Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Culture of Life Family Services February 2014 Newsletter Happy Valentines Day from COLFS

Culture of Life Family Services ~ February 2014 Newsletter ~ Happy Valentines Day from COLFS
Deacon Ken Finn, 1936-2014
"Well done, my good and faithful servant." (Matthew 25:21)
During the production of this newsletter, our dear friend, Deacon Ken, passed on to his eternal reward. Our March edition will contain a proper in memoriam to honor him.
Deacon Ken Finn, co-founder of COLFS, will be remembered as a fighter for the unborn and spiritual guide for many. We will truly miss him in so many ways, especially how he challenged us to be better men and women of God. Always deeply rooted in scripture, Deacon Ken was a faithful man caring about our souls and greatly devoted to Marie, his wife of 53 years. May our friend rest in peace.
Deacon Ken Finn
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COLFS Co-Sponsors San Diego Walk for Life 2014
In observance and peaceful protest of the 41st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the second annual San Diego Walk for Life was held at Balboa Park on January 18, 2014. Attracting a crowd of approximately 2500, the event featured speakers, music, exhibitor booths, and a walk for participants of all ages.
Jennifer Roback Morse, founder and president of pro-marriage organization the Ruth Institute, spoke of the role of contraception in destroying the family unit.
Other speakers included founder and president of Issues4Life Foundation Walter Hoye, Executive Director of Turning Point Pregnancy Resource Center Camille Cassin, and Dr. George Delgado of Culture of Life Family Services, who discussed the Abortion Pill Reversal project, one of the newest advancements in protecting life at its earliest stages.
Adding a personal touch to the purpose of the Life Walk, former crisis pregnancy patient Vianca thanked the crowd for supporting life. She was a resident of the Lamb of God Maternity Home in Escondido during her pregnancy and placed her baby in an open adoption with a forever family.
Thirty exhibitor booths from various areas in San Diego participated in the event. Representatives and students from educational institutions, such as John Paul the Great Catholic University and Saint Joseph Academy, staffed booths and marched in the Life Walk.
Crisis Pregnancy Centers and other pro-life organizations were on hand providing a variety of information to participants.
Mary James, Inspirational Country Music’s Female Artist of the Year for 2013, serenaded the crowd with some of her Top 100 hits. She explained that her pro-life mission is fueled by the fact that she was born to a single mother who was encouraged to seek an abortion in another country, where it was legal in 1965, when she was pregnant with Mary.
Youth and young adults groups from all over the county showed their support with signs and enthusiastic cheers throughout the morning. After the three-quarter-mile walk, a line of teens spontaneously formed on 6th Avenue, holding signs for oncoming traffic and eliciting honks of support from the community at large.
The San Diego Walk for Life in 2015 is scheduled for Saturday, January 17. Put it on your calendar and join us.
San Diego Walk for Life 2014
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From the Director
After a month’s hiatus from a newsletter, I find that I have so much to tell you. First, I want to thank you for your tremendous support in 2013. We owe much of our growth to you, and I am grateful.
Abortion Pill Reversal project (APR) continues to grow nationwide, and our potential to reach more women who have taken RU486 will require expanded advertising and a few more staff members to handle the volume of calls and increase doctor participation in the network.
What makes the APR project work for COLFS is a team effort by our nurses, Dr. Delgado, and other doctors from various cities. When we receive a call from a pregnant mom who wants to reverse the abortion pill and she is not local, we need to find a doctor near her to administer the protocol of progesterone. This takes much time and effort—but is, oh, so worth it. Last year, we had over 200 calls from women who wanted information about reversing the effects of the abortion pill they just ingested. We expect that to double with more advertising and as pro-life leaders are made aware of the project and start heavily promoting it.
In 2014, we will need your help to reach moms like RC, whose story is on the next page and tell them it is possible to reverse the abortion pill. Our staff will attend many of the main conferences and events to promote APR, but we still need you to participate in a true grassroots effort by telling your pastors, friends, groups, and community about our efforts to reverse RU486.
We also need your help to underwrite targeted advertising campaigns to women who have taken RU486. COLFS does not receive government funds as Planned Parenthood does, so we rely on your generous support to advance projects like Abortion Pill Reversal. Our goal is to raise $150,000 specifically for the APR project to increase advertising and to fortify infrastructure when we have a call from a woman seeking our help. Please prayerfully consider helping us reach our goal. The sooner we have the funds, the sooner we can reach a woman who is not sure where to turn when she has taken the first pill and is being pressured to finish the job by taking the second dose.
Our campus project and community presence have grown as well and COLFS will be looking for additional parish events and conferences to attend to bring awareness of the pro-life work we do. Please continue to pray for COLFS staff and patients, that we reach many abortion intent women and convert their hearts to save their baby.
Thank you and God bless!~—Scott
Scott Maxwell, President of COLFS
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Health Matters: Articel Reveals Pro-Choice Camp's Strategy and Attitudes
An article by Elizabeth Raymond, et al in the Journal of Family Planning and Reproductive Health Care volume 39, pages 244-246, gives an insight into what pro-abortion supporters really believe and how they are planning to shape public opinion in the future to advance their agenda. We see an acknowledgement that IUDs (intrauterine devices) and hormonal contraception, such as birth control pills, do have abortifacient mechanisms.
"Furthermore, we should openly acknowledge that some of the most effective standard contraceptive methods probably act, at least in part, after fertilisation. Both copper-bearing and hormone-releasing intrauterine devices are more likely to prevent intrauterine than ectopic pregnancies, which suggests that these devices sometimes disrupt embryo attachment to the endometrium. The near-perfect efficacy of the copper-bearing device for EC [emergency contraception] also indicates a post-ovulation effect. Chronic use of most hormonal contraceptives causes profound histological and biochemical changes to the endometrium; these changes have been postulated to diminish receptivity to implantation in any cycles in which ovulation and subsequent fertilisation occur."
The authors conclude: “Although the precise role of these post-fertilisation mechanisms is unknown, they should certainly be celebrated, because without them the methods would not provide as much benefit as they do.”
The authors advocate for post-fertilization and post-implantation birth control because they feel that such drugs could be taken only once a month or only if a menstrual period is late, without bothering with the daily use of contraceptives and without bothering with pregnancy tests. In other words, all that matters to them is that no baby is born. Whether that end is accomplished by preventing fertilization or by killing an embryonic human being, matters not to them.
This article proves that Pope John Paul II was correct when he stated that contraception and abortion are “fruits of the same tree” (Evangelium Vitae, Paragraph 13). Those who don’t accept the conclusion that they are on the same continuum should reexamine the scientific and philosophical evidence.
George Delgado, M.D., F.A.A.F.P.
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I'm So Thankful I Called the Abortion Pill Reversal Hotline
I hope many more people come across your protocol and your website. I was so scared and honestly thought the website I came across back in March was going to be some kind of fake scam. I almost didn’t even want to call your number. But I am so thankful that I did!
I cannot thank you enough for answering my call that day and continuing to talk me through everything, keeping me calm and trying your hardest to help. Making the decision to have an abortion was one I made with little consideration about the extreme emotional and physical harm it was going to do to my body. After taking the first pill (mifepristone), I knew I could not go through with killing my baby. I came across AbortionPillReversal.com within 24 hours after taking the first abortion pill, and thanks to them and the amazing doctors who prescribed me the progesterone, I was able to maintain a healthy pregnancy and deliver my little angel, who is such a blessing. I am so thankful for the care I received and the little life that was able to be saved.
If you know someone who has taken RU486, have them contact our nurse immediately. For more information: www.AbortionPillReversal.com Hotline: 877-558-0333.
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Hope, Love, and Integrity
M was abortion-vulnerable with a family who disowned her and a husband who didn’t care about her in any way. She hid the pregnancy for months because of her husband’s pro-death attitude. Due to a previous accident, M is partially disabled. She has three other children but no support system.
During the initial intake interview, M had a hard time just trusting the volunteer advocate. After many calls and some visits, she accepted and even welcomed the advocate as a caring, friendly resource person. COLFS helped M by referring her to a nearby Catholic church to reconnect with her faith, giving her baby clothes, a used crib, a referral to a parenting class near her home, child development and lactation advice, and supplying her with a gas card for transportation to doctor appointments. We prayed with her and referred her for special medical care during her new baby’s illness in the first weeks after birth. The advocate still calls M, who needs to feel that connection during this time, which is still a challenge to her.
This is what M has to say in her own words: “I was pregnant and did not have moral support for me and my baby. When I got to Culture of Life Family Services, I was lost, but they were so welcoming that I realized there is hope, love, and integrity in most human beings. Dr. George Delgado helped me when I was strained emotionally. He said there is a life inside of me, and I did not have to give up because there are other ways to bring a wonderful blessing from God to this world.”
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Lectio Divina
“It was not enough for God to make His Son our guide to the way; He made Him the way itself, that you might travel with Him as Leader, and by Him as the way.”~—Saint Augustine
Pray the following prayer before reading the scripture below: Father, I can’t understand your Word without your grace. I acknowledge my weakness so your power can reach perfection in me. Send your Holy Spirit to remind, teach, and guide me to the Truth. And may I share, as soon as possible, whatever you teach me. Amen.
John 14:4-7~–“Where I am going you know the way.” Thomas said to Him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
What is the Lord saying to you personally? How can you put this into practice in your everyday life?
Reflection: Our Lord taught us the way to where He was going. He taught us by His life. Let’s reflect on the life of Jesus. He was a Child born of a Virgin. He was consecrated to the Lord. He grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon Him. He spent time as a young Boy in His Father’s house.
Today, we might say He was in the Church listening to the homilies and the teachings passed down from the Pope, the priest, and teachers in the Church. When He was found in His Father’s house, His mother said to Him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”And Jesus said to His parents,“Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:41-49)
Following the way of Jesus requires spending time in Church and conversing with the teachers. As we travel the road of Jesus, we find Him being baptized by John, and the Holy Spirit coming upon Him in the form of a dove giving Him power. Going the way of Jesus requires our being baptized in the Holy Spirit and with fire.
After Jesus’ baptism in the Spirit, he went to the desert to be tempted by the devil. We, too, will be in the desert at some time in our lives and be tempted by the devil. But just as Jesus defeated the devil by saying “it is written”, we too defeat the devil by saying “it is written”. God’s word directs our way to the Father. Obedience to His Word brings peace and joy and suffering.
On Jesus’ way to the cross, He spent much of His time teaching, preaching, delivering from evil spirits, and healing. We, too, are called to preach, teach, heal, and deliver by right of our baptism and the power of the Holy Spirit. That power is whispering in our ear, “This is the way to go.”The truth of God’s word and obedience to it brings life. When Satan whispers in your ear to abort your baby, say to him, it is written,“Thou shall not kill.”When Satan whispers in your ear to cheat or lie or steal, say “It is written ‘Thou shall not steal, thou shall not bear false witness.’”
Everything is a choice; we can choose life or death. January 22nd was the anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the beginning of the biggest crime anyone can commit—and do legally—aborting the innocent child in the womb. If anyone is in a crisis pregnancy, COLFS has someone there to help you and love you. Let’s all go the way of Jesus by traveling with Him as Leader. Let Jesus carry you to the Father by way of the Cross, for He is the way, the truth, and the life to be lived.
Your brother and sister in Christ, 
Deacon Ken & Marie
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Jesus is tempted
Save the Date - 2014 Events
March 10 2nd Annual Golf Tournament - Register Today
May 18 4th Annual Our Lady's Tea
August 2nd Annual Pro-Life Picnic
October 4 5th Annual Pro-Life Gala
Register - Golf Tournament - March 10, 2014
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STAFF
Scott Maxwell, President/CEO
George Delgado, M.D., F.A.A.F.P., Medical Director
Karen Saroki, M.D.
Don Palencia, D.O., M.S., D.A.B.F.P., C.M.N.F.P.M.C.
Lisa Higgins, MS, PA-C
Mario Mejia, Office Administrator
Debbie Bradel, BSN, PHN, Abortion Pill Reversal
Margaret Sutherlin, RN, ME
Corrie Thomas, RN
Pat Poindexter, RN, CFCP
Catherine Breen, BS, FCP
Maria Moreno • Erika Santana
Erica Tobin • Laura Flanagan
Mercy Vallejo • Wendy Verdin
Jessica Ortiz • Terri Sawaya
Vianca Dubon • Sabrina Carrillo
Silvia Calvet • Michelle Quintanilla
Erika Sanchez
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BOARD MEMBERS
Colleen Maalouf, Co-Chair
Jim Teeter, Co-Chair, Treasurer
Tom Dobrino, Secretary
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ADVISORY COUNCIL
Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone
Bishop Cirilo Flores
Fr. Richard Castro, M.C.
Deacon Ken and Marie Finn
Deacon Keith Esshaki
Philip Rivers
Charles LiMandri, Esq
James Stabile
Mike Murphy
Roger Lopez
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Culture of Life Family Services - San Diego
5030 Camino de la Siesta, Suite 106
San Diego, CA 92108
(619) 692-4401
(near Mission Valley and Fashion Valley mall)
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Culture of Life Family Services - North County
362 West Mission Ave., #105
Escondido, CA 92025 United States
(760) 741-1224
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