So I have been encouraged to blog about my time as a “Rescue Rider” with Invisible Children. As I lived through that week I was anxious to come back and do just that. But since returning home, the thought of blogging about it has completely mentally exhausted me. How do you take a life experience that was so very meaningful and put just the right words to it so that all those who are close to you can truly understand what you lived? ...Well, I won’t. But I’ll try to come close. Forgive the typos..there is no way I will proofread all of this.
When the subject of The Rescue comes up, I’ve told my friends this: I either have to tell you “It was awesome,” or you have to sit down and allow me to tell you it all. You know how it’s frustrating sometimes when something happens and you try to tell someone, and they’re like..”oh yeah..that’s cool..” ...and you just want to shake them and be like “AHH it’s not just cool!!!...” Yeah, you know what I’m talking about. Anyway, I’ve had to really try to push those frustrations aside. I’ve learned something really importantly in the past month.
We all have passion of our own. Well, at least I hope you’re passionate about something. Someone..I think it was MLK Jr., said if you don’t have something you would die for, you’re not fit to live. Not a direct quote, but close. My sister always refers to it as what one’s heart beats for. My heart beats for the invisible children of East Africa. One cannot watch the Invisible Children documentary - or the Rescue documentary in particular, without being shaken up.
I found out about Invisible Children around the time of the “Displace Me” event in 2007. I saw people post pictures of the event on Facebook afterward, and I was intrigued. I basically thought it looked like fun. I looked into the IC cause a little closer..but I didn’t really understand everything. I gave it a mental check as one good cause among many around the globe, and moved on.
During Spring Break 2008 I was in Savannah, Georgia with my good friend Jessica Lee. As we walked down Main Street an Invisible Children van passed us. I went ballistic...I’m not sure why, but I was super excited and made it a point to chase down the van and give the occupants a thumbs up. I did just that. Since Main St. was pretty congested, it wasn’t hard job. Inside were four IC “roadies.” A roadie is one who goes around the nation in an IC van telling people about the organization and educating people on the war going on in East Africa. They book screenings at schools and such.
So when we caught up with these roadies, they said they were looking for a parking spot. Jess and I were just headed out of town and we offered them our spot. We hopped in their van and took them to our place down the river, and saved them a few bucks with the few hours we had left on our ticket. We all took a fun polaroid together and they gave Jess and I some stickers. I came home and immediately slapped an Invisible Children sticker on the back of my car. It’s still there. Gave the other to my sister, and it’s still on her good ole’ Rodeo as well.
Sometime between March and December 2008 I educated myself more and more on what exactly Invisible Children was (is) fighting for. It’s worth mentioning that in the summer of 2007 I had read The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne. The book opened my eyes to social justice. Like, I had honestly been blind to it before...life was all about self-preservation and about getting along comfortably. So, yeah. That contributed to my heightened interest in IC.
Toward the beginning of April I got a text from a friend, Miriam McAlister. She asked if I wanted to help with the Rescue event in Nashville. I totally thought it was just a screening of the IC Rescue documentary..I was so out of the loop. Guess I should have been checking the IC site more regularly. But I got really excited to get involved and told Miriam I would totally see her at the meeting that night.
So the meeting comes, and I find out this whole Rescue thing is wayyyy bigger than I thought. I learned that across the globe - primarily in the US, but in other countries and on almost every other continent, nearly one hundred cities would be participating in this event. Participants were going to be “abducting themselves” on behalf of the abducted children in East Africa. I’ll focus later on the Nashville event and how it went down so you get a better idea.
I volunteered to help lead a team for the Nashville Rescue, and one of the main coordinators, Tyler Jones, had me head up the VIP/mogul team. That meant for two weeks I was doing everything in my power to get in contact with politicians and celebrities in the area. I was reaching out to every possible contact and looking for connections anywhere and everywhere. I was on the phone with the offices of senators, the Nashville mayor, and many councilmen and women. I was talking to Taylor Swift’s best friend’s boyfriend’s friend and Nicole and Keith’s interior designer. My job was to find a VIP/mogul who would come out to the Nashville event and voice their support for the cause.
Oh, and so after the first meeting, I went home and watched the Rescue documentary. When I watched that, something changed inside of me. I suppose maybe what I felt was a fire being lit by someone bigger than me. I cried so hard that when I spoke to my dad shortly after, I couldn’t tell him why I was crying, and I totally freaked him out. I knew I had to do something. I didn’t know what. I knew, just as I know now, that my resources and skills are quite limited. But I knew I was all in.
In the days leading up the Rescue event on April 25th, I stayed pretty stinking busy. Outside of working on the VIP/mogul thing, I made a couple of shirts promoting the event, and wouldn’t shut up about it..at all. It was all that was on my mind, and I couldn’t help that it’s all that would spill out of my mouth. A few days before the Rescue I received an e-mail from one of the volunteers asking for any and all who could to head downtown to help out with something. I didn’t understand the details, but I thought I was heading downtown by the river to like stand behind Adam (an IC staff member who had just arrived in Nashville from San Diego) in an IC shirt while he was interviewed by the media. I was totally off. I was directed to the symphony center - which is ridiculously beautiful, by the way. There was a “Nashville For Africa” benefit show going on with Faith Hill, Keith Urban, the African Children’s Choir, Jars of Clay, and many others. I helped to sell IC merch at a table that the IC roadies had set up, and at intermission and after the show I handed out informational cards and talked to people about what was going down in Nashville on the 25th. I also got to see a few of the performers, and Faith came to the merch table! However, as it is with most of my celeb sightings, I had no idea it was her as she stood only a few feet away. ...I’m always told afterward who I just saw. Anyway, it was a fun night that came by surprise.
So..Saturday comes. The 25th. Time for The Rescue. I went early that morning to buy gifts for the VIP/mogul people who came through for us! I got them a few things from Ten Thousand Villages that were handmade in Uganda and Kenya.
This is how the Nashville event went down. Everybody showed up at Centennial Park at 3 p.m. in their official Rescue shirts. The shirts were hunter green with a big AK47 on the front..it kinda looked like wearers had a gun strapped on the front of them. It represented the kids in Uganda/Sunday/the Congo who are abducted from their homes by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). They have an AK47 thrown across them, and they are forced to fight. So over 1000 showed up for the Nashville event - awesome. I never would have guessed that, but I was told later by a reliable source that it was near 1200. All of the participants trekked from Centennial to the Bicentennial Mall right in front of the capitol building. It was between 2.5 and 3 miles, and it was hot. We walked single file and arrived at Bicentennial a couple hours later. We stayed there at an outdoor amphitheater that served as our “LRA Camp.” We were to stay there until we were rescued. We could not be rescued until a person of influence came out and pledged their support for the cause. They had to recognize our cries and join in the fight to bring Joseph Kony to justice and end this war. Joseph Kony is the leader of the LRA. He is the one primarily responsible for the war and for the abductions. Go to invisiblechildren.com if you’d like the details.
We had a number of influential people come out. First was Cheg, who was named one of “Nashville’s Most Beautiful.” He was also on Oprah’s Big Giveaway. He is from Africa, and he has an awesome story. Then we had a representative from Nashville’s mayor come out, as well as councilman Bo Mitchell. Before rescue came, participants had written letters to many of our nation’s leaders calling on them to take action. Participants also brought pictures of themselves with family and friends, and circled themselves in red to signify their abduction. These pictures were all gathered and pinned up on clotheslines. Finally we had a letter delivered from Senator Lamar Alexander. Nashville was rescued!
Throughout the event I stayed fairly busy writing letters of thanks to the rescuers that came out, greeting them and giving them their gifts..and because of this I actually missed out on hearing what was going on throughout the night. I hated to not hear everything, but knew it was more important that I take care of business. Around 10:00 everyone gathered up their things to march to the parking lot of First Baptist Church, about an hour’s walk away. We had to leave Bicentennial Mall because of the park curfew. So yes, Nashville had technically been rescued at this point, but we had prepared a place where everyone could stay the night in case rescue did not come on the 25th. We decided to follow through with plans to camp out simply to draw out the event and bring about as much awareness as possible in the city. The march from Bicentennial to the church took us straight. through. downtown. ..and it was a Saturday night! Gosh, it was crazy. Anyone who has been on Broadway on a Saturday night knows it’s a lively place. It’s honky tonk city. The music is loud. There are people inside the bars and clubs and tourist shops, then there are the people outside waiting to get in. There’s lot of traffic..and it’s just full of life. Hundreds of us marched through there! It caused quite a commotion. Only a few were visibly angry. One man said no one could hear his poetry readings on a street corner because of our long train of people. I apologized for the disturbance and told him we would be gone soon. Other’s were obviously annoyed that the streets were that much more congested. I’m sorry it was a bit annoying, but we needed to make a scene for a bit. We were peaceful about it..it wasn’t about protest..it was just about making the victims in East Africa visible.
So we arrived to the First Baptist parking lot a little before midnight, and people started spreading out their sleeping bags and getting ready to settle in for the night. Soon after I noticed some people were packing up and getting ready to go, including the IC roadies. I was a bit perplexed, and wanted to know what was going on. I found out that in the midst of my running around earlier in the evening, I had missed the announcement about “rescue riding.” Apparently the roadies and a few others from Nashville who were able were headed to Saint Louis, Missouri! Saint Louis had not yet been rescued, and they were going to drive through the night and would get to Saint Louis early Sunday morning and stay with the people there until rescue came. Then, I learned, they were going to continue on to the next city that hadn’t been rescued, and would keep going until every city had been rescued! I had totally missed out on this plan. I would later learn that the concept of “rescue riders” was developed by the staff in San Diego only one week before the Rescue event.
Anyway, I knew I had school on Monday, but I so wanted to continue on to Saint Louis. Three cars were headed that way, and there was room for me in a car with two Belmont kids who said they were coming back to Nashville Sunday night because they too had school on Monday. So I hopped in the car with my new friends Whitney and Josh. One of the roadies, Johnathan, road in the backseat with me. Johnathan is about 6 foot 100 inches tall, and so the two of us attempted to squish ourselves in somewhat comfortably.
I literally had nothing with me. I did have a sleeping bag that my dear friend Jessica Lee had allowed me to borrow. In my backpack I had some chapstick and powder, my wallet, some craft supplies, some water, some granola, my digital camera, and my polaroid camera. Oh! I also had some deodorant, mouth wash and a brush. Whitney and Josh raced me to my car parked at Centennial and let me drop it off at my house before the caravan took off, and I grabbed the last three essentials. Since I was only going to be gone for less than 24 hours, I didn’t grab anything else.
We took off for Saint Louis. I instantly bonded with my car mates. Instant bonding is inevitable in such a situation. You’re instantly family / BFFs. The caravan made a stop at Waffle House on the way out of town. Adam, the staff member from San Diego, struggled a bit and kept us all laughing. First he spilled a drink. Then when the food came, he got really excited about his plate. After perfectly preparing his food to be ingested (dispersion of his preferred condiments and such), he spilled it all on his laugh. The ketchup looked awesome on his khaki pants. It was sad and hilarious. Then, of course, there were the drunken early morning Waffle House people stumbling out of the restroom. Good times. After a gas stop and some terrible energy shots, we were off to Saint Louis.
Around 6 a.m. Sunday morning we spotted the arch. Johnathan caught some serious zzz’s in the car...I think he had been so sleep deprived the whole week that nothing could stop him. As any good friend would, I got some great sleeping pics and posted them later on Facebook. Johnathan was a good sport and even made one his profile picture. So anyways, the leftover Saint Louis participants had set up camp right below the arch. We arrived, pretty energetic in the midst of our delirium, right as they were all waking up. Despite our annoying amounts of happiness and energy, they gave us a warm welcome. We met some of them, then plopped down to wait it out. When we arrived there were probably around 75 Saint Louisianans...but many left within a couple hours. I don’t doubt that many parents wanted their chillens home. But about 30 (my total guess) stayed. It was a pretty warm day. Taylor Swift, who had done a concert the night before, was staying at a hotel just a stone’s throw away. Many made various efforts to get messages to her and plead for her to come to the rescue. However, celebrity politics got in the way. Though she voiced her support indirectly, she couldn’t come out. Throughout the day many of the Saint Louis natives as well as some of us from Nashville made various efforts to contact celebrities and politicians. Finally, around 3 p.m., rescue came! One of the participants early that morning had mentioned the fact that his family was friends with an NFL player and that they often went to eat with him Sunday afternoons. He left the event to go to church and then afterward at lunch attempt to get his friend to come to the rescue. Chris Chamberlain, a player for the Rams, came through! The rescue was pretty exciting. Media came out to document it. Four girls from Saint Louis said they wanted to join the Nashville rescue riders as they traveled on, and there was one roadie (the beloved Daniel Trigg) stationed in Saint Louis who would also be joining. Whitney and Josh were going back to Nashville, and I was more than a little sad at the thought of the journey ending. I found out there was room for me in one of the cars going on, and I made the irresponsible decision to continue on to the next destination: Wichita, Kansas...ten hours away. I made sure there was a car that would be going back to Nashville by Tuesday, because I knew I didn’t need to miss my Tuesday class. I did have a quiz Monday as well as two huge papers due Wednesday, but I went simply on the hope that things would work out. Not only did I want to continue the adventure, but I felt as though I was supposed to be there.
One of the Nashville rescue riders was Ryan Smith, who has a great job (well..had..he ended up quitting his job when we returned from the Rescue) working with celebrities and big shots, and he was able to get a room at the Hilton nearby where some of us could clean up and rest before heading out. So we hung out in the Hilton lobby in our dirty nastiness, and one by one we went up to the room to clean up..about ten showers in an hour..in and out..no clean clothes to put on..yeah. I was proud of my idea to wash my clothes in the sink and then blow-dry them..however this totally mis-shaped my event shirt that I had on.
Around 6 we finally all packed the cars and headed out for Wichita. There were 15 of us in three separate cars. I was in a car with three girls (Becky, Brittany and Emily) from Saint Louis who I had never met..and Johnathan was with us as well. Man, that was a long trip. And we learned that there were tornadoes in and around Wichita. We drove through the night. Becky drove for a while, then let her friend Brittany take the wheel so she could rest for a while. Brittany did well, but then got a little nervous when the torrential rainfall began. Becky took back over, and everyone else passed out. I woke up around midnight and asked how Becky was doing..and she was just barely making it. The torrential rainfall was still coming down, and she was beyond tired. I offered to take over, not knowing if she was willing to let some stranger take the wheel of her car. But, again..instant family thing..she let me drive. Everyone was passed out, and I proceeded to drive two hours in a state I had never seen before...and barely saw even as I drove. The rain was so intense I could barely see a thing. Furthermore, the wind was totally out of control. I simply kept my eye on the car in front of me and followed the turns of the red tail lights. We made it into Wichita around 2 a.m.. The participants were indoors at a church, where they had moved due to the weather. There were probably a hundred people inside when we got there. Most were sleeping soundly, but a few got up to welcome us. We laid out our sleeping bags in a hall, because the gym where everyone else slept was terribly cold. We passed out cold (or, warm) in the hall until around 6 a.m., when a man woke us and asked us to move to the gym. Apparently schoolteachers were going to be meeting in that part of the church for in-service, or something. We continued to sleep in the cold gym for a couple of hours. One of the Nashville girls, Annie Brown (who actually goes to Lipscomb), was so cold that at one point she got the washcloth out of her sleeping bag to lay on her for just a little more warmth. That still makes me laugh to think about it..poor girl. When we awoke, there were still tornado warnings. That didn’t stop us from taking one of the cars to go to Walmart, and to Starbucks, where a friendly manager had agreed to donate a coffee traveler. At Walmart we were able to buy a few essentials..you know, like underwear and a toothbrush and such. We took one of the Saint Louis guys with us since he knew his way around. Wichita may not be super big, but from our experience it is extremely hard to navigate. Our guide bought all of our toiletries for us, just because he wanted to! It was better than Christmas morning..toothbrushes, toothpaste, Old Spice body spray, shampoo..and a package of white undershirts!! We were even spoiled with some disinfecting gel. Is that what that stuff is called..disinfecting gel? That term seems weird right now. Anyway, back at the church there were a couple of showers. They were the communal kind..awkward, but dang better than nothing.
Throughout the day people and businesses around the community donated bagels, chili, pizza, cookies, cookies, and more cookies...we were so well taken care of. Though I’m pretty sure we could have used some multi-vitamins. That reminds me, there was some fruit. Blessed fruit givers..I’d kiss them if I ever met them.
Our new friends at Wichita were so great. There were some pretty intense games of knock-out in the church gym where we all stayed. That was undoubtedly my favorite part. We continued to write letters and make phone calls to politicians. We especially wanted Senator Brownback from Kansas to come to the rescue, because he has been involved in previous Invisible Children documentaries and such. Some people also made bracelets to pass the time..one of my most treasured momentoes from the week is a bracelet that was made for me. That afternoon I went to the public library with two other Nashvillians. I knew it was imperative for me to contact my teachers and to get some of my work done if I could find some of the books I needed at the library.
At this point I learned that none of the Nashville cars would be returning home anytime soon. I realized that I would probably be missing much more school than originally intended. At this point it was Monday, and the very last day of classes was Wednesday! Thursday was dead day, and Friday was the first day of exams! I had no idea how things would work out. I knew I simply would have to pray for mercy from my teachers. (In regards to work, the woman I nanny for was extremely supportive and understanding, and she was able to easily find a temporary replacement.) I e-mailed my teachers and told them what was going out, and asked if there was anything I could do. I had huge, important papers due and quizzes I was missing, and in State and Local Government I had my final exam on Friday! I heard back from all of them very quickly. One simply thanked me for my explanation and suggested it would be okay. Another told me that I would receive points off of my final exam paper (we had a paper due in lieu of our exam) for each day that it was late. He was not very understanding, and it was a bit discouraging, but I knew that my previous grades in the class would provide enough cushion and that I would still pass. The rest of my teachers were so very supportive and understanding. My toughest teacher responded and said that she was proud of my involvement and definitely would want me to stay rather than coming back early. She said that what I was doing was more important. Man, I was blown away by her response. My second toughest teacher called me. CALLED me! And left a voicemail assuring me that my absence was more than okay and that he was proud of me. I nearly cried when I heard his message. Dr. Tays, my government teacher, agreed to let me take my final the following week. Everything worked out perfectly. I did have to work hard in the library on the papers I had due. Throughout the next few days I had to work on the paper for the teacher who was unmerciful. I ended up failing the final because it was late, but I made a B in the class! (When all was said and done, my grades were fine in all of my classes when semester grades came out. Everyone back home in Lubbock and in Nashville was so worried about me missing class! Kinda funny. Everyone thought I was crazy.)
At the end of Monday there was still not a rescuer. Rescue riders from many other cities had arrived at this point. We slept soundly that night, and rescue riders continued to arrive throughout the late night and early morning hours. By Tuesday morning only a few cities were left. Rescue finally game late Tuesday afternoon with a letter and representative from Senator Brownback! We found out the next city would be Chicago. Only Chicago and Richmond, Virginia remained.
So we prepared to head out. (Donations had continued to arrive throughout our stay in Wichita. I didn’t know where my next meal would come from at any time, but I never went hungry and I never had to drop a dime for any sustenance.) There were countless Invisible Children vans and regular cars. There were people from Austin, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Portland, Saint Louis, Nashville, and lots and lots of other places. It was incredible. Bah. We all set off for Chicago..a solid twelve hour drive. We had some rest in us, but we were all still quite sleep deprived and totally worn out. I don’t know how we all survived that drive...I simply don’t. I was put in a car with the Albuquerque/Phoenix people. Gosh, I miss the people from that car..they were amazing and so much fun. We had a dance party to MGMT and others. I was totally gettin’ in with people I didn’t even know.. you know .. more new fam/ BFFs. Their names were Valerie, Rachael, Talitha and Thad. I was quite thankful for the good music played in that car. So..we’re all pretty dirty, and dancing, and then the heat/AC stops working. And for some reason it wouldn’t stop blowing heat. It is not an exaggeration to say that the following few minutes were some of my most miserable. I have no doubt that I was the hottest and stinkiest person in that car. Thank God above, the a/c was soon fixed. For unknown reasons, the dance party had not ceased, and had only grown more party-licious, in the midst of the heat blast...so it was pretty intense and memorable. The hours wore on, and the non-drivers couldn’t keep from falling asleep. There were limbs thrown all over the place in search of comfortable sleeping positions. I met Thad, from Albuquerque, and within a couple hours his shoulder was my pillow. I’m not one to just lean on any shoulder. Just wanted to emphasize the immediate family element, in case you hadn’t caught that already.
Just outside of Chicago we stopped at a gas station. We didn’t known if we were going to have a real home once we reached our destination, so one of the Portlanders from the van ahead of us decided to brush her teeth in the gas station bathroom. A number of us followed suit. Before long there were a solid ten of us brushing our teeth inside the gas station. The attendant was fairly perplexed, as he should have been. We reached our final destination around 6 or 7 Wednesday morning. All those in Chicago had stayed inside a church Tuesday night, and were just packing up to leave as we arrived. We learned various churches were housing participants at night. During the day, the city of Chicago enforced a rule that said participants could not all gather in a location for more than four hours at a time. There were hundreds of participants who had begun in Chicago and had been there for over four days at this point. Many rescue riders had arrived to join them. By the time we arrived, there were between 400 and 500 of us total. Somewhere between 50 and 75 of us had come from Wichita.
Around three hours after we arrived in Chicago we all hiked from the church to a park many miles away. Considering our level of exhaustion and the load we had to carry with our backpacks and sleeping bags, the hike was a little rough. But we arrived at a park where we stayed for the next few hours. Since arriving in Chicago I had been in contact with Jeremy Cowart, a photographer from Nashville. He was in Chicago with the Britney Spears tour. I new Jeremy had connections with many celebrities, and also knew he was a supporter of IC. He attempted to make a few contacts with us despite the fact that he had lots of work to do. Again, celebrity politics and crazy celebrity schedules got in the way, and nothing could work. But Jeremy came out to the park with his wife and adorable kids to say hello and show his support. It was great to meet the Cowart family. They were so great to take the time to come out. While we were at the park, the huge IC bus from LA arrived with another 50 rescue riders, including Jason Russell, one of the film makers! (Another of the film makers, Bobby Bailey, had been in Chicago upon our arrival.) Let me tell you..when the LA bus arrived..it was party city and celebration town 2009. We knew they would be coming soon and anxiously awaited their arrival. As we sat in the grass, we saw people running toward us from far away. They were waving huge flags. We all jumped up and started running toward them. Everyone was screaming. We all met up and rallied together and it was just stinking amazing. We were all together. (Well, except those from Mexico and some from Australia, who arrived soon after!) Bah, I wish I could relive that right now.
We all stayed in a church building that night. There were a couple showers..hundreds of people..obviously not everyone cleaned up. There was also a big dance party. With money donated some of the IC staff made some seriously delicious pasta. Man, it was good times. Hundreds of people sleeping on the floor of that church building that night..and I slept so soundly. When we woke up the next morning it was rainin’ rainin’ rainin’.
We had our sights set on Oprah to come to the rescue. A fairly lofty goal, yes. The film makers and IC staff, were all there at this point (yes, Laren had arrived as well..) and were making the decisions. They decided we were going to all go to Oprah’s studio to dance and sing outside it in the rain. We were going to sing “In the Name of Love” by U2. But we changed up the lyrics to “In the name of love, Oprah come and rescue us..” ..and we had sweet dance moves, and some singers who took over the verses.. and yeah, it was sweet. You can even watch it online! I’ll post a link at the end of this novel of a blog. After practicing for a solid hour, we headed to Oprah’s studios. Just as planned, we sang and danced on each side of her studio. People were leaning out of windows and off of balconies of surrounding buildings watching. No doubt, we were quite a sight. But after singing and dancing for probably an hour, there was no sign of Oprah. We were a bit dejected. It was time to go...and there was a church about 45 minutes outside the city that had agreed to put us up for the evening. With such a large number of people, after only one or two events, it was time to call it a day. Little things took lots of time, and everything took some serious coordination efforts. When we got to the church that night we had to wait outside for a bit before we could be let in. This is when I met one of my favorite new friends from the week, Rob Juarez. As we talked, I found out he had been a roadie in Mexico - though he’s from Orange County, California. When we were let into the church, the IC staff took inventory. They wrote down names and contact numbers for each person there. At the beginning of the Rescue, the staff had ensured any rescue rider who stuck it out until the end that they would have a ride home. So as they took inventory (this was Thursday night), they spoke with everyone about how they would get home when all was said and done. The staff decided that everyone could use some serious rest that night. In order to keep going, we would need stamina. They were going to let us sleep in Friday morning, which was prettttty exciting news.
Not long after, the staff came on the megaphone and announced that the plans had changed. They would be waking us up at the friendly hour of 2 a.m., and we would all be making our way back to Oprah’s studio. Oprah shoots live at 9 a.m. on Fridays, and they knew she would be getting to work at 6. Therefore, they wanted all of us to be surrounding her studio when she got to work.
So we all took a two or three hour nap and woke up to head to Harpo Studios. Friday morning was not my favorite. I headed to the bathroom in my state of half-consciousness to brush my teeth, and found a line of about twenty girls waiting. Sigh. As usual, the line to the guys’ restroom was about a fourth of the size of the girls’.
Anyway, we got to Oprah’s studio between three and four a.m. Friday morning. It was cold. Really cold. We huddled in a parking lot for a bit until around five, when we were placed around the studio. A few had signs, but the rest of us stood in a line side by side with peace signs high in the air. Signs told Oprah that we were with Invisible Children, we wanted her to come to the rescue, and that we only needed five minutes of her time. We stood outside for a couple hours, and Oprah’s BFF Gayle came to say hello and see what we were all about. We spoke with her for a bit, and she even brought out some gourmet cupcakes. Oprah had arrived at this point - though because the windows to her car are so tinted and because her car parks in a garage inside her studios, we did not know when she arrived. Nevertheless, there is no doubt she saw us. The hours standing outside her studio were so cold that at one point I began to feel the first effects of hypothermia. It felt like pin and needles all over my arms and legs. No one could help warm me up because it was very painful to be touched. There was a car nearby with blankets where I found relief. Within ten minutes I was in good shape and was back outside. Around 7:30 a.m. Oprah came outside. She was outside for only a minute, and took the three film makers inside with her. She spoke with them for a few minutes, and watched the Rescue documentary while she had her makeup done. She told Jason, Bobby and Laren that not only did she want to rescue us, but she wanted us to be on her show.
What?
Yeah. That one was never, ever expected.
She wanted to have her crew film us around her studio so that she could show viewers what she saw as she arrived at work that morning. Then she wanted to have us on live..with us gathered just outsider her studio as she spoke to us from the inside. Her guests on the show that day were Ellen DeGeneres and Hugh Jackman. And her BFF Gayle, of course. They had a “View” style round table thing going.
So we all stand outside for another hour and a half in serious anticipation. As 9 a.m. neared, the police closed off the street in front of her studio so that the hundreds of us could gather together and all fit in the shot as we were on air. The three film makers stood in the front and served as the spokesmen.
We got rescued. That’s for sure.
We were on Oprah for the first 6:35 of her show. From what I have heard, that time is worth around $5 million. But the words Oprah said in regards to IC and the Rescue were worth even more. At one point she looked straight into the camera, and pointed emphatically as she said to her viewers, “If you can hear my voice right now, I want you to go to invisiblechildren.com.”
Pretty sure nearly every rescue riding jaw dropped when she uttered those words. The IC site crashed soon after!! The power of Oprah’s words and influence changed the face of IC and the Rescue. After she rescued us, the event was over. It was bittersweet. We all gathered in a nearby park to arrange rides home and say our goodbyes. All of us from Nashville and Saint Louis ate with a few of our new friends at a nearby restaurant before we headed home.
Everything was completely surreal. I mean, we had been on Oprah that morning. It aired at the normal Oprah time, which is 4:00 central. My momma said she saw me when it aired! Of course, I had told her what area I was in and what I was wearing..I’m fairly certain she’s the only person who saw me. (I’m including a link to the clip from Oprah at the end of this as well.)
All of us from Nashville got home late Friday night - it was about an eight hour drive. As you can imagine, I was truly dead to the world for the next day or two. When I got home Friday I was so dirty, but too tired to shower. I put my sleeping bag on my bedroom floor and slept as I had for the last week. I so missed my hundreds of roommates. I didn’t welcome my empty room one bit.
It’s important to note that the Rescue wasn’t about money. Yes, there were money-raising goals for each city, but they were humble, and a lot of it was just to cover costs from the event itself. The Rescue was really just about raising awareness. IC wanted celebrities and politicians to get involved and come to the rescue simply because they have power and visibility that the rest of us do not have. Countless politicians got involved across the country and pledged to join the fight to bring Joseph Kony to justice. Many celebrities got involved as well, such as Kirsten Dunst, Switchfoot, and Gavin DeGraw.
June 22nd and 23rd are Lobby Days in Washington D.C.. All who are able will be going to D.C. to bring the thousands of letters that were written at Rescue events to our nation’s leaders. Furthermore, we’ll be meeting face to face in the offices of our senators to talk to them about what is going on and ask them to act. Since I live in Tennessee, I’ll be going to the offices of our Tennessee congressmen.
Please be in prayer about this.
I have also applied to be a roadie with Invisible Children in the fall. I will have a phone interview in the next week. If chosen, I will be moving to San Diego at the beginning of August. Beginning August 3rd, I’ll go through five weeks of training, and then I will be sent to a certain region of the U.S. in an IC van with three other roadies to host screenings and talk to people about what’s going on. After eight weeks I would return to San Diego for a couple weeks of debriefing and decompressing, and then I would head back home. I will find out if I have been chosen to be a roadie by the end of June. I’m quite nervous, to be honest. But I have been shown many opportunities to serve in Nashville next semester if it doesn’t work out, so I suppose things will be good any way around. And I am so thankful for the experience I have had with Invisible Children up to this point. But it’s not about me, at all. This experience has also been extremely humbling.
I hope that you will watch the IC documentary. You can watch the original documentary on YouTube, though it is in segments because it’s fairly long. I have a copy that I would consider lending out for a couple days, or you can purchase a copy on the IC web site. You can also watch the Rescue documentary online - I would highly suggest watching both. If you really look into the background of this war and the man who is Joseph Kony, you will realize that this is spiritual warfare. At one point in Chicago, Jason Russell said that this war will not be won by human efforts alone. It is imperative that we be in constant prayer. Jason truly believes, as do I, that Joseph Kony is possessed by demons.
Thank you so, so much to all of you who have shown your support for the IC efforts - and to me, personally. Genuinely, you do not know how much it means. I have experienced plenty of discouragement from the mouths of many, and I try to push it out. But the words of encouragement have stuck with me, and I am so thankful. I continue to learn how powerful it is when people unite. I have experienced love and community in such beautiful ways. I have made incredible new friends.
My heart breaks for the people suffering in Africa. They are suffering even as I type this, and even as you read this. The level of suffering is unimaginable to me. But I know -- know -- that there is hope.
