So it was a short night and we were up again and heading into the city. This day we were headed for Capitol Hill. This was that day that I had drove over 8 hours for...the lobbying day. We were going to met with advisers of our senators and representatives. We were to meet at 8 am in the Dirksen Senate Building. Everyone was split into the state they came from, so they could talk to their own reps and senators. We were briefed on what were were to say and do at the meetings. There were for points that we wanted to get across to congress: 1) Active U.S. support for the peace talks in Juba 2) More humanitarian aid provided for the people of Northern Uganda 3) Calls to be made to the State Department to bring more attention to this situation 4) Increased and constant funding to the country of Uganda. We first met with Chuck Shumer's advisor. The woman was very nice and seemed to be very open to what we had to say. She had quite a bit of knowledge about the conflict and seemed to be excited about what we were doing. It was a great meeting and very encouraging. The second meeting with Hillary Clinton's advisor was about the same. The man was very informed and interested. The day was going great, I didn't think it could get much better; then, lunch came.
We walked to the cafeteria of the senate buildings and began to find a place to eat lunch. Just as we were about to sit down I looked across the cafeteria and saw Jason Russel. For those of you who don't know, Jason was one of the three filmmakers of Invisible Children! If you know me very well, you know I was freaking out at this point. Jason is about as close as it comes to a hero for me. So me and Matt walked over and introduced ourselves. After we talked for a second he asked us to sit down and eat lunch with him. It was a dream come true! We talked about what me and Matt were studying in college and about this book he was reading. It went really well, but unfortunately we didn't get to talk long because he had to leave. After all of that excitment, we finished our lunch and set off to talk to our reps.
We were split into different groups this time, so we could see as many reps as possible. My group was me, Jenna, a girl named Michelle, and another guy whose name I can't recall right now...whoops. We vistied the offices of Rep. Timothy Bishop. Both of the meeting went well, not quite as well as the first two though. The advisors didn't seem to much or anyhing at all about the confict in Uganda. That was ok though, we got a chance to tell someone new about what we cared so passionatly for. They seemed interested and they told us that they would do what they could. After those two meetings me, Matt, Kaylie, and Allison headed out of Wshingotn as fats as we could. We had a long drive ahead of us and we wanted to get started as soon as possible. After changing in the parking garage, we got in my car and drove back to Houghton, stopping a few times for food and to take Allison home.
As I look back on the trip I hope that we accomplished something in D.C. Even if only one person heard our voice, thats all we need. God can use the smallest seed to make the tree. I think we impacted more than just one person though. I think all those yellow shirts in one place made a difference. I'm glad I was apart of that difference. My question for you is what difference are you going to make?
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