My wife, youngest daughter and I spent much of our February school break in La Plata, Maryland, doing five shows and touring Washington, DC.  Sue and I had toured DC in 1991. Rose, who is 15, was in DC a couple Christmases ago, but it was to minister to the homeless with Sue Thomas's "Operation Silent Night", so this was a cool opportunity to, if not combine business with pleasure, to at least combine tourism with ministry.

We spent Tuesday of vacation week driving. But Wednesday we had our first show.  After a relaxing morning, we met our hosts for lunch, then proceeded to Southern Maryland Christian Academy to prepare for a show at an AWANA club.  This is, as one of my students put it, like youth group for elementary school kids.  Grades K-8, to be exact.  The show was very well recieved, the audience was uber enthusiastic, and, in spite of spending the day before in a car driving, it was the first show in a long time where I made only one mistake in all my juggling routines.  But enough post-show boasting; the cool part came after the show.

Our hosts, Roy and Debbie, introduced us to Frank Shelton.  We had no idea who he was, but you can read about him here: 

http://frankshelton.com/

Frank is very high up in the Billy Graham ministries.  He is know and recommended by the likes of Jimmy Carter, Meadowlark Lemon and Michael Tate. He was the lead evangelist for BGM at the 2016 Olympics But he is clearly a humble man, as I learned these things from his website after our meeting.  He never mentioned any of these accolades. Instead, he brought us into  D.C., where, after hours, he brought us into the Capitol building.  With barely a delay for security, we were on our way through the halls of Congress to one of the committee rooms, where there was a prayer meeting happening.  While the legislators were not present(apparently, like teachers, they get the week of President's Day off) there were 20 or so staff people: interns, office staff, custodians, etc.  Frank said, though, that there are times when 50 or more lawmakers are present, praying for our country.  

After catching the tail end of the prayer time, we joined several of those present to walk through the building (including past an office with the sign "Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House").  We ended up in the rotunda, where we prayed together one more time.  When I opened my eyes after prayer, Rose, right in character, was silently dancing around some of the statues.  

It was amazing to be in a place where some of the most important decisions in the world are made, praying for God's wisdom, guidance and protection of those who make those decisions.  And that was only our first day.