Day 9: Full and Overflowing

We had the honor of spending time with a Nashville Freedom Rider, Rip Patton.  His presentation was very interactive, asking us what we had learned from the trip so far.  He brilliantly connected all the dots and showed how individuals from Nashville were connected and instrumental in the Civil Rights Movement as a whole. He saw the hand of God moving people to Nashville as students to direct this movement that successfully led to the integration of all the businesses in downtown Nashville in just 3 months.  When asked the following questions a number of years ago, he responded with Scripture verses:

Why did you join? Romans 12:1-2

Why did you go? Isaiah 6:8

Were you afraid? Psalm 23

As we begin our last day of the trip, my heart and mind is full and overflowing.  Grateful for the opportunity to experience a slice of history that I knew too little of, grateful for Todd, Crystal and Bryce who kept things running smoothly behind the scenes, grateful for a wonderful bus driver, Tom, who can make turns on narrow city streets seem easy, grateful for getting to know others on the bus and experiencing and processing things together, grateful for the opportunity to meet authors and first-hand witnesses like Anthony Grooms, Charles Person,  Rutha Harris, Carolyn McKinstry, Lisa McNair, and Rip Patton telling their stories and painting a picture of how all the pieces of the movement were connected. I will never forget this trip and I am being changed by it. I look forward to quiet moments in the days and weeks to come to reflect and process what I heard and saw on this trip and am asking God to show me what piece of the puzzle of justice He wants me to fill.

 

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