We were in Washington, DC this past weekend for our almost 10 year old’s birthday trip. She’ll officially be 10 on October 21, and we gave her the option of having a big party or a trip. Smart girl chose the trip! To DC. It was seriously the trip of a lifetime. We have three girls total, and were able to leave the youngest two with grandparents here in Charlotte, NC where we’re from. It was glorious for the big sister to have her mom, dad and grandfather (my father-in-law) all to herself for 3.5 days in an INCREDIBLE city! We were originally scheduled and booked to take our trip the middle part of September. Due to Hurricane Florence making her way across the East Coast and serious rain bands up into the Virginia/DC/Maryland area, we used much wisdom and decided to reschedule our trip. We believed God for the best in re-routing our well laid out plans. God provided an amazing price for 3 nights and 2 rooms in a luxury hotel through some friend’s family. It was a miracle! We saved hundreds of dollars. We are so thankful how God worked it all out on our behalf! And even in having to reschedule due to a hurricane, His blessings remained cemented in our “original” plans.

But beyond all of that, He had another plan for us. Almost like a mission of sorts; although, we had no idea when we called the reschedule.

Real quick, here’s a recap of America’s headlines the past few weeks (just in case you haven’t heard, which I doubt.) Judge Brett Kavanaugh. President Trump’s Supreme Court Nominee. He’s a conservative judge who stays close to our Constitution. (He’s also pro-life. Which, in my book, is one of the biggest things anyone in politics can be.) He was accused for sexual misconduct that happened years ago in their high school years by Professor Christine Blasey Ford. He denied all allegations and called it false. Ford was seen as a heroine for standing up for herself and speaking up. You can read all the interweb’s stuff for yourself and watch all the videos and news clips. You are welcome to come up with your own conclusion. Good luck, though. It’s dicey at best. It’s down-right-sweaty-underwear nasty. LOW blows. I’m not sure if something exactly like this has happened in our recent history as the United States–maybe? Don’t think so though. {…end of the ‘politically correct’ segment of this blog post. Keep reading at your own risk…}

Well! What’s to follow is what my heart perceives about it all. AND…what we got to witness for ourselves with our own eyes! What an honor. And all because we had to reschedule our trip from a storm. We did not plan or even REALIZE until that morning of October 6th that the vote of “YES” or “NO” was happening for Kavanaugh. We had so much going on in “real life” here in Charlotte and in “trip life” that it got lost. But there was no way we weren’t going to the Supreme Court House while we were in DC at THIS time. Are you kidding?! (We did leave right before the vote was announced in Kavanaugh’s favor. We didn’t know for sure his win was in the bag yet (although we sure did pray for it!), but we left regardless. Because, riots and protests. Wisdom said leave.) Here’s the thing: We prayed like we believed like it made a difference. We stood within feet of where the vote was taking place and prayed. All of our prayers make a difference no matter where we stand, but there’s something about standing in a place at a time. And in the midst of feeling like a minority. I can guarantee you that we were a minority in the crowd we were in on Saturday! A minority for not only our political standards, but our faith in the one true God. Yup–I have a sneaking suspicion based on what we saw–we were pretty much by ourselves.

I’m sure there were a handful of other folks similar to us, but I didn’t see ’em. Sure, I saw the “hell, fire and brimstone” folks. Those words they spew and throw-up on the passerby does NO good whatsoever. Those words of almost ‘hate’ in the name of ‘love’ drives the sword of doubt deeper into a lost soul. I can’t stand it. I think they’re trying to be Billy Grahams in his finest sound-bited moments: IT DOES NOT WORK. It just doesn’t. There’s nothing loving about it. Sure, what they’re saying is true, but it’s a CLANGING SYMBOL because there’s no love there. {See 1 Corinthians 13:1}. Billy Graham not only had LOVE in his words, but he had a tremendous anointing. Man cannot manufacture this without God’s design for their lives; if they do, it sounds like the ugliest of music. Anyways!! I digress. Back to the matter at hand.

The Supreme Court House in Washington on October 6, 2018–mid afternoon. As I mentioned, we had our almost-10-year with us because this was her birthday trip after all! I knew that she’d be exposed to the very unedited version of godlessness in the rawest and most uncaring-est form we can see in public. I knew she would see and hear things that are contradictory to how we teach her from God’s Word. I knew she’d see folks who are just mad. Mad at the world, mad at the government, the President. (If you don’t mind, I’m going to switch my ‘verbiage filter’ off for the remainder this post and just say what I saw and what I really feel about it…reliving this and having to think of “nicer” synonyms is exhausting!)

We stopped and talked to a guard that was standing by the Capitol Building, and he zeroed in on Layna, our daughter. He was so kind! He gave her stickers and told us that the crowd was gathering just behind the Capitol and that things were ‘heating up’. And to be careful.

Sho’nuff. As we walked up the sidewalk/walkway to the left of the Capitol, we were hurriedly passed by some pissed off women. Some men as well. There were a few though. Mostly seething, venomous and fanged women coming because of their hate for what ‘Kavanaugh’ was the face of. It’s not ONLY the face of someone who they see as a sexual offender, but he is conservative. They hate that, and you could feel the hell from their hearts about it. (He may have had his high school “shtuff”. I don’t know–do you though?! Were you in that room?) Besides the point. Kavanaugh and what he stands for and the weight his vote carries represents a huge threat to the gates of hell. Hell responded accordingly.

We saw costumes of all kinds. And the people watching was just about the best I’ve EVER seen! No vagina hats or outfits though, thank God. But these folks are the SAME people who wore the vagina paraphernalia in the “women’s” march some months back, I can assure you. As we walked up to the main scene: NBC news people, International news people, other big stations represented. There were huge cameras everywhere. There were sad, sad people everywhere. There were huge poster signs saying all kinds of things against Kavanaugh. One of the more abundant ones said: “#KavaNope”. There were loud shouts of accusations and lots of ‘words’ of agreement as Elizabeth Warren spoke and the crowd went wild every time she would spew her lighter fluid on the flickering flames. Other people started speaking as well. Standing back but just being in the midst of it…was something. I didn’t have a feeling of defeat or triumph. There was no feeling either way. There’s no winners here in this crowd. Of course, Kavanaugh winning the seat he did is HUGE. But…I’m talking about what it was like to stand amongst the crowd of venomous hate and accusatory tones. God was there, because He’s everywhere. He loves those who hate Him and who mean to slander and to kill anything that resembles His original meaning for this World–and this country. But we’re all only on this big ‘ol ball of mud for a short time, and eternity is–well, forever. Many of these people may never know the Lord, and that broke my heart. Still does re-living it. This was the ultimate display of the lack of God in people’s lives.

Let me hit on victimizing real quick, just because. I have a huge problem with it. HUGE. Ford may have had an encounter. With circa High School Kavanaugh? Who knows. With someone else? A LOT MORE LIKELY.

Ok, so here’s some different scenarios and the DANGER-*flash*-DANGER-*flash*-DAAANGER of victimizing:

False victim: “Help! I’m a victim!” {Reponse once investigated: “You’re a liar.”}

Real victim: “Help! I’m a victim!” {Reponse once investigated: “How do we know you’re telling the truth?”}

See? Crap like this creates an unsteady foundation for the TRULY victimized out there. NO doubt there are horrible people in this world meaning to do horrible harm. But when the society-shepherd cries wolf too many times–who will believe the TRUE victims? The very things like the #MeToo movements SHOOTS themselves as soon as they allow any false accusations in (because, numbers and hashtags, guys…) It immediately waters down what they’re trying to accomplish. It dilutes the purpose. I, and the world, are thinking…”You Too–what?” Sucks for those truly harmed. It really does. Also SUCKS for the people being blamed when they’re innocent. Scapegoat, anyone? “Guilty until proven innocent?” You can’t win with that foolery. You just can’t.

Back to Washington on October 6, 2018…

The air was physically so thick, one could have literally used a knife to cut it with it. There was such a clashing of heaven and hell–I could almost hear the warfare just above us/amongst us. A clashing of heaven’s sword in the battle of the Free World. Hell holds on dearly and the whispers of lies keeps the iron hard and quenched. It’s all there. The reason I keep saying this was an honor to be a part of is this: PRAYER. You (if you have relationship with Jesus Christ) and I, carry the Kingdom of God with us. Jesus said in Luke 17:21 that we carry the Kingdom of God if Jesus is in us. We carried the Kingdom onto that hellish ground on Saturday. I know there were MILLIONS of others praying for this historic vote. God saw and heard and He answered accordingly. Never think for one moment that your prayers don’t matter or they’re not heard. THAT’s a lie. They do!

Layna had many questions once we left that noisy and tumultuous spot. Like, why was there a lady right in the middle of the crowd, without a top on? “Why was she showing her boobies to the world?” “Why was everyone so mad?” “What is that costume supposed to be?” Lord have mercy. For a mom of a 10 year old, it wasn’t easy. But for the adult-Layna and the woman she’ll be one day–it was very good to see this. She’s already a Christ-follower, and for her to witness this all in real life was VERY good for her. I know it doesn’t seem like it, but she’ll be seeing this more and more as she grows. As will your kids if you have them. I’m not saying exposing them to this kind of stuff is always the way to go. This was the path of our trip, and God orchestrated literally every step–this was the right thing for us this day. There’s a reason we were there and she saw all of that. There’s a reason it was just us and her and we were able to immediately submerse her into GOD’S Truth about this whole thing. She saw it though, and I know as she ages and sees, unfortunately, more sadness from millions of people without the Lord–she’ll have this to think of and what we told her God says about it. And His heart for each one of those people. Even the lady showing her boobies to the world. He loves her, too. We have prayed specifically for her pretty much every day since Saturday.

Funny story, and then I’ll land this bad boy! After walking away from the Supreme Court where more and more people were starting to gather: We decided to sit down and rest and pray more right where the left side of the Capitol Building is. As we were praying out loud and people kept looking at us as they passed by: I saw two Indian ladies coming up the walkway. One was hobbling pretty bad with what appeared to be quite the gimpy leg. Bless!! I was sitting on the far right, and there was plenty of space someone could sit. Well, I closed my eyes for a quick minute as we continued to pray, and as soon as I opened my eyes: I saw the limping lady “coming in for a landing”. I thought she was going to literally land in my lap. Haha! She plopped down right beside me (like just inches away) and started staring at me. The lady with her looked annoyed, but this was the sweetest little lady ever! All I could gather from her very broken English was she was from Calcutta and she was “Whew!!! Tired!!” I tried to make more conversation and talk about how Frank makes killer Indian food (which he does! Yum!) and she seemed to appreciate it, but couldn’t understand anything besides the names of the Indian dishes I was mentioning. Haha! It was hilarious. She got up and hobbled off after a couple of minutes. That was that. I love randomness sometimes!

Thanks for staying with me on this very lengthy post! There was no way to condense it–I was all in on this one. I hope I did what we experienced even a little bit of justice via my words. The biggest heart-pondering of mine with this entire thing is this:

PRAY LIKE YOU BELIEVE IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE. BECAUSE IT DOES!

See below for a video that Layna took. This was from her perspective. Also, a few snapshots I got!