National Prayer Breakfast

Got back yesterday from an amazing time up in D.C. I got a chance to experience the National Prayer Breakfast where thousands of people come together to be with old and new friends from the US and around the world in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Somehow I ended up working on the security team responsible coordination between the hotel (the Washington Hilton was completely rented out) and the Secret Service. So there I was in a huge ballroom wearing my cool little Secret Service earpiece escorting around the likes of Senator McCain, Speaker Pelosi, the heads of state from several countries; ate dinner with Shawn Alexander and I could continue to drop a ridiculous number of names if I wanted. The bottom line though was that we were all there to celebrate the teachings of Jesus whether we were Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddist, Whatever.
Most of all it was a very encouraging time because I got to see that there are many politcians in that town who are not just about pork and party politics. I learned about many of the groups that meet during the week for bible studies and saw some folks who very clearly love each other despite having politics that are polar opposites. I will have to write more once I really process what went on there.

Need More Flying!

So we are flying again and that is a good good thing. Not getting to fly much though it is a frustrating thing to go do something and make mistakes based simply on a lack of proficiency. Even worse though is debriefing and seeing those mistakes and then realizing you don’t get a chance to go fix them until seven or more days later. This week I lost my one sortie because we had bad weather when I was supposed to fly (not a happy Jonathan). What am I talking about when I talk about this proficiency? Well one example when we’re doing BFM (see other posts if you don’t know what that means) like we are now is being in a defensive position and having a guy pulling for lead to take a gun shot yet needing to wait to the last moment to jink so that I can cause as much of a closure and angle problem. Being able to judge that exact range and whether he has the energy to get there in a split second while looking over my shoulder and pulling 6 or 7 G’s is not exactly like riding a bike.