IJM Conference: Hannah Zimmerman

Last weekend four of us from our campus chapter of International Justice Mission had the opportunity to go to IJM’s Global Prayer Gathering just outside of Washington, D.C., and it was such an amazing experience!  Erica McCauley, Michael Tworek, Grant Swanson, and I left campus at 4:30am to get to O’Hare in time for our 6am flight. Needless to say, we all slept on the plane! Thursday and Friday was a Conference of Student Learning and Global Justice, so we were with about 100 students from all over the United States. We learned about justice and issues surrounding it from people like Nick Wolterstorff, a Philosophy professor at Yale who talked about the deep ties between justice and righteousness, and IJM field office directors from all over the world, who talked about what God has been doing in their city or area. We also learned about “Advocacy and the Creation of Social Demand” from Holly Burkhalter, IJM’s Vice President of Government Relations. 

The student learning sessions wrapped up on Friday afternoon just in time for registration for the Global Prayer Gathering. This started out with a banquet, at which Gary Haugen, President and CEO of IJM, talked about our views of God and justice and prayer. His emphasized that God is the Lord, God will not be mocked by evil, God loves justice, and God will act. He stressed how God is moved by the pleas of His children, and this is why we raise our voices in “active, passionate, vigorous, forceful, and steady” prayer, like “patient fighters.” 

This is exactly what we did all day on Saturday as we moved from room to room, learning specifics about IJM operations all over the world and then praying that God would move there and bring justice to the oppressed. I went to the prayer rooms for Kigali (Rwanda), Kampala (Uganda), Guatemala City (Guatemala), Guayaquil (Ecuador), Chiang Mai (Thailand), and Global Partnerships (IJM offices in UK, Netherlands, Germany, and Canada). 

It was so refreshing to hear stories of God’s work all over the world! Our flight left D.C. at 6am Sunday morning and we were back in Naperville by late morning, but I think we all left some of our hearts back in Virginia with the people we met and those we prayed for.  The Student Learning Conference and the Global Prayer Gathering were so helpful and encouraging for all of us and I hope we get to go back next year and hear all the stories of how God is bringing more justice and healing to victims of violent oppression!

Psalm 103:6 –  “The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed.”