Meeting the President

Good evening BMGE Zambia Team,

I first of all wanted to thank you all very much for the prayer support and thoughtful messages in advance of today's activities. I was uncharacteristically antsy this morning in advance of meeting the President, but at some point this morning it went away all at once and I felt completely at ease. I'm quite certain the prayer support had something to do with it.

I also wanted to give you a summary of what was a really special day for me as your representative to the President.

I also feel convicted that when we get together tomorrow we should be focusing on what is in front of us and the awesome adventure that awaits our team. So here goes:

I met our liaison Keith Hensley at the White House at 7:15 in the morning and got into a van for the ride to the church for the event, along with several of the other participants in the discussion. Who should I sit down next to but Anne Lyon the founder of World Hope, the organization we'll be partnering with in Zambia! We had a great conversation and I also talked at some length with Martha Chilufya, the director of a daycare center who, with the help of PAPFAR funds is doing wonderful things in Lukasa. When we got there the Secret Service was everywhere, along with some German Sheppard's that looked nice enough but my spirit told me they would be quite pleased with themselves if they could take a bite out of Big Poppa! Needless to say I resisted the temptation to pet them. We got lots of instruction on protocol. This was unnecessary for me as Josh had thoroughly briefed me in advance. We were situated in the meeting room waiting for the President and First Lady when Keith came down the hall well before we were expecting them and announced "Right this way Mr. President", totally faking us out. Every one in the room jumped to their feet, adjusted themselves, and stood at attention all in about half a second. Keith laughed.

There were 11 people in the discussion, including several pastors and three different women engaged in missions in Zambia! It was a very committed group as a whole. In addition to the First Lady and the President the Chief of Staff and Ambassador Mark Dybul, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator were there. I was shocked at this, and it clearly demonstrates the importance the President places on this issue.

The First Lady is just a gentle person and an amazingly genuine individual. I really enjoyed meeting her. The public caricature of the President couldn't be more inaccurate. He was completely at ease with himself, was genuinely interested in us and our backgrounds, and displayed a great sense of humor. It took him about 10 seconds to go from THE PRESIDENT to President Bush in our minds. He started with a brief statement about how he believed it was a national mandate for the US to tackle the AIDS epidemic in the world in a big way, stating he was a firm believer that to whom much is given, much is required. He also stated that we had to be accountable to the taxpayers and demand results from the organizations we were pouring into. He also made it clear that our highest calling in this fight was to bring the message of hope and love to these people. He then went around the table asking a series of questions of each person and listening intently to their answers. It was so clear how passionate the President is personally about this issue.

Josh had obviously briefed the President about our team and what we were doing and the result was my favorite moment of the day. I was seated directly across from the President and First Lady when Anne Lyon was discussing how important the cooperation of faith based groups were to their efforts. She mentioned "groups like Global Impact and the one Chris is on" and motioned to me. The President looked at me, put the slightest of smiles on his face, and gave me a Presidential wink. That was so cool. (Thanks Josh).

When the President turned his attention to me he explained to the group that I was going on a mission trip with Josh, his recently resigned Assistant Press Secretary, and I must have had a blank look on my face because he stopped and asked "You do know Josh, don't you?" I assured him I did and he mumbled something like "good, I've got the right guy." He then asked me what a business man was doing going on a trip like this. At this point I have a confession to make. I had given a lot of thought about what I wanted to say to the President and what message I wanted to convey to him and the other attendees. I wanted to honor God, and accurately express all our views on the team. As it got closer to the time of the meeting I became concerned that I was just focusing on wanting to perform well and was a little bit apprehensive. Well, that went out the window. I felt about as emotional as I have in a long while while speaking and the words just flowed. I told him a little about my thoughts and then talked to him about how our team really has a heart to reach out to the least of these, and that we wanted the people of Zambia to know through our presence there that despite the evidence of their circumstances that God is real and that He loves them. I explained that this was a spiritual outreach mission that looked a lot like a works mission. The First Lady nodded knowingly. The President then said "you keep saying we. How many people are on the trip?". Well, that opened up the floodgates. I told him we had 16 people, about the retreat where we shared each others testimonies and had all these meetings, and then I mentioned the briefing we got at the Old Executive Office building Josh set up and I told him how proud I was after the meeting because of what I had learned we as a country and his administration had been doing in the fight against AIDS. I also told him I was shocked I hadn't know more about it. At this point the President said "well, sometimes it's tough for the good news to get out through all the negative noise out there isn't that right?" motioning to the only reporter in the room, who happened to work for the Washington Post. I laughed. Then the President said "so you go through 4 months of training and prep for a two week trip?" I told him that was the case and he seemed quite fascinated by that.

We then headed up so the President could give his speech, and we got to stand behind him while he delivered it. I thought it was an excellent speech, well delivered. He appeared to stray from his notes quite a bit. Like I said, he is very passionate about this so I imagine speaking extemporaneously on the topic is easy for him. I tried to stand there and look thoughtful, but judging by the photo Elizabeth sent out I met this goal with mixed results. It was great to hear McLean Bible get some props!

All in all it was one of my favorite days ever, and I really can't tell you all how much I appreciate each and every one you and the chance to take part in this for no other reason than that I'm a member of the BMGE Zambia team! Tomorrow is the day!!!!

It's a good life.

Big Poppa
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