Pro-life organizations have been on our radar for many years, yet Alternatives Women’s Center, with all the work they put into attaining their AAAHC accreditation (involving meeting standards of 500 different criteria, akin to that required of surgical centers) and which is setting a new standard for Christian and other pregnancy centers, is really exciting to us. Add to that, a greater influence in the community at large with their push for a strong STI/STD preventive program—a holistic approach to women’s lives—that will affect their families, friends, and communities.

“Women who come into Alternatives for a pregnancy test often find they are not pregnant and are so relieved they turn off their listening ears to further education concerning the importance of STI/STD testing, sexual health, and integrity. They do not realize that their behaviors will affect their sexual health even as far as fertility. The STI infection rate is so ubiquitous it is affecting the fertility and general health of the overall population. Currently over 90 million people in the United States have a sexually transmitted disease.”

The SEEDS grant money provided the start up costs needed for a strong preventive program that will make a difference in our community and continue to serve as a model for other women’s centers. Alternatives spends 90 minutes with each client; it is in this context, and every subsequent visit, that they share how God views each girl, how special they are made by Him, and that He desires a personal relationship with them.

Project Canaan is a 2,500-acre, large-scale land development project in Swaziland being designed by business people to come alongside Africans and bring expertise, resources, and heart together to help them find a holistic solution to a complex set of issues. PC will provide training and employment, grow large amounts of food to stimulate the local economy and allow for export. They work with dozens of HIV/AIDS women, either widowed or abandoned, who are vulnerable to predators of all kinds yet doing their best to stay alive and care for their children. Pictured here is the Sicalo Lesisha Kibbutz (meaning “New Beginning” or “Fresh Start”), built to provide these widows and abandoned mothers with a safe and secure home for themselves and their children in a sustainable environment. Our SEEDS gift contributed to the construction of 1 1/2 units.

Generate Hope helps trafficked young women discover a future of freedom. GH is the only residential recovery program in San Diego County that also provides an education and training program to empower the formerly trafficked women to grow in confidence and independence. Through long-term housing, education, and rehabilitation, their faith-based program allows trafficking survivors to focus on rebuilding their lives free of anxiety about where they will sleep, what they will eat, or who will hit them next. Human trafficking enslaves people, today, in the 21^st century. Young girls are abused, manipulated, and owned, and have no way out. GenerateHope provides a safe way out and a way to a new future . . . of freedom.

Our SEEDS gift went to help renovate an outbuilding with a couple of bedrooms expressly for women who are ready to transition back into the world.

Even though Moms In Prayer International is in our backyard, and many of us have participated in MIPI prayer meetings for our kids, we wanted to get a tour of the international offices. After all, MIPI reaches moms and children in over 140 countries all over the world. Fern Nichols, founder, walked us through the simple headquarters in the Poway auto park. Our SEEDS gift funded the translation or updating of 1000 MIPI booklets into 10 languages, booklets that teach mothers how to pray most effectively for their children and schools.

“Women all over the world are desperate to have access to the MIPI ministry Booklet in their own language. One mom calls it the ‘Joy Booklet,’ because using it as a guide to give her fears and worries about her children to the Lord with other moms, allows them all to be filled with God’s indescribable peace and joy! . . . Twenty years ago, an Egyptian pastor smuggled the booklet into his country, translated it, and wept as he shared that this was the only book that had been written just for the women of his country. (It needs revision after 20 years.) In Tanzania this year the booklets sold out too quickly and left many mothers without. A Ugandan woman shared, ‘Our children are safe nowhere. Not at home, not at school, not in the neighborhoods. We are going back with MIP and changing history in our country.’” The MIPI Booklet is teaching a world of mothers to pray.

Solutions for Change is an exciting, innovative ministry whose mission is to “solve family homelessness one family, one community, at a time.” We were impressed by the long-term commitment  (1,000 days) that is resulting in families breaking cycles of unemployment, poor life choices, and entitlement. We love the 3-stage housing that is provided, the professional counseling, the career and resumé direction, and the obvious respect with which the families coming off the streets are being treated. Pictured here is a converted office that provides intake housing for homeless, Escondido, CA, families. Here they get accustomed to early rising and plenty of KP duty (founder Chris Megison is a former Marine). When they’re ready, they are invited to move to the second stage housing in their own 1-bedroom apartment, sharing a kitchen with another family, not far away. After 1,000 days of working, training, finding a job, becoming established and building hope, they move to housing in the community.

Our SEEDS gift was used for a van to help get children to school, families to church, applicants to job interviews, etc. Look closely and you’ll see our name on the back of the lift gate. (Update, May 2018: The van continues to fulfill everyone’s expectations. It’s in use every single day!)

Global Hope Network used our SEEDS gift to support 12 Community Health Workers serving 4 Kenyan villages. While it’s sometimes more tangible to fund vans or buildings, we’ve learned that often the most helpful and sustainable project we can underwrite is a person who will be trained, who can then train others, who will train others, etc. Global Hope’s CHWs are “mamas” in rural villages who have been taught the core principles of holistic health. Because they are “one of their own” they are welcomed by the villagers and able to first identify the needs, then help address the 5 areas of sustainability—water, food, wellness, family income, and education.