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September 14, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — October 1 is Life Chain Sunday, and the 30th anniversary of this unique annual pro-life witness in Canada and the United States.

“We’re trusting that National Life Sunday 2017 will proved a strong witness on the sidewalks of America and Canada,” Royce Dunn, national director of National Life Chain Sunday 2017, told LifeSiteNews.

“Our witness, Lord willing, will again change hearts, save lives, and further unveil the grievous curse of legal child killing in our two nations,” elaborates his press release.

Last year, thousands took part in 25,000 Life Chains in 1,600 cities and towns across Canada and the U.S.

Participants stand by busy roadsides from 2 to 3 p.m., or 3:30 in some locations, silently holding signs that bear a simple message.

“Abortion kills children,” they say.

Or “Abortion Hurts Women,” “Adoption, the loving option” and “Jesus Heals and Forgives.”  

Some signs may have phone numbers for local pregnancy care centres.

“Holding these signs in prayer gives honor to the babies who have been killed and gives witness to those who are at risk of being killed,” said Marie-Claire Bissonnette, youth coordinator for Campaign Life Coalition, Canada’s national pro-life political lobbying group.

Campaign Life organizes Life Chain in the Greater Toronto Area, as well as helping to coordinate such events across the country.

The National Right to Life Committee calculated that 59,115,995 babies have been killed by abortion since the Supreme Court’s 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion in the United States.

NRLC estimated that 926,000 babies were killed in utero in the U.S. in 2015 to 2016.

More than 4 million babies have been killed in the womb since Canada legalized abortion in 1969, with the annual death toll at 100,000, according to Campaign Life.

“If we know the truth, it’s our duty to tell those who don’t,” Bissonnette said.

Ruth Kabitzke, co-coordinator for the Des Moines Area Life Chain, agreed.

“I feel it is important to stand up for what I believe and Life Chain is an excellent, visible statement for life,” she told LifeSiteNews.

“And if someone tells me they have had an abortion, I ask them if they know Jesus, because He is the only one that can forgive them and heal them,” she added.

Life Chain “has been heavily reliant on pastors who will lead their congregation to their local sidewalks,” Dunn told LifeSiteNews.

Pastors can prepare participants to “come in a right spirit” and with “prayerful hearts so that God can work through us to minister to the general public,” he said.

“The duty of ending the killing rests foremost with the church Christ founded and that is now entrusted to us,” his press release said.

“Were our resolve and courage anchored, God would redeem our limitations and grant victory for His glory.”

When Dunn organized a Life Chain in Yuba City, California, 30 years ago “just as a project,” he didn’t “recall anyone of us making a single comment to the effect that anyone else would ever want to do this,” he told LifeSiteNews.

The growth of Life Chain in the last three decades was “not due to our planning. God just graced us with it. It just began spreading,” Dunn said.

“We’ve built over 25,000 Life Chains now.”

Moreover, “God has protected us so wonderfully. Millions of people have stood in Life Chains close to moving traffic, and some of it fast traffic,” he added.

“People call and say, ‘Do you have liability insurance?’ I say, ‘My goodness, we couldn’t afford liability insurance’,” Dunn said.

“We just rely on God. He’s been so good.”

For information on a Life Chain in your area, or to register your Life Chain with National Life Chain Sunday 2017, go to www.lifechain.net here.

For Canadian locations, please go here