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5: What Is A Pro-Life Ministry?
32 Plays9 days ago
Colleen Pasnik – Director of Mary’s Inn Maternity Home, Dubuque Iowa
https://www.marysinnmaternityhome.org/
Executive Director at Guiding Star Cedar Valley, a Women’s Holistic Health Services Organization, Waterloo Iowa
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:13
Speaker
Hello, everyone. My name is Father Jacob Rouse, and I'm the pastor of Notre Dame Parish in Cresco, Iowa. And welcome to the DeBucharistic Revival Podcast, Season 2. That's the name we're going with.
00:00:24
Speaker
Thank you, Father Kevin. um Sounds like we have, ah well, as we always do, we have a couple of guests today. Who are joining us today? Yes, we have with us Amy Dahl and Colleen Pasnick to be our guests today.
Guest Introductions and Roles
00:00:39
Speaker
So Colleen and Amy, I'll invite you to introduce yourselves to our listeners Well, thank you very much. Yes, my name is Colleen Pasnick.
00:00:46
Speaker
I am the director of Mary's Inn Maternity Home in Dubuque, Iowa, and I am really looking forward to our conversation today. I am Amy Dahl. I'm the executive director at Guiding Star Cedar Valley in Waterloo, and we are women's holistic health services organization.
00:01:06
Speaker
Well, thank you so much both for being here. Really, we are also looking forward to this conversation.
Respect Life Month and Pro-Life Values
00:01:11
Speaker
So we asked you on. um We are, as this episode is released, it'll be in the month of October.
00:01:18
Speaker
October, many Catholics know, is the month of the Rosary ah and has also ah been declared Respect Life Month. um And I know some people, I have some people in my life, some friends in my life who are pro-choice, and I know sometimes they've approached me with the...
00:01:34
Speaker
the perception that people who are pro-life or respect life only care about the life of the child, the unborn child, and don't care about the life of the mother. That's a ah an argument I often hear, ah which frankly has just not been my experience of people who I know who are ah pro-life. And ah precisely, i think both of your ministries that you do, ah the organizations you're a part of, um I think precisely um are these very beautiful,
00:02:02
Speaker
ah ministries built on um pro-life principles that um very much care for both children and very much for women, ah for
Amy's Personal Story and Conversion
00:02:11
Speaker
the mothers. And so um before we get into those about about your ministries, your apostolates, um which we'll talk more about in this episode, I first want to just invite each of you to share a little bit about um your own background, your own journey, and I guess kind of how you arrived in your current roles.
00:02:29
Speaker
um So for myself, I would tell you that have kind of a I said I tell people a little bit of a radical gnarly background. Honestly, um i myself um chose abortion at the age of 19 and um was not of any faith organization at that point in my life.
00:02:52
Speaker
Felt very empowered by what the world told me at that time. um And I just didn't want to bring a child into the world who endure kind of what my childhood had been like.
00:03:06
Speaker
Only through the God's grace was I able to be my husband um and became Catholic, which would have been 20 years ago this year, and really identified um a little bit prior to that, came to a realization that my choice was not a good choice.
00:03:25
Speaker
um and felt the Lord just really put on my heart as I was really understanding the Catholic faith that that story, my story, would be used in some way, shape, or form.
00:03:40
Speaker
So a couple of years ago, I was invited to consider the role of the Executive Director of Guiding Star Cedar Valley. I will tell you that I feel wholly unequipped for this role.
Colleen's Career in Pro-Life Movement
00:03:53
Speaker
Um, and I have many people tell me that God equips the unequipped, right? And he does through grace and so many other people, But what we have done with Guiding Star Cedar Valley, what I understand about the things that we teach, the knowledge, the information that we give is just really to provide a deeper understanding of how God created us and how beautifully we are made.
00:04:20
Speaker
And I have come to the realization and recognition. If I had known some of those things when I was 19 years old, I would not have made that choice. And so my goal,
00:04:32
Speaker
for me, and hopefully for God's glory, for his kingdom, is to really present this message of how beautiful we are so that women don't even come to that place in life where they feel like that's a choice for them, right? If we can understand from a very young age um how beautiful we are and how created how intentionally God created our bodies, our persons,
00:04:59
Speaker
that we will embrace life in a different way than what the world around us tells us. Thank you for sharing. Yeah, that is beautiful, um Amy. And I want to say that I'm sorry that you had to go through such a traumatic event when you
Mary's Inn Maternity Home
00:05:17
Speaker
were 19. So um I'm sorry that you that you had to go through that.
00:05:23
Speaker
Our backgrounds actually sound very different. um because I was born and raised a Catholic and went through Catholic schools and graduated from Wallert and then um went on to um college at the University of Iowa. And while I was there, I kind of fell away from my faith, became very lukewarm.
00:05:46
Speaker
And the mid-80s were very bad economically, so after I graduated college, I moved to North Carolina, and it was there that I had a reversion to the faith. on January 7th 1993 and I got my master's in counseling in 1995 and I saw in a local church bulletin that Project Rachel was going to be starting in Raleigh North Carolina and I thought well maybe I could use my counseling degree to help post-abortive women maybe that's what God was gonna do um and so I helped with the local Project Rachel um for the next three years so I
00:06:24
Speaker
I'm very familiar with the kind of pain and suffering women carry um that are post-abortive. So we came back to Iowa in 1998, and I started working as a school counselor at a couple local schools here, Catholic schools, Seton and Aquin.
00:06:44
Speaker
um And then for three years, I worked at the Family Life Office in Dubuque, which is where I got to meet Father Jacob's dad, Dan Rouse, Deacon Dan, I should
Project Rachel Ministry
00:06:57
Speaker
say. um So I got to know him there.
00:07:00
Speaker
And then after that, I worked for Dubuque County Right to Life for nine years. um And so been working in the pro-life movement for a long time. For a couple years after that, I worked at the Power Prayer Adoration Chapel here in Dubuque.
00:07:14
Speaker
um And then we started Mary's in maternity home. We opened our doors in 2015. So that was 10 years ago now. And I'm one of the founders and I've been the executive director since we opened.
00:07:27
Speaker
um But that's kind of how i came about to be sitting in this chair. And I couldn't agree more, Amy. um I feel very unequipped to do this work.
00:07:39
Speaker
And I have said so many times, i don't know why God picked a schmuck like me because i have no idea what I'm doing. um But the good thing is he does. So yes, our journey's similar, but we somehow have ended up in a similar place.
00:07:55
Speaker
But before you get into sharing more about both Guiding Star and Mary's Inn about what they do, could you just say for a moment, Colleen, about you mentioned Project Rachel, and some of our listeners might not know what Project Rachel is. So before we get into Your guys as apostolate, could we just could you just share ah just very briefly ah what Project Rachel is? Because it's a beautiful ministry.
00:08:17
Speaker
It's a very beautiful ministry, and I think it's active in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, or at least they can call, I believe, Catholic Charities and find out where the local um weekends are going to be or where there is some help for um women who have had abortions in their past and they're recovering from the trauma of it.
00:08:36
Speaker
Project Rachel is based on the scripture that Rachel mourns for her children because they are no more. um You know, speaking of the terrible, it's it's mentioned in the terrible killing of the innocents when Christ was born. It references back to the Old Testament of Rachel mourning for her children.
00:08:57
Speaker
So Project Rachel is an outreach to women and men who have been involved in an abortion. and And the whole point is is to help them heal, to work through that pain, um to bring some closure to it.
00:09:13
Speaker
You know, they they name their baby in the process. So there's lots of different ways for healing. It's never judgmental, but it's all about, you know, forgiveness, forgiveness of self, asking forgiveness from God, asking forgiveness from the child.
00:09:27
Speaker
So it it really attempts to heal the woman, um body, mind and spirit from that experience. And Amy, if you have anything to add to that.
00:09:39
Speaker
I would actually, thank you. um So I myself have been part of a Rachel's Vineyard retreat. I also do help with those retreats. There is Bridge Haven in Cedar Rapids specifically offers fall and spring retreats that are ecumenical.
00:09:58
Speaker
um And then we also have a group in the Waterloo area that are wanting to start Rachel's Vineyard retreat, which is very focused on the Catholic aspect of it. So that's just for me, recognizing that the healing process is a lifelong process, especially when that decision has been made.
00:10:17
Speaker
And I, I have a heart and a desire for women and men to be healed from that choice.
Healing and Support for Post-Abortive Women
00:10:25
Speaker
Um, that's kind of my passion outside of work. It is part of the focus of what we do at guiding star, but specifically for me personally, I just know that when you have one in four women who are going to choose abortion in their lifetime,
00:10:41
Speaker
It's not just the mother and the father of that baby that are impacted. It's generations. It's the grandparents. It's the siblings. It's the friends, the family that are impacted by that choice.
00:10:53
Speaker
And so there's a lot of healing that needs to happen in our world. And I just hope that people are invited into that space and they're made aware of that. Very good.
00:11:04
Speaker
Thank you. Yeah. Thank you both for um sharing your ah your past and your story. I just want to highlight for our listeners um some of the word usage that you um i'm I'm noticing you're using. um First of all, Colleen, you said that you had a reversion.
00:11:20
Speaker
um It's an event in your life. And um I think when we hear the word conversion, we think we have to throw everything away. And then that's but I mean, we are constantly being invited to conversion. um The Lord is always calling us to to greater love and conformity with his son and and um to mark these different events in your life is is really powerful.
00:11:41
Speaker
And then Amy, you you you shared that you made the choice to have an abortion. um I noticed that word word choice, um because I think in in a lot of the the sentences and words that are thrown around and in the discourse with this this topic is had an abortion or um you you speak of it as something traumatic that happened to a person and that they chose.
00:12:05
Speaker
And then both of you have been been um just just endlessly spilling words like recovery and healing and forgiveness. And I mean, to go with Father Kevin's initial ah hypothesis that that pro-life folks don't only care about the life of the child. I mean, this is this is a very tender and sacred ah reverence that you have for every human involved in these events. And i just I just want to affirm that.
00:12:35
Speaker
Yeah, and I'm sure Amy can you know speak at a more personal level, but as you know working with the women in the different groups over three years, you know it's just so traumatic for the women.
00:12:47
Speaker
um and And you can see that they still carry the pain and it just breaks your heart. um And God can forgive anything. God can forgive it anything.
00:12:59
Speaker
And we never judge. um with any of the women that we work with because we've never been in their shoes. So we always just try to be very, you know, tell them we're sorry because that's a terrible thing to have gone through. um And actually many of the women that live at Mary's Inn that have lived here for 10 years, most of them have had abortions with their previous pregnancies.
00:13:24
Speaker
And in every case we say, you know, I'm sorry you went through that, you know, and then we talk a little bit about the healing that can happen. um So it's there's there's no judgment.
00:13:36
Speaker
we We love women and and we we hurt when they hurt.
00:13:43
Speaker
And I would just add, i had the opportunity to meet ah Vicki Thorne a couple of times in my seminary journey, who's the founder of Project Rachel, I believe, one of the founders. And um man, I just want to say, she's since deceased now, but ah what an inspiring woman.
00:14:01
Speaker
I mean, she was she she She knew her stuff really well. and was I mean, just a very sharp woman and and very clearly you know passionate about what she was doing, but also just had this great tenderness. Like I met her, I just remember meeting her.
00:14:17
Speaker
And from just a few minutes with her, she just had this sense of like, feels like she's your grandma who's loved and known you forever, you know, and just like, ah just a very, just kind of a fusing that, that love. And, and I know she was very recognized for pro-life work was on a, some pontifical committee with the Pope for pro-life and, um but just to affirm everything that's being said, like the founder of project, Rachel, Vicki Thorne, it was just, I mean, very much lived with all of that. I mean, sense of healing and love and, and, and no judgment.
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah. I would just like to add to that. I wish that I could have met her in person. I have listened to a couple of her talks on YouTube, and it is biology of theology of the body.
00:15:01
Speaker
And she is able to take the brilliance of so many people and put that into a talk that really helps you understand even more than surface level biology, just how beautifully God had created us, right?
00:15:20
Speaker
And how we he created us for number one, for a community, but just um how life-giving a woman's body is and how sacred that is.
00:15:31
Speaker
And just some of the... um Some of the information that she parceled out and brought together in that talk is brilliant. And I would say if anyone wants to understand better what our bodies and how our bodies were created and just how miraculous things happen within our body, she's incredible.
00:15:55
Speaker
She's incredible. I don't think that you could listen to her and, and, um, believe that abortion could possibly even be an option or a choice in your life.
00:16:08
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And this is all, of course, is is springing from our tradition of ah theology and philosophy and natural law and biology and all which is within our our rich Catholic tradition.
00:16:23
Speaker
um Colleen, I'd like you to share little, just to remind us, what is your position and what is the location or many locations that you work at and um for Mary's Inn?
Services at Mary's Inn
00:16:36
Speaker
And then what is what is just like a day to day? What are some of the ministries and and services that you offer? Sure. So I am one of the three founders of Mary's Inn and had no intention of being the director, but that's what I've been doing for 10 years.
00:16:52
Speaker
um And we have one location. We're just in Dubuque, Iowa. um I had mentioned before we started recording that for probably the first eight years, we were the only maternity home in eastern Iowa.
00:17:07
Speaker
um So there's one in Des Moines, one in Ames, one in the northwest corner of the state up by Lake Okoboji. And about two years ago, one opened down in the southeast corner of the state, Mount Pleasant.
00:17:22
Speaker
So um we have just our one location, although there are a total of five maternity homes in Iowa. And so a maternity home is a place for women who are pregnant or parenting an infant age zero to two who don't have a safe place to stay.
00:17:44
Speaker
So when we first opened, we were just accepting women who were pregnant and no safe place to stay. But after about a year and a half, most of my calls were from women who were pregnant and had a one-year-old with them or a two-year-old with them, or they weren't pregnant, but they had two-month-old with them.
00:18:03
Speaker
And so after the first year and a half, we expanded who we would serve and we opened the doors a little broader. So right now we have two women here. They both have um little kids and they're both expecting another child, one in December, one in January.
00:18:21
Speaker
So it's very common to have a ah mom here who's pregnant and has another small child with her. So we we are small. We can only take up to four women at a time and their children.
00:18:36
Speaker
And the whole reason we started was because came to our attention three different teenagers, 15 years old, 15 years old, 16 years old.
00:18:49
Speaker
in a very short course of time, went to the Right to Life office here in Dubuque, and they told Marion Borick, one of the other founders, that they went home and told their parents that they were pregnant and their parents told them, have an abortion or get out.
00:19:05
Speaker
And in all three cases, the teenagers said, we don't want to have abortions. And the parents said, then get out. So they came to Dubuque County Right to Life kind of looking for help. And, uh, there was no maternity home here at the time. And so, you know, we said, well, maybe you could go to the women's shelter, but the women's shelter did not take minors still does not take minors. You have to be 18.
00:19:28
Speaker
And so we thought to ourselves, well, someone should do something about that, but we never thought it was us. We thought that someone else should do something about that. But the more we prayed about it and the more we, um,
00:19:41
Speaker
you know, just really spend time listening to God. He just kept opening door after door after door. And so we visited other maternity homes um and they all pretty much operate the same way. You know, we're, we're not shelters.
00:19:56
Speaker
We're a place for a woman can stay for free. And while she's here, she learns parenting skills and life skills. And almost every maternity home I know of is faith based. So there's Bible study, there's church on Sunday, there's talk of God.
00:20:11
Speaker
um So it's a place she gets all those skills. um And most of us operate by this very same way. So we learned a lot from the other maternity homes. And then we um took the plunge and opened our doors on June tenth of 2015.
00:20:26
Speaker
um And people will sometimes say, well, are there more Marys-ins around the state? and And I say, no, no, there's other maternity homes, but we're we're all by ourselves. And just to just to be clear, we are not part of the archdiocese.
00:20:41
Speaker
of Dubuque, and we are not part of any parish, although sometimes I'll go to the post office box and I'll get an inflow from a church that says, well, we did our second collection for you guys last month.
00:20:54
Speaker
um So I'm always grateful for parish support, but we just operate independently. um And some people in this area might know the Teresa Shelter or the Maria House, which is part of the opening doors, um you know, ministry, but we are not part of them either.
00:21:10
Speaker
We play well with them, but we we're not part of them either. So we're just a standalone maternity home here in Dubuque. Wow, and
Daily Life at Mary's Inn
00:21:21
Speaker
I'm sure in addition to... um ah Faith-based and emotional support. They also, I mean, food, hygiene, just the basic livings, a comfortable bed, a safe place where they can feel secure.
00:21:34
Speaker
i i assume all that's part of it as well. Sure. Absolutely. Yes. We have security cameras, so they they are secure and they can feel secure. They know that that's there. We have staffing 24-7. So there's always someone here, even in the middle of the night, which also helps with their felt safety.
00:21:50
Speaker
um We eat together as a family. Our curfew is early. i will admit our curfew is early. Our curfew is five o'clock. And so the moms have to be home by five o'clock because we make dinner together. We eat dinner together and we clean up from dinner together. Oh, wow.
00:22:05
Speaker
We have our program piece. And most of the moms living here have never eaten as a family. ah One of the first moms that moved in, one of the first nights she was here, she made some macaroni and cheese on the stove.
00:22:20
Speaker
And when it was done, she just took the pot and a fork and she just kind of leaned against the counter and she just started eating out of the pot. I'm like, well, can we sit down? Let's just put some on a plate, right? But they just don't know. so we're like, let's just go around the table, talk about our day, um just really because they are our family.
00:22:39
Speaker
You know, we really want to give them, it's an important piece to have that, you know, eat a meal together and share about your day. um So that is part of part of the whole experience of Mary's Inn.
00:22:52
Speaker
Wow, you're not you're not just an emergency room triaging people. You are you are building community and family as a home. That's that's beautiful. Yeah. And I could talk. I could take up the whole time. So I'm to restrain myself. I want to hear from Amy as well.
00:23:09
Speaker
um But i am I could just go on and on. So. Amy, you better say something or I'll just steal the whole time. Before we move on real quick, Mary's Inn. Can you just, ah well and then we'll get to Guiding Star name, but what what was the um inspiration for the name Mary's Inn?
00:23:25
Speaker
Well, the inspiration was the Christmas story, actually, when Mary and Joseph were on the way to Bethlehem for the census and there was no room at the inn.
00:23:37
Speaker
And we three founders have a great devotion to Our Lady, And we thought, well, if she had an in, she would have room for everybody. so And our logo is an image of Our Lady Guadalupe.
00:23:51
Speaker
So the pregnant Mary, um that's that's how we came up with the name. Beautiful.
00:24:00
Speaker
Guiding star.
Guiding Star Cedar Valley
00:24:01
Speaker
um Yeah, Amy, can you share what um location and um your role again? And then what some of your ministries and services you offer?
00:24:11
Speaker
Absolutely. i just want to say to Colleen, though, um i think that there's this little personal mission in my head right now is to come to Dubuque and to visit your space.
00:24:22
Speaker
Love it. right I have a beautiful devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. And to listen to just what you're building in those young mothers is so beautiful.
00:24:33
Speaker
Right. And i I think of myself um when I was a young mother and just what other women brought into my life and how much that enriched me and didn't know it until later on. Right. So just praying for what you do and all of those women that come into your, into that home.
00:24:52
Speaker
Thank you. Right. And so that they know that love. Yeah. So guiding star Cedar Valley, we are located in Waterloo. We are one of seven affiliates guiding star project is a national project out of Minnesota.
00:25:08
Speaker
And the founder, Leah Jacobson, she actually was a campus minister for Father Mike Schmitz. Fun little known fact. And this particular affiliate was founded by Jamie Ratchie.
00:25:23
Speaker
She is a co-host of the Hormone Genius podcast with Teresa Kenney. um And she founded Guiding Star Cedar Valley, which would have been... um We're starting our 10th year, 2016.
00:25:39
Speaker
And our anniversary was our ladies, Stella Morris, which was just Saturday on the 27th. And so Guiding Star, Stella Morris, it kind of all works together. ah Jamie did not...
00:25:58
Speaker
She came upon the Guiding Star Project plan and just her own personal fiat for Jamie was just to teach women about um essentially their hormones, their bodies to understand.
00:26:11
Speaker
That was something that she was learning in women's health. That was her master's. And so that just kind of became her desire. And she partnered with Dr. Robert Pranger, who is Fiat Family Medicine.
00:26:23
Speaker
And so we are uniquely set up. We office... um in Dr. Pranger's space. So we share office space with Fiat Family Medicine.
00:26:34
Speaker
And so that story is really beautiful, but I won't get into that today. um But again, a lot of a lot of doors opened up. i I said there needs to be a miracle book to talk about all of the ways that the God had just has just worked miracles for Guiding Star Cedar Valley.
00:26:53
Speaker
We do education as one of our things that I really love to promote. We start with adolescent body literacy. And so teaching young men and young women what's going on with their bodies as they start to enter puberty or what to expect as they enter puberty, that education um goes all the way through to perimenopause and menopause.
00:27:17
Speaker
And so I really think that that is valuable, probably a lot from a personal standpoint, but understanding there's a lot of, um, misinformed young people in our world today about what is truth about their bodies so i i love that we teach young girls that they have superpowers right that is that we're life-giving um that uh lactation is a superpower ovulation is a superpower Those kinds of things that we can teach women, like you need to love your body, appreciate it um and really understand how it functions.
00:27:57
Speaker
And the same with men. And that goes both ways, right? So that boys understand how um women's young girls' bodies work and vice versa, to be well-informed and educated that way.
00:28:11
Speaker
Um, so that's one pillar of care. We do natural family planning. So we treat, uh, we teach the Creighton model of family planning, and we also offer FEM. Um, we really focus on breastfeeding and pregnancy.
00:28:27
Speaker
And so the way that we are uniquely set up within Dr. Pranger's practice, we actually get to walk alongside women, um, prior to pregnancy and during throughout. So we'll visit with them during their trimesters and then postpartum as well, just checking in on them.
00:28:46
Speaker
We offer breastfeeding and lactation support and services. and We do that various ways, whether that's one-to-one consultations, we have a breastfeeding moms group that meets twice a month.
00:28:59
Speaker
And those numbers have doubled from last year. we have, and just to kind of, ah paint the picture for what that looks like on Friday, we had our breastfeeding moms group. We had about 10 women there and they introduced themselves and gave their ages. And we had mothers from 21 to 41 there with their children.
00:29:21
Speaker
So just a beautiful way that we can bring women together to support each other in their breastfeeding journey. We have one mom who was not able to breastfeed and she comes every single time with her daughter.
00:29:34
Speaker
So it's just moms coming together, women coming together to support each other. The other thing that we do is miscarriage infant loss support.
Support for Miscarriage and Infant Loss
00:29:44
Speaker
So with October being the month of Respect Life, there is a National Day of Remembrance for Pregnancy and Infant Loss. That is October 15th.
00:29:54
Speaker
Annually, we provide a ceremony that just honors those little ones. We partner with a local funeral home, Hagerty, Wyckoff and Grouette Funeral Services.
00:30:05
Speaker
They actually will go to the hospitals and they will collect um those little babies and they will save them. And we have a burial service on October 15th.
00:30:16
Speaker
We also provide miscarriage kits to women. We've worked with the hospitals locally to be able to provide those miscarriage kits so that they can collect their baby when they know that a miscarriage imminent or is happening.
00:30:32
Speaker
We also do mentoring one-to-one with mothers. So we will pair up a mother who has the experience of miscarriage with another mom just to kind of walk with them in their grief and just help them to understand that experience maybe a little bit better and to find some healing as well.
00:30:51
Speaker
So there are a lot of other things we like to do We offer community classes. So Bradley classes, maybe it's cloth diapering 101, pelvic floor exercises, which has become very to the forefront of what people understand is what is healthy.
00:31:09
Speaker
So we're just, we're excited to be able to do and bring to women topics that maybe they hadn't heard of or didn't know that they needed help with.
00:31:24
Speaker
um It sounds like ah your main, I guess, charism or guiding light is ah knowledge um and um not a ah seeking or grasping at. But the the more we learn about our bodies as humans, specifically women's bodies, um the more we can give thanks to our creator and then the more we can use our bodies for good and what they were designed to do. So it sounds like you've got knowledge going and then Colleen's ministry has ah community going.
00:31:56
Speaker
um Wow.
00:32:00
Speaker
That's a lot of good stuff.
00:32:03
Speaker
There is a lot of good stuff um and something just to I mean, Amy, that is great to hear about all of this this different kind of work that you're doing out there. That's wonderful. I really had no idea about the extent of the things. So that's, that's wonderful to learn.
00:32:21
Speaker
Wonderful to learn. You had mentioned earlier that you wish that there was a book of miracles, that of all the miracles, the ways that God has been involved. And I couldn't agree more. This is definitely the maternity home is definitely God's work.
00:32:39
Speaker
um And you know you and I are blessed because we have a front row seat to see all the different ways that God is working um and because of our two priests.
00:32:51
Speaker
I would just like to share one of those miracles that involve Deacon Dan Rouse. I know him. You know him, right? Yes. Father of our host, Father Jacob Rouse, and also was a guest on the show during season one. Deacon Dan Rouse was. Oh, was he? Very good.
00:33:10
Speaker
Well, i'm maybe on that show, he talked about how for many years he worked for Mediacom services. Well, And I had known Deacon Dan since I worked at the Archdiocese because he ran the men's conference for years and years and years.
00:33:25
Speaker
um And we put on a women's conference. So he was certainly a lot of help to me in that. but But the the miraculous story comes when we opened Mary's Inn on June 15th of 2015.
00:33:39
Speaker
We opened our doors and just kind of expected, i don't know, there'd be a line of women there with suitcases or something. And there was nobody. And nobody and a couple of weeks went by and nobody, um you know, so I thought, gosh, I don't know what I should do. So I called the director of a maternity home down in St. Louis and I said to her, you know, we opened a couple of weeks ago, but we haven't gotten any calls.
00:34:12
Speaker
And she and I said, what do did you experience that? You know, what do you suggest I do? And she said that they had two because, you know, it just takes a while to get the word out. But she said, I would suggest that you contact your local cable company.
00:34:26
Speaker
And she said and asked them if they would do a commercial, you know, professionally produced commercial that they would air on shows that young women watch.
00:34:38
Speaker
well And I thought, well, that's a great idea. So this was like on a Tuesday afternoon. And I thought to myself, I need to call Dan Rouse tomorrow. Mm hmm. The next day, before I could call Dan, my phone rings.
00:34:53
Speaker
It's Dan Rouse. And I thought, this is weird. And then he says to me, hey, you know, we have an intern this summer. And he's kind of looking for a project. And I was thinking, you know, we should help Mary's in.
00:35:09
Speaker
I think we could make a professionally produced commercial that we could air on shows that young women watch. ah It was almost verbatim, yeah almost verbatim of what the St. Louis woman told me.
00:35:22
Speaker
And I just kind of looked up to heaven and I said, that's a great idea, Dan. Yeah, good job. Right. So that happened. But but I wanted to share that because it involves Deacon Dan Rouse.
00:35:35
Speaker
And one of those miracles that Amy, you were talking about. so great to be on the front row to see all of them. That's so beautiful. heard I would. Can I share one of my stories?
00:35:48
Speaker
as I don't know if this can is can could be construed as a miracle, but when Jamie Ratchie was understanding hormones are a big deal and birth control, hormonal birth control is not good for your bodies. Right.
00:36:05
Speaker
She was looking for a Catholic doctor to basically hang her shingle up for educating women. And she, um, had a meeting with Dr. Pranger, and this is a story that has been, um, shared, so I'm not sharing secrets or anything.
00:36:24
Speaker
Um, But she went to Dr. Pranger and she said, this is what I like to do. I'd like to educate women on their hormones. um I would really like to be able to have a space in a doctor's office because I recognize that that's where I would be able to encounter women.
00:36:40
Speaker
And he's like, yes, was all for some of the things that she was saying. And then she said to him, would you stop prescribing hormonal birth control? And he said, no.
00:36:52
Speaker
And she said at that point in time, I wasn't always the boldest person, but she goes, I was just very convicted. She goes, okay, thank you. I'll look for someone else. And so some time passed and Dr. Pranger reached back out to her and he goes, number one, what you asked me was something that my own wife had been asking me for years and I wasn't ready to, he goes. So was, he was a little angry at the time that that was the question that she posed to him.
00:37:20
Speaker
He said, but i went and prayed about it and I took it to adoration. and he goes, I will, I'll stop doing that. And so that partnership was born, which we're still partners, obviously with Fiat Family Medicine, Dr. Pringer today, but just beautiful how the Lord can work on a person's heart, right? That there might not be an immediate yes, but sometimes we just have to be bold for the Lord and he honors that.
00:37:44
Speaker
That's beautiful. It's a beautiful story.
00:37:49
Speaker
Speaking of God working in miraculous ways, I'm sure you've seen God work in the life of some of the women you've shared. and And obviously without sharing names or anything confidential or anything, but was wondering maybe if each of you could share like, ah I guess, a success story for back lack of better words, but someone who's benefited from your ministries that has just been an inspiration to see um how they've they've grown in in being accompanied by these ministries or so on.
Success Stories and Transformation
00:38:17
Speaker
yeah had a story about that. I know I'm trying to debate between a couple different ones that I could tell. sure there's many. Yeah. um Well, I would say one of our um success stories, we, we had a woman here move in, in January of 2020.
00:38:39
Speaker
And she was pregnant with her first, I'm sorry, with her second, her first child had been removed because of involvement with drugs. So she moved in January of 2020. She was due in July. And um we could not get that girl to get out of her bathrobe and get a job.
00:38:59
Speaker
One of the things that is required of the moms that live here is you need to either be working or going to school, um especially during your pregnancy. And boy, we just could not get her out of her bathrobe to apply for a job.
00:39:16
Speaker
so um And she was very kind of, you know, antagonistic, um real rough. um And so when COVID was hitting middle of March and we were going to close our doors and just everybody stay put, she said to us, I'm not being stuck here with you guys. I'm going to call my uncle.
00:39:38
Speaker
So that's, you know, so then she left. Right. So she left, had the baby somewhere else in Iowa in July. But a couple months after that, she called us back up and she you know said that she was struggling and she asked if she could come back. And we talked about some of the issues. Well, you're gonna have to get a job and that was fine, that was fine. and And when she came back, you know a lot had happened to her in that time, but when she came back, she really was a bit of a different person and she got a job. And I remember when she came home the first day, we're like, how was work?
00:40:15
Speaker
And she said, wasn't that hard. We're like, we know. And she had been um ah ah drug user. Meth was her drug of choice. And she said, I never thought I could work.
00:40:27
Speaker
The drugs always told me I was too stupid. it was going to be hard. i couldn't do it. So I never even tried. um So one of the things that being at Mary's Inn helped her realize was she can do it. And ah she is smart enough.
00:40:44
Speaker
And she has since gone on to live independently. She has her own apartment. She went through voc rehab. She's working full time. She's been clean since then. So for five years, she's been sober.
00:40:57
Speaker
um And this past summer, she was baptized. So i just I just love that particular resident and all the growth that we saw in her. Mm-hmm. I'm sitting here and I'm trying to think of what story would be compelling. And I feel like we have so many beautiful stories of the work that gets, that happens at Guiding Star Cedar Valley.
00:41:23
Speaker
And as I tell people, I'm not the expert. I'm kind of a jack of all trades, master of none person. Mm-hmm. But I will tell you that over and over again with natural family planning, sometimes that's hard for people to hear or want to come on board with. Right. So we I try to talk about it from a biological perspective where it's fertility awareness based methods.
00:41:47
Speaker
So just a couple of things, one really short one. is when we understand our body, right? Some of the things that people aren't comfortable with. And I said, cervical mucus should be something that we can talk about at the dinner table.
00:42:00
Speaker
And this is one of the reasons why. a woman had come to a hormone coach to really understand her body better. She was experiencing infertility. And, um, I hope this is okay. I'm saying this on, on the podcast.
00:42:15
Speaker
Um, so her husband and her would avoid intercourse every month because she was getting an infection. And as she's talking to this, uh,
00:42:26
Speaker
hormone coach, she's kind of coming to the understanding um that that actually is not an infection that's coming every month, but that is her cervical mucus that is happening every month, which is a sign of fertility.
Fertility Awareness and Women's Health
00:42:41
Speaker
When the woman understood it from that perspective and understanding what was really happening with her body, they were pregnant within three months. So that woman wasn't actually having an infection.
00:42:56
Speaker
And i just think what would happen if that woman had gone to an IVF clinic, would they have coached her through that? Would they have understood what was happening? Um, and I dare to say, dare to think that they probably wouldn't write that she would have undergone some testing and things like that, or who knows what processes would have happened to her at that point.
00:43:17
Speaker
The other thing that I would say is, um, We have our gala. I'm going to put a plug in for our charity gala, which is coming up on Thursday, November 6th. And we have made it so that there's no cost to attend. So if you're interested, please, please, please RSVP, we would love to have you there.
00:43:33
Speaker
Our keynote speaker that evening is going to be Dr. Monica Minger. She started her own clinic in Cedar Rapids, Radiant Clinic. And she is on the forefront of restorative reproductive medicine.
00:43:48
Speaker
We are experiencing infertility like we never have before in our world, in our country right now. And specifically restorative reproductive medicine really looks at what is the root cause of infertility instead of sending people directly to an IVF clinic or other, um resources.
00:44:09
Speaker
She's speaking out even at a federal level, um, at an international level, and she's working with different doctors around the world to how can we really address some of these things that are going on and couples who are experiencing infertility.
00:44:24
Speaker
And so, I just, I address that because we have so many couples that come to us, they go through FEM or they learn the Creighton model of family planning. And really that gets to a lot of times the root cause of what might be causing their infertility.
00:44:40
Speaker
And so sometimes that means napro technology or napro surgery. Some of these women are going through hours long surgeries to make their bodies to be biologically correct and to function properly.
00:44:54
Speaker
and they are not only um achieving pregnancy, but they're also having health issues, right? Underlying health issues being addressed and they're no longer suffering from endometriosis or PCOS or some of these very common common health issues that are happening to to our women.
00:45:15
Speaker
and maybe not being addressed with their medical provider. And so those are the things that we really want to see what's beautiful and right in a woman's body restored, right? And we can do that through the information that we have.
00:45:30
Speaker
And so i just challenge all of us, you know, if we can speak out about that to restore a woman to a place where she can be life-giving like the Lord created would be really good.
00:45:45
Speaker
And just for our listeners, Amy, could you just say give a very brief explanation of natural family planning and NatPro technology? just briefly give so I'm sure some of our listeners know, but in case some who don't, so just give a brief explanation of what those are.
00:46:03
Speaker
um i hope I can do it justice. Like I said, I'm not the expert, but Father Kevin, I'm going to try. So with natural family planning, right, that's really... um And that's kind of a phrase that's been coined over the years. And I think some people associate it with religion and and it doesn't have to be right.
00:46:22
Speaker
um Natural family planning is really fertility awareness based methods. So when we look at different biomarkers on our body, this is science, this is biology.
00:46:32
Speaker
We can really track our fertility in a way that we can understand what's going on with our bodies. Um, sometimes women experience infertility because they have low progesterone levels.
00:46:44
Speaker
You have a doctor that can identify that they're having miscarriages because of their progesterone is dipping. Those things can be addressed so that a pregnancy can be sustained instead of miscarriage happening.
00:46:55
Speaker
Um, so fertility awareness-based methods, natural family planning, that's how those things, um, some of those underlying root causes are identified. Napro technology was really born out of the Creighton model of family planning.
00:47:09
Speaker
And that is um the ability to go in and have surgical procedures to correct something that may not be right within a woman's body, especially as it pertains to ovaries, fertility function, things like that.
00:47:26
Speaker
So those doctors are located um sometimes few and far between, unfortunately. So if you are a medical professional and you want to learn more, i would encourage you to go out and do that if you're listening to this, if you want to get into the medical field, just like we pray for vocations to multiply in the diocese, I pray that medical providers within this natural family planning, fertility awareness-based methods, NAPRO technology, that we would have medical professionals that would really
00:48:01
Speaker
dive into this
Need for NAPRO Professionals
00:48:02
Speaker
and grow. i mean, we, like I said, fertility, infertility is just growing within our, within our world, within our country.
00:48:12
Speaker
And so we need more medical providers that can support this. I would say for us personally, the way I see that is we have women coming to us from all over the state of Iowa, from their surrounding states. You would think that we would serve primarily people in our, within our own community. That is true.
00:48:31
Speaker
But I think that the last time I counted were around 20 other counties that clients are coming from within the state of Iowa to receive the care that we are providing because they are not finding that in their own backyard.
00:48:46
Speaker
I know I've talked to some people, Colleen and Dubuque, even, and they would love to have um a doctor who was NAPRO trained that really supports the Creighton model, all those fertility awareness based methods.
00:49:00
Speaker
It just, we don't have enough enough medical providers anymore. Yeah, it's wonderful. It would be wonderful if the archdiocese could somehow get involved um because you know then in all cities in the archdiocese, there could be maybe a Catholic doctor who you know wants to go the route that Dr. Pranger went or Dr. Monica and women wouldn't have to travel so far.
00:49:28
Speaker
And and they I would say the archdiocese does support that to some degree. They have scholarship money and things like that to um train practitioners, fertility care practitioners.
00:49:40
Speaker
So that is supported that way. They've helped some of these doctors receive their certification for an APRO technology. And I know that they have mycatholicdoctor.com, which is also, they have many doctors on there.
00:49:55
Speaker
that can support virtually. We've even had women from other states calling us asking for support. Maybe that's even breastfeeding support that they're not getting from their own um practitioner, from their own hospitals, just different ways. and we've been blessed with an abundance of knowledge with our staff members and the way that they care for people.
00:50:22
Speaker
And I'm sure, Colleen, that probably you can probably speak to that, too, with your own staffing. Right. That that can make all the difference in the world.
Love and Support for Women in Crisis
00:50:29
Speaker
It's everything. It's everything. And before i talk briefly about that, I was just thinking as you were talking, you know, there are Catholic hospitals, too.
00:50:39
Speaker
You know, it wouldn't want that be awesome if every Catholic hospital had a Napro office or a Napro doctor or um training. That would be that would be great, too. with And I'll just add um the archdiocese does have a Web site if people want to learn more about natural family planning or that technology. That's it's just NFP for natural family planning. NFP.DBQARCH.org.
00:51:03
Speaker
shorthand for NFP Dubuque Archdiocese, in which they do have a kind of a brief rundown of what is natural family planning and the top 10 reasons use it. And then they also do provide a list of ah medical providers and instructors around this, including both who were mentioned, Dr. am Monica Mincher, since you mentioned her in the Cedar Rapids area, and then Dr. Robert Pranger, of whom Guiding Stars partners with.
00:51:28
Speaker
so um So just ah so there is there's at least a start of some information there if people want to go and learn more. um it's It's a pretty informative website. And there's also some some videos on it about couples who who share about their experience of using it and and so on. So there is a good resource for kind of a beginning.
00:51:47
Speaker
that i'm just I'm just so struck by Amy's story about. um I mean, it's it's basic objective knowledge, it sounds like, that one couple who was ah having fear about infection, um you didn't ah tell them what to think or ah try to recruit them to your religion or spirituality.
00:52:08
Speaker
All you did was share a biological fact, and that itself helped free them or start the the freedom process. And and then, too, to pair with um Colleen's ministry as well, it's It sounds like just warm, gentle, sacred reception.
00:52:23
Speaker
um You're not I mean, we've heard nothing in this conversation about angry protesting or holding signs or anything. It's been just receiving those who are hurting and um helping them to heal and and then education.
00:52:39
Speaker
And yeah, I just think that's really beautiful. Yeah, you know, we often say for the women that come through our door, we often say if they leave here and just know one thing, and that's that we love them and Jesus loves them, then that might be the only reason that God had them pass through our doors.
00:52:59
Speaker
um Because lives are messy and, you know, bad decisions are sometimes made for out of whatever reason. But if they know that God loves them and that there are really some people around that love them and want the best for them and don't want anything in return, um and that's then that's why they were here.
00:53:23
Speaker
So maybe as we're as we're coming in for a landing here, we're coming on our hour, um maybe just a final word of encouragement ah for for each of you. What would you say if there's a ah young woman out there, oh well, woman of any age, but maybe who's thinking about, either thinking about abortion and or has had an abortion, guess what, um, what loving words of encouragement would
Advice for Women Facing Unplanned Pregnancies
00:53:47
Speaker
you give them? It's kind of a ah closing note here.
00:53:52
Speaker
I think um I'm just going to use the example, um, that number one, if you've had an abortion, i would just invite you to be vulnerable and to share that with someone because vulnerability and being able to just really,
00:54:11
Speaker
open your heart allows other people or gives other people permission to open their hearts and to seek healing. Many times, um, women don't even realize, I don't think how much they're hurting.
00:54:25
Speaker
And so for those people who are post abortive, I would just say, find a project, Rachel find a Rachel's vineyard. i am absolutely happy. to talk to somebody at any given time, reach out to Guiding Star Cedar Valley.
00:54:40
Speaker
I had a young woman who had heard my testimony and she called me and she said, Amy, I heard your testimony. Would you talk to my sister? And the story was really heartbreaking because the sister was a grad student and found herself pregnant.
00:54:59
Speaker
Her father was telling her to get an abortion because she was going to ruin her life as she had this child. The same father took them to abortion clinics when they were younger, these two sisters, and would pray the rosary outside of the abortion clinics.
00:55:18
Speaker
So somewhere in his life, there was brokenness that happened, and now he was encouraging his own daughter to have an abortion. Mm-hmm. I am grateful to say that after speaking with her and just her own discernment that she did have that baby and she cherishes that little girl.
00:55:38
Speaker
But the one thing that I would tell people and what I said to her was that when you become pregnant, you are a mother. You can choose to have an abortion.
00:55:50
Speaker
You can choose adoption. You can choose the baby. But nothing's going to change the fact that you're a mother at that point. Right. You can't take that away. And so I would just encourage anyone who finds themselves in a space of unplanned pregnancy.
00:56:07
Speaker
I would also say that statistically it's frightening that there are women out there who are choosing abortion who have living children. And sometimes that comes from birth trauma, which is also something that we like to address at Guiding Star. Right.
00:56:21
Speaker
That a woman just doesn't think that she can go through birth again after experiencing so much trauma that she's choosing abortion. So
00:56:31
Speaker
ah seek, um, find someone, find a guiding star, find a ah Mary's in or a Colleen, right? Someone who's just gonna embrace you and love you. No judgment.
00:56:43
Speaker
I can't tell you the number of times that I've been able to share my story with someone. And I have never once been persecuted for telling people that I had an abortion, which I'm so thankful for the Lord, because I don't know that I would be as brave as I am right now to share my story if that had happened.
00:57:02
Speaker
um As it stands now, um if I would be stoned, I would still share my story because I know that it's just powerful for us to be able to reveal how we can be hurt and broken and the Lord can redeem that.
00:57:17
Speaker
And that's beautiful, Amy. That's beautiful. And, um you know, we do get women that call and, and most are not abortion minded um because like I said earlier, many of them have chosen abortion in the past and they say, we will not do that again.
00:57:32
Speaker
ah was terrible. um So we don't get a whole lot of women in that are abortion minded. But when a woman does call and she's not sure what she wants to do, if she's going to choose life, if she's going to um choose abortion, choose adoption, choose parenting, um you know, there's a lot of fear there.
00:57:53
Speaker
And so what we really try to do is reassure her that a pregnancy is not the end of the world. It's not the end of her life. It's not going to ruin her life.
00:58:06
Speaker
um It's nine months out of her life. and many times, you know, God is the author of life. And many times he will send baby in in an attempt to save the woman's life.
00:58:21
Speaker
Many, many of our moms have said that if they didn't have a reason to live by becoming pregnant or having a child, that they would have taken their life, even either through an accidental overdose or you know some other tragic way. But oftentimes, it's God's trying to reach that woman by giving her a life to take care of.
00:58:43
Speaker
So we never you know want to say, well, those um circumstances of that conception were terrible, so therefore that baby is no good.
00:58:54
Speaker
you know God is the author of life. And if he brought a life into being, he wants you to know how much he loves you And, um you know, he wants a good life for
Supporting Mary's Inn and Guiding Star
00:59:05
Speaker
you.
00:59:05
Speaker
He wants your happiness. And he he's there. So we really try to stress how much God loves them. So obviously, there's as you said, there's a lot more we could learn about both these ministries. So could you just give your final pitch if people want to learn more um about Mary's Inn and about Guiding Star Cedar Valley?
00:59:27
Speaker
Where would they go? How could they learn more? And how can they support the work that you're doing? Sure. So Mary's in, we have a website. It's long. Mary's in maternity home.org.
00:59:39
Speaker
Just Google Mary's in and we'll pop up. I'll put it in the description. Yeah. But there's a lot of information on the website. So if people want to volunteer, they can volunteer through the website. If they know someone who could use our services, um that's on there as well.
00:59:54
Speaker
You can sign up. We have a monthly newsletter. You can sign up for that, get an email. It's two pages and a lot of pictures. So it's a fast read. um Follow us on Facebook, find out what's happening and what's going on.
01:00:07
Speaker
um So, and and I say this every time I'm talking with someone, invite me to speak to any groups you belong to whether it's a church group, whether it's a mom's group, I say, I will talk to your bowling league. I don't care. Just everybody is going to know somebody.
01:00:27
Speaker
So um I would always welcome the chance to go out and speak to groups. But I would also love to invite anyone to Mary's Inn for a tour of our beautiful house that God gave us.
01:00:39
Speaker
um Another miracle story. But I would invite people here for a tour um and and just see what God has done. And yeah, that's it. I would say for Guiding Star Cedar Valley, Colleen, our website is also long. It's www.guidingstarcedarvalley.org.
01:01:00
Speaker
And all of our information will be on there. You can see our staff, our board members highlighted. We have our community classes calendar that's on there. So the events that you can sign up for.
01:01:11
Speaker
um all of the information about project and the different services that we provide as well. We also have service partners and community partners. We have another doctor that we partner with, Dr. Cheryl Hansel, who's out of MercyOne. She also um is working NAPRO and and works with our fertility awareness awareness-based methods.
01:01:32
Speaker
um I like to highlight that because I think that people are not aware that those things are available to them. So we would love to give a tour. Colleen, I'm absolutely going to take you up on that. I'm going to find a way it put to go to Dubuque someday and spend some time there because I just think that's such a beautiful mission and and so good for our communities. And I hope that this this conversation inspires more people to put a Mary's in in their community for sure.
01:02:03
Speaker
Well, and I have a feeling we'll be headed to Waterloo. to guiding star and see for ourselves, everything that's going on there. That would be beautiful. I just want to highlight that our listeners, you're seeing networking happen live right on this podcast. so Yes. And Father Kevin, we have to confess now our secret agenda is now revealed. We are ministry matchmakers within the archdiocese.
01:02:29
Speaker
matchmaker match we'll have to highlight your podcast on our um social media websites as well so good idea yeah october 15th is when this current episode will uh be released wonderful we'll link to it too good good idea uh thank you so much uh amy and colleen for um not first of all your your ministry and um ah your generosity towards healing and teaching.
01:02:58
Speaker
um And then thank you to our listeners for listening and continuing to learn with us. Cause I think father Kevin and I have both grown in, in knowledge and community through this process. So um until next time ah we will see you in the Eucharist.
01:03:15
Speaker
Thank you.