SFLI Director Speaks at Prayer Service

By MICHELLE SHERMANThe Register-Mail Full StoryGALESBURG — It was a celebration of life Sunday night at First Church of the Nazarene as the Knox County Right to Life held its annual prayer service for life.About 50 people gathered despite the falling snow to sing, pray and learn more about the pro-life movement. Each year, the prayer service is host to a speaker who has something to say about being pro-life.This year, John-Paul Deddens, executive director of Students for Life of Illinois, told attendees how he went from just being pro-life to acting pro-life.“I was content thinking about being pro-life,” said Deddens, who began Students for Life while a student at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. “The campus already had a pro-life group, but they really weren’t doing that much. (He thought), ‘Girls are having abortions every Friday on this campus; what can we do on a weekly basis to change that?’ ”Living in a Catholic dorm on the U of I campus, Deddens said he constantly was surrounded by people who proclaimed that they supported life.It wasn’t until he stood outside one of the abortion clinics on campus to witness to those going inside on Fridays that he knew he could help make a difference in bringing people to the pro-life mindset.“I was standing there watching these girls going in, and there was a girl carrying this book and I recognized this book” as a freshman chemistry textbook, he said. “This was a freshman or sophomore going in to have an abortion. She could’ve been in any of my classes.”Students for Life of Illinois helps college students to “bring about a culture of life on their campuses,” according to the organization’s Web site.The first step anyone, student or not, can take toward convincing people to be pro-life is education. “Don’t just say, ‘I’m pro-life because I’m Christian.’ To everyone else who’s pro-choice, that’s not a good enough reason,” Deddens said.He also told attendees to talk with friends and family about abortion and the pro-life movement at every chance.“When you walk into a room, everyone should say, ‘Oh, that’s the pro-life guy.’ But don’t be pushy about it,” he said. “When you go home today, how many people are you going to tell you went to a prayer service for life?” He then challenged all there to tell five people about the prayer service in the hopes of spreading the word.His generation, Deddens said, has lost about one-third of its members to abortion, comparing their absence to the world without George Bailey in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life.”“Our world is broken for many reasons,” he said. “One reason is because we are missing 50 million George Baileys.”