M2EP - Day 1

What an amazing day yesterday was! We got home too late and I was too tired to write last night, but I thought I would put some thoughts down this morning while yesterday was still fresh. Cindy, Tom and I were up and away early yesterday for check-in at the Washington Convention Center, a HUGE, brand new facility in DC. We gathered with 1100 other people in one of the ballrooms for the opening plenary session. We began with prayer and music, led by Rev. Zina Jacque, a dynamic African American woman who will be leading our worship throughout the Mobilization.

After worship, Jim Wallis, Rich Stearns (former CEO of Lenox, now CEO of World Vision) and Congresswoman Rosa Delauro spoke to us. The 1100 peopple in attendance are from a wide range of faith traditions--it was clear to us when we sang--many hands were in the air--while we may disagree on theology, we are united in our views on poverty. Jim spoke first--the faith community now has access in this new administration, but we need to push to get results--the budget under consideration has good potential to help the poor, but the faith community needs to get involved. "The budget is a moral document." Jesus' mission statement (from Isaiah) should be ours as a church.

Cindy Tom and I all thought that Rich Stearns was the most powerful speaker in this forst plenary session. His is a life transformed by an experience he had in Africa--he had much to say, but I will remember what he said about the faith community. Taken as a body, Christians give 2% to their churches. 98% of that doesn't go beyond the church. $.06 per Christian per day goes to the poor. If every Christian tithed, $168 billion could go to the poor. Poverty has ahuman face--God wants us to look at these faces and get to know their names. What would happen if the church turned its face to the world? What if each of us took the Gospel seriously?

Congresswoman Delauro echoed Rich's theme--with some statistics: 7.6% unemployment...37 million Americans now fall below the poverty line. 32 million are on food stamps. We need to repair the nation's safety net...
While the President was unable to be at our meeting, he sent members of his staff as part of a panel to speak to us. They spoke about the budget under consideration--efforts to streamline, importance of going green -- "The best anti-poverty program is a job" The recovery effort needs the help of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships.

In the afternoon, we heard from Jeffery Sachs (via video) of the Earth Institute, David Lane of ONE.org, and Angela Glover Blackwell of Policy Link, who all spoke about the MDGs, progress that's been made--and the treat posed by the global recession.

The last session of the day focused on Capitol Hill day and advocacy training. After the training we had (with good handouts) I am feeling much more confident about the congressional visits we will be making today. The three of us are the only representatives from Maine--we have a visit with Sen Collins this morning (Sen. Snow was unable to visit with us or provide a staff member to speak with us. Cindy and Tom will be visiting with Rep. Mike Michaud this afternoon and I have a meeting with Chellie Pingree scheduled.

Our day ended with a powerful worship service--live music from Martin Smith of "Delirious" and an amazing sermon (I would call it a "preaching experience") by Rev. Fred Haynes. 25 minutes of powerful preaching--he hardly took time to breathe. This Episcopalian has never heard a sermon quite like this one.... I'm glad we stayed in town for this...

Full disclosure: We got home to Virginia later than usual because I got us on the wrong Metro train. Tom keeps reminding me of this....sigh...

This morning, we are being a little lazy--we'll say Morning Prayer together (just the 3 of us, rather than 1100) and head to Capitol Hill. After our morning meeting, we plan to head to the National Cathedral and the Vietnam Memorial--a bit of sightseeing. Tomorrow will be spent in workshops and post-Mobilization training...