Grace in 30

Most of us have seen pictures of the devastation that Hurricane Matthew brought on Haiti back in October of 2016.  This came less than 7 years after a catastrophic earthquake hit the country.  Today’s guest is Larry Thompson, a recently-retired 29-year veteran of Arlington County’s Fire Department, who's been traveling to Haiti several times a year since 2012.  Larry joined us last May to talk about his non-profit, The Least of These Foundation, that he established to feed and educate over 240 children on the Forgotten Island off the coast of Port au Prince.  Today he joins us to update us on post-hurricane conditions, and to tell us how the kids he works with are doing.  We're also joined by his teenage daughter, Avery, who first took a trip to Haiti with Larry when she was 13 years old, and has been there several times since.

On November 19, 2015 at 2:00 a.m., a man attempted to climb over the fence surrounding the Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia and threw two smoke bombs and a Molotov cocktail.   What happened in the following months, though, may not be what you'd expect.  Despite the rising tide of anti-Muslim sentiment at that time and since, mosque representatives made the effort to find out more about the man discovering that he was a local homeless person with mental issues.  Driven by a sense of mercy for someone in their community, they eventually lobbied for the lightest sentence and best care possible for the perpetrator.  Today’s guest is Colin Christopher, the Deputy Head of Government Affairs at that mosque.  Colin joins us to talk about the lessons he and his fellow attendees learned from that experience, and to talk about his mosque’s goal to tear down the walls of ignorance surrounding the Islamic faith, and to establish strong relations with other faiths based on cooperation, tolerance, and mutual understanding. 

It's hard to believe, but human trafficking (especially teen sex trafficking) is a significant problem in Northern Virginia.  January happens to be National Slavery and Human Trafficking Prevention Month so we decided to focus on this issue today, on National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.  We're joined by Kay Duffield, Executive Director of the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Initiative (NOVA HTI), a non-profit that is working to eradicate human trafficking in the local area.  We're also joined by Barbara Amaya, a survivor of human trafficking from age 12 through 21, who now works as a human rights advocate and is the author of the award winning book Nobody’s Girl, A Memoir of Lost Innocence, Modern Day Slavery and Transformation.  Barbara and Kay will share their stories with us and tell us how we can join them in working to eradicate this problem from our communities.

Baltimore City has fallen on hard times.  The city was built to house nearly a million people, yet today it is home to only 622,000, and it has seen an out-migration of people in their 20s and 30s in particular.  According to the city government, the number of abandoned houses and lots number 30,000, and higher estimates place this number at nearly 47,000 – 16% of the city’s residences.  In April 2015, after the arrest and death of Freddie Gray, the city erupted in violence, revealing the ongoing tension between the police and African American Community as well as a sense of hopelessness that many people feel in the low-income areas of the city.   In this environment, an organization called Baltimore Corps has emerged whose goal is to revitalize the city.  Today we’re joined by Jay Nwachu, the Director of Development and Communications for Baltimore Corps.  Jay joins us to talk about their mission to match highly talented, purpose-driven people with the right organizations for maximum social impact while promoting equity throughout Baltimore’s communities.

Many people don't see the relevance of the Christian church to today's world, so they don't attend church services.  Others have been hurt by the church and wound up abandoning their Christian faith as a result.  What's needed for them is a new kind of church - one that extends grace and gives people the space and time they need to build a relationship with Jesus.  We are joined tonight by John Slye, Senior Pastor at Grace Community Church - a church for people who don't go to church.