Broadening and deepening the conversation

I have had an incredible week, so far! I'm now back home after spending three days in Washington, D.C. lobbying on behalf of uninsured children in our community. In the next two weeks we expect Congress to present a unified SCHIP bill to President Bush for his signature. Bush has promised to veto the bill, but the compromise bill (what's called a Conference Report) may be more palatable for him - we hope! Please join me in praying for our Congressional leaders and President Bush, that they will do what is right by the roughly 8.6 million uninsured children in our nation.

For more on what you can do, please visit our Cover All Children website. If you are clergy, please sign on to our letter we are delivering to members of Congress and President Bush.

While I was in Washington I also had the privilege of meeting several other wonderful people.

About a month ago I contacted Charles Sandefur, President of ADRA, to see if I could meet him. Back in March Elder Sandefur - or Chuck, as he is now known to me :) - spoke at the Christian Peace Witness for Iraq event at the National Cathedral. I was so impressed by this and the good work that ADRA does under his leadership that I knew I wanted to meet him and get to know him personally. In addition, ever since I learned about the ONE Campaign I have felt that ADRA should join the movement. I wrote to tell Elder Sandefur in March or April, but I wanted to ask him about it directly.

I can testify that Chuck Sandefur is the most intelligent Church administrator I have ever met. With a Ph.D. from Princeton, the man literally talked circles around me on subjects ranging from politics to theology and philosophy, to (of course) the fine intricacies of development work vs. advocacy vs. protesting. Wow! The dinner we ate was good, but the real meal was the conversation! He is one amazing man that I hope to stay in touch with.

Plus, I heard from the man himself that ADRA has just joined ONE! Yeah!

Then, I had a chance to meet with my two church members Kori Galvan and Teri Gamble who now live in Silver Spring while Kori finishes her B.A. in Theology at Columbia Union College. It was SO GREAT to see them and we all talked as fast as we possibly could because I only had 30 minutes, because...

Then, I caught the Metro back up to Union Station where I had the joy of meeting with Brian Swarts (who I've written about here and here). I had never met Brian in person, though we've talked on the phone several times and passed emails back and forth. Brian is a very bright, passionate young man who is making a huge difference in the world through is work in Jubilee USA.

It was a long day! But so rewarding to be able to broaden and deepen the conversation in Adventism toward a promising future.

Comments

[Andrew Menzies]

Ryan,

That is one heck of a great campaign. Pity you guys don't have medicare like we do in Australia. World's greatest democracy hey? Not for kids!

Stay on fire,

Andrew Menzies