NATIONAL LIFE CHAIN - can you spare one hour for prayer?

National Life Chain ^ | unknown | life chain

[MarMema]

What Is LIFE CHAIN?

Annually, on the first Sunday in October, LIFE CHAIN invites the churches in each city and town across North America to stand on a designated local sidewalk and pray for one hour, while holding one of the following approved pro-life sign messages:

ABORTION KILLS CHILDREN
JESUS FORGIVES AND HEALS
ADOPTION: THE LOVING OPTION
LORD, FORGIVE US AND OUR NATION
ABORTION HURTS WOMEN
PRAY TO END ABORTION
LIFE—THE FIRST INALIENABLE RIGHT

In 2003, over 1,000 LIFE CHAINS were held in the U.S. and Canada, and over 1,000 are hoped for in 2004. National Life Chain Sunday 2004 will be held on October 3, Lord willing, from 2:30 to 3:30 PM in each time zone. Will your city be included?

The easy-to-hold 18” x 22”signs provided for Life Chainers are back printed with Prayer Topics, Songs of Meditation, the LIFE CHAIN Code of Conduct, and a compelling statement on The Purpose of LIFE CHAIN. In addition to the prayer topics listed, local pastors are encouraged to add other prayer topics and to instruct their people in how to pray and meditate for a full hour. Last year, September 11 inspired the most prayerful national Chain we have ever held, and given developments in the Middle East (Israel, Iraq, among other nations, and what the future may portend for America) we expect even more fervent prayer in 2004.

During the LIFE CHAIN hour, idle chatter, frivolity, and both verbal and physical responses to motorists are strongly discouraged. LIFE CHAIN is a time for serious self-analysis, repentance, and intercession.

Accordingly, LIFE CHAIN is not a demonstration intended chiefly for the general public. Instead, its first goal is to minister to its own participants—to those who hold the pro-life messages and declare abortion a grave evil that defames the name and righteousness of God (Leviticus 18:21). Indeed we who call Christ our Savior have failed to intervene as we should have during the past three decades, while over 40 million boys and girls in America alone have been killed through surgical abortion and with additional millions dying from chemical contraceptives and the once prevalent IUD.

For all who are mindful that LIFE CHAIN is a “church oriented and pastor focused” ministry, the key to a successful Chain is to persuade local pastors to educate their congregations about abortion and to lead their church families to the sidewalk where their LIFE CHAIN is to be held. For a quick review of how to build a successful Chain on October 3, read the 15 Steps to A Strong LIFE CHAIN. If you did not have time to apply all of the steps in 2003, then begin your preparation early for 2004.

Help Is Available

Please Let Me Live provides a comprehensive 56-page LIFE CHAIN Manual and a 20-minute video (which comprise most of the LIFE CHAIN Packet) for a donation of $25. The manual, which covers every aspect of LIFE CHAIN and answers virtually every conceivable question, is only $10, including shipping by Priority Mail. Better yet, both the manual and video can be viewed on the web at LifeChain.net, and Coordinators are at liberty to duplicate both the manual and video for use in their local Chains. In addition to those materials, Please Let Me Live is always willing to assist by phone (at 530-671-5500) and email to the National Life Chain. We do not ask for recognition or promotion through your local LIFE CHAIN. We ask only for the privilege of helping you build the strongest Chain possible at your local level.

A Short History

Please Let Me Live is a small pro-life ministry based about 50 miles north of Sacramento, CA. God entrusted LIFE CHAIN to us in 1987, when we built America's first Chain through our small sister towns, Yuba City and Marysville. We call LIFE CHAIN “a serious first step to pro-life activism.” It's a serious step in that it requires us to stand publicly for one hour, while holding a pro-life sign and praying through the prayer topics before us. That brief experience has led thousands of Christians across North America to join local pro-life groups and work as volunteers in year-round programs.

The initial LIFE CHAIN, with over 2,000 participants, elevated prolife out of the “handful of fundamentalists” range in Yuba-Sutter to a level of high respectability. It enabled us to unite our local churches and to inform our local media, law enforcement, public officials, and area citizenry about the unconscionable killing of preborn boys and girls in our community and beyond. By 1990, after additional LIFE CHAINS, timely picketing, prayer vigils, full-page ads, billboard campaigns, and comprehensive distribution of pro-life literature, surgical abortions ceased in our bi-county Yuba-Sutter area.

In 1989, Bakersfield took the LIFE CHAIN into Southern, CA with 7,500 participants and Riverside, CA followed with 6,000 in attendance. In 1990, Orange County, CA increased participation to 17,000, while Fresno, CA had 10,000, San Diego 20,000 (and a month later 28,000), and Sacramento 16,500.

National Life Chain Sunday '91 saw 373 Chains built in the U.S., with 771,000 participants. On National Life Chain Sunday '92, more than 800 U.S. cities and towns held Chains, with participation of 975,000, while Canada had 80,000 participants at 97 Chains. National Life Chain Sundays '93 saw over 900 Chains built in America and Canada, but attendance taking was discontinued due to our excessive preoccupation with numbers and our lack of emphasis on prayer.

From 1994 through 2002 approximately 900 LIFE CHAINS have been built annually in North America, and while total attendance has declined significantly, emphasis on prayer has increased substantially. For that, LIFE CHAIN is grateful, and we thank our Savior for His Church and for its contribution to National Life Chain Sunday.

[MarMema]

Our family will be involved with a life chain locally this year and I hoped to encourage others to go back to their churches and get one organized.

[MarMema]

A good friend, protestant, told me about this last year. This year we are going to be joining the chain here in Seattle. Please take this request for one hour of your time back to your churches and let us all, as fellow Christians, be united to add significantly to this chain this year.

Please ping any lists you have as well.

The national chain is held on the first Sunday in October. From 2:30 to 3:30 pm. And I don't know how they do the time zones, but there is an email contact to find people in your area at the link.

The ultimate goal is to someday have a chain of life all across the country.

There are two abortions every minute in this country, they say. We can give one hour of prayer, can't we?

Falls Church VA life chain, 2003.

[MarMema]

ping

[Libertina]

BUMP This looks like a good reminder event.

[cpforlife.org]

National Life Chain Sunday 2004 will be held on October 3, Lord willing, from 2:30 to 3:30 PM in each time zone.

BUMP & PING

[Flora McDonald]

Bookmark Bump!

[katnip]

I'll check for both Long Island and Pennsylvania

[Coleus]

Find a Location Near You!!

National Life Chain Sunday

American Collegians for Life,  Life Chain

Prayer can END abortion

Saying a Rosary in front of these places does wonders!  8 posted on 07/01/2004 2:28:05 PM EDT by Salvation (†With God all things are possible.†)

[Ohioan from Florida]

Thanks for the ping and the info!

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[windchime]

Thanks for the ping, Coleus!

[Mr. Silverback]

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[nina0113]

Steve & I always go to ours & keep score of how many times we get flipped off v. being waved at.

[Between the Lines]

When thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward in full.

But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:5-6

[nina0113]

Are you suggesting that bearing ppublic witness to the truth of abortion is self-aggrandizing?

[Between the Lines]

Are you suggesting that bearing public witness to the truth of abortion is self-aggrandizing?

Whether the self is an individual or a group (such as pro-life Christians) praying with the object to be seen by others will have the desired effect - you will be seen praying by others. But as Jesus says in Matthew 6:5-6 if want God to listen to your prayers then you should not make a public spectacle of it.

I have nothing against praying in public, but when it is orchestrated as an exhibition with the desired effect to be seen by others, as this event does, then in clearly goes against scripture. If your aim is to be seen praying then pray in public, but if your aim is to speak to God, pray beforehand.

[nina0113]

The aim isn't to "be seen praying" - the aim is to bear witness to opposition to abortion within the community.

Are you also opposed to prayer at graduations, NASCAR races, and every other public event?

[old and tired]

Clearly, you've never protested outside an abortion mill or took part in a life chain. The object is not to pray - the object is, ultimately, to end abortion. To do that, you have to get people to think about it. But Satan doesn't like to be exposed.

If you ever want to meet Satan, go carry a sign that says "Abortion Kills Children." You'll meet people possessed of every demon Satan can find. His object is to shut you up, get you out of there, stop you from exposing the truth.

I am a Catholic, and I cannot tell you how many times I have uttered the prayer of St. Michael the Archangel so that God will bring his armies of angels down to slay the demon that is in possession of the soul of the person screaming in fury at me - sometimes a few inches from my face. But I've protested with plenty of evangelicals - they, of course, use different words or quote scripture, but they too face Satan with prayers. There is no other way.

Go ahead, try it. You don't have to pray. Just go out there and speak the truth. You will get a reaction from many people that you will quickly recognize as evil. I tell you it is impossible not to pray.

"Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven"

[Vic3O3]

We've been involved in Life Chain for the past 3 yrs now. I hope we can participate again in our town this Oct. I will fwd the info to our pastor to make sure he knows about it, as our church was heavily represented at last year's Life Chain locally.

[Salvation]

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