Walk For Life
On Saturday, May 2 hundreds gathered at Koinonia Fellowship to walk around the village of East Rochester in support of CompassCare Pregnancy Services.
For over 35 years CompassCare has answered the call from God to protect the unborn. It is Western New York’s trusted source for reproductive healthcare. Every year Koinonia participates in the Walk for Life, raising awareness and financial support for their services. We have seen first hand the fruit of all of the prayers and labor of love that has gone into the ministry.
For Elder Frank Carbone, a longtime board member at CompassCare, the story goes back nearly thirty years. “It began in the spring of 1998, a year after I was saved,” he told the crowd, “when someone at CompassCare explained what a Crisis Pregnancy Center was. They provide counseling to women facing unplanned pregnancy, and shared the gospel with all the women who came in for help.”
“It occurred to me that day, this is it. This is the answer to the abortion issue. Compassionate care to women in their most pressing time of need. The opportunity to hear the gospel. Perfect, I thought, and I signed up for the walk.”
That combination — practical care and spiritual care — still sits at the center of CompassCare’s work today.
The ministry now operates centers in Rochester, Buffalo, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island, and the Capital Region. Thousands of women have walked through their doors over the years. Many arrived frightened, isolated, pressured, or convinced abortion was their only option.
Carbone’s own involvement deepened quickly. For five years he volunteered giving weekly talks at a rehab center. “I prayed with probably 30 people who received the Lord after those talks.”
He paused for a moment while remembering it. “I was bringing the Holy Spirit into that place. By the grace of God, many people were saved.”
That kind of testimony explains why the Walk for Life feels less like a fundraiser and more like a gathering of people carrying stories they cannot forget.
“Once I saw what abortion was, how the vulnerable women and their preborn babies were being ministered to by this amazing organization, there was no turning back for me,” Carbone said. “I’d seen too much.”
Then he laid out four reasons the crowd walks each year.
“We walk for life because it’s right.”
He quoted Psalm 82: “Defend the poor and fatherless. Do justice to the afflicted and needy. Deliver the poor and needy. Rid them out of the hand of the wicked.”
“This is the work that’s done every day in the offices of the CompassCare facilities,” he said. “We are doing what God has told us to do.”
Then came the second reason.
“We walk for life because it’s good.”
He described the sight of Christians gathering publicly for a common purpose.
“When we, as Christian brothers and sisters, join together for a cause that expresses God’s heart for humanity, we are the body of Christ in action.”
Around him were pastors, young families, retirees, teenagers pushing strollers, longtime volunteers greeting one another by name. Some had walked for years. Others were there for the first time.
Carbone looked out at them and smiled.
“You can’t be a Christian alone,” he said. “We have to do it together.”
The third reason was strikingly practical.
“We walk for life because we can.”
Carbone spoke about freedoms many Christians around the world do not have — the freedom to gather publicly, worship openly, speak about Christ freely, and advocate for vulnerable people without fear of imprisonment.
“People are being arrested in Europe for praying in public today,” he said. “People are being slaughtered in Africa for their faith in Christ today.”
But here, at least for now, they could still walk openly through Rochester streets carrying signs for life.
And finally, the fourth reason.
“We walk for life because Jesus Christ walked for us. Two thousand years ago, compelled by his great love for us, Jesus Christ voluntarily took up his cross on that fateful spring day and walked the dusty roads of Jerusalem.”
“Jesus was our Good Samaritan,” he said. “He found us beaten, broken, bruised, and robbed.”
A few minutes later, hundreds of people began moving through the streets together.
Some carried signs. Some pushed strollers. Some walked quietly.
All of them walking for life.
To learn more about CompassCare you can visit: https://www.compasscare.info/
To register for the walk or give financially: https://www.compasscarecommunity.com/2026/03/save-1320-babies-walk-for-life/
Why oppose abortion?
In the beginning God created everything (Genesis 1:1). He created mankind in His image and gave us dominion over the earth, telling us to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:26-27).
Human life has value simply because God said so. We were created by Him and every person needs to be protected and respected at all times. God also very clearly stated that the murder of another human being is an abomination (Genesis 9:6).
God forms every child in their mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13-16), and He loves each of them and we ought to see them as a gift from God (Psalm 127:3).
So what is the Christian’s response to abortion? Heartbreak. Stepping up. Being a voice for the voiceless.
Abortion is very simply the murder of an unborn child. Modern day biology has proved as much. Life begins at conception. Pregnancy begins when there is a live child (embryo or fetus) in the womb. Intentionally ending a pregnancy means ending a life. This is murder.
As Christians we ought to step up and speak out about this huge crime that is being committed thousands of times every day.
Children who are completely innocent and helpless deserve to be protected. God commands it. Not only does this murder obviously harm a child, but it harms the mother and others involved in the act (Matthew 5:21-22).