It was two years ago on this very day that I got to tour Washington D.C. with a group of homeschooling friends. We had arrived in Philadelphia the day before and drove that evening to get to a hotel in Maryland so we could see the D.C. sites the next two days. Oh what an amazing, wondrous trip! You can read more about the trip here, but I still have a lot to say about it. How can you pack such a splendid trip into so few words? For the rest of my life I will look back on this trip with such fondness.

I saw plenty of things I had planned on seeing on this whirlwind trip, like the Liberty Bell, some of the Smithsonian museum (no Mr. Roger’s sweater, however, sob!) and the White House. I saw some fabulous things I didn’t even know existed, like the cathedral by Valley Forge PA dedicated to George Washington (pictured at the very top, more on that later), but the most amazing experience was feeling the Holy Spirit witness to me that God helped raise up the United States to become a nation with religious liberties so that His gospel could be restored. I saw many evidences of the Founding Fathers belief in God in art, text, and architecture. I heard and read stories of God helping them, such as the miracles involved with the battle of Yorktown. More on that later. Please watch these videos below to hear Tim Ballard talk about God’s hand in history, as told in his books regarding the American Covenant.

I’m going to share some fun pictures this coming week just to celebrate this fabulous trip I took and to share some little-known things I saw and heard.

It was a group of 24 people: 6 women, 1 man, and 17 youth. For Day #1, we had a lot of transportation to tackle. I had to wake up at 3 AM to get to Tucson by 5:30 so I could leave with my friends to the airport in Phoenix to make our 9 AM flight. We then flew from Phoenix to Philadelphia. Once we got to Philly we faced a drive using rental cars to our lodging for the next two days in Silver Springs MD., a suburb of D.C.

The flight was about 5 hours. Reading time! There’s nothing like having such a lovely large chunk of time to read. So precious. My choices: Timothy Ballard’s book, The American Covenant, in print form. Then I listened to the book in Audible, A Man Called Peter, by Catherine Marshall.

So by the time I landed I felt thoroughly inspired by Christianity and its relations to this nation’s founding, as well as stories of people living and leading in D.C. Ballard’s book is so full of fascinating details about the connections between ancient Israel, Masonry, Christianity, and the Founding Fathers, especially George Washington.

Marshall’s book is the story of her husband, Peter Marshall. He was born in Scotland and had a narrow brush with death. He felt God called him to serve him as a minister. He came to America and eventually became the chaplain for the U.S. Senate. Before that he served as the pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington D.C. It was just great to listen to the story and think, wow, in just one day I’ll be walking around that same city as Peter and Catherine did, over 60 years ago.

I always love to spend late spring and early summertime reading patriotic books. Something about late May and June turns me to that. Maybe it is the echoes of the Constitutional Convention that assembled in May 1787 in Philadelphia that travels across time to me during this season and pulls me to read about the participants.