Washington DC June 11, 2011

Yes, it's been FOREVER since I updated the blog. I checked my notes and I didn't finish my trip to Washington DC in June, so before I can blog my last return trip to Ecuador, I must finish Washington DC! So, for any of you interested in my weekend in DC, here you go!

June 11, 2011

Washington DC

This morning was fun. Breakfast (sorry, no picture) was Chobani yogurt and fruit (yummy) and green tea. Then we went to Eb’s coffeehouse. It was Second Saturday and on the second Saturday of the month, the National Community Church does local missions. They also have international missions teams in various places. They have 7 focus missions – I don’t know that I can remember all of them – or even most of them, but some of them were focusing on child advocacy issues, anti-trafficking, food and shelter, I think, and several others.

The missions part is called AOneEight based on Acts 1:8 which says “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea…

They had 12 or 15 different projects going on to choose from -- helping with incarcerated teens - girls and boys -- the men played sports with the boys, making sandwiches for the homeless, some clean up activities, working with pregnant teens, and several others.

I helped with the incarcerated teenagers. No pictures here becuase no cameras were allowed for obvious privacy reasons. A group of six of us went to Youth Services, not too far from Eb’s. After going through the metal detector and getting hand wanded, we were allowed entrance where we had to leave our picture ID at the desk.

We waited for someone to escort us to the girl’s unit. There were about 8 young women, the youngest was 12 and the oldest, I don’t know, maybe 16, maybe 17. The girls were there awaiting their court dates. Apparently this is the place where teenagers stay after they are arrested and before they go to court about whatever they have done.

We did an activity with them where we all (the girls and the volunteers) were given poster board and markers and were asked to write things they were thankful for. My first reaction when I was told what the activity was going to be that it was pretty lame – my own prejudices were speaking.

I was thinking the activity was more suited for a Sunday School class than girls who had been arrested, but I was taught a valuable lesson – girls are girls. And these girls needed to think about things they were thankful for. It was a perfect activity and I'm glad that I learned something early on.

A number of the things they were thankful for were deep – they listed things like being thankful for their mistakes because they could learn from them, being thankful for those people who hate them because they could learn something from that, too. I think I got more out of the experience than they did.

Our volunteer group prayed before we met with the group and there were some powerful prayer warriors there praying that the Lord would touch the time we were with them and that the girls would feel that someone cared about them – both physically and spiritually.

My "Thankful" Poster

Afterwards, we debriefed and prayed again and it was even more powerful because we knew the girls a little better and could pray for them more specifically. I was very glad I went, and I definitely learned more about myself and I’d like to think I am a better person leaving than I was going in. I hope that the girls are better for us having been there, too.

Lunch was at Chipotle at Union Station and a trip to the Corcoran Art Museum had been planned, but it was hot, and we blew it off to have “girl time”. Courteney and I shared old photos and stories and gave each other advice and petted Buffy as she asked for it.

Buffy is a buff colored Cocker Spaniel who is very sweet and who pees in the floor when excited in typical Cocker Spaniel style. We went to the roof and walked around a bit – the pool is there, but it was very crowded and we didn’t partake, but we did walk around and take some pictures of the view from the roof.

Courteney’s roommate Min came in and we hung out for a while with her. Basically, we had a very restful, very peaceful afternoon.

Late in the afternoon we went to the Native American Museum to an event they were having there. They had a country music concert and the artists all were Native American. They were all quite good and we enjoyed ourselves.

One of the performers at the Native American Museum

After the concert, we walked around the mall and I took pictures of the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument. And we walked around the Sculpture Garden. It was great.

Dinner was at Café Berlin where I did not have anything German, but the grilled salmon with sautéed spinach and potatoes was excellent. Unfortunately, I think it had gluten in it, but we'll leave that part of the story out of this lovely blog! Courteney had a lovely chilled peach and basil soup with a spinach salad as her entrée.

The peach soup was really very good – I would have never thought that peaches and basil would go well together, but is was delicious. The soup had a small scoop of yogurt in the middle. I am definitely going home with some cooking ideas. Min had the sauerbraten, which she said was yummy. It had gravy, so not a good choice for me, and a big potato in the middle. It looked really good.

Then home for more conversation and a lovely night’s sleep. Can’t wait for tomorrow.