We have just had 4 days in Washington DC. We left our RV in Richmond, Virginia, caught the Amtrak train to DC and stayed in an apartment. Over our 4 days here we’ve walked for miles and began to get a hang of the buses and the street layout. The security is a bit of a drag, but then that’s the case everywhere we go in the U.S. In fact it all feels strangely familiar, which would have to be due to the countless hours we have spent watching West Wing and reading Tom Clancy novels.
Luke has blogged about our first day (and just updated it with some photos) so we won't go over that again!
On Day 2 we found our way to Capitol Hill Baptist Church for their morning service.
It was a great experience, and very different to Shellharbour City Centre Anglican Church! Some differences: church went for 2 1/2 hours, the sermon was 1 hour of that. Children only go to Sunday School up to year 3, after that they stay in church for the whole service. We sang about 8 hymns, many of them very old songs. The church is a traditional building with a balcony and seating for hundreds. Everyone was very formally dressed - we were the most underdressed family there (and all my boys were wearing collared button shirts!)
But they were the externals - of course there were many similarities too! They included: a warm welcome from a lovely lady who saw us standing before church with no idea of where to go; the bible was read, taught and prayed about; we prayed for local and global issues; we stood to say the creed; the service was thoughtfully led; morning tea was great and we met some very nice people (including the service leader who is from Newtown and now on staff here! He had actually met Michael before and heard him preach about 8 years ago!) We also met Mark Dever, the senior pastor (Michael knew him already from a Sydney conference). Mark invited us back to a meeting at 5pm that afternoon.
After we left church we walked two blocks to the Capitol building. It was a beautiful, sunny day and there weren't many people about. We were able to take heaps of photos with blue sky in them (as opposed to the grey of the day before!) We then walked down the the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space. It has an amazing number of aircraft, old and new, suspended from the ceiling, also various other exhibits of related things. We spent a couple of hours there then walked back to the apartment, dropping Michael off at the church meeting on the way.
Burgers for dinner - the easy option - and early to bed in preparation for the big day tomorrow!
Karen
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