your partnership has enabled us to accomplish recently.
• Last month we were invited to spend an entire day doing a Life Principles training for over 80 pro-life student leaders in Vancouver, B.C. These students were handpicked by their teachers as the “cream of the crop” in their classes. They gave up a vacation day to spend several hours with us learning how to bring the Life Principles back to their high schools and to create pro-life outreaches on their campuses.
• We were invited to offer a presentation on suffering and end-of-life care for over 70 high school students in Seattle. The talk was awesome, and the students designed over 95 squares to be sewn into lap quilts and delivered to terminally ill patients at a local nursing home. You can imagine our joy when one 11th grade girl said to our Life Principles speaker:
"Before you talked to us, I wasn't going to go visit at the nursing home. But your talk changed my mind."
• Last week we trained over 80 K-12 grade schoolteachers in the full Life Principles curriculum, and offered them methods and tools for the classroom. We covered subjects like "How to show that the human embryo is a full person," "How to answer the hard questions on abortion," "Why an all-loving God allows suffering," "Compassionate care at the end of life," and "How a discussion on ethics, freedom, and rights will lead to a pro-life position." The response from the teachers was tremendous. They absolutely loved this curriculum, and they bought us out of everything we had, including books, booklets, videos, workbooks, and CDs. They even took our samples!! As one teacher put it:
"This is exactly what we’ve been needing in the classroom… a logical, rational explanation of what the pro-life position is all about."
• I just got back from a presentation on "What’s Wrong with Abortion?" to almost 400 high school students in Canada. The teachers were amazed at how the students listened so intently during the presentation, how active they were in answering my pointed questions, and how engaged the students were during classroom discussion afterward. One teacher said:
"You really challenged our students and made them think. I’ve never seen a speaker do that here before."
As I mentioned above, we’ve only just begun. There’s still eight months left in this presentation and training season for us! We’ll be speaking to more high school students, doing presentations on college campuses, training volunteers in our "Being With" visitation outreach to nursing homes, speaking at churches and youth conferences, conducting workshops at pro-life events, and hosting special cultural/discussion events for youth.
But as I also mentioned above, we can’t do any of this without you. So we are coming to you again this month to ask that you please continue to provide the funds that fuel our educational work. We rely on your financial support, and your prayers, to keep us going strong.
Many of our friends contribute on a monthly basis, and I cannot thank you enough. Others prefer to give a larger donation one time a year, for which we are extremely grateful. Some of our friends have given once, and I’d like to ask if you’d consider donating again to our ministry. Any amount will go a long way with us. And if you haven’t given yet, please join our team!
There are several different ways that you can donate to our work. You can drop a check in the enclosed envelope, provide credit card information for a one-time gift, authorize us for automatic monthly withdrawals, transfer stock, match a gift through your employer, or even donate in-kind goods. If you’d like to talk with us to discuss one or more of these giving options, please give us a call, or log onto: www.healingtheculture.com/support.php.
Thank you so very much for being a part of our team, and helping us build a culture of life!
For Life,
Camille E. De Blasi, President
| November 2005 | ||
| Nov. 2 | Kirkland, WA | Being With Volunteer Training, part 1 (Camille De Blasi) |
Nov. 4 | Mercer Island, WA | Suffering and the God of Love (Rev. Robert Spitzer) Sponsored by Human Life of Washington |
Nov. 4 | Seattle, WA | Why Be Pro-Life? A presentation to women's studies students at a local high school (Lisa-Ann Oliver) |
Nov. 5 | Seattle, WA | Archdiocese of Seattle Annual Youth Conference (Camille De Blasi) Contact Karla Murphy, karlam@seattlearch.org |
Nov. 7 | Kirkland, WA | Northwest College classroom presentation (Camille De Blasi) |
Nov. 7 | Snohomish, WA | The Prodigal Son (Camille De Blasi) |
Nov. 9 | Kirkland, WA | Being With Volunteer Training, part 2 (Camille De Blasi) |
Nov. 9 | Kirkland, WA | Being With presentation to elementary school students (Lisa-Ann Oliver) |
Nov. 16 | Kirkland, WA | Being With Volunteer Training, part 3 (Camille De Blasi) |
| December 2005 | ||
| Dec. 14 | Lynnwood, WA | The Ethics of Cloning: A lecture and discussion for teens Co-Sponsored by Healing the Culture and Youth for Life (Bill Spencer) Contact Marie Harkins, 425-775-9711 |
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