Washington, DC: Wednesday

Wednesday morning dawned bright and early for us since we had to all be ready to leave the conference center by 8am in order to be at the US Capitol building for the first conference session at 10:30.  Matt sent his team on ahead of the group to do some initial set-up while he guided everyone to the Rayburne building and through security.

It was a brisk, cold morning but so beautiful.  I just had to stop and snap a few pictures of the building I had been anxiously waiting to see for so long:  the US Capitol.  It was hard for me to believe that I was actually there!

The room Matt secured for our use was a judiciary committee room.  I was amazed to discover that the colors of the conference banner I designed and printed many months before complimented the decor of this particular room so well.

The keynote speaker this morning was Congressman Marlin Stutzman, a representative from Indiana and personal friend of Matt.  He had a very full schedule that day but graciously gave ten minutes between committee meetings to come and address our group.  His words centered on the importance of Christians ministering to their elected leaders and the impact it can have in their lives.  It was a powerful  message given his position in Washington.

At the conclusion of the morning sessions, we walked several blocks to the Center for Christian Statesmanship office building.  George Roeller, the Director of the Center for Christian Statesmanship, and his wife, Linda, graciously hosted our entire conference group for lunch.  It was encouraging to hear them share their heart for ministry on Capitol Hill.  They have a lovely building from which to operate.  

While the rest of the group rode back on the bus to the conference center, Matt and his staff enjoyed an impromptu sightseeing excursion during their long walk to Union Station to retrieve their minivan. It was a gorgeous day and so much fun!  We took a brief detour through the Library of Congress, passed the Supreme Court building, and had our team picture taken outside the US Capitol.

The Library of Congress is an impressive building!  I was completely overwhelmed by its grandeur and beauty.  On exhibit this particular week was the Gettysburg Address in honor of its 150th anniversary celebration.

The Supreme Court:

When we arrived back at the conference center, we attended some of the afternoon sessions and ate dinner with everyone.  These meal times offered some of the best opportunities for conversation and fellowship - even with a language barrier.

It had been another wonderful day!  I called Dad later that evening and told him that I loved DC.  Seeing the sites, hearing the gospel proclaimed in our Capitol, learning of ministry flourishing in the city - all these things lit a spark within me that I was to soon discover would only grow stronger as the week progressed.

Washington, DC: Monday and Tuesday

As I reflect upon all that took place while in Washington, DC two weeks ago, my heart overflows with gratitude to God for His grace and provision.  It was an incredible week of meeting like-minded believers from other countries, watching God answer prayer and provide for our needs, visiting numerous places I had longed to see again for so many years, and seeing God grant others the vision and burden to spread His gospel truth to their foreign leaders.  We certainly saw God do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond what we could ask or think!

We (Matt and Miriam Barnes, Debbie Magnuson, Matt's cousin Benjamin, and myself) departed for Washington, DC around 9am on Monday, November 11.  It was a trick to squeeze in all the luggage of five travelers in one minivan.  Who normally totes around a printer and guitar while on the road?  We were just all very grateful we had decided to drive rather than fly!  We literally used every square inch of space.

The conference was being held at the National 4-H Conference Center, and we arrived around 8 o'clock that night after having a bit of an adventure trekking through a little suburb trying to find a suitable place for dinner.  Thanks to Benjamin's navigation, his 4-star restaurant choice ended up being a hole-in-the-wall retail store of some sort…  We tried to not give him a hard time about it,  but from then on we relied upon Matt's smartphone.

The conference center is situated in a beautiful suburb of DC and right off Connecticut Drive, a main road that takes one right into the heart of downtown.  It was so nice to have our lodging, conference room, and meals all in one location!

On Tuesday morning, Matt and Miriam Barnes introduced us to Luciano Bongarra, President of Parlamento & Fe and the conference leader.  I previously had some email communication with him over the last several months, and it was so nice to meet him face-to-face.  He and his wife were so kind and gracious to us the entire week, and he even offered me a job to come and work with him in Argentina!

From left to right: Luciano, Matt Barnes, Miriam Barnes, and Debbie Magnuson

Most of Tuesday was spent meeting people and trying to gain a better understanding of details still needing to be addressed before the start of the conference the next morning.  Communication was a bit of a challenge given the language barrier.  Luciano didn't know a whole lot of English, and his helpers were equally challenged with Spanish, so two and two equalled puzzled expressions and second and third trys.  At times we pulled out the pen and notepad… But there were smiles and laughs all around as we practiced patience in between miscommunication!

Here we are trying to understand what still needed to be done in less than 24 hours:

There were a few details with huge holes that had the Indiana team a bit on edge, but we saw God provide for our needs at the last minute!  One area of need was a bus to take about 100 conference attendees to the US Capitol building for the first session the next morning.  The few contacts that Matt knew in the city either had buses with no drivers or a driver with no bus.  As each person returned Matt's call with a "no," we began to wonder what we would do.  We didn't really want to send about 100 foreigners (who could not speak English) to the metro to ride the subway into downtown and just hope they all showed up at the correct location.  While working on a myriad of other details, we prayed for a miracle.  Late that afternoon, Matt received a phone call from a pastor in the area who had both a bus AND a driver. Praise the Lord!   As I said, the provision was last-minute, but it was perfect!

That evening we were invited to a performance and reception at the Argentine Embassy.  The International Baptist Theological Seminary Polyphonic Choir is conducted by Luciano's daughter, and they all made the journey to DC to perform at the embassy as well as provide music throughout the conference.  It was amazing to hear the praises of God fill the halls throughout the embassy!  I am told the ambassador did attend the performance, and I can't help but wonder what he thought.  Following the performance, it seemed as if the entire choir surrounded us so eager to meet "the Americans from Indiana" and expressing their deep gratitude for our attending their concert.  

The Argentine embassy is a beautiful building!  

From left to right: Myself, Debbie Magnuson, and Pam Russell

It was a great start to what would be a wonderful week!  We went to bed that night with hearts full of praises to our God.

Chicago Get-Away

Well, there's nothing like returning home after a week-long absence only to pack your bags and hit the road again four days later!  A friend's wedding in the Chicago area this weekend beckoned me, Kathy, and Dad to plan a mini get-away.  We left Indianapolis this past Friday afternoon around 1pm to enjoy an evening together in Oak Brook, Illinois with the wedding in Wheaton the following day.

When I heard where we were staying and that there was a large mall nearby, I immediately pulled out my smart phone to look up what stores where there.  I let out a squeal when I read the words "Vera Bradley" and decided then and there that we had to track down this store since I was on the quest for the perfect sunglasses case - to coordinate with my purses, of course. :)

If you can't already tell, I like to shop, so you can only imagine my great delight when I discovered that there were two malls within miles of each other right by our hotel.  Oh joy!  I just had to convince my fellow travelers that this would indeed be fun.

The Oak Brook Mall is an outdoor mall.  Yes, outdoor -  in Chicago no less.  It's November and cold and windy...but we just had to find that Vera Bradley store.   So off we went in freezing temperatures all around the mall until we finally found it - and we just happened to park the farthest away one could. Kathy was so frozen that she actually wanted to go inside the store and stay there!  So I didn't really have any trouble convincing my companions to peruse the store for a while. :)

Though shopping at this particular mall is a bit miserable during the winter, it is very pretty.  There were Christmas lights everywhere.  I loved it!

After failing to find the perfect sunglasses case (but no worries - I will find it in Indy!), we retraced our steps and willingly followed Dad into a pen store to thaw - I mean, to shop for ink.  Kathy had never been so interested in a pen store in all her life!  We encouraged Dad to stay as long as he  wanted, but alas, we couldn't stay until closing....  

By this time, dinner sounded wonderful, but we had to walk outside to satisfy that desire.  So, after trying to get our bearings and being very grateful for the security guard who showed us the shortest route to our destination, we arrived at Maggiano's.  And you won't believe where they seated us!  Right by the heater!!!  I guess it was all those icicles hanging from our ears...  Needless to say, Kathy was very happy with this seating arrangement!

It was a lovely place.  I loved the pretty dishes, warm-from-the-oven bread, and delicious food.  We even ordered a gourmet piece of pumpkin cheesecake to split between us.  But we had to have a photoshoot before we cut it up.  It was almost too pretty to eat - at least for the girls!

The rest of the evening was spent at our hotel room relaxing and talking with one another.  On Saturday morning, we enjoyed further conversation before attending our friend's noon wedding in Wheaton, Illinois.  What a lovely, God-honoring ceremony!  We were so grateful we were invited and that we made the effort to attend.  

We had a great time together and thank the Lord for all He allowed us to do in a short time.  Nonetheless, I am not anxious to pack my bags again anytime soon.  It's so good to be home for a while!

Ministry in DC

It is with great anticipation (and a little apprehension) that I head into a unique ministry opportunity next week.  Many of you know that I am involved with Capitol Commission Indiana and assist Matthew Barnes with ministry at the Indiana Statehouse.  Through a series of unique events, Matthew & Miriam Barnes, myself, and several others are leaving for Washington DC next Monday, November 11 to help with the first-ever Global Conference of Parliament and Faith November 13-15 at the Washington DC Conference Center.  

One of the banners I designed for the conference.

This conference is organized by Luciano Bongarra of Argentina, a personal friend of Matthew Barnes who carries on ministry to Argentina's political leaders similar to what we do here in Indiana.  His vision through this conference is to call together pastors and leaders from around the world to further equip them for gospel and discipleship ministry to their elected officials.  Believe it or not, the Lord is calling His people into politics around the world with a burden to reach leaders with the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that is indeed a most exciting thing!  

Here are some specific ways you can be praying:

•   Safety in travel -  We will drive to Washington DC beginning early Monday morning (November 11) and return on Sunday, November 17.

•   Stamina and health - We face a packed and intense schedule throughout the entire week.     

•   Wisdom, creativity, and flexibility as we seek to serve both the conference leadership and attendees in various capacities (which are all unknown at this time).

•   Fellowship and Refreshment - We are taking a day to do some sight-seeing together on Saturday!  Should be fun with this particular group, and we hope to meet up with Congressman Stutzman and his family at some point along the way.

Thank you for praying, and I look forward to sharing with you what the Lord does through this experience.  Should be an adventure!

Weekend Celebrations

This weekend we had a couple of occasions for family celebrations.

The first was Ben's birthday on Saturday, November 2.  We invited his parents, Ed and Pat Turner, to join us that evening for the birthday party.  Since Ben is an engineer at Rolls-Royce and makes parts for airplane engines, I had wanted to do something along those lines for party decorations - even if it was simply making paper airplanes for everyone.  But alas, time didn't allow for anything extra that day, and we had to default to our usual quick and simple, make-it-special decorating:  a kid-friendly plastic tablecloth, shiny blue curling ribbon, and blue and brown M&Ms.  (And yes, I didn't do the greatest job at smoothing out all the wrinkles this time!)

When everyone arrived at our house that evening, Essie was so pleased to show us the cake she and her siblings had made and decorated for Daddy.  Essie mixed up the cake all by herself (and it wasn't from the box!) and piped the words "Happy Birthday!" in icing on the top.  Needless to say, we were all quite impressed!

The favorite part of a party in our house (besides opening the presents) is preparing the dessert with all the candles and blowing them all out.  Hannah was one super enthusiastic, delighted, and excited birthday party participant when it came time for the "grand moment".  This picture captures it all:

And here is everyone:

And we can't forget Grace!  She was a little sweetie the entire evening.

The very next day, Sunday, November 3, Grace Abigail was baptized.  Special thanks to a friend who snapped this picture for us!

The fall this year has been frantically busy for us, but I hope to begin writing here again on a weekly basis.  I leave a week from tomorrow (November 11) for Washington, DC where I will be helping at a word leader's conference.  I look forward to sharing with you what takes place as well as posting pictures once I return.  Should be an adventure!