"America today...

begins to turn back to God."

Restoring Honor Rally- 8/28

Along with all of the other "fun stuff" we did this week- our real purpose in going to Washington DC was to attend the Glenn Beck, 8/28, "Restoring Honor" rally. It was the most amazing event that we have ever attended! You can now google various topics and find the Internet "a buzz" with articles, photos, blogs, videos and comments on this event. Don't believe everything you see out there. One example is even in the guesses on how many people attended this event. Numbers ranging from 1 thousand to 1 million. CBS claimed that there were 87,000 there. (don't believe that) The park service number was more like 600,000. The event started at 10 am on Saturday morning. Ron and I arrived at the Lincoln memorial at 12:30 am. We spent a gorgeous night just sitting around with thousands of other people trying to get there early enough for a "good spot". Basically we watched people arrive for 9 hours. This was a religious revival to bring America back to God. It opened with a very powerful prayer. (Given by Pastor Paul who is a direct descendant from the Mayflower.) It honored the founding fathers- especially George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. It honored all military service men and women. It donated 5 million dollars to SOWF (Special Operations Warrior Foundation) It included some well known people. Sarah Palin, speaking as a mother of a soldier and Alveda King speaking as the niece of Martin Luther King. It gave us some real life heroes- Pastor Charles Lewis Jackson (Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church from Houston, Texas). He represented FAITH. Albert Pujols represented HOPE (Honesty, integrity, trust) He spoke briefly about baseball and the Pujols Family Foundation for downs syndrome individuals. Jon M. Huntsman represented CHARITY. (He wrote a book called "Winners Never Cheat". He is the founder of the Huntsman Cancer Institute. He has donated billions to charity. He was not actually in attendance at the rally- but he was given the "Charity award") There were stories of 3 military men, who had survived truly remarkable situations. Then of course Glenn Beck spoke... time to restore America and restore honor in this country. He gave specific teaching on how we as individuals can "make a difference"-- on how we as individuals can be better people-- on how we as individuals can turn back to God-- on how we can teach all of these things to our children. The crowd was (I think) 700,000, average Americans, just like Ron and myself, who are conservative, Christians wanting God back in our country, our government and our schools. (Just that in it's self was a miracle) The crowd was friendly, even in an unfriendly situation like being tired, hungry, hot, and in close proximity to one another. I didn't see this myself, but I believe that there was no trash left at this event like there was for the inauguration of President Obama. There were 240 religious leaders there, from all faiths, standing together. While these people from different faiths don't all believe the same religious philosophy- they do all believe that "returning to God" is the answer. The entire event ended with a very moving arrangement of Amazing Grace and another very powerful closing prayer. I truly believe that this will be the beginning of a movement- the beginning of an awakening of a sleeping giant- the awakening of the conservative Christians in this country. At least there are 700,000 people out there that have been strengthened, motivated, and unified. And their lives will be changed forever. An interesting underlying idea, from Glenn Beck- is that somewhere out there in that crowd might be a child, who 25 years from now might be another "George Washington". Someone with integrity, honor, faith, hope, and charity to lead our nation.

(sorry, but I couldn't get any better pictures- where Ron and I were sitting, it was impossible to a better view of the entire crowd. But you can find great pictures on the Internet)