Displaying items by tag: News from the Worldwide Pregnancy Help Movement

Heartbeat International's 2025 International Pregnancy Help Conference

When: April 29, 2025 (In-Depth Day)
April 30 - May 2, 2025 (Conference Dates)

Where: Birmingham, AL
or Virtually (in your most comfortable chair)

Heartbeat International strives to assist individuals in other countries who serve in pregnancy help outreach offering alternatives to abortion. Our annual conference provides the greatest opportunity for diverse training, broad networking, and inspirational encouragement to our international affiliates. There will be plenty to learn in this format with the following trainings available:

• Unique, Professional Keynote Sessions
• Distinctive, Full-Day In-Depth Training Sessions
• Workshop Presentations from Ministry Experts
• And much more!

Attending In Person

For those planning to attend in person, Heartbeat will provide letters for purposes of obtaining a visa. Please request that letter from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Note: Any international guest attending the in-person conference is financially responsible for registration, accommodations, and transportation costs. Heartbeat is not able to pay for or arrange for accommodations for international attendees arriving without secured accommodations.

Attending Virtually

The dates of the virtual conference are April 30 - May 2. More details about our virtual conference are coming soon!

Conference Options

In-Person	Virtual
Keynote Presentations	Keynote Presentations
70+ Workshops	40+ Workshops
One-on-one Prayer	Virtual Prayer Board
Morning Devotionals	Morning Video Devotionals
Morning Worship	-
Morning Mass	-
In-Person Networking Opportunities	Virtual Networking Opportunities
Meals Included	-
Explore Birmingham	-
Free Conference Swag	-

Scholarships

Heartbeat International strives to assist individuals in other countries who serve in pregnancy help outreach offering alternatives to abortion. Our annual conferences provide the greatest opportunity for diverse training, broad networking, and inspirational encouragement to our international affiliates. We offer a limited number of financial scholarships for internationals who apply and are accepted.

We are honored to partner with you in your essential work of reaching and rescuing women in unexpected pregnancies and we look forward to your attendance at our Annual Conference, in person or virtually.

Questions may be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Heartbeat International invites you to the long-awaited and much-anticipated European Pregnancy Help Leaders Summit.

You are invited to Budapest, Hungary, September 19-21, 2024 for in-person networking, training, learning, and encouragement with like-minded leaders from the pregnancy help movement across Europe.

2024 European Pregnancy Help Leaders Summit

• When: September 19-21, 2024
• Where: K+K Hotel Opera in Budapest, Hungary
• Affiliate Cost: FREE for two individuals from any Heartbeat-affiliated organization (Not affiliated yet? Click here!)
• Cost for Summit:
  • Affiliate Double Occupancy - € 0.00: Only two complimentary registrations per organization.
    
    
  • Non-Affiliate/Extra Team Members - Double Occupancy - € 335.00:Includes registration and accommodations.
  • Non-Affiliate/Extra Team Members - Single Occupancy - € 449.00: Includes registration and accommodations.
  • Attending Conference Only - € 195.00: No lodging/hotel accommodations included with this option.

Heartbeat offers registration and accommodations (including breakfast and hotel meals) for two persons per affiliated organization. 

(This offer has limited availability and registration will be first come, first served.) We look forward to hosting you.

Affiliate registration includes:

• 2 nights stay in a double-occupancy room
• Breakfast
• Lunch on Friday and Saturday
• Dinner Thursday Night

How to register your two leaders for free:

The Summit registration is FREE for two team members of a Heartbeat-affiliated organization. When you are filling out the registration form, at the bottom of the form, click on Affiliate Double Occupancy and the cost reflected underneath should be 0.00. Then you register your second participant. Before you hit submit, double-check to ensure the total price is still 0.00. Your credit card will not be charged, so long as you click on "Affiliate Double Occupancy" (see screenshot below). 

If you want to register more than two people from your organization, it will be at your expense, and you will need to fill out a new form to register the appropriate information. Then, click on single or double occupancy. The cost reflected is per person. 

Contact Ellen at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you run into any technical difficulties.

by Ellen Foell, International Program Specialist

And, that’s a wrap for Heartbeat International’s 2024 conference, held in Salt Lake City, Utah from April 23-26. What a conference it was! It was our most well-attended conference yet, with over 2,000 persons attending in person and virtually (and counting, as our virtual conference continues). We had 14 nations represented and 48 internationals attended. If you were not able to attend, we missed you and hope you will consider attending next year’s conference.* 

Fortunately, even though the Heartbeat staff and attendees are all back in their seats at life-affirming organizations across the globe, the thematic call, United for Life, continues. In case you were not able to attend either the in-person or virtual conference, our key verse was Philippians 2:2, "...then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being united in spirit and purpose." We recently published an issue of Heartbeat Around the World on the call and need for unity. However, as we know, God’s word is timeless and ever-fresh. At this conference, it really struck me afresh that we are called to unity in many aspects.

We are called to be united in our...

• minds
• hearts
• spirits
• souls—including the outward expression of our purpose

Unity is an intentional, wholehearted, and whole-life effort to love our God, our neighbors, our clients, and our fellow life-affirming co-laborers with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength.

Sometimes, we can focus so much on the mission that we forget that love is at the very heart of our mission, and without love, our mission may very well sound like a clanging cymbal. Let us have the same love. Or, we can hyperfocus on the specific aspect of the life-affirming movement that we think our hyperfocus should be everyone’s hyperfocus. The life-affirming movement is multifaceted, and each of us is called to know our specific calling and our place on the "wall." As we pursue like-mindedness, the same love, unity in spirit and purpose, we will see God’s purposes and His glory cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea.

Speaking of God’s glory, take a look at this video of the Parade of Nations, as Heartbeat’s 97 affiliated nations’ flags were on display for God’s splendor.

*If you think you might be interested in attending next year’s conference and require a VISA to attend, do not wait until next year to get your VISA appointment. Heartbeat can send you an invitation to next year’s conference that you can take to your interview. As always, the letter is not a promise by Heartbeat to pay for expenses of registration, accommodations, or travel. It is to be used only for purposes of the VISA interview.

by Ellen Foell, International Specialist of Heartbeat International

“You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.”  - Matthew 24:6-8

In early October 2023, Hamas attacked Israel on the 50^th anniversary of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In September 2023, both Serbia and Kosovo moved troops to their borders in a standoff. In February 2022, the Russian Federation attacked Ukraine.

Wars and rumors of wars. And that is not all.

Did you know that according to the Geneva Academy¹ (which classifies all situations of armed violence that amount to an armed conflict under international humanitarian law), there are currently more than 110 armed conflicts around the world? Some of these conflicts make the headlines while others do not. Some of them started recently, while others have lasted for more than 50 years. Here is a map showing the locations of current armed conflicts.²

One does not need to study the map for very long to see that the geographic locations where armed conflict is occurring far outnumber the nations where there is some semblance of peace.

Of course, as soon as any war or conflict erupts, leaders start to talk about “calm heads,” and pursuing peace; they begin to argue about who started it, but mostly, their loudest cry and call is for peace—even though hardly anyone dares to talk about what that would look like. It is the cry not only from those engaged in the war but from those who lead powerful nations, and those who have influence. Throughout history, and in the context of hundreds of previous conflicts and wars, great leaders in the world and history have spoken about world peace: Alexander the Great, Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama, Helen Keller, and Martin Luther King, Jr. Men and women—black and white—of every generation has had its spokespersons for peace. Everyone wants peace.

As a “world community,” prizes are even given to those who advocate for peace as if the advocacy for peace had a magic dotted line to actual peace. It doesn’t. And even if we think it does, the prophet Jeremiah wrote: 

“From the least to the greatest,
all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
all practice deceit.
They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
‘Peace, peace,’ they say,
when there is no peace.”

– Jeremiah 6:14

The phrase “peace, peace,” when there is no peace is found in Jeremiah 6:14 and Jeremiah 8:11. It is also found in Ezekiel 13:10 and 16. In all four places, it has the same meaning in the same historical context: a cry for peace for a nation, for a people, amid conflict and oppression.

We want peace, and we cry for peace. As we look at the nations at war, the ethnic and regional conflicts, that are occurring right now in our world, of course, we pray for peace. But let us not kid ourselves. Jesus said we would hear of "wars and rumors of wars."Not only that, but Jesus told His disciples, “In the world, you will have tribulation.” (John 16:33)

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.” - Matthew 10:34

“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled!” - Luke 12:49

Is this the same Jesus who said, “Peace I leave with you…” no fewer than three times to the disciples after he rose from the dead? The same Jesus who oftentimes told someone whose life he had just irreversibly and gloriously changed, “Go in peace.” Including, the woman He healed from the issue of blood (Luke 8:48), the woman who anointed His feet with her tears (Luke 7:50), and the royal official whose son was healed (John 4:50).

Jesus was called the Prince of Peace. He could make winds stop, still the waves, calm the raging Gerasene and quiet the accusations of the religious leaders. Jesus said to the disciples and to those He healed, several times, “Peace I leave with you,” “Go in peace,” “Be at peace with one another,” and “My peace I leave with you.” In the famous opening to His great sermon, known as the Beatitudes, Jesus taught, “Blessed [happy] are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:9).

Well, which was it? Did Jesus come to bring peace or division, calm or conflict, serenity or a sword? What if He came to bring both?

We know that Jesus also said in John 14:27 the most enigmatic thing of all: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Christ's "peace" here refers to a hope and reassurance that goes beyond what a fallen world can offer (Philippians 4:7). It is permanent, guaranteed, and eternal (Hebrews 6:18–19). Our vice president of Ministry Services, Tracie Shellhouse, shares an encouraging word about peace for each one of us. In Christ alone, we can have peace.

The Prophet Micah at 4:3, articulated his hope for a world where nations would no longer engage in warfare; where people would live in safety and unity, sitting under their own vine and fig tree with none to make them afraid. Micah, along with Isaiah and other prominent prophets, consistently emphasized the importance of justice, righteousness, and the pursuit of peace as integral components of a harmonious society. This underlines the idea that true peace was not just the absence of conflict but the presence of justice and righteousness in the world. We strive for peace, but we also know that the day when the lion lies down with the lamb is not for this side of eternity.

We have short video updates about the war in Israel from Sandy Shoshani, National Director of Be’ad Chaim, and Nadia Gordynsky, President of Save a Life, International, with a network of centers across Ukraine. Her testimony of what is happening in the Ukraine assures us God is on the throne and His work endures and grows despite conflict and war.

Friends and allies, we grieve the death and destruction caused by ongoing wars and conflict, but not as the world does. Our fully redeemed and truest hope is not in this world, and our hope is not in this present life. Nonetheless, let us pray and work for the peace of Jerusalem, the peace in Kiev, and the peace in every area of the world where conflict and unrest continue, until the shalom of the Prince of Peace is manifest.

________________________________________________________

Sources

1. https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts (accessed 10/31/23).
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts (accessed 10/31/23).

by Ellen Foell, International Program Specialist, Heartbeat International

Slovenia and the Balkans Conference 2023

Some of us have dream jobs. I am one of those people.

As Heartbeat’s International Program Specialist, I have the privilege to interface with our 1,200+ international affiliates over Zoom and WhatsApp, at conferences and summits, and sometimes on their home turf. As someone who has the privilege to travel to different countries, one of the attendant responsibilities is learning to watch and process what I see in the context of this question: What is God doing around the world, and is there an invitation to participate?

Recently, I had the joy of attending the fifth Balkans Network for Life conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This conference, themed Unity, was hosted by two affiliated centers located in the heart of Ljubljana: Zavod Zivim and Sara's Place, a small retreat center in the mountains. Zavod Zivim is a Catholic-based center and Sara's Place is an evangelical center. About 45 people were in attendance, representing 10 nations (Serbia, Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia, Albania, Greece, Slovenia, Netherlands, Italy and U.S.) and 9 life-affirming centers. The Balkans include 12 nations or parts of nations: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, and Slovania. Portions of Greece and, sometimes Turkey, are also within the Balkans Peninsula. If you are at all familiar with the history of the Balkans, you will know that the region has historically been a hotbed of conflict, unity under duress, disbanding under more duress, and has been impacted by the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great, the Austro-Hungarian empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the former Soviet influence. The very term balkanization means “division of a place or country into several small political units, often unfriendly to one another. The term balkanization comes from the Balkans Peninsula, divided into several small nations in the early twentieth century.

Why the history lesson? Because the life-affirming centers in the Balkans stand together in stark defiance of the region’s moniker and history. The Balkans Network for Life stands for life and unity, and is an example of what can happen when brothers and sisters dwell together in unity. There, in this place of unity, the Lord commands a blessing.

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! -Psalm 133:1

What is that blessing? More life. Even though the oldest Balkans pregnancy help organization we know of is less than twenty years old, the centers are praying for the next generation of centers and are actively seeking opportunities to birth the next generation of centers. Life begets life.

When I observe the ongoing work and the intentional efforts to unite the Balkans centers, I am overjoyed and challenged to consider God's invitation to participate as Heartbeat International. I believe it is to live out with joy and sometimes, through tears, sometimes with struggle, but always with prayer, the invitation to pursue unity across denominational lines, across ethnic and national lines. This resembles the character of Heartbeat International as an "interdenominational Christian association," who believes the Lord wants to "use Heartbeat to continue to bring about greater unity among Christians." This is to God’s glory; may we truly declare His glory among the nations as we hold onto the Word of life.

by Ellen Foell, International Program Specialist of Heartbeat International

I have a confession to make: I am a baby boomer, born in 1957. That means I still use Facebook. I laugh at Facebook Reels and TikToks that my children send me but cannot create one. I use LinkedIn to get articles for free but usually do not respond when someone wants to connect. I text and I do not write in all caps—REALLY! Finally, being a boomer, I have an Instagram account—like 2 billion other people—but I don’t post regularly. In 2022, the typical Instagram user spent around 12 hours per month using the platform’s app, up from an average of 11.2 hours per month in 2021. I think I am maximizing my use of Instagram when I “like” or “heart” a post. End of confession.

I am aware of the power of Instagram, and that is probably why I have a love/hate relationship with the platform. I have issues with anything that has that much influence over people because I think of all the unsuspecting people who may have a regular, but uncritical, “diet” of what Instagram has to offer.

On the other hand, it is a great way to reach people; and that is why I started an Instagram account: to be where my children are. They are no longer on Facebook; they do not read my long emails detailing every aspect of daily life, and I think they only communicate on the phone because they know how Neanderthal I am. If I could carry a cave wall, I would totally send my children pictographs. So, if rule #1 of marketing is that we need to be where our clients are, then Instagram seems to be the place.

Instagram has 2 billion active users, making it one of the most popular social networks. That is a lot of people. Only TikTok, WhatsApp, and Facebook have more users.

According to a page on HubSpot dedicated to marketing on Instagram, “Instagram’s primary advantage over other social media platforms is its visual nature. If you have a business that benefits from the design of your product or if you have a service that has a visibly noticeable end result, Instagram is the best platform to showcase that content.

Video, imagery, and illustration are all great content fits for this social media platform, but your marketing strategy will ultimately determine what type of content to publish and how often to post it. Establishing a strategy before diving right into a new social media platform, no matter how well it works for everyone else’s business, will keep you focused on your goals and — most importantly — your audience.”

If the pregnancy help movement wants to reach young women, we cannot ignore the breadth and depth of reach Instagram has. If you look at Instagram's worldwide audience, you’ll find that Instagram users are almost equally split between males (51.6%) and females (48.4%). Worldwide, the largest group of females were those ages 25-34, making up 16.4%.

According to the Pew Research Center, “In the 46 states that reported data to the CDC in 2020, the majority of women who had abortions (57%) were in their 20s, while about three-in-ten (31%) were in their 30s. Teens ages 13 to 19 accounted for 8% of those who had abortions, while women in their 40s accounted for 4%.” Thus, 88% of women having abortions are in their 20’s and 30’s. And statistically, a lot of them are on Instagram.

I shop at almost the same places every week. When my children were small, I even went to the same checkout line if the cashier was friendly to my children. It wasn’t just that I liked the brand, I liked the prices, and I really liked the people. It is not that different from Instagram. According to Forbes, “Of those Instagram users who follow businesses, 26% typically visit business profiles every day. Another 27% visit business profiles every week.” Repeat customers are good customers. They come back, they remember, and they spread the word. A good Instagram account can reach loyal customers and they will spread the word for you.

Best of all, because I love a bargain, Instagram is free. It’s true: I do not like the time-vaporizer that it can be as a user, but looking at it from the other side of the screen, isn’t that what we want? To have young women consuming Instagram posts, remembering the source, and spreading the word?

Finally, Instagram can be used to let your donors, or potential donors, know what you are doing to change the world and culture to be more life-affirming, even those not looking for your organization. In 2022, Social Media Today reported that “Instagram says that many users have requested more direct ways to support charities, while it also consulted with several organizations on the project to ensure that it was taking the best approach to amplify relevant movements.” 

We have a relevant movement. What you do matters. Let people know so they can support you.

You can use Instagram to reach not only clients but donors. It is an effective way to reach women with a carefully crafted message of life and reach donors with a well-articulated appeal. In other words, Instagram helps to market not just your brand but your message, and it can serve as a powerful fundraising tool.

I urge you to engage with potential clients where they are—right now—who are on Instagram. If you agree, please “like” and share this article.

2024

Click here to read more about this year's parade of nations, including to view pictures.

To purchase this video, along with our International Keynotes, click here and select "Jacinta McGorian, Kate Lawlor, Svetlana Jovanova & Parade of Nations" under Keynote Recordings.

2023

Heartbeat International joined the Center for Family and Human Rights, Asociacion La Familia Importa, The Global Center for Human Rights, and The Institute for Women’s Health in a panel at the United Nations during the sixty-seventh session of the Commission on the Status of Women on “How Embracing the Geneva Consensus Declaration Advances the Well-being of Families, Women and Girls.”

International Program Specialist, Ellen Foell, had the opportunity to speak at the #CSW67 side event on March 10, 2023, at the United Nations to support the Geneva Consensus Declaration and share how pregnancy help worldwide provides women with care and support, helping them and their families thrive so that no woman feels abortion is her only option. Heartbeat joined life-affirming organizations in support of the GCD.

Video property of UN Web TV. To view the meeting in its entirety, go to: media.un.org/en/asset/k18/k18b3n6zwb

by Ellen Foell, International Program Specialist
Heartbeat International

If there is one word to describe the world today it might be divided. Actually, we might even be divided about that! Some people might use the words fractured, broken, or disintegrating. The reality is, we see evidence of division all around us, politically, racially, nationally, even within individuals.

None of that sounds like good news.

But in the midst of the bad news, and the division, we see good news.

The night before Jesus was betrayed, he had a meal and a very long conversation with the disciples. The meal was familiar and traditional, a Passover meal. A meal that each of the disciples had eaten many times in their lives, filled with history, song, and prayer.

But the conversation was not so familiar. Jesus did things that disrupted the evening with hard sayings about leaving, about vines and branches, betrayal. He even said one of the friends sitting at the Passover meal would betray him. He washed everyone’s feet which shocked them and then said they would learn to wash one another’s feet as well.  

In the middle of that last conversation and meal Jesus shared with his disciples, he stopped to enter into a conversation with the Father. He did not preface the interruption with “everyone please bow your heads.” No dramatic pause for effect. He simply started praying to the Father as if the Father was a participant in the rest of the conversation, had been there all along. And, of course, He was. But the prayer Jesus prayed was not the overthrow of the Roman oppressors, nor was it for the disciples’ prosperity, or for methods to spread the message.

His prayer was pointed and focused: the unity of the disciples, both the ones present in the room, and the ones who would one day also believe because of the message carried by the ones in the room. He asked the Father, in the presence of the disciples:

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

This was the last major discourse with the disciples, and the last major prayer time between the Father and the Son to which they would be witnesses. Because, as we know, they slept through the next prayer time on the Mount of Olives. In this little passage, the disciples overheard Jesus talk to the Father about the who, what, how, and why of unity. We need to pay attention to the matters of unity because unity matters.

The Who

When Jesus talked to the Father about unity for the disciples, he was inclusive. He prayed beyond the eleven disciples present in the room (Judas had already left). It was a prayer for those who would believe in Jesus through the testimony and witness of the ones in the room. And any single one of us reading this as well as the billions who follow Jesus around the world, are part of the “those who will believe in me through their message.” Jesus’ prayer to the Father reached down through generations and across the globe. He prayed across time and space.

The What

Jesus interceded to the Father that all of them, all of us may be one: “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” He wanted more than all of us being in the same room, more than gathering around the worldwide campfire and singing the same song. He prayed for oneness.

Oneness goes beyond togetherness, friendship, partnership, or collaboration.  Oneness carries with it the same meaning as used in marriage-that the two become one. Total intimacy of two still distinct individuals. As the Father and the Son and Spirit are one, Jesus asked God to make us, as Jesus followers, one, in the same way that the Father and the Son are one. The concept is already beyond our human comprehension, so he gave us an example of oneness and intimacy in relationship: just as you are in me and I am in you.

The Father and Son are so united that Jesus told Philip, “if you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Jesus wanted for us the unity the Son and the Father enjoy. That seems like an impossibility. How can we, as flawed human beings, from different races, ethnicities, geopolitical borders, with individual interests, needs, levels of income and desires enter into that kind of oneness?

The How

How on earth could Jesus pray for the impossible? As he said in another time to the disciples, with men and women, in the flesh, this is impossible, but all things are possible with God (MT 19:26). We cannot strive for unity as the world strives for it. Our unity is in the Father, Son and Spirit. Jesus asked the Father, “may they also be in us.” Our unity as Christians, and by extension, as the pregnancy help movement, must be found in, and founded in, the way of Jesus.

Thousands of years earlier, there was another great movement toward unity. It was a monumental effort of the entire world that was united by speech. In Genesis 11, people came together as one and determined to build a name for themselves by building a tower that reached to heaven. The effort failed because of pride and arrogance against God. But in that same passage we see that there is no limit to what could happen if people are united.

The problem was not that the people were united with one another. The problem was that the people were not united with God. Their unity was for the purpose of being like God (sounds like the Garden all over again).

The Why

Unity is not the end goal. Unity with the triune God has a beauty, joy and wonder all its own. But unity also has a purpose. “Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” We work for unity so that the whole rest of the world will know that the Father sent the Son out of love. It is so that all those generations since the eleven in the room with Jesus would know the lifesaving truth that Christ came into the world for sinners, to restore relationship, and for unity with the Father, even as the Father and the Son are one.

Psalm 131 says that where the brothers dwell together in unity, it is good and pleasant. Even more than that, God commands a blessing (Psalm 131:1-4). I have four children and honestly, when I see our children getting along, dwelling together in unity, I want to bless them because their unity blesses me. We want to bless our heavenly Father with our unity in the same way.

The pregnancy help movement is spread across the globe. Heartbeat International is currently serving affiliates in 90 nations. We do so in partnership and collaboration with nine different networks. Yet, approximately 30% of Heartbeat's international affiliates are not in networks. They labor sometimes as the only pregnancy help center in the nation. Some centers may be the only place for a woman in an unexpected pregnancy in a radius encompassing 2 or 3 or 4 million people.

Each center looks different. The languages are different. Some centers are urban, some rural, some are Catholic, some evangelical, some Orthodox. Pregnancy help centers hold out the word of life in peace and in war, in famine and in feasting, in sickness, through the pandemic, and in health. We are united with one another, and with the triune God.

Unity is hard. The culture of individualism and personal rights can stand against unity. Our “me” gets in the way of “we.” But if we can pray toward, work toward, and move toward unity, as the pregnancy help movement, the world will know, even as it sees us as a movement, that the Father sent the Son, that the Father loves them, even as He loves the Son. And then, the world might believe.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. When is the Heartbeat International Conference?

This year, Heartbeat is offering two conferences:

● A live conference is between April 30-May 2, 2025, in Birmingham, Alabama (preceded by an In-Depth Day on April 29, 2025)
● And, there will be a simultaneous Virtual Conference.*

*Details about the Virtual Conference are below. Internationals are invited to both.

Registration opens November 15 here.

2. Live Conference:

Internationals may also apply for a scholarship for the live Annual Conference registration. If you receive a scholarship to the live conference, we expect that you participate from the beginning of the conference, including In Depth Day (4/29) through the close of the conference (Friday evening).

3. How many scholarships for the live conference does Heartbeat make available?

Heartbeat typically provides 15-20 scholarships at some level to its annual conference. Demand for scholarships is generally greater than what we can provide, but Heartbeat provides as many as we possibly can, based on what the budget will allow in that conference year. Furthermore, typically, we award only one scholarship per organization. You must apply so that you can be considered for a scholarship.

4. What does the scholarship cover?

Scholarships typically do not cover visa application expenses, accommodations, or transportation. Most scholarships will cover registration for the conference only. Registration includes all hotel-provided, conference-related meals. There may be one or two meals you will have to pay for independently.

4. I can’t wait to attend! What is next?

Check to see if you are currently affiliated with Heartbeat directly, or with one of our Joint Affiliation Network (JAN) partners. Our JANs are Pregnancy Help Network, Association for Life of Africa, Be’Ad Chaim, Pregnancy Care Canada, Centros de Ayuda para la Mujer, Movimento per la Vita, Pregnancy Help Australia, Pregnancy Support Services of Asia, and ProVida. You can check your affiliation status by asking your JAN leader, and if you are affiliated with Heartbeat directly you can log in to your account. If you find that your status is in grace or expired, you will need to reaffiliate. In that case, contact the JAN or click here to reaffiliate.

5. I checked and my affiliation is current, now what?

Click here to access the online application. If you cannot access it online, you will need to fill out a hard copy application and scan the completely filled out application to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. You can download the hard copy application here. The application must be completely filled out, the information must be accurate, and the application must be received by December 20, 2024. If your application is not complete or you have not checked the correct status of your affiliation, the application will be rejected.

6. What about attending the Virtual Conference?

The dates of the virtual conference are April 30-May 2. Details regarding the Virtual Conference will be coming soon at this page: https://www.heartbeatservices.org/conference-2025

7. Does calling and emailing help the selection process?

No. In fact, calling and emailing several times slows down the entire process. You will receive acknowledgment of receipt of your application. After that, the International Program Specialist will review and check the information submitted for each application. With few exceptions, applications are considered on a first come first serve basis.

8. When is the application process closed?

It will be a hard close on December 20, 2024. That means that no more applications will be accepted. Do not delay if you want your application to be considered. Late applications will not be considered.

9. When will decisions be made?

Decisions will be made and emails will be sent out on February 3, 2025, to individuals who have received scholarships. If you do not receive an email saying you have received a scholarship, assume you have NOT received a scholarship.

10. Once selected, what is required of scholarship recipients?

Scholarship recipients are expected to:

● Understand English at a level sufficient for keynotes and workshops;

● Accept the scholarship offer as communicated by March 3, 2025. If we do not hear from you, we will give the scholarship to another applicant. You must provide evidence of your itinerary by March 3, 2025 as well.

● Attend In-Depth Day, conference workshops, and keynote sessions;

● Grant permission for the use of your pictures and stories to be used by Heartbeat;

● Following the conference, give feedback to Heartbeat’s International Program Specialist regarding your experience; Be able to communicate regularly via e-mail with Heartbeat’s International Program Specialist in the months and weeks before the conference to answer questions.

11. Who is the contact person for scholarship requests and questions?

The International Program Specialist, Ellen Foell. She can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please do NOT contact others at Heartbeat International. It will only slow down the processing of your application.

Click here to download a paper copy of this application.