Recap on the Family Life Issues Conference

At the very start, I wish to thank those who made this possible:
* the late Liz Shoemaker, former president of Hawaii Right to Life - Hilo Chapter, by whose personal commitment to saving lives kept this organization afloat for years, and by whose generosity the entire conference was financed
* longtime members of Hawaii Right to Life - Hilo Chapter, Dr. Steve Woo and Carol Denis - thanks to Steve also for attending the meetings, and for appearing on KCIF and KPUA stations & sharing your insights, and providing a fascinating historical tour of East Hawaii for the Hoyes
* Linda Johnasen & her mother, the late Barbara Williams & children: Barbara was Pearson Foundation's first director on this island and a legendary counselor - Linda designed and built the stage setting (Culture of Life/Culture of Death), which was dubbed by Joe Scheidler a display of "genius" - the cause of life in East Hawaii has no greater love than that provided by Linda - the children helped throughout
* Statler family: Mom & Dad's dedication and teaching have assured that the torch has been passed to the kids, who will without doubt be prolife leaders in the next generation - and helped everywhere
* DeRego family: they cooked, moved stuff, loaded, unloaded, did whatever needed to be done
* Paul & Cora Matsumoto: they housed, fed, befriended our guests - they were both Martha & Mary, attending to all the needs of our visiting globetrotters - and hosted dinners for larger gatherings - provided the necessary relaxed environment for conference headquarters
* Pete Delos Santos: a brother in Christ, Starsky to my Hutch as we visited the 35 churches in east Hawaii to invite them to the conference, and with each door that would open, the invariable exclamation would be: Pete! How are you?
* Jackie Mishler: If there is an example of devotion to a cause greater than is Jackie's to the battle against euthanasia, I have yet to witness it - from Maui she organized all of the workshops, made all of the phonecalls, set up the displays, gave a couple of workshops, drew up the tech equipment lists, and I think found time for a half hour swim!
* Carol White: God provides people like this in the prolife movement because there are so few of us that one like Carol must stand in for 20 home watching TV - she never stopped contributing all weekend in multiple ways
* Chris Garcia: a loving bundle of smiles, who drove in from Waimea, who gave more than she took but claimed the opposite
* Pastor Rob Finberg: a man of keen intellect, with a story that captured the attention of the youth in his workshop, whose closing impromptu prayer made us long for another chance to hear him at greater length
* Pastor Robb Daley: the go-to pastor for prolife in Hilo, a prayerful man of zeal and purpose

Our conference was successful beyond expectations, if measured by the impact on those of us who attended, especially those of us who were able to spend time touring, talking, sharing meals, praying, in the week that our presenters were here. [MORE TO WRITE AS THE WEEK GOES BY]