WHEN YOU PRAY, MOVE YOUR FEET

Logan recounts his life of service in the United States and Africa in this Christian memoir.

The author was raised in Illinois by a Presbyterian minister and his wife, who gave their son two things that he has carried with him ever since: a deep Christian faith and the belief that all people are created equal. In this memoir, Logan describes his life of activism and service, culminating in his founding of the charitable Marion Medical Mission. In 1961, at the age of 18, Logan spent a year traveling through sub-Saharan Africa, witnessing first-hand the culture of ubuntu (compassion for others) as well as the work being done to lift people out of poverty. Back in the States for college, he met his future wife Jocelyn, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, and he helped overturn his school’s policy against interracial dating. He spent the mid-1960s as an activist in the Civil Rights movement—motivated in part by the Ku Klux Klan burning a cross on his family’s lawn—participating in the March on Washington and registering Black voters in Alabama. After marrying Jocelyn and attending seminary (where he earned the administration’s ire by helping a Puerto Rican civil rights group occupy one of the campus’ buildings), Logan worked building homes in the racially contentious city of Cairo, Illinois. Following the Ethiopian famine of 1985, Logan and Jocelyn decided to set up a medical nonprofit to bring doctors and clean wells to underserved communities in Ghana, Congo, and elsewhere. Logan’s workmanlike prose has an appealing modesty, as if every impressive accomplishment in his life were a mere matter of following sensible directions: “The well can be dug in three days and bricked up in two. The drain and apron take two days to pour, and then they need to cure for five days. The villagers then wait for the pump to be delivered and installed.” While the author’s Christianity is a prominent theme in the book, the memoir is primarily an account of practical, results-oriented activism. Readers may be inspired to pick up a protest sign or grab a shovel.

An earnest account of humanitarian activism with a Christian perspective.