September 20, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — October 2 is the 29th annual National Life Chain Sunday, and it’s expected that more than a million people will take part in this peaceful pro-life street witness in more than 230 cities across Canada and 1,600 cities across the United States.
Participants stand by the roadside, usually from 2 to 3 p.m., praying for an end to abortion and holding signs that read: “Abortion kills children;” “Adoption the loving option;” “Abortion hurts women;” or “Life the first inalienable right.”
A powerful witness, Life Chain saves lives — as Kathleen Rosilius can attest.
A member of Respect Life Ministry of Our Lady of Fatima Parish in Elliot Lake, which organizes Life Chain in the northern Ontario city, Rosilius recalled that some years ago, as the Life Chain was about to end, she saw far down the line “a truck pull in and three people come tumbling out.”
As captain of the Life Chain, “you do worry that some people might get upset and harass the participants,” she told LifeSiteNews. “I’m thinking, this is going to be something bad, so I went racing down there.”
By the time she’d arrived, however, the truck and its occupants had driven off, but not before the driver had related his story: Seeing the Life Chain signs earlier that day had inspired him to visit his girlfriend right then, to try one more time to persuade her to change her mind about the abortion she had scheduled for the coming Tuesday.
And she did.
Overjoyed, the couple decided to tell his father “right away,” Rosilius recalled, because he, too, had opposed the abortion.
When they told him what happened, “He asked them, ‘Did you not share with these people what they did, because this is amazing?’ … So he made everybody jump in the truck and they came down and told us that, indeed, we’d saved a life.”
“I’m just writing a letter again for the pastors,” Rosilius added. “I thought, it’s over 20 years since we’ve been doing Life Chain. These people took the trouble to come back to tell us, how many people didn’t?”
Sometimes, it can get a bit “frustrating” to return year after year for Life Chain with seemingly little to show for it, she said, adding that there can be from 20 to 40 pro-lifers taking part in the event each year in Elliot Lake, a city of about 11,000, on the north shore of Lake Huron.
“You think, ‘Oh God, why do we do this every year?’ I asked God, ‘Well, give us a little something’,” Rosilius laughed. “It was a big something, alright.”
The Please Let Me Live pro-life group organized the first Life Chain in in Yuba City, California, in 1987, and it has since spread across the States and into Canada.
“Life Chain is a time for prayerful self-analysis, repentance, and serious commitment to helping end abortion in our nation,” noted a statement on nationallifechain.org, headquarters for National Life Chain in the USA.
It is also “an easy way to get involved in pro-life,” states Campaign Life Coalition, which coordinates Life Chain in Canada, on its website.
“Just find out where your local Life Chain will be held and who is organizing it. Then show up for one hour, stand on the sidewalk with others who are not ashamed to witness to the sanctity of human life, and pray for an end to abortion and for those affected by it.”
For information on the October 2 Life Chain locations and times in the United States, visit www.nationallifechain.org, or check with www.LifeChain.net.
For information on October 2 Life Chain locations and times in Canada, or to download a poster, check Campaign Life Coalition’s website here, or call: 1-800-730-5358, or 416-204-9749 in the GTA; or email: [email protected].
You can also follow National Life Chain Canada online: Twitter @LifeChainCanada and Facebook, LifeChainCanada.