• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Donate!
Pay Bill

(574) 269-7990 

Logo - No Tagline
  • Counseling
  • Speaking and Teaching
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Counseling
  • Speaking and Teaching
  • Blog
  • About
  • Donate
  • Bill Pay
  • Contact Us
  • Counseling
  • Speaking and Teaching
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact Us

Travel Reports

Guatemala-February 2012

March 1, 2012 by WACDMediaAdmin

Our first stop in Guatemala, was the beautiful “Oasis” in San Lucas, Guatemla. San Lucas is a small town, about 45 minutes from Guatemala City. It was established many years ago, but about 4 years ago, a man named Corbey Dukes, and his wife Janie were asked to be the head staff there. The Oasis has many little homes, and in each home lives 2 house ‘tias’ or aunts, and up to 10 girls, ages 4-18. The little girls, and young women who have been sent there were court ordered to be removed from their family situations because of abuse. The staff here are amazing, because they possess more patience than most, and they also experience all forms of exhaustion.

Darla brought to them the conference, “Returning to Joy When the Pain is Too Deep For Children,” while we were there. Not only the staff from Oasis were there, but some local leaders from there communities, as well as staff from other surrounding orphanages. Altogether there were around 50-60 attendees. The concepts they learned, they were riveted by, and really found uses for.

The Oasis is now transforming from just solely being a place of shelter for these girls, and teenagers, into more of an emotionally and spiritually driven place for them to heal. The time we spent here was amazing, and we’v been invited back for a consultation trip.

La Limonada was our last stop, in Guatemala City, Guatemala. La Limonada literally means ‘The Lemonade” and is labeled as the most dangerous place in all of Guatemala. It is one mile long, and one mile wide, and has over 60,000 residents. La Limonada is over run by gang members, massive poverty, abuse, and drugs and alcohol.

But here we met a woman named Tita Everest. Seventeen years ago, Tita was invited to a birthday part in La Limonada, and felt that God was calling her to start a school right in the middle of the chaos of this place. God answered her prayer, and now there are two schools in La Limonada! There is also a micro finance system here, where they loan people money to start their own small businesses, and a safe house called “Mi Casita.”

Darla, again, did the conference “Returning to Joy When the Pain is Too Deep for Children” for their staff and it was amazing! God really opened many of their hearts, and taught them many things.

Before the conference, we were apart of an awesome opportunity to tour La Limonada. We got to experience, first hand, the poverty, danger, and darkness that this place portrayed. But that wasn’t all that was there. Hope is rising within this slum, you can just feel it. We got to meet many families, some of which are lost, but some of which are alive with Christ.

One instance, in partficular, sticks out to us. We entered a house of a small family, where we were taken back to the back room. There, laid a 90 year old man in his bed. His hair was silvery white, and the walls around him were pure cement, with nothing else in the room besides hisbed, a radio, and old bike, and a ladder. But this man had the light of Christ in his eyes. He was absolutely glowing! Our friend and translator, Hubert, immediately sat with him on his bed, and held his hand. They laughed and joked, and the elderly man was very spunky. We sang with him, and prayed for him, and as we left, we noticed that Hubert set a radio right above his head. We of course couldn’t understand what was being said on the radio because it was in Spanish. Darla asked Hubert what he was listening to.

Hubert’s response was simple: “The Bible.”

This man gets it. Completely bed ridden, dirty, probably pretty hungry, and lonely, he makes sure that his number one priority is to listen to the Word of God, and act on it. Let’s hope that when we’re that age, we are half of what this man portrayed to us.

Filed Under: Travel Reports

Bwana Asa Fi We

December 13, 2011 by WACDMediaAdmin

In English the title means “Praise the Lord.” Those were some of the first words we learned in Swahili on our mission trip to Tanzania. I wish that all of you reading this summary could have gone with us to see, smell, taste, touch, and hear all of the experiences the Lord brought to us on our conference tour.

Our first conference was in a little village called USA (that’s right) near the city of Arusha, Tanzenia where we were staying. Wooden benches and a small cement building housed about 25 women and many children who came to see the Magdalena film and listen to our words about returning to joy even when hard things happen to us. On the last day several pastors decided to join us as well. Taking the theme of the different women who interacted with Jesus in the film, we assigned the people to small groups for the week where they could sing, dance, create a drama, or use art work to practice the principles taught in the conference. Everyone needs: A Place to belong, a place to give and receive, and a place to work through trauma were the main truths that were given and then paralleled with the women in the film. We were so amazed at how the people applied Biblical and counseling information and made it a perfect fit into their life experiences and culture. We left after 3 days of teaching with many of the children in the village running after our car and shouting “Wngooza! Wngooza!” which means “white person” in Swahili. The joy was visceral and we knew that the Lord had met all of us there with His Holy Spirit with more joy and love than we could have ever anticipated. We thought it couldn’t get any better.

But you know how that goes…just when you think something can’t get any better? It does. At least when you are serving the Lord. We arrived in Dar es Salaam Tanzania to give our second conference. Although there were plastic chairs (we have found that you can find plastic chairs in most countries) we were once again in a very humble cement block building. However, the level of joy and worship was already ahead of us when we drove in. People were dancing and singing praise to the Lord even as we were setting up for the conference. Our teaching and theme were the same but we had about 90 people in attendance. To our surprise, over half of the people were men. Many of them were pastors, Bishops or deacons of their churches. It was boisterous as they completely entered in to each practice session with excitement and full participation. When it was time for the general sessions to resume we had a hard time getting them to stop talking!

There are many colleagues who do great work as first responders to physical needs after disasters. We have dear friends in ministries that bring much medical attention to the poor. There are organizations who take teams to people who are starving and thirsty. We support and thank God for them. As we partnered with those from Bringing Hope2others we were amazed at the medical, construction work, and resources they gave to help the people of Tanzania. We even had the privilege of teaming with members of Youth with a mission (YWAM) who shipped an ambulance for the people to use as a mobile clinic.

All this being said, we were blessed beyond boundaries to get to know not only the people of Tanzanian but the people on the team we joined. But please give me a moment more of your time.

Sometimes people ask us, “What exactly do you do when you go travel?” Great question. We join with the Lord to bring healing. Perhaps not to people’s physical needs, but to the soul places where they are starving and thirsty for Biblical counsel. We ask God to touch wounds that have never been dressed with the balm of His word or the truth of the gospel. We construct stairways and rooms and buildings of emotional safety where they can go after we have gone, to meet with their community and their Lord to continue to heal those wounds. We use the vehicle of the conferences and the personal prayer and counseling appointments as our own mobile clinic of sorts, and when they come we believe they meet the Great Physician, who knows and cares for their deepest needs. “Returning People To Joy” is what we believe God has called us to do. Thank you to each of you for your partnership of prayers and financial support to help us minister healing and truth.

Filed Under: Travel Reports

One Arm Tied Behind Your Back

July 21, 2011 by WACDMediaAdmin

Have you ever heard the title statement before? It seems as if I’m working with “one arm tied behind my back?” Well, it has never come as alive for me as it did when we were traveling in Guatemala on our most recent trip.

It was a different kind of trip for us. Usually we go to Guatemala to present a conference. We fly in, we are driven to the location site, we speak, we minister, and we are taken back to our lodging place each day. We fly home. Actually pretty tidy. It’s not a bad thing. We meet a number of people and we do our best to teach what we believe Christ would have us teach. After all, it is what we are called to do and we love it.

So when we were given an opportunity to go to Guatemala with two colleagues from Wisconsin from different ministries, we were excited to see what God would call us to do. Even though we knew we would have occasions to promote our ministry, we were told that the mission of this trip was PRAYER. Nancy Comello and Karen Klemp both lead ministries, but foremost they are intercessors. So we were anticipating that prayer and listening to the people’s needs were the main objective.

Why do I say it was as though we had “one arm tied behind our backs?” Well, not because we felt constricted or restrained, but because of a profound story one of the ladies we met told us. Marianna Petersen is a doctor in the public hospital in Guatemala City. She is heavily burdened with the lack of sanitary care and medicine given to patients there, particularly women and their new born babies. She is also connected to a place in Guatemala where her sister is starting a birthing center. What a mighty woman for God! Marianna has lived with only one arm since she was 3 years old.

The day we came to pray with Dr. Marianna, her mother, Marina, happened to be visiting. She began to tell us that when her daughter’s arm was severed as a little girl, the physicians in Guatemala told her that she would never be able to lead a productive life and that her mother might as well put her in an institution. But Marina (the mother) would not consider this. So she tied one of her arms behind own her back. Day after day she lived her life with one arm literally tied behind her back. She said to us in her broken English, “I wanted to know what it was like for her…what she could and could not do!” The story speaks volumes. She literally entered in to her daughters suffering. Her daughter Marianna told us she would not have persevered in her life had it not been for her mother’s encouragement and strength of character.

We have been told over and over by those who live in this country, “Everything is harder in Guatemala.” We observe this to be a true statement after many “conference/counseling” trips there. Because of poverty, injustice, and government corruption, a majority of people in Guatemala lead very difficult lives. Let me share a bit more of our adventure with you.

Tita Evertsz: La Limonada, La Mandarino, Mi Casita

We visited the staff of two ministries that work with the people in a place called “The Dump.” It is literally what it says. A piece of ground 1 mile long and 1 and ½ miles wide with 60,000 people living there. Under boxes, in small huts of adobe, or maybe concrete buildings for the more privileged. The small “dump” is divided into 8 sectors, each having a violent gang in charge. There are 2 schools called La Limonada and La Mandarino. A safe house for women and children is also there called Mi Casita. The founder of these ministries is named Tita Evertsz. Although we went to her home, she was quite ill the day we visited so we were not allowed to actually go into the community where Guatemala’s poorest of the poor are living. Truly,very few people will even go in because of the danger. Our driver informed us he would park a distance outside and pray for us, but would not go in with us. It was too dangerous even for a young strong Guatemalan man. But we prayed over the staff and for Tita that day. Tita and her staff well know what the concept of restoration is all about. They are living it every day. Please pray and/or support us because we have been invited to go back in January 2012 to present Campus Crusade for Christ’s Magdalena: Through Her Eyes film and give our follow up conference, Returning to Joy When the Pain is Too Deep.

Denis and Elvira Rodas: Chiquimulilla Christian School

We met with a missionary couple who run a school for children in their home. They have very little financial resources to do this. They are not a big ministry, just two people who see a great need in their country. They are Denis and Elvira. We prayed with Elvira who is a strong intercessor in her own regard. She has been seriously ill for months now due to an infection that resulted from a poorly performed surgery that was done on her stomach/abdomen. Elvira is not expected to live unless there is a miracle.

Judy Kerschner: New Life School

Furthermore there was the New Life School! What a JOY! The school was started by an American woman from Texas who saw that there were literally NO education services for disabled children in Guatemala. Even if their disability was a lost limb or a physical disease that did not affect brain function, these children are seen as having no value to society by many Guatemalans. So she started a school. We prayed for one of the workers who is recovering from a great trauma. To our knowledge, Judy’s school is the only one of its kind in Guatemala.

Xela Birthing Center:

We prayed and visited with delightful mid-wives at the Xela birthing center and heard stories of some who had been mid-wives for 25 years in their villages. Several of them were only 12 or 13 years old when they assisted their family or village member in delivery. One midwife said that “..the birthing center has given her training, but God has given her the gift and knowledge.”

Wally Estrada: Christian School near Antigua

Oh valued friends, I could go on and on about our experiences and times of prayer for those we met. I will finish with the last story of a man named Wally in Guatemala City who started a Christian school. He became a first generation Christian from his village when a group called Youth with a Mission (YWAM) came to his community when he was a young child. He knew at 14 that he must leave his village and go to the city to get an education in order to serve God in some way. He told us he wore his first pair of shoes ever when he walked the long trail, crying all the way, to the highway that would go to the city. He said that he had never seen cars or trucks in traffic before and was so frightened that it took him 30 minutes to cross the busy road! With opportunities from the Lord, he earned his education and learned to speak English. He has founded and directs the largest Christian school in Guatemala. He plans to partner with the New Life School to help us present a conference to his staff and other ministries in Guatemala. We are hoping to do this in January of 2012 when we are in Guatemala.

After this delightful trip with so many opportunities to pray and share, why would we feel we were traveling with “one arm behind our backs?” Like our new friend, Marina, who tied her arm behind her back to know her daughter’s suffering AND potential, we too were allowed to enter in by listening to many stories and praying for the people we met. We came away knowing a bit of their struggle and great accomplishment as well. Thank you to those who prayed for us and who supplied the financial means for Bobbie, Corri and I to minister. It was a time we will never forget.

Please enjoy finding out more about some of the ministries/representatives that we visited by emailing your comments or questions or checking out their web sites.

  • Nancy Comello: (our travelling buddy) Teaching women in Guatemala to be mid-wives and teaching prayer conferences. For more information you can email Nancy at: ncomello@edgewood.edu
  • Karen Klemp (our travelling buddy) Ministering to people in Guatemala and Tanzenia East Africa at www.bringinghope2others.com
  • Tita Evertsz: La Escholita Limonada and Mandarino and Mi Casita. You can reach Tita at titaevertsz@gmail.com. See a clip of the community where she ministers www.reparandomovie.com
  • Denis and Elvira Rodas at: derodas@terra.com
  • Judy Kerschner/New Life School at www.newlifeguatemala.com
  • Wally Estrada/Christian School at www.missionimpact.com
  • Campus Crusade for Christ at www.magdalenatoday.com

 

 

 

Filed Under: Travel Reports

Momentum- "Stuck"

July 21, 2011 by WACDMediaAdmin

This past week, Darla received an awesome opportunity to speak at the ‘Grace Brethren National Youth Conference’, which is now referred to as “Momentum.” This conference happens once a year for the Grace Brethren denomations high school youth groups to gather under one roof, at one 4 day conference, to praise God! There were about 2,000 youth that attended, plus their youth leaders and volunteers. Darla was asked to be a power track speaker, which was a time for the high schoolers to break away from the main sessions at the conference, and break off into smaller, 1 hour sessions, with various speakers of their choice.

Darla did a 3 day power track on the more simplified version of, “Returning to Joy When the Pain is Too Deep,” which she named, ‘Stuck.’ She had one hour a day to really reach out to these kids during her conference, and it was very effective. Although the kids have the choice of who they wanted to spend their hour with every day, the majority of the same kids returned everyday to Darla’s conference. We averaged about 100 kids per day! It was a great atmosphere of teenage kids on fire for our God, and the energy in the room was unbelievable.

Darla did a good job of presenting some materials, and talking about our emotions, but she also incorporated ‘play.’ As per her other conferences, when she teaches a principle, the audience then has an opportunity to practice it. The teenagers really had a great time with some of these activities, such as singing the ‘Hallelujah, Praise ye The Lord’ song, building paper towers, and placing their four basic emotions into buckets.

Our hope is that the residing theme of this conference for them will be to go to the Lord with their overwhelming emotions, and let Him help them return to joy. Above all else, He is the only one who can help us through our emotions.

All in all, we had a great time, and God’s work really showed through. We were very blessed with this opportunity.

Filed Under: Travel Reports

The Lovelady Center

June 30, 2011 by WACDMediaAdmin

The Lovelady Center is a center for women who are rehabilitating, who have just been released from prison, women who are homeless, and various other stories. This facility was one that was filled with warmth and love, and seems like the perfect place for women to get back on their feet, and put their broken lives back together again. Women come here for 6 to 12 months, with the idea in mind that they will be back into the real world after this time, and be functioning properly.

When we arrived on the first night, we were greeted at the airport by Michelle Gewin, and her wonderful husband Jim. They were so warm, and so excited to show us the Lovelady Center, and for us to start the conference! We could tell how much they care for the women there.

We got a tour of the Lovelady Center, which is an old hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. This building, which was built to hold about 300 people, is now bursting at the seams with over 400 women, and 150 children. We were pleased to hear that the Lovelady Center has recently just purchased another hospital that is out of business, and they will move there as soon as it is renovated. This building is larger, and can hold up to 1000 or more! What a gift of God for them! He always provides.

The next day, we started our conference and it was evident that the crowd that we were speaking to understood trauma, abandonment, sexual abuse, drug addiction, and emotional abuse very clearly. They were such sweet and tender women, but you could tell that before being at the Lovelady Center, they weren’t always so sweet and tender. If we were lucky enough to hear a story from a woman, it was generally a story that brought our hearts to our knees. We concluded that they are some of the strongest people we have ever met.

As the conference continued, our friendships with these women grew stronger. The conference concluded on a Wednesday night, where Darla was asked to speak at their church service at the Lovelady Center, where the women attended, and others from the community were invited to. There, Darla shared her full testimony, and there was not a dry eye in the house. The way these women related to Darla was powerful, and God really used her words to ordain their lives. What an amazing thing to witness.

After the conference, we were all very excited about hopefully returning again in the future to reunite with these women once again. We are excited about what God is doing at the Lovelady Center, and how these women’s lives are changing. Once again, we left thinking we would change some lives, but came home having our lives changed more.

 

 

Filed Under: Travel Reports

One Arm Tied Behind Your Back (March 2011 Guatemala Ministry Recap)

May 5, 2011 by WACDMediaAdmin

Have you ever heard the title statement before? It seems as if I’m working with “one arm tied behind my back?” Well, it has never come as alive for me as it did when we were traveling in Guatemala on our most recent trip.

It was a different kind of trip for us. Usually we go to Guatemala to present a conference. We fly in, we are driven to the location site, we speak, we minister, and we are taken back to our lodging place each day. We fly home. Actually pretty tidy. It’s not a bad thing. We meet a number of people and we do our best to teach what we believe Christ would have us teach. After all, it is what we are called to do and we love it.

So when we were given an opportunity to go to Guatemala with two colleagues from Wisconsin from different ministries, we were excited to see what God would call us to do. Even though we knew we would have occasions to promote our ministry, we were told that the mission of this trip was PRAYER. Nancy Comello and Karen Klemp both lead ministries, but foremost they are intercessors. So we were anticipating that prayer and listening to the people’s needs were the main objective.

Why do I say it was as though we had “one arm tied behind our backs?” Well, not because we felt constricted or restrained, but because of a profound story one of the ladies we met told us. Marianna Petersen is a doctor in the public hospital in Guatemala City. She is heavily burdened with the lack of sanitary care and medicine given to patients there, particularly women and their new born babies. She is also connected to a place in Guatemala where her sister is starting a birthing center. What a mighty woman for God! Marianna has lived with only one arm since she was 3 years old.

The day we came to pray with Dr. Marianna, her mother, Marina, happened to be visiting. She began to tell us that when her daughter’s arm was severed as a little girl, the physicians in Guatemala told her that she would never be able to lead a productive life and that her mother might as well put her in an institution. But Marina (the mother) would not consider this. So she tied one of her arms behind own her back. Day after day she lived her life with one arm literally tied behind her back. She said to us in her broken English, “I wanted to know what it was like for her…what she could and could not do!” The story speaks volumes. She literally entered in to her daughters suffering. Her daughter Marianna told us she would not have persevered in her life had it not been for her mother’s encouragement and strength of character.

We have been told over and over by those who live in this country, “Everything is harder in Guatemala.” We observe this to be a true statement after many “conference/counseling” trips there. Because of poverty, injustice, and government corruption, a majority of people in Guatemala lead very difficult lives. Let me share a bit more of our adventure with you.

Tita Evertsz: La Limonada, La Mandarino, Mi Casita

We visited the staff of two ministries that work with the people in a place called “The Dump.” It is literally what it says. A piece of ground 1 mile long and 1 and ½ miles wide with 60,000 people living there. Under boxes, in small huts of adobe, or maybe concrete buildings for the more privileged. The small “dump” is divided into 8 sectors, each having a violent gang in charge. There are 2 schools called La Limonada and La Mandarino. A safe house for women and children is also there called Mi Casita. The founder of these ministries is named Tita Evertsz. Although we went to her home, she was quite ill the day we visited so we were not allowed to actually go into the community where Guatemala’s poorest of the poor are living. Truly,very few people will even go in because of the danger. Our driver informed us he would park a distance outside and pray for us, but would not go in with us. It was too dangerous even for a young strong Guatemalan man. But we prayed over the staff and for Tita that day. Tita and her staff well know what the concept of restoration is all about. They are living it every day. Please pray and/or support us because we have been invited to go back in January 2012 to present Campus Crusade for Christ’s Magdalena: Through Her Eyes film and give our follow up conference, Returning to Joy When the Pain is Too Deep.

Denis and Elvira Rodas: Chiquimulilla Christian School

We met with a missionary couple who run a school for children in their home. They have very little financial resources to do this. They are not a big ministry, just two people who see a great need in their country. They are Denis and Elvira. We prayed with Elvira who is a strong intercessor in her own regard. She has been seriously ill for months now due to an infection that resulted from a poorly performed surgery that was done on her stomach/abdomen. Elvira is not expected to live unless there is a miracle.

Judy Kerschner: New Life School

Furthermore there was the New Life School! What a JOY! The school was started by an American woman from Texas who saw that there were literally NO education services for disabled children in Guatemala. Even if their disability was a lost limb or a physical disease that did not affect brain function, these children are seen as having no value to society by many Guatemalans. So she started a school. We prayed for one of the workers who is recovering from a great trauma. To our knowledge, Judy’s school is the only one of its kind in Guatemala.

Xela Birthing Center:

We prayed and visited with delightful mid-wives at the Xela birthing center and heard stories of some who had been mid-wives for 25 years in their villages. Several of them were only 12 or 13 years old when they assisted their family or village member in delivery. One midwife said that “..the birthing center has given her training, but God has given her the gift and knowledge.”

Wally Estrada: Christian School near Antigua

Oh valued friends, I could go on and on about our experiences and times of prayer for those we met. I will finish with the last story of a man named Wally in Guatemala City who started a Christian school. He became a first generation Christian from his village when a group called Youth with a Mission (YWAM) came to his community when he was a young child. He knew at 14 that he must leave his village and go to the city to get an education in order to serve God in some way. He told us he wore his first pair of shoes ever when he walked the long trail, crying all the way, to the highway that would go to the city. He said that he had never seen cars or trucks in traffic before and was so frightened that it took him 30 minutes to cross the busy road! With opportunities from the Lord, he earned his education and learned to speak English. He has founded and directs the largest Christian school in Guatemala. He plans to partner with the New Life School to help us present a conference to his staff and other ministries in Guatemala. We are hoping to do this in January of 2012 when we are in Guatemala.

After this delightful trip with so many opportunities to pray and share, why would we feel we were traveling with “one arm behind our backs?” Like our new friend, Marina, who tied her arm behind her back to know her daughter’s suffering AND potential, we too were allowed to enter in by listening to many stories and praying for the people we met. We came away knowing a bit of their struggle and great accomplishment as well. Thank you to those who prayed for us and who supplied the financial means for Bobbie, Corri and I to minister. It was a time we will never forget.

Please enjoy finding out more about some of the ministries/representatives that we visited by emailing your comments or questions or checking out their web sites.

  • Nancy Comello: (our travelling buddy) Teaching women in Guatemala to be mid-wives and teaching prayer conferences. For more information you can email Nancy at: ncomello@edgewood.edu
  • Karen Klemp (our travelling buddy) Ministering to people in Guatemala and Tanzenia East Africa at www.bringinghope2others.com
  • Tita Evertsz: La Escholita Limonada and Mandarino and Mi Casita. You can reach Tita at titaevertsz@gmail.com. See a clip of the community where she ministers www.reparandomovie.com
  • Denis and Elvira Rodas at: derodas@terra.com
  • Judy Kerschner/New Life School at www.newlifeguatemala.com
  • Wally Estrada/Christian School at www.missionimpact.com
  • Campus Crusade for Christ at www.magdalenatoday.com

 

 

Filed Under: Travel Reports

Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

Would you benefit from counseling?

Check any that apply:
  • We would love to see you in person, but understand that you might not be ready for that.

    We’ve distilled over 20 years of counseling experience into a short series of emails designed to help people like you get unstuck and experience greater joy in their lives. And while this process isn’t a quick & easy fix, you can get started today!
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
chamber
cru
mha
ncca
heartline
prison-fellowship
childrens-bureau
icap_logo
1407270504
vectorM-11

LifeTouch Ministries & Counseling Center

(574) 269-7990

PO Box 253, Winona Lake, IN, 46590
2510 E. Center St. Warsaw, IN, 46580

Phone Hours

Monday - Wednesday
10AM - 8PM
Thursday
10AM - 5PM
Closed
Friday - Sunday

Evening Appointments Until 7PM On Days We Are Open

© 2021 LifeTouch Ministries & Counseling Center. All Rights Reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Website Disclaimer
Website Hosted by Petra Strategic Communication.