CEF Washington, DC Trip 2009

I wanted to let you know how our trip to Washington DC went. We left from Kansas City on April 24^th and arrived in Baltimore on Friday afternoon. After we picked up our rental car we began the 35 mile drive to DC and our Hotel. I was quickly reminded of my dislike for traffic jams. After the 1^st hour we realized that we were not quite half way. We arrived at 4:00 PM and we wanted to be at our hotel before the dinner which began at 6:00 PM. At 6:00 we were still well outside the city and we finally arrived at the hotel around 7:30 PM. The folks there were gracious in bringing us our meal and we enjoyed the speaker, Matt Stover, from Liberty Counsel. Matt was part of the group who represented CEF (Child Evangelism Fellowship) before the Supreme Court to argue for equal access to public schools for after-school Bible clubs. The argument was that schools should allow Bible clubs the same rights as chess clubs, etc. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of CEF and since that time we have been given the right to host Bible Clubs for children in our schools.

I was able to share with the leadership there about our relationship with Kelly Elementary and our being awarded the “GOOD APPLE” award from USD 259 for our work with the school. Throughout the weekend we were challenged by tremendous speakers. One of my favorite was the Chaplain for the Washington Redskins who shared with us the impact coaches can make in the lives of others. I also enjoyed hearing from Brian Birdwell, who was a victim of the September 11^th attacks on the Pentagon. A large portion of his body was burned, and he shared how the Lord helped him through that horrible ordeal. I had a nice visit with Brian (who also happens to be a BIG KC Chiefs fan) and he was very gracious with his time.

After the conference was completed we were able to do a few things in DC. We toured the Capitol and the new visitor center. We also went to a Washington Nationals baseball game in their new stadium and we drove around looking at all of the wonderful sites of our nation’s capitol. It was an encouraging trip as we learned about the work of CEF around the world. We hope to visit their headquarters in Warrenton, Missouri later this summer.