Hope for Life Pregnancy Center in Charles City celebrates year as part of annual fundraiser

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Hope for Life Pregnancy Center in Charles City celebrated a year of growth and plans for the future at its annual fall fundraising event held Sunday evening.

About ​​150 people attended the event at the Youth Enrichment Center at the Floyd County Fairgrounds, featuring a dessert reception, music, testimony and nationally known author and speaker Keith Ferrin.

Hope for Life Executive Director Lisa Friesen noted that for the first time in its history the center had three hired staff people, in addition to about 20 volunteers to help run the facility.

“To those of you who have been giving of your treasures, whether it be money or donations, thank you. The gift of money is what helps run the Hope for Life efficiently,” she said.

The center offers prenatal services including ultrasounds, parenting classes, life skill classes, marriage classes, baby supplies and more, she said..

Friesen said a recent expansion opportunity for Hope for Life is partnering with Alternative Pregnancy Center in Waterloo.

“Alternative Pregnancy Center has recently opened three satellite centers in Eldora, Cedar Falls and Waverly. These satellite centers have limited hours and do not have ultrasound machines,” she said.

“As we partner with Alternative Pregnancy Center, they will refer clients to us for ultrasounds. As we look to expand our services to northeast Iowa, we will be looking for opportunities to reach communities in similar ways that Alternative Pregnancy Center is doing,” she said.

Although the service currently serves primarily Floyd, Mitchell and Chickasaw counties, it will provide service to anyone who seeks it, Friesen said, and in the future the center is looking to expand to cover the northeast corner of Iowa, including the additional counties of Howard, Winneshiek, Allamakee, Butler, Bremer, Fayette and Clayton.

“Please continue to join us in prayer, financial support and volunteering, as we meet the need of families with unplanned pregnancies and related issues, to help grow healthy families, physically, emotionally and spiritually, with the love of Jesus,” Friesen told the enthusiastic crowd.

The Hope For Life Pregnancy Center describes itself as “a Christ-centered, pro-life ministry, committed to sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, and upholding the sanctity of life by providing compassionate, life-affirming services to women, men and families of those facing unplanned pregnancies or related issues.”

Friesen said, “As staff and volunteers we believe that God will bring people who need our services to the center each day. Whether their needs are spiritual, physical or emotional, we hope to be an encouragement to whomever comes to the center.”

Guest speaker Ferrin said his goal during his talk with the crowd was to help them change from “should” to “want” when it comes to reading the Bible.

“As I travel around the world, for most people, the Bible is the one aspect of their life with Jesus that is more of a should than a want,” he said. “ We want to sing and worship together. We want to hear good preaching. We want to gather together in community. We want to share food together. We want to serve our community. … We want to do all that, and when someone brings up the Bible in the conversation, and we go, “Yeah, I should read that more. I should be more consistent. I probably should know the Bible a little bit better. …”

Focusing on the Book of Philippians, Ferrin said one trick is to approach the Bible not as a textbook, but as a letter from a friend.