aznizzle's Blog
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The beginning of How it ends
- Posted on 06.26.09
If I have to sum up this whole note in just one sentence... what would it be?
I think that it would have to be this: When you depend on God, He will provide.
Many of you know, that once I found out about HOW IT ENDS I really wanted to go. Although to be honest if you read my prayer journals you will see that I was hoping to go. What I was really praying for was to go where God wanted me to go. I didn't care if it was HOW IT ENDS, mission trip, both, or none. I was ok with any of the circumstances. Yes I would have been sad with some of the other outcomes, I think that as christians we have to ready and ok with what God has planned for our lives. What I prayed constantly was the chorus from "I Will Go" by Starfield (I know starfield is my favorite band but when you read these lyrics you'll understand why).
This is what I prayed and these is the chorus:
"I will go, I will go, I will go Lord send me. To the world, to the lost, to the poor and hungry. Take everything I am, I'm clay within your hands. I will go, i will go send me."
I told you isn't this amazing. Thanks Tim and Jon Neufeld!
But there was a feeling I felt that I was suppose to go How It Ends. I was planning on going with some friends but they bailed. Then I thought there is no way I can afford this. I knew that God's provided before when I've prayed, so maybe he will provide again. i prayed. I prayed. Then i graduated, all those people that said you get alot of money for graduating, I didn't think that was true, until it happened. By the time I graduated I counted the money, and i had barely enough money for my trip.
My Tracey, who i met on youtube, then the rescue, then facebook, said at first she couldn't go. Then she was able to go. We booked a hotel together, but during this process I thought I had a ride to DC with a friend that I found on Facebook. It ended up not working out for one reason or another. When I found out, I prob cried for almost 30 min. There was no way now that I could go now. I prayed that God would provide a way for me to go to DC if that was what he wanted me to do. I talked to some friends and my parents and Praise God for the both of these groups, because now i could go to HOW IT ENDS. I booked my flight and now i was officially on my way to DC.
The Sunday i flew in, Tracey, Charlie, and I walked all around DC for probably 5 hours. It was fun seeing the sights, but i think my feet hated me by the end of the day. I think for me the best part of the day was seeing all of the people from all over the country and the world here in DC for HOW IT ENDS. We were bumping into people all day one guy from Kansas.
So it's Monday morning and we are taking the metro, it's our third time, but this time with friends from our hotel. We walk into the Convention Center and I'm thinking I knew we should have left earlier cause if you watch the video on my facebook it's the first one. So I was like woa this is a long line. Alot of things happen in this line. We meet more friends, and i see him! One of the guys from the live feed! The funny thing was i wasn't sure if it really looked like him, but when he started messing around I knew it had to be Cameron. About 30 minutes later the line wraps around the corner and does a U-turn. Wow! So I knew we were there at a good time now.
But we get all of our information, including the exclusive Tri Party. We walk into the room and it's about halfway full and it's starts to fill up fast. Then Bobby, Jason, and Laren walk into the room and make the open remarks. Then we watch, "Together We Are Free," compared to what most of you saw, it's amazing, extremely emotional. i mean KC isn't in there but who honestly cares, we made news. Then after the video Luis Ocampo, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Courts, came up and spoke to us. How cool the guy that have Joseph Kony top of his most wanted list. Jason told later that he didn't understand why all 2,000+ people stood and gave him a standing obation. He totally deserved it. Uganda sent us a sweet delegation to speak to us about what's going on in Uganda right now. It was amazing. Betty couldn't come, but Jolly was there.
Then we split up into break out groups, i went to one called Effective Activism. I learned alot. It kind of has some to deal with being a Evangelist for God. Use your talents, that will connect you to certain people that maybe others can't reach. You can't be effective if you don't care or have passion about what you are fighting for. It was really cool. There was an artist, clothing line. it was really awesome.
The next one I skipped to talk to some of the people afterwards and get pics with them. i also decided to talk to Andre, one of the roadies i met from the Rescue in KC. It was great seeing him again. i ate lunch too.
Then I went to the Unlearning Culture room with Tom Shadyac, Jason, Laren, and Bobby. I am prob going to write a separate note for this one but this man is awesome. I really did like this one alot more than the others because alot of people, including myself could use it in their lives outside IC. It was mainly about following your dreams and don't let the world crush it. Yeah I have alot of quotes I don't have with me so it wil be in another note. But it was really cool seeing these guys just being so open and honest. i mean how often are you going to her jason russell sing single ladies. and then get dissed. Not very often i know. i have it on a video, watch it, it's the second clip.
So then we also find out about a bad accident that happened on the Red line we were just lucky that everyone was in the convention center. 9 people died from this accident. I only mention it for one reason, I know alot of us were thinking after it happened that we were getting phonecalls asking if we were ok, and it even makes national news. Yet it just sickens me when hundreds, even thousands of people are being killed, and abducted or turned into sex slaves, nothing is said. I understand it's sad, but 9 people dying and it makes national news, and sadder news in africa and yet no one talks about it.
But that's why we are lobbying for this bill to get passed. The morning that we are meeting at the park, they told us that they had 20 voice mails requesting meetings with us, young college age students and even 14 yr olds, and some older people. That's awesome, i don't that happens very often.
Our first meeting was with Theda Owens, Senator Roberts' assistant. It went really well we had Jason, tom, and ross with us in the room. she said that it would be something that Senator Roberts would be interested in.
Our next meeting was with Rep. Dennis Moore. I got the feeling that we were kind of stressing about this meeting, but it went well. We went in and got a group picture with him. He told us stories about pictures. We left, he pulled us back in, and grabbed his guitar and we sang this land is your land with him. we leave again, and he pulls us back in for more picture story time. It was alot of fun. He seemed very interested and all it needed was him going behind his desk and giving us candy.
Our last meeting went obvisously well because we were just talking with senator Brownback, one of the cowriters of the bill. We talked to him, he seemed very confident in what we were doing. He said once we were done with this bill he has 5 more behind this one.
The rally went really well. Lord of the Ring's Strider came and talked to us. How cool is that. I talked to Melissa Fitzgerald, actress from west wing, she had talked on monday and loved what she said. The cops kicked us out of the park so we gradually snuck out to an underground show. it was suprising that they didn't kick us because we were blocking the sidewalk. But it was amazingly fun.
Thanks for all of our sposors for creating this event. Thanks for all the support from all my friends and family. It was awesome meeting so many people with just the same passion.
This is only the beginning of how it ends. Contact your congressmen, let them know that you want them to support the LRA Disarment and Northern Uganda Recovery Act of 2009. The secretaries and congressmen themselves told us the more constituents that want this passed then more likely it will be passed. Remember it will take more than this event, we need to keep following up and making sure that they do what we want. We the people elected them. So we are their boss and they should do their best to represent us.
Related causes: Human Rights, Youth
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