"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
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."
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.
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!
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!
