May, 2008

I realize that it has been quite some time since you have heard from me directly. I trust that I can be in more regular contact. Next month we will celebrate our ten year anniversary working full-time with Ramah International. Your prayers, insight, wisdom and love have been a real blessing to our efforts over the years. Thank you so much!

We have been going through many family related issues that began with Tom's mother's death, my mother's many strokes last summer, then my adopted father's cancer diagnosis in September and his departure from this world on November 18th. We've had to assume my mother's care which has involved moving her into a local assisted living facility in late February. Many of you understand the emotional toll that these events can cause on a family. God has intervened at every step and grown our hearts through these trials and watching His love minister in every part of our lives. During those days, we personally received what is outlined in Psalm 103:5 where the Lord, . . . satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. For my personal insights on my adopted father's passing, view this page. Bruce McLachlin

Training Opportunities

Many have been asking about another conference. Because of my father's death, conference preparations were impossible to achieve for this summer. We are not considering another national event until the summer of 2009. Instead, we are working to provide our "two-tiered" seminar approach to fill the need for training. This method allows for the basics in post-abortion ministry to be offered alongside our enhanced pregnancy center advocate training.

Currently we are looking for potential hosts that would consider bringing our one-day seminar to their area. There are no costs to hosting our seminars. If you are interested in hosting a seminar, visit our seminar information page on our website Training Seminars or contact me directly at sydna@aol.com or call 866-807-2624.

Please also consider that we have many wonderful training DVDs available from our 2007 conference. There is a wealth of information in these presentations. Here is a link to our resource order form for these DVDs and audio CDs which are not specifically offered on our web site resource page. 2007-conference-order-form PDF Format 2007-conference-order-form Word Format

Ramah Now Offers Free Affiliation!

You are now all affiliates. Earlier this year the Lord led me to look at our current affiliation program, which offers member organizations with many benefits including deeper discounts and first access to our staff for consultation. This affiliation program was offered at a suggested donation of $125 per year. I felt a deep leading to change this program, allowing our team to minister to everyone without any financial commitment. If you joined in the last year, rest assured that affiliate benefits will be honored for a full year. We have been so blessed by the tithe donations from pregnancy centers that we want to ensure that the need of all centers, requiring information, and our services, is addressed without membership fees. As always, our resources will be offered at a discount rate for multiple copies.

International Efforts

We are delighted that the Her Choice to Heal Recovery Guide program and Journey in Ramah devotional are now available in Russian and Spanish. In March I was blessed to travel with a team of six to Istanbul, Turkey where we offered post-abortion outreach training and recovery classes to women from twenty Central-Asian nations. This was a unique, secret gathering sponsored by several friends of our ministry. This was the 4th gathering of these women, who were specifically called to minister to women who had been the victims of the sexual trafficking industry.

Most attendees were from Muslim nations where the gospel of Christ is forbidden. We can feature no photographs of this event, and can provide little information as we are concerned for ongoing safety of these women and future gatherings. Russian was the central language and our programs were translated in time to be distributed on flash drives and CDs to these ministry leaders. We had a wonderful learning of all the cultural aspects of many former USSR nations - including Azerbajan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and many others. On International night American attendees stood representing our nation and sang, "God Bless America." I've never felt more patriotic in my life! Special thanks go to our team - Karen Fifer, Nancy Knowlton, Machelle Montgomery, Jerry and Darlene Rankin and Joann Tallman.

Please feel free to write me directly at sydna@aol.com, or call 866-807-2624 if I can be of any help to you. We are blessed by your prayers and will remember you in ours as well. May God bless you greatly as you continue in obedience to His call!

Here are some of the new resources we've added to our website: