Arise. Butterfly. Glorify.

On the 20th of August, my friend Youandi and I flew to Johannesburg for four days to attend the Africa Cares for Life conference.
 

Africa Cares for Life is an umbrella body and support structure for pregnancy centres in South Africa. Africa Cares for Life also offers various development programs to empower pregnancy centres in South Africa.

Each year, ACFL has a conference to refresh, encourage and empower pregnancy centre leaders and volunteers. 

While most pregnancy centres are actual centres in a physical building, there are a few online counselling helplines and organizations that offer online pregnancy help. 

Youandi Gilain from Open Arms SA, and Nina McNeil from 11th Hour are both online pregnancy support counsellors. 

I represent my organization, Project Life, and do most of my pregnancy help and post-abortion counselling on Whatsapp, with the odd person contacting me on Facebook. 

The majority of clients who contact me, contact me for post-abortion counselling, but now and then, I do receive a client seeking pregnancy counselling.

Daniele Gradwell, director of ACFL put together an exceptionally inspiring conference, and world-class speakers shared their stories and passion for assisting girls and women in unplanned pregnancies.

Karla Sutter, Ellen Foell, Grant Edkins, and Lusanda Dhlamini are some of the fantastic influencers that spoke at the conference.

Each day, we had the option of attending wonderfully informative workshops. One of the workshops that particularly stood out to me was Breaking Soul Ties, by Joyce Ray. 
 

I also had the privilege of seeing the movie Unplanned at the conference. The film is powerfully moving, and I have no doubt in my mind that it will change and challenge many hearts on the topic of abortion. I imagine that many lives will be saved because of this movie.

I will be planning a screening for the movie Unplanned in Cape Town towards the end of October, so keep an eye out for the details. 

On the last evening of the conference, Daniele organized a banquet, and we were encouraged to dress up. The theme for the conference was BOLD, so I wore a brightly coloured dress and painted my face like a warrior, symbolic of my passion to boldly fight for what I believe is right.
My heart was so full of joy to be surrounded by people with the same passion, who are on the same mission that I am on. 

I would like to say a special thanks to you to Daniele for putting together an amazingly informative and motivational conference.  
I have been inspired to take bold steps and to keep moving forward. I have been inspired to be courageous.