In Toronto, the campaign kicked-off last night with guest speaker Bryan Kemper, from Stand True Ministries. He came up from Ohio to challenge us all to share and live the message of life. And that he did. Bryan told us about his conversion experience, after 20 years of abuse, addiction and self-hatred. He told us how he had never heard that God loved him, but on one day, after almost dying from overdosing at a rock concert, he heard two different people, in two completely different places telling him exactly that: Do you know how much God loves you? For some of us, this may not seem so life-changing, but when all you've heard all your life is that you are no good and people treat you like you are trash and in fact, you behave as if you are no good, to hear that you are valued and that you have value can be life-changing. For Byran it was. Now Bryan tours the world taking his message to anyone who will listen. Last night he shared to a captive audience how, during a visit to Auschwitz and Bierkenau last year, he suddenly understood how important it is for all of us to stand for life. Standing inside a gas chamber he thought, "How did we let this happen?" But it did happen. And it happens still today. At one point in the night, he shared how his three year-old daughter one day wanted to go to work with him and said, "Daddy, I want to go to work and save babies." He was moved by how much she understood. Then looking into the crowd, he looked at me straight in the eye and said, "Don't let your children grow up to hear this same talk from my daughter." This shook me: don't pass this on to the next generation. What am I doing to make sure that my grandchildren will grow up in a Canada that is abortion-free? Can I do anything? Can you? One thing we can do is to join our local 40 Days for Life campaign. All you have to do is show up. There is no protesting, no speaking, no chanting. All it involves is prayer. We stand together in prayer. If you can't go to a location, or don't live near one, you can still pray. Add this to your daily intentions: for all participants and organizers of the 40 Days for Life campaign and all who work in the pro life movement, that they stay rooted in prayer, rooted in Christ. Pray for all who are struggling with an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy, that they be blessed with faith, hope and love to drive away the despair and the fear. Pray for every teenage girl who would rather die than tell her parents that she is pregnant. Also pray for all who've had abortions or have been involved in abortions; pray that they find healing and not be victims of judgment or criticism. So often we pray for the babies or for the end of abortion, but we forget to pray for all who are hurting because they have an abortion in their past and every time we yell "abortion is murder", they feel we are calling them murderers. We need to welcome them too. And lastly, pray for all who work in the abortion industry: abortionists, nurses, receptionists, counselors, administrators... pray that they be touched by the Truth. And pray, not that abortion be made illegal or unavailable, but that it be unthinkable. For more information, go to www.40daysforlife.com.