In the morning, I’ll be back at Boston-Logan, heading out to Grand Rapids, Michigan for the International Justice Conference at Thornapple Covenant Church.

In addition to speaking Saturday night, I’m leading a conference “Prayer Room” both evenings to focus on justice issues in the United States. That should bring the whole crisis closer to home. I’m also very interested in hearing from the other main speaker, IJM’s Abraham “Abbey” George.

Grand Rapids also gives me the opportunity to spend time with other people who mean a lot to me: Custis relatives who migrated from Oregon to Michigan and friends from Biblica who have invited me to participate in their Justice Bible Forum in Hyderabad, India this December. (I’ll have more to say about that later.) And of course, it wouldn’t feel like I’d been to Grand Rapids if I didn’t stop by Zondervan to see what my editor Katya Covrett and company are up to. 

If you live in the Grand Rapids area, I hope I’ll see you at the conference this weekend. If you don’t live in the area, at least visit Thornapple’s website to see how one church is responding to this horrific global crisis. Might give you some ideas for your own church. Personally, I find it deeply heartening for Thornapple to be focusing on justice issues. It would be a welcome sign if these kinds of conferences started multiplying to other churches.