Washington, DC for the National Day of Prayer

This is an extremely long post. If you are not a sister (and maybe even if you are!) feel free to just look at the pictures for the highlights. I did not start off to tell this much, it just happened!

Jenny and I had a wonderful trip to Washington, DC for the National Day of Prayer. We ran into Mrs. Dobson in the lobby of the hotel when we were checking in on Tuesday afternoon.

Our Congressman, Pete Olson, was on the plane with us to DC. We stopped him to chat as he headed to the restroom. He casually invited us to his office, clearly thinking we would not show up. We were there just a few hours later! He told us some interesting things about the DC political scene (one thing was that Nancy Pelosi rarely votes - wonder what her constituents think about that), and we got passes to the House gallery from his office. All of our kids go to the same orthodontist, so we had to talk about that also.

Tuesday evening we went on a Potomac River dinner cruise. It was one of the many highlights from the trip. This picture is with David Barton. He is a well-known Christian historian, and he talked about the history of the monuments as we passed them on the cruise. He has become even more well-known over this past year since he has been acquainted with Glenn Beck. He is often on Glenn's TV and radio shows, and he is travelling with Glenn on his Great American Revivals. We were getting ready to talk to him about Glenn when a lady in her 80's came up to him and said, "You are the best thing that ever happened to Glenn Beck. When are you going to get him to leave the Mormon church?" She just put it out there! I asked him if he had conversations with Glenn about religion and the Mormon church. He said they talk about it a lot. He said that Glenn does believe that Jesus is the Son of God. David commented that Glenn was a Christian before he became a Mormon; that he was saved when he was in AA. He attends the Mormon church because of his daughter Mary, and David said that Glenn will likely keep attending as long as Mary does. He said that these American Revivals are just that - Revivals. The comment was, "I don't know exactly what the people are coming for, but they get a Revival. Glenn sings Amazing Grace, prays, and the event turns into a Revival." David also talked about how powerful Glenn's prayers are. We were impressed by how down to earth David is. He has had a lot of national exposure recently, but he is still a humble Texas man at heart.

The next morning we went to the ladies prayer time with Mrs. Dobson. Kay Cole James, who worked in George W. Bush's administration, was the main speaker. She was really good. After she finished speaking, we broke up into groups to pray for the 7 centers of power in our country - Government, Military, Media, Business, Education, Church, and Family. The prayer time was held at the Sulgrave Club which is, "an enduring reminder of the elegance of Washington society at the turn of the century. " Translation, an old house of former Washington millionaires which has been restored to its early 1900's condition.

We were scheduled to read the Bible at the Capitol at 3:00 on Wednesday afternoon. We arrived a little early, and the woman in charge told us that Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was due to read about the same time. We are huge fans and were so excited to get to meet her. While all members of the House and the Senate are invited, only about 17 House members agreed to come read.

She was so friendly and was so glad to visit with us. She talked about how what our country needs is to repent of their sins, and turn their hearts to God. She gave a wonderful, somewhat detailed, example from the book of Daniel, but neither of us can exactly remember it! We were so impressed that a member of Congress was standing there proclaiming God so boldly, that we actually missed what she said. I am going to e-mail her staff and see if they will ask her what she referenced from Daniel. A really nice congressman from New Jersey, Scott Garrett, read after her. I actually remember seeing him read in years past.

We were glad that our portion to read was in Luke. No big words or chronologies!

As we walked around the Capitol, we noticed Greta Van Susteren. She was doing a live Twitter feed, but she was great to have us on it. She asked us a few questions and posed for a picture. She is a tiny thing! You can't really tell that on TV.

From the Capitol, we went to the House Gallery. As we went in, Michele Bachmann was presenting an amendment that she had filed. It was so interesting to see how they do this to basically no one. There may have been 10 people on the floor at the time, none of whom were listening to her. We knew that they were expecting a vote, so we hung around to see it. It was so neat! The vote was called, and slowly the members of Congress came to the floor to vote. I would tell you who all we saw, but we saw basically everyone. There were over 400 members who came to vote. We were glad to see these members one side: Ted Poe, Pete Olson, Michele Bachmann, Joe Barton, John Boehner, and Louie Gohmert. We recognized these on the other side: Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Maxine Waters, Henry Waxman, and Sheila Jackson Lee. The vote was very interesting, and we got to witness true "politics" in action with the voting process. The story is to long to type, so if you really are interested, ask me and I will tell you. It really is notable.

We then went to John Cornyn's office on the Senate side. He was not there, but his office gave us tickets to the Gallery. As we walked in, we saw that Al Franken was acting as President Pro Tem that afternoon. Sorry, but it was such a joke. In fact, Jenny leaned over and said, "I feel like I am watching an episode of Saturday Night Live." He looked bored to tears and laughed when he said "objection" when he really meant to say "no objection." Senator Christopher Dodd and Senator Richard Shelby were discussing a financial bill. It was interesting to see since I had recently seen them together on Fox news talking about the same thing. Of course no one was listening, and one left the room while the other was speaking. We were glad to see the hoods and gas masks under the chairs in the gallery just in case we needed them! We ended up going back to the gallery at another time and saw Senator Jim De Mint from South Carolina and John Mc Cain. De Mint was very encouraging to listen to. It was like we were listening to Hannity, Limbaugh, or Beck. He said all the things a good, conservative would say. We are glad those things are being said, we just hope someone is listening.

Wednesday night was the reception in the hotel. Dr. and Mrs. Dobson spoke, and Franklin Graham made some brief comments. He is such a humble man; we were really impressed with him. Within minutes, every time he opens his mouth, he is talking about how Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and He is the only way to Heaven.

Thursday morning was the national observance of NDP. We arrived early enough to get seats on the aisle of the third row. It was such a great event! For the second year, President Obama refused to send a representative from the Executive Branch. We did have a powerful time of prayer for Obama, Biden, and the Cabinet members with our hands stretched out toward the White House.

Franklin Graham's talk was very good. There were other faiths represented in the room, but he started his talk with a few words about his faith. He said that he did not mean to be offensive to anyone, but the only way he knows to speak is from what he learns in the Bible. Of course he mentioned Jesus being the Savior and the only way to Heaven right up front. We were blessed indeed to get to hear him in person. He looks and sounds so much like his dad.

As the event was ending, Dr. Dobson called up Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert to make an announcement. Congressman Gohmert said that he would lead a tour at the Capitol for anyone who wanted to meet him there at 8pm that night. He said that there are many references to God in the Capitol, and he would be glad to show them to us. We decided to take him up on his offer, and we were so glad that we did! He started by taking us to the floor of the House. It was really neat to be sitting in the chairs where we had just seen all those congressmen/women hours before. Mr. Gohmert started talking, and we began to see that he might never stop. He loves American history, and he is extremely knowledgeable. I wish I could tell you all the things he told us, but as you can imagine, my arms are already about to fall off from all this typing. Like before, if you want to hear some of the interesting things from his talk, ask me and I will tell you. (Ask me about the last State of the Union address, a great George Washington story, the "positive air flow" that would not allow poisonous gas to be pumped into the House floor from the hallway, the story about the flack he got for signing all his correspondence like the Constitution - In The Year of Our Lord, and the irony that they start each day with prayer, but that can't be done in schools.)

Mr. Gohmert talked about the famous paintings in the Rotunda in great detail. After he talked about the one of George Washington handing in his resignation papers after the Revolutionary War, he read to us portions of Washington's resignation speech. He did this kind of thing all evening. He had a stack of speeches that he would pull out of his pocket and read to us - always highlighting the Christian aspects of the speeches.

He took us to many places in the Capitol that are not on the regular public tour. All along the way he pointed out fascinating facts about the Capitol. As we were walking around, I asked his staff how late it might go. I was told that he has talked until 1:30 before! I am telling you, this man loves this stuff. Luckily, so do we! We headed onto the Senate floor around 11:00. Things in the Senate are so different than in the House. We were told that we could not touch anything or sit anywhere, even on the floor. That was a bit deflating, since we had left our hotel room at 7am! Each Senator has a desk on the floor - it is not just chairs like the House. The desks are considered an extension of their office, thus we needed to not touch. Does anyone out there think we might have accidentally brushed up against a desk or two?? The desks are from the 1800s, and have some good stories to go along with them. Ask me to tell you the story about Daniel Webster's desk.

We know for sure that Congressman Gohmert would have kept going, but the Metro closed at midnight, and there were some that needed to get on it. Before we left the Capitol at 11:45, we went back into the Rotunda to sing Amazing Grace. I know this picture does not mean much to anyone else, but I wanted you to try to see what an amazing experience this was! By the time we left the Capitol, we had spent 17 straight hours on Capital Hill!

We just had a little time on Friday to see a few things. We went to the American History Museum so Jenny could see the flag that flew over Ft. McHenry and inspired Francis Scott Key to write the Star Spangled Banner. While we were in there, we stopped by to see the dress, shoes, and jewelry that Michelle Obama wore at the inauguration. Wow - she has some big feet!

From there we headed down to the Lincoln Memorial. I was in search of something I read in Newt Gingrich's new book Rediscovering God in America. He talked about some words that were spoken by Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial in his "I Have a Dream" speech. They are words from the book of Isaiah that are supposed to be carved in the granite in the approach to the monument. We searched and searched, and even asked around, but we did not find them. I am going to see if I can e-mail Newt somehow and ask where they are.

I just had to include this Lincoln picture here. Both David Barton and Congressman Gohmert told us stories of Lincoln's great faith. Barton referenced and Gohmert read portions of Lincoln's second inaugural address that is carved on the wall of the memorial. They both said that this speech references God more than any other presidential speech.

We even went around to the back of the memorial looking for the words. I had never been back there before, but from there you can see across the Potomac into Arlington National Cemetery.

I am going to have to end with another "ask me later" story. We had quite an adventure getting to the airport for our return flight. We still laugh until we cry when we tell the details - it is a good one!