A father approached the prayer walk in South Florida carrying a grief he had only begun to understand.
His girlfriend had just undergone an abortion. As members of the Love Life team spoke with him about what had happened, his heart broke over the realization that he had lost a son or daughter.
The team could not undo what had happened. But they could stand with him in his pain, minister to his broken heart, and point him toward the hope and healing found in Jesus.
This is one of the hard places where the Church belongs.
That same morning in Fayetteville, North Carolina, the Church was present at a different moment in the story. A mother considering abortion encountered help and chose life for her baby.
One family was reached before the abortion. Another father was ministered to afterward.
The Church belongs in the moment of decision and in the aftermath of regret.
This past Saturday, believers across the nation stepped outside the four walls of their church buildings and entered the mission field, gathering outside abortion centers to pray, worship, proclaim the Gospel, and offer help to mothers and fathers.
These are not easy places to enter—places of life and death decisions, fear, pressure, regret, and spiritual darkness—but they are exactly where the light of Christ is desperately needed.
In Roanoke, Virginia, eight churches gathered at the city’s newest abortion center, despite significant logistical challenges, and 214 prayer walkers filled the area with prayer and praise. Their presence could not be ignored, and several abortion workers even came outside when they heard hundreds of voices worshiping and praying to our great God.
The Church did not gather there because the location was convenient, but because it was a place where light was needed.
That same visible witness continued across the Southeast, with nearly 300 prayer walkers in Raleigh, 324 in Charlotte, and 111 in Greenville, South Carolina. And from Washington, D.C., to Chicago, Southern California, Oregon, and Washington State, believers stood together in prayer, sidewalk teams offered help, and followers of Jesus bore witness that mothers and fathers are not alone.
Different cities. Different churches. Different challenges. But one shared conviction: the darkest and most difficult places in our communities should not be abandoned by the people of God.
This is why Love Life exists.
We unite and mobilize the Church to create a culture of Love and Life that will result in an end to abortion and the orphan crisis. That mission leads us outside abortion centers, beside mothers facing difficult decisions, beside fathers carrying grief, and into communities where the most vulnerable desperately need someone to stand for them.
But abortion centers are not the only hard places where the Church is needed.
College campuses are shaping the beliefs and decisions of the next generation. Students are navigating relationships, sexuality, unexpected pregnancies, pressure, and questions about truth, often without a clear Gospel witness or a loving community to turn to.
That is why Love Life is working to establish a ministry presence at UC Santa Barbara.
We want to reach students before they ever arrive at an abortion center. We want to equip Christian students to stand courageously for life, connect mothers and fathers with practical help, and proclaim the hope of the Gospel on campus.
Right now, we have a special opportunity to help make that possible.
Every gift toward the UC Santa Barbara college ministry will be matched dollar for dollar, up to $75,000.
That means a gift of $100 becomes $200. A gift of $500 becomes $1,000. Every dollar given will have twice the impact as we work to build and sustain this ministry at UC Santa Barbara.
You can double your gift today by visiting llu.lovelife.org.
The Church belongs with the mother facing an abortion decision.
The Church belongs with the father grieving what has been lost.
The Church belongs in the darkest places of our cities.
And the Church belongs on college campuses, reaching the next generation with truth, help, hope, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
These places may be difficult. They may be uncomfortable. But they are exactly where the light of Christ is needed most.
The Church belongs in the hard places.