Our Journey with Christ: 2015

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"David's Tent DC is a gather place for the Church of America to publicly worship Jesus from the highest point of our nation - the grounds of the National Mall in Washington DC."

-Jason Hershey, founder of David's Tent DC

www.davidstentdc.org

David's Tent is a 10,000 hour love song to Jesus Christ in our nation's capital, Washington DC, on the national mall. A place where worship teams from all over America came to bring their offering of worship to Jesus. This is the fourth year that it has happened however this year David's Tent will be happening for a total of 424 days, night and day, (about 14 months)!

All because Jesus is worthy of America's praise!

Back row: Jonathan, Dan, Brittany, Danni, Renca and myself

Front: Liza and Josiah

Sept. 11 was the opening night of 24/7 worship in Washington DC! There was a packed tent of worshippers from all over the area to celebrate, including our team (Caleb was a groomsman in a wedding that weekend) !

The Ambassador of Israel, Ron Dermer, came and said a blessing over the tent. As David's Tent is "inspired by King David, who pitched a tent near his palace and hired more than 4,000 worshippers to minister to the Lord there continually throughout David's 33 year reign. David made worship the central for his nation, and it brought blessing on the whole nation. In like manner the cry of our hearts is to minster to the Lord, day and night, in worship from our Capital City. The same presence of the Lord that was in the Ark is now in us as the body of Christ! Our desire is to make a statement to our generation that Jesus is Lord and should be enthroned above every area of our lives and nation. Psalm 22:3 states, "Yet you are holy, O you who are enthroned upon the praises of Israel."

In addition to the worship tent, there is an Prayer/Intercession tent for people who need prayer, they can have one of the staff pray for them or for people who want to pray on the National Mall for America. We have already had a few prayer teams from churches around America to come by and pray and David's Tent. I met a team of 6 woman from a church in Ohio, that has come every year to pray for America! And here is a picture of an intercession group that had a conference in DC and stopped by the tent!

We also have EZRA'S PLATFORM. A place where we read the bible aloud cover to cover. We believe the word of God heals and as we read it aloud it will bring healing to our land. People can come and see where the last person stopped reading, and then pick up from there! Last year, in 50 days, we read through the bible 4X, imagine how many times, America will read through it in 424 days! If it is a slower day and one of our staff are free, we will pick up reading the bible, like Josiah is in this picture above.

Danni and Olive

Dan, myself and Olive, as well as our ASL community, is dedicated to see the 10,000 love song continue. All of us have been staff for the next 14 months for David's Tent. Everyday, our team, is at the tent for 3.5 hours for our "watch". We use the word "watch" for our time at the tent instead of "shift". Shift refers to work, where the word "watch" is a term from the Old Testament referring to watchmen guarding Jerusalem. As we worship Jesus, we are watchmen for America.

Our "watch" is everyday from 9:30 am to 1:00 pm. Everyday our team is there responsible for those morning hours, however that does not mean that every individual is there everyday. We rotate days off among our team, so everyone gets one day off a week. David's Tent is completely accessible for the Deaf during our "watch", providing access through an ASL interpreters. Above is a picture of a team from Texas worshipping during our "watch" and Dan interpreting.

There are many things we do during our "watch", however our first and primary responsibly is to worship! Worship is a response to who God is and we have the honor of doing this everyday! If there is a 2 year set where a worship team has not signed up or can not make it, one of our team will lead worship in ASL. We type out the worship songs on a large screen for people to be able to worship along with us if they do not know ASL.

Renca leading worship and playing the bass drum at the same time!

Josiah lifting up his hands to praise Jesus!

Liza signing out "How Great You Are" with Jonathan on the keys!

Caleb pouring out his heart to Jesus!

Even Olive likes to sing along!

We always start our "watch" by having a brief meeting, where Dan shares the plan for the day and if we are leading any worship. Then he shares who is responsible for the various jobs we have at the tent such as running the administration tent, the sound for the bands, typing words if it is ASL worship, greeting people as they walk by and playing with Olive.

The administration tent is where the bands from across America check in, get briefed and prayed for before they led worship. The days, the picture was taken, Renca was responsible for administration tent and Dan was interpreting. It is so much fun meeting worship bands from all over the U.S. One Saturday, we had a team from NC, TX, DEL, MD, CA and DC.

Dan or Brittany are our sound techs and help make sure each member of the worship team can hear themselves in their monitors. In the second picture, Renca is leading an ASL worship set, and Brittany and Caleb were typing out the words on the screen.

Also, every time a vehicle comes to the tent to clean the porta-potties or fix something with the tent, two staff must wear the yellow vests and help direct traffic and the vehicle on the monument grounds. Danni and Liza were the first volunteers to wear the yellow vests! They did a great job.

Here Liza is greeting someone and sharing about David's Tent as they were walking by the tent and looking our way! As well as a woman from India, who heard the music and stopped by to find out what was happening. We met people from all over the world, as they walk by to visit the White House or one of the presidents memorials.

Olive is active, active, active! And loves to crawl around, use things like a guitar case to stand up and explore anything she has not seen before! It is a joy to have the team take turns playing with her or pushing her to sleep in the stroller. Brittany has been a huge help with Olive.

It has been a joy to see worship, day and night, arise from America's city, Washington DC, for the last 4 weeks. We are honored to be part of what God is doing in America and seeing Americans from all over come There has been many testimonies already at David's Tent. I plan to write another blog sharing some testimonies and come hurdles we have already overcome, but you can read the history and many testimonies yourself as Jason Hershey wrote a book about David's Tent!

They are available now on the David's Tent website, www.davidstentdc.org.

"This is a revolution: a national worship and prayer gathering that is not a reaction to the crises of our generation, but is purely a response to the great love of God expressed through His Son, Jesus."

- Jason Hershey, "David's Tent: Jesus Is Worthy of a Nation's Praise"

Lastly, I want to officially invite each one of you to come to David's Tent!

Maybe you are in the DC area or far away,

we will be here for 14 months so you have plenty of time to plan a trip!

Come by and lead a worship set, pray at the Intercession tent

or read the Bible over America or simple just come and worship!

I would LOVE to see each of you here at the tent!

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Olive Brave.

Our EVERLASTING COURAGEOUS BRINGER OF HOPE.

(summary of the meaning of her name)

Over the last 5 months, I have learned so many things as a mom, from breastfeeding to carseats, I have learned a bunch. But the greatest things I believe I have gained insight into is God's unconditional love for us. God loves us for who we are, not what we do. Having a daughter, has ingrained this truth into me and I have been able to understand his love in a deeper way.

I love my daughter. With a love that I can not describe. My love for her is not based on what she does, but who she is. Olive, at almost 6 months, does do a lot. She sleeps, eats, smiles, rolls over, grabs things and is learning to sit up on her own. At 4 months, she did less and at 2 months even less. But I love her because she is my daughter. I love her when she is crying, I love her when she does not sleep, I love her when she is spitting up. I love her.

Through being a mom, I understand God's Father heart for me! He loves me, not based on what I do for him (go to church, read the bible, disciple others etc). He loves me for

WHO I AM: HIS DAUGHTER.

More that what I can do for God, He desires to be with me! He loves it was I stop and just stare at his face. Just like Olive loves to just stare and her daddy (picture above), God loves it when we just stare at him. Just being with him brings him joy! I have loved getting this deeper understanding of his love and through it I have been able to love other people better!

Below are some favorite pictures of Olive over the last couple months! She is a blessing!

Sleeping Beauty: First time at our church in DC, National Community Church

Big Blue Eyed and Very Very Excited:

We think she will take after Mommy, with her facial expressions!

Discovering her ear in Chicago.
She LOVES to grab for everything now!
Mommy and daddy's hair is one of her favorites.
Mommy is now wearing only studs to protect her ears.

Our first hike as a family for Memorial Day weekend,

at Teddy Roosevelt Island in DC.

Chilling at the U.S. National Arboretum (about a mile from where we live).

Olive, takes after her Daddy, as she LOVES the outdoors and is very observant.

One of our few nicknames for Olive, is Houdini. She always finds her way out of a swaddle.

We have made the swaddles harder over time, we velcro, but she always gets success,

be it Day 2 in the hospital or 3 months later in her pack n play! Currently, we are transitioning her out of a swaddle as she is rolling back and forth and back again!

We have a bed time routine now.

Bath, read a book with Daddy and feed and at most nights,

she is sleeping by 9:00 pm and sleeps through the night.

She is loving bath time, puts the ducks in the water and just sits and splashes.

She loves to feel textures of everything and wants to taste everything!

And still has the best faces!

Fourth of July. She is a great baby and very happy! She loves cloths on her face, attracted to light, likes the color red, falls asleep with motion (car or stroller walks) and really really wants to crawl but is not quite there yet. When she tries it looks like she is swimming on the floor. But is very strong and sitting on her own.

Play dates: Olive loves being with people and warms up quickly to new faces!

Lizzy is a friend, from Gallaudet, who still lives in DC and works at Gallaudet. She lives very close so we get to have play dates often! Her daughter, Mila is a couple months older than Olive. We love going to the park with Lizzy and Mila!

Jenna was in DC for a friends wedding and at to stay at our house for a night! It was so much fun seeing her daughter Jaelyn interact with Olive and our team!

And of course, our YWAM DC family loves having dates with Olive!

Two of the Hershey children reading Olive a book!

So adorable as Anthem reads the story through the pictures!

Meeting Olive for the first time after Aila Zepeda, came back from outreach in Brazil.

Jethro, is another YWAM DC baby who was on the Brazil outreach,

with his parents Ryan and Becca Montgomery.

It was great getting together and having some time together.

Housemates Fun:

Ladies Coffee Date, Olive with her milk.

Reading with Claudine and pictures with Destiny!

Exercises with Jonathan and bonding with Brandon and Danni.

Brandon was visiting for a wedding but loved spending time with Olive!

Brittany (below) just joined our staff team here at YWAM DC and the Lighthouse! She did her DTS in Kona Hawaii and took two ASL classes in HS. She has been helping with Olive for an hour a day so Mommy can have time to write blogs and emails! Olive loves her calm presence!

And Alissa came to help interpret for teachers for YWAM DC! We were so blessed to have her here with us for a week! Mommy and Olive got some quality time with her!