Saturday, October 20, 2018

Washington DC Trip = new Crossroads community

This is the first I've had time to sit down long enough to download even half of my Washington pics and write a few lines about the amazing experience me and my Crossroads' brothers and sisters had together!

Elaine Hess our tour guide - leading veterans
today around Washington DC
We had the opportunity to organize a trip to Washington for Crossroads, and one of the best aspects of the trip was to be lead by my life-long friend Elaine Hess.  Elaine is a retired history teacher who has been leading trips and teaching students about our America history for decades.  Even today she is leading a group of Veterans around Washington! 

The knowledge she possesses and the understanding of our Christian heritage is a rare privilege to experience as she prepared us on the bus for each thing we were about to see!

(She is currently looking into organizing a trip for us to Philadelphia to explore the rich history that area has to offer - but that could be a 2020 trip, 2019 is looking pretty full at Crossroads already)







Let me show you a little of the amazing trip we took with my pictures!
These are my Crossroads friends!!  Our new community!
We are holding the beautiful plaque Elaine brought for us to leave at the Vietnam wall that simply said "grateful", and summarized beautifully how we all felt toward the young men and women who fought in this horrible conflict.


Crossroads said thank you to our soldiers whose
lives were lost in Vietnam.
Judi Teaters stopped to thank a brave veteran who had once served!


Chuck Pfeifer and Bill Lee had the amazing privilege
of presenting a wreath that our guide Elaine had
waiting for us.  This is where they went for instructions.

behind the quarters of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Bill Lee served in Vietnam and Chuck Pfeifer served in the guard!


This was the Crossroads wreath the men presented!  It was
beautiful and said on the ribbon Crossroads Community Church!


I'm hoping this video finishes uploading soon - it shows the entire ceremony at the tomb - it may be too large of a file for my blog - I'll keep trying!
I loved this sculpture - the Air Force Memorial
It is difficult to show how tall this is - it
beautifully represents air...

This is looking straight up at the Air Force
Memorial

Jefferson

Thought is was interesting to stand behind a
Korean vet while looking at Lincoln

Washington Monumen



The Korean Memorial has soldiers facing every direction
as they would have been making their way through the
rice paddies of Korea.  Every side you stand on looks as
if one of the sculptures is watching you.  Even the plants
they walk through symbolize as closely as possible how
the fields looked.

Incredible detail!

I had never seen the Washington National Cathedral before - it was magnificent!




The Museum of the Bible was amazing too!  Too many areas
to explain and photograph!





One room showed the most shared verses in different nations.
This was from home of our Asia's Hope partners in Cambodia

You could add your own words to displays and murals!
Iwo Jima sculpture so beautifully describes soldiers working together for victory!


We somehow ended up in the middle of a video shoot of sports mascots?


It's very difficult to understand this memorial without seeing it live.  All of these lit benches represent the 125 lives that
were lost during 9-11 when the terrorist plane hit the Pentagon in Washington.  The plane contained some very young children and their parents, so they arranged the benches by age, a powerful reminder that evil minded people value no one. 



You can see the name that the bench represents. 
 This memorial is one of the most well-thought-out of all.  The benches that represent the lives of those lost in the Pentagon building face the Pentagon as your read the name, the benches representing those lost in the airplane face the flight path looking away from the Pentagon when you read them...astoundingly well planned and thoughtful.  If multiple family members were lost, those names are inscribed in the shallow lit pool under each bench.

To stand and visually see the area of the Pentagon the plane hit and turn and look at all the lives lost, evoked a deep sadness within me...sobering at the level of sin possible in mankind.

WWII

The Ohio portion of the WWII memorial



FDR memorial

Franklin D. Roosevelt in his wheelchair



The Breadline


This was an era when America listened to their president on the radio


Visiting this amazing capital city aroused within me a renewed sense of appreciation for the sacrifice millions have been willing to make, many with their very lives for our freedom.


And yes, freedom means you are free to agree, free to protest, free to give your opinion on issues and free to choose who to vote for.   But I can just about guarantee they didn't give their lives intending for people to bully one another or scare one another into agreeing with their views or disrespect another's freedom believing their opinion is more important.

I've been praying a lot for this coming election and a renewed sense of respect for one another and ultimately that true believers in Jesus Christ will step up and demonstrate kindness and respect and live out the kind of life that's easy for others to know that there is something different about them.

Each of us that had the privilege of going to Washington together loved the time we spent together, learning more about our country and more about one another...it was amazing!
















1 comment:

Unknown said...

Wow!! Thanks for posting- you did an amazing job organizing & keeping our wild group together. We saw beautiful, humbling, educational and take your breath away sites! How Blessed we are to attend a church that offers so many opportunities to meet new people and become community. God Bless Crossroads and God Bless America!