by John Ellis
Three years ago this past August, Danita, the kids, and I woke up early one morning and headed north to our new home in Arlington, VA. After eight years in Greenville, SC, we knew that it would be hard leaving friends we loved and a place that had become home. More than anything, we knew that leaving our church family would be painful.
The Sunday before we left, I stood up in our church’s morning prayer service and delivered a tearful goodbye. After briefly recounting some of the ways in which the Holy Spirit had used Emmanuel Bible Church to teach us about God the Father and to grow our faith, I asked for prayer. Specifically, I asked the church to pray for the Holy Spirit to knit our hearts to our new church family as we were sure to be lonely and homesick. At the time, I had no idea how prescience my prayer request was.
On the night of the Ferguson decision, NFL player Benjamin Watson wrote a long Facebook post giving voice to many of his frustrations, fears, and hope as an African-American. That Facebook post was so widely read and shared, that Watson was asked to write a book. He did. And it’s a book about race relations that I believe conservatives and Republicans should read. I read it; was blessed by it; was admonished by it; and wrote a review of it. 
