Reflections from Lawson McDonald for Thursday:
Today was a very full, memorable busy day. We began the day with some sight-seeing, visiting four different branches of the Smithsonian Museum. We first visited the introductory branch that gave us all a taste of what the Smithsonian was all about, along the way we saw props from the recently released “Night at the Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian”. Our next stop was the Air and Space branch; we saw every craft of sky and space from the very first flight all the way to the most modern technological advances of our day. The third branch we visited was up to the group, some went to the American-Indian branch and others went to the Art Gallery branch. Both were very interesting, exciting museums, there is so much to see it’s almost too much to take in! We then ate a very good lunch at the Museum Cafeteria surrounded by breathtaking sculptures and a waterfall that was truly a work of art. Our final sight-seeing stop of the day was the Museum of Natural History. Surrounded by hundreds of animals, priceless jewels and so much more we found ourselves lost in all the Smithsonian had to offer. And while we only had an hour to spend there, for some it was an opportunity of a lifetime. Our afternoon plans for the day were to visit the local mall which is a converted train station but still a fully active station as well [Union Station]. Then we were to head to our evening concert at the Harbor Light Mission’s rehab program graduation. Our devotion this morning was about hope and the Lord’s deliverance of His people, in this case Daniel from the Lions den as is stated in our song “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel”. It spoke of hope and how graduating from the rehab program was a new beginning for all of the graduates. It challenged us to be givers of hope tonight and show these people what it means to be forgiven and have a new start through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. After we spent some time shopping and eating at the mall we got changed and prepared to go to the concert, hoping to make a difference in these people’s lives tonight.
We arrived at the Mission at around 6:00, set up, and prepared to begin the service. From the very beginning we could tell this crowd was special, the atmosphere in that chapel from the very first word of our first song was one of hope, joy, and true appreciation. Every member of the audience was engaged and truly appreciative of our performance at this graduation. We finished singing our first two songs at took our seats for the handing out of certificates of completion. These certificates acknowledged sobriety for anywhere from thirty days all the way up to a full year. The crowd was instructed to wait to clap until all the names had been announced, but that didn’t last a second. The crowd could not contain their joy and pride to see their friends who had been through everything with them receive their certificates. It was a very humbling experience for all of us to see the crowd so selfless and truly joyful for one another. In the middle of the service we resumed our position in front of the congregation and sang another song. The rhythm was not one that was originally meant to be accompanied by clapping but it didn’t matter, we found a way! The crowd began clapping with the beat, they were so engaged in the music, they wanted to get up and move. It was an inspiring thing to see for all of us. Our final song was one that was very familiar to some of the members of the congregation and they were all invited to sing along, before long everybody in the chapel was moving and singing with everything they had. At times the crowd was singing louder than we were! It was a truly moving and inspirational experience.
This evening we went on a tour of the monuments of Washington DC. They were all beautiful and just breathtaking with this dim light of the evening. We made a quick stop at the Lincoln Memorial and couldn’t leave without seizing the opportunity to sing the National Anthem on the steps in front of the monument. We had a beautiful view of the Washington Monument as we sang and it topped off a great and memorable day. Now we head to the hotel and prepare for another full day tomorrow at Busch Gardens.
Labels: Choir, DC09 Tour, FBCA, Youth
# posted by Tracey Jenkins @ 9:46 AM
