America's Divine Destiny

So, we finally arrived at the Kennedy Center. Click here if you care about what happened before we arrived. With tickets in hand, our group of seven walked through the doors. It was such a surreal feeling knowing that we were walking through the same corridors that presidents have walked, and knowing that this was a once in a lifetime experience.

As we were looking for our seats, I noticed that the rows started with the double letters...ZZ, YY, XX, and on down the alphabet. I glanced at my ticket "Orch  L  7".  A single L? I was getting excited! L. That's twelve (12) rows back from the front. Seriously? No way!  Sure enough, that is exactly where my seat was. How awesome!

Down the halls of the Kennedy Center

Here was the Kennedy Center, filled with people who had been out sight-seeing all day, wearing their shorts and t-shirts, tennis shoes or sandals. Cameras were flashing everywhere. I felt kind of bad for the ushers who worked there. OK, yeah, there were signs posted everywhere that pictures were not to be taken, but we ignored them. The ushers kept telling people "No pictures", but pictures were taken anyway. My justification was that this was an historic occasion, at least for me. So, I clicked away. If it's any consolation to the ushers, most of my pictures did not turn out. As I looked around at all the "common" people who were there, I had a memory of a picture in my high school history book (shocking, I know) when Andrew Jackson was elected and the common people were over-running the White House during his inagural.

While we were sitting and looking around, we spied Chuck Norris sitting up in one of the boxes. That was cool. Later on, he was on stage with his wife.

This is the group whose name I don't know

The evening was called "America's Divine Destiny", and it was truly a revival. The evening started with the Hope Christian Church Choir.They sang "How Great is Our God", and also had interpretive dancers. It was very beautiful and inspirational. They also sang "God is my refuge". It made me wish that we had singing like that at our church. There was also another group that sang, but I can't remember the name. They were very good and uplifting. After more singing, there was another interpretive dancer. A single dancer on stage, with a large American flag on the back wall of the stage. The music was "The Star-Spangled Banner". We all arose from our seats, hands on hearts, and watched her beautiful dance. It gave me goose bumps.

After that, Pat, from the Glenn Beck Show, came out and introduced Glenn as "America's History Professor".

When Glenn came out to welcome everyone, the place went nuts. He then asked everyone who had received a "free" ticket (Glenn bought them and gave them away) to raise their hands. Almost every hand in the front section went up, as well as the prime center seats in the back section. Glenn is a class act!

Glenn Beck and David Barton

Glenn then introduced David Barton who "heads WallBuilders, a national pro-family organization that presents American's forgotten history and heroes, with an emphasis on our moral, religious, and constitutional heritage."
He also has a massive library with tens of thousands of original writings and documents from the American founders. He talked of our Founder's belief in God. He spoke of Rev. John Wise. He believed that "we are touched by the finger of God". He believed in individual rights and was against taxation without representation.  Words from his sermons were turned into government documents.

The first speaker was Rabbi Daniel Lappin. Since it was a Jewish holiday, he spoke without a microphone. He said it was his wish to have 2000 Christians wish him a "Shabat Shalom", which means Sabbath of peace, joy and fulfilment. We gave him his wish. He said that we are here because God put us here. God has given us the three "M's" - Marriage, Money, Manners. And, there are three things we should commit to: More Bible study, Make more money - in an honorable way - by pleasing another human being, Say an extra prayer for the U.S.A.

Next came Dr. Patrick Lee, a Catholic priest. He spoke from Ephesians 2:10: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do".
1. God has created the world 2. God has a plan for this world 3. God has endowded this world with objective value and meaning. We have a duty to thank God publicly for blessings.

Twila Paris sang "True North"

Pastor Miles McPherson, came out talking 100 miles per hour! He a lot to say in only a short time. His message was "the town's on fire...Do Something!". 1)Find out how many homeless shelters, AA meetings, etc. there are in your town. 2)Walk yourself to those places 3) Ask "What can I do?"

Chuck and Gina Norris

Chuck Norris and his wife, Gina, then appeared on stage. He said "Only two things can get us off our ranch in Texas. God or Glenn Beck!"  He read several quotes from George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and Samuel Adams.

Dave Roever

After an intermission, there was more singing, and then Dave Roever spoke. He has an amazing story of hope. He was a soldier in fighting in Viet Nam when a phosphorous grenade went off in his hand. That's 5000 degrees--1/2 the temperature of the sun! It is a miracle that he survived. It's hard to imagine how he can tell of such a horrific story with humor, but he does.

The evening ended with more amazing music. Then, Glenn bid everyone goodnight with these words, "Twelve hours from now, we will begin to fundamentally transform America".

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Miracles do happen

Our family left for D.C. on Wednesday. We wanted to have a few days for sight-seeing before the rally on Saturday. Glenn Beck had talked on his radio show that on Friday night there would be a special event at the Kennedy Performing Arts Center. There were 1000 seats available. Glenn had bought the tickets himself, and intended to give them out on Friday morning on a first come, first serve basis. I was really, really, wanting to go, but knew that the chances of securing a ticket or seven (one for each member in our group) would be next to impossible. But, Glenn said to expect miracles, so I dared to hope.

Late Thursday afternoon, our group split up. My brother-in-law and nephew wanted to go locate the Kennedy Center,  because we planned to be there bright and early Friday morning, waiting in line for tickets. The rest of us, continued sight-seeing, heading in the opposite direction. One of the sights on our to-do list was to see the Daughters of the American Revolution building. Not because I am a Daughter of the American Revolution (but my Dad recently told me I could be. I just have to do some research to find out), but because of the initials...DAR aka my nickname.

 As we were walking back, looking for a Metro Station, Hubby got a call from BIL saying that we need to bring food and blankets, and plan on spending the night, because a line was already forming. So, the five of us, head back to the cottage in which we are staying.  We start discussing who will go back and spend the night on the streets, standing in line...each person would be able to get two tickets, so four people would have to spend the night. It was looking like it would be Hubby and me, but then, my other nephew said he would go. (Bless his heart.) Halfway back to our cottage, we realize that BIL has the only key.  This is not good. Oh well, we'll just ask for another key. My nephew says that there is only one key, as they had already tried to get another key. However, when we arrived, we discovered that we had forgotten to lock the front door when we left that morning! (And, luckily, all our stuff was still in the cottage when we got back!) As we started making sandwiches, and gathering blankets, BIL calls again. Never mind coming, they started passing out tickets so no one would have to sleep on the streets. I was glad for that, but immediately concluded that I would not be going to the event. Four tickets, and BIL had two sons with him, and Hubby would go. Oh well, it was a long shot anyway, and at least Hubby would get to go. Then Hubby got another call. His voice sounded a little more excited when he said, "Really? That's awesome!"  Here's what happened. BIL was talking with other people in line, some were able and willing to get an extra ticket, so BIL left with seven tickets! We would all be going!

BIL and nephew had decided that they would take it easy on Friday. Not even go into D.C. until the after noon. The rest of us had other plans. We would get up early, do some sight-seeing, then come back to the cottage early enough to get cleaned up, and rested up before going to the Kennedy Center. (You know right now that that didn't happen, don't you?) We wanted to leave by 3:00 because it takes a good hour of traveling by the MetoRail, and driving. And, we wanted to be heading back by 6:00 to get there by 7:00, when the doors opened. But, at 3:00 we were in the middle of the American History Museum, and suddenly no one wanted to leave. Hubby and I were hot, sweaty, and tired. We needed to go back. And, our tickets were still at the cottage. So, we left, and again halfway back, realized that we had no key.

By the time we pulled up to our cottage, we were way behind schedule, and we both had full bladders. Hubby went down to the office to get a spare key. Came back. Key didn't work. Walked back down to the office, and came back empty handed. We would have to wait until they located the guy who wears all the keys on his belt. Time was ticking away. We were still hot, sweaty, tired, and now hungry, with fuller bladders. Hubby started talking about breaking a window. I started praying that the man with the keys would hurry and get here. Thankfully, my prayer was answered, and no windows were broken. However, all our resting time was used up, and we only had time to shower, (dress), grab the tickets, and go.  We drove back into D.C., rode the  MetroRail to what we thought was the closest stop to Kennedy Center. (Our son had the map showing the layout and all the stops, so we tried to go from memory. Memory. Ha. Ha.)

After we walked a block or so, we called everyone, who were already waiting at the Kennedy Center, to say we were on our way. We were then told we got off  way too early and would have a couple of miles to walk. We needed to turn around and get back on the MetroRail. Our legs were so tired from three days of walking, we couldn't bear the thought of turning around. We hailed a cab and said, "Take us to Kennedy Center."  The ride cost us 10 bucks, but it was worth every penny!

We arrived at Kennedy Center right around 7:00. Miracles still do happen.

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