Over 60 South Americans Equipped at Abstinence and Adoption Training

In July, a LIFE International team traveled to Ecuador to provide abstinence and adoption training, and to encourage our associates there at Lluvia de Gracia (Showers of Grace Crisis Pregnancy Center).

Upon arrival, the LIFE team went with the director of Showers of Grace to a local radio station for a live interview to promote the abstinence training that would take place that week. At the station, the team found out that the interviewer had laryngitis, and they were given opportunity to facilitate their own interview! This enabled them to provide a great deal of information about the training and how people could be involved. The interview resulted in several calls and registrations for the training.

Those who attended the abstinence training received both the presentation of the lessons and training on how to teach the lessons themselves. The 60+ attendees, including one individual who traveled from Brazil, were equipped, many for the first time, with a Biblical perspective on relationships and sexuality. Each participant in the training also received a CD with the training curriculum and a copy of Why Pro Life? by Randy Alcorn. After the last evening of the training, the response from the young people was moving. A young woman stood up to express her appreciation on behalf of the young people there and asked to pray a blessing over Kelly, the abstinence trainer.

This trip also provided a unique opportunity to teach a seminar on adoption. The laws and practices in Ecuador concerning adoption are quite complicated and unfavorable towards legal adoption. Often people will simply bring the birth mother to the registrar’s office and sign the birth certificate as if the child was born to them. This then becomes a secret and sets up many unhealthy dynamics within a family. Adopted children are often looked upon as second class citizens. In the adoption seminar, LIFE staff shared that believers, down through history, have protected and rescued unwanted children. The group was called to uphold that legacy in Ecuador.

This trip allowed us to train and equip many people with the Biblical perspective on sexuality and adoption, equipping them to spread this message throughout South America.