D.C. Was Amazing!

Ahhhh, finally time to take a deep breath and write a post. The kids and I are in Phoenix right now with my parents. This is the third of four trips for me this month. May feels like a whirlwind – crazy, but fun.

Our trip to D.C. was amazing. International Justice Mission’s (IJM) Global Prayer Gathering was awesome! We were so blessed and encouraged to be amongst people who pray with courage and boldness - people who know to whom it is they pray and therefore ask big. After hearing stories and first-hand testimonies of slaves being freed and perpetrators of all kinds of abuse being brought to justice, I experienced a whole new level of worship as we sang songs like “How Great Is Our God.”

Saturday night we prayed by candlelight at the Lincoln Memorial (pictured on previous post), a symbol of freedom for those who were oppressed and enslaved in our own country. Monday, we spent a few hours in the Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was so moving, gut wrenching, and powerful, particularly coming off of the IJM prayer gathering and particularly because in D.C. that weekend there were demonstrations bringing attention to the holocaust that is taking place in Sudan right now. As I read the stories in the museum I was challenged to consider who I would have been if I had been there, and who I am as a player in this chapter of history – Am I a rescuer? Or am I a self-centered, apathetic person who avoids the truth (reality) of what is happening all around me?

There is a poem in the museum that keeps ringing in my heart and mind.



The theme verse for IJM’s Global Prayer Gathering was Psalm 12:5:

“The LORD replies, I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor. Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do.”

IJM’s message is, “As the Lord our God rises up to rescue the oppressed, our God calls upon us to be His instruments.”

God is rising up. Am I? Are you?