Trip to DC - Day Two

Tuesday morning dawned bright and early. This time though breakfast was at the Methodist building and we were on our own to make it back on time. After breakfast was chapel. Our service was led by the Rev. Dean Snyder, pastor of Foundry United Methodist Church in DC. Afterwards we had a chance to visit and talk with him about his ministry. Our next seminar of the day was with Nawar Shora, a lawyer with the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee who talked to us about separating myth from truth around issues of Arab culture and the Islamic religion. Later we met with Jim Winkler, the General Secretary for the General Board of Church and Society, who talked with us about the mission and vision of the whole board.

Lunch this day was inside the Capitol Visitors Center. The security here was like the airport - take off your watch, shoes, jackets. Once we got inside though, this was our view of Emancipation Hall.....

Each state got to provide two statues and Alabama chose to honor Helen Keller with one.

After lunch we got special passes and a special escort to take us deep inside the Senate building to meet with the Rev. Barry Black, Senate chaplain. Rev. Black spoke/preached to us and took questions for a while. He was very interesting - he is the first career military man to serve as chaplain (retired 2 star Navy Admiral), the first person of color to serve as chaplain, and the first 7th Day Adventist to serve as chaplain.

The next part of the afternoon was optional and 2/3 of us decided to take the tour of the US Capitol Building.

The original Supreme Court chamber inside the Senate Building.

Inside the Capitol Dome.

Inside Statuary Hall.

A statue of an "Allen" from Ohio.
Frances Willard, a leader in the temperance movement and a Methodist from Illinois.

Dr. John Gorrie from Florida - who invented air conditioning!

Following the tour we all met back up at a place for dinner called Busboys and Poets. Named in honor of poet Langston Hughes (who had once been a busboy in DC), we ate dinner in a small theater. Up on the stage during our meal was an Palestinian activist being interviewed about his views on the conflict between Palestine and Israel.

After dinner we went back to the hotel to rest up for about an hour before meeting in the hotel lobby for a tour of the downtown and some of the monuments at night. Rev. Childers offered to take us and eight of us took him up on it - in a slight rain. We walked from our hotel and first up was the Treasury Building, followed by the White House.

Next up were Blair House and the Executive Office Building (EOB) which is under renovation.

We kept walking and walking and eventually ended up on the Mall and went through the Vietnam memorial before heading up to the Lincoln Memorial.

The Washington monument from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

By this time it was 11:00pm and freezing. So Rev. Childers got two cabs to take us all back to the hotel where we need to pack a bit and call it a night!