A Promise Keeper event
Stand in the Gap
Thursday, October 2nd, 1997
Scott had to finish business before going for the weekend. Scott Coombe will miss two birthdays (not his own) while gone. Julie Coombe and Lori Kibbey are both 10 – 4 ladies. A Wednesday night dinner with the fabulous Julie and a sneak peak at the Rock and Rodeo so she could scout out line dancing. A flower accented her smile wonderfully then a quick good-bye.
Scott arrived at the Malmsten Villa around 5ish. Apparently, Scott is not good with time for he was not expected until the hour of six and one half. “Ah well,” Scott embarrassingly murmurs. Helen (Scott’s adopted Oregon Mom) gave Scott a rundown on God’s providing an awesome car for the family. God is working all around us. Praise Him.
Left to his own devises, Scott kicked around some Promise Keeper pamphlets and settled on a Dr. Dobbson magazine “Focus on the Family.” It was the 20th anniversary issue. Scott was fascinated at how God had led and influenced this man from SC Medical School graduate to radio and book ministry giant. Just another example of someone that stays in God’s will, can be greatly rewarded. Scott isn’t thinking financially, though he is surely not doing to bad there, but his personal relationships and influence on hundreds of thousands of people’s lives. Extraordinary!
It makes Scott wonder about how big an immediate impact the ‘Stand in the Gap’ conference will be. Over a million people coming together to pray, worship and humble themselves in the sight of the Lord. Scott is expecting to have everyone feel God’s presence and be touched in a permanent way. The millions are not coming to see signs. They know God is there and calling them.
So what is calling them? God’s character, His holiness is calling them to repentance. The Holy Spirit has convicted us of righteousness, sin, judgement and falling away from the Kingdom of God. People are coming from all across the nation to repent our sins, pray for forgiveness and ask the Lord to heal our land. Unfortunately, too many people don’t see the need for healing. Scott hopes most of his letters have expressed the depravity of man, the need for being filled spiritually and redeemed. He can only pray this event will trigger a nationwide revival.
Scott was talking to Ed Malmsten (one of the four members of our church going to the function) as they pick up Dave Forgard (our third). Paul Amann (our fourth) made his own reservations so was traveling and staying separately. Ed was talking about all the published reasons why or why not people are going to the event. Dave and Scott gave their yeas and boos. We drove to Portland to Helen’s sister our new Aunt Ruth. She greeted the threesome well despite Scott walking in with muddy shoes and getting shooed to the front door for shoes off.
Arriving around ten, we had light conversation for an hour. The three were too jazzed to hit the hay right away but the 5:15 wake-up call made everyone slink off to respective beds by eleven. Scott was lucky to grab a nice couch.
Friday 3rd of October
Bzzz! 5:30 Dave cries “Hey!” as he is coming out of the shower. It was that quick wake not accompanied by drowsiness Scott usually feels in the early mornings. A fast shower and Scott realized he never packed a brush. Oh well. With finger combed hair he joins the others. Aunt Ruth looks like she just got eight hours sleep and time to dress. Wonderful. She was therefore delegated to drive us to the airport. What a great heart she has. A big thank you to Aunt Ruth.
The airport gets adrenaline kicking in. Scott is catching snatches of Dave’s humming hymns and songs. Every further adventure must have a worship leader along. Scott tries to join in on the ones he knows.
Dave had talked about how he’d like a more active worship in our church. He says most people would like to raise their hands and gesture (reverently that is) to God but we are too self-conscience. Boy, did that hit home to Scott. Who are we worshipping for: our congregation or the Lord? If the Lord directs to lift one’s hands, then let their energy be directed heavenward through their hands.
Well, it turns out the plane had a flat tire so we waited until a little after eight for takeoff. Rising up, Dave has the window seat and is jumping around like a kid at every landmark that falls on his map of the western US (as if to prove it’s reliability) as we fly off to Dallas Fort Worth. Ed sits on the other side of Scott with the airline magazine’s crossword and one from a newspaper as well. Scott was quietly trying to take a nap but not really. He was disturbed every two minutes by a “four lettered son of Abraham,” “Look at that mountaintop,” and “I can see the interstate.” Scott was attempting to follow the crossword puzzle but he got about four words before being vocabularily bankrupt. A few good naps did occur and Scott was thankful. [Levi]
Dallas was a quick stopover with a grab for food and restroom. We then boarded the plain to Dulles Int. in D.C. Now, we had seen a lot of P.K. people on the plane from Portland – Dallas but the Dallas – Dulles was about two-thirds men, with P.K. shirts and hats in almost every group. Wow! The plane seemed charged.
Arrived at Dulles around sixish. We proceeded to charge to the baggage area for Dave’s bow-tied suitcase. Scott and Ed were manly enough to pack light. The suitcase came out quickly. The group walked outside and wonderful weather greeted us. A warm evening with a smiling sunset.
Cheapest way to hotel is taxi, so we get into stereotypical Muslim’s car. Mohammed Jofar gives us a speedway roller coaster chase through traffic to downtown. A little spreading of the Gospel to sow seeds for the event. Right on.
Took a quick double take at the hotel, Grand Hyatt Washington. No one had expected a five star gold-plated hotel. Wow! Talk about a posh pad. Waterfalls and a piano playing tux in the swimming pool playing to two restaurants a floor below in the atrium. Most of the people in the registration line had suits worth more than Scott makes in three months.
Got a sweet suite, tossed the luggage and started for Monument Plaza. A few blocks from the mall, the roads were closed due to all of the trailers unloading equipment for set up. Well, the runway lights and music playing just hit the heart. It felt like walking on Holy Ground. The three walked the quarter mile to the sound stage where people were congregating and sleeping out overnight for good seats. Great multitudes were singing and praying beforehand. The giant Jumbo-trons kept playing highlights from earlier P.K. events and singing Holy, Holy, Holy.
Going back to the hotel, they checked out restaurants for later. Joe Thorman (our forth for the room) should have arrived by the time we got back. As it turned out, Joe just arrived five minutes before them. A time for hugging and backslapping.
Dave decided to videotape the P.K. preparations so the group journeyed back down for taping. The awe was still there and the group gathered and prayed for the event.
Dave’s hip started acting up so Ed and Joe decided to join him for dinner. The adrenaline was just pounding in Scott’s blood so he decided he would go visit the Lincoln Memorial. Scott, who happened to be 28, was along with an elderly 50ish crew. The ol’ fogeys were reluctant to let Scott wander around in D.C. They decided that Scott might be quick enough to outrun any trouble.
Never fear when God is on the job. Scott wasn’t very far away when he ran into a few mid-twentyish Promise Keepers. Their names were Steve, Kevin and Jeremy, each coming from Kentucky.
The four walked by the Washington monument then down to the Vietnam Memorial wall. Wow! Was that a sobering experience. 59,000 names of our fallen countrymen engraved on the wall.
A large group was before us and having finished ahead had started singing Amazing Grace. How sweet it sounded. Over two hundred men were singing in praise. It’s a foretelling of the next day’s events. Scott hummed and sang along.
The group of four followed around to the Lincoln Memorial where “the group’ recited a profound remembrance at Lincoln’s feet. Voices echoed off the walls. The moment seemed sacred, somewhere set apart from reality and touched by God. Finished reciting, the mass slowly streamed down the memorial steps crying in song, ‘Glory, glory hallelujah.’
The song filled Scott’s head and senses turning over and over on the long walk back.
Saturday 4 October The Event
Bzzz. 5:25 (or 2:25 Oregon time). Scott was showered and reading the Bible ‘til the rest got ready. A cold and brisk walk carried the four down to H Street to 7th. Taking 7th, they noticed Constitution Ave was a giant concession stand from 6th to 15th street. Awesome.
A little before 6:30 we were lucky to get good seats in front of a jumbo-tron giant screen because the crowding congregated so thick. The event was starting at noon so we had gotten there five and a half hours early. We were able to spread out a hotel blanket (graciously brought) and squeezed room for five. Everything got more crowded exponentially after that.
Scott did some Bible reading from 2nd Thessalonians, the Timothys, Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews by noon. The time was spiritually revealing. Scott was pumped from the night before, the intermittent songs (that were bursting from the ten Jumbo-trons since eight o’clock), and the scripture burning in his brain made Scott spiritually higher than a kite. Then the event started.
The blowing of the shofar (a ram’s horn blown used in Jewish rituals on the solemn occasions) began the event. The event (unknown to P.K. planners) turned out to be in the exact middle of the ten days of awe between Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) and Yom Kipper (the Jewish Day of Atonement). God has been in the planning stages all along.
After the revealing Jewish speaker, an American Indian gave a presentation of the trials to uniting the tribes and glorifying Christ as Lord. Then the multitudes broke into song with the P.K. praise band. Scott wishes he could remember everyone’s name so you need to forgive him this. Twenty minutes of praise with all our beings got our excess adrenaline out.
Introduction finished and almost an hour gone, the invitational speakers come out and let us know deep in our souls that we don’t measure up because of our sin. God had made man uncorrupted but man became corrupt on his own. Then God sought one who would rise above our sin and ‘stand in the gap’ between man’s sinfulness and God’s righteousness. Through the corridor of time God could not find even one. As it is written, there is none who is righteous, not even one; there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God; all have turned aside, together they have become useless, there is none who does good, there is not even one. (Romans 3:10-12) So God had to come himself. Christ had to stand in the gap between our sinfulness and His righteousness to become the bridge we may cross to fellowship with God and have eternal life.
So Christ’s death became the intercession of the penalty of our sins. He asks, “every sin bears penalty, have you asked Christ to bear them for you or are you going to bear your penalties yourself?” Like the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt 13:24-40); God will allow the useless to grow right along with His chosen fruit until the time of the harvesting or judgement. Then it is to the fire for the useless tares.
Well, needless to say there was a great response. Everyone raised their hands – over a million strong – and said a prayer (either for the first time or reaffirming) to the Lord to forgive our sins, recognizing Christ as our Savior and Lord. What a barbaric, “Whoop!” followed that. We were all too ready for another worship/praise time.
Well, strike our souls to the quick, it was time to get to the heart of the issue: an extraordinary response of repentance for an extraordinary God. We as the body of Christ have forsaken God’s call in our apathetic Christian walk, shallow prayer time and once in a while study of scripture. All are ripe for renewal.
Speakers were addressing heart issues and consequences of our sins and lifestyles. The focus of a husband’s role is to love our wife and not seek our own pleasure. Speaking on how many people we have neglected, abused, battered or just led astray in our self-seeking lives. Even though Scott is not married, God brought to mind some people he had hurt very much because of what he had done. Before we knew it, over a million people were prostrate on our face repenting our sins, asking for forgiveness and pledging to not walk in that path again.
The second speaker asked how are we leading? Are we not to be an example? Are we keeping ourselves pure? Could the decline of morals in our country be because men are not taking their roles in the home seriously? Women are having to step in and run everything. In our society today, for the exception of procreation, women almost don’t need men. The family values are crashing in America. Are we taking time to seriously communicate with our children? Back on our faces the multitudes go.
The third speaker addresses the body of Christ. The Church is one, united under God. There may be many differences and variety but they do worship the same true God. Salvation has always been the same. We have ridiculed the practices of other churches as if our body of sinners is being taught the ‘greater gospel.’ Christ unified the church and we tare it apart. We broke together into small groups and confessed then flat on our faces again for repentance and forgiveness from God.
The next part was very convicting for Scott, perhaps more than the others were. In different periods of time in Scott’s life he had let racism creep in. Events like getting a gun stuck in his face to mini riots all around him gave him a pretty low tolerance for certain races. This was definitely encouraged by my friends. Being a Christian now, he has left the anger and hate behind but a taint has always remained.
Scott recalls showing his hate when his little brother was around and he wonders what kind of example he showed. What seeds did that behavior sow in relatives that he loves?
Yes, we spoke about race. We are all one color: melanin. Some just have more of it than others do. Should we condemn those that have more or less? There were American Indians, African Americans, Asians, Jews, Anglos and Hispanics speakers all talking of heritage and race and that Christ surpasses all and we need His example. Our hearts were softened and Scott never even got off the ground in repentance.
A story was told of a man last year that came from a Promise Keeper event. Saturday, he accepted the Lord and repented his racism. Sunday he went home and burned his Klan robe and the following day developed a friendship with a black person. In seventy-two hours he presented an example that a million repentant people would bring back home if nothing else. Hopefully they will take it to heart.
Yes, over a million people changed dramatically from the depth of their being. No more racial or religious slams. Walking on the high ground of morality. To follow a greater spiritual value to lead us. The future looks brighter with a million zealous Christians going out amongst the nation. Multitudes to make a difference in our families, our churches, then our communities. On January 1st at twelve noon, the year 2000, we are to be united on the lawns of each state capitol across the nation to glorify God and beg forgiveness.
“… And My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray, and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and heal their land.” (2nd Chronicles 7:14)
In the year 2000, starting with a dynamic gathering at the State Capitols in the US, then Promise Keepers will be going globally to spread a revival of God’s revelation worldwide.
Many people in DC feared that this stand was to be a political statement. If it was thought that politics, the President, Congress or the Supreme Court or all together could do something about the moral decay of the nation, then this event would have been a lot more than a Saturday worship. The masses gathered there were looking to the only One who can perform any real change in this country: the Lord God Almighty and His indwelling Spirit.
Needless to say, Scott thought (though he’ll say it anyway) the rest of the trip was anticlimactic.
Group brought dinner to the room and ate. Later, a quick tour of the Korean, Vietnam and Lincoln memorials by Scott and old fogeys. Back to hotel then bed.
Sunday Oct 5
The whole day spent in the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space. It had everything from Enola Gay dropping the atomic bomb, the first American capsule in space to the Wright Brothers and everything in between. Another day or two could easily be spent in there, much less any of the other museums.
Well, kicked out at five, the group walked to Capitol Building and admired the cleanup job by the PK crew. A realization that the whole mall was packed to the brim with men on their faces in repentance to God was still awe-inspiring. Then a walk at a limping mans pace; they journeyed back to the Smithsonian for a circle view screen showing the Blue Angels. Fascination at how close they actually fly. Afterwards, to a Chinese dinner in Chinatown then a hotel and bed.
Monday Oct 6
Up again, but not as early. Off to FBI tour. Not as exciting as Air and Space Museum and still nothing in the shadow of the P.K. event. A quick stop to see where Lincoln died. Very little prestige for a great President. Hotel and checkout then Metro to airport.
Joe wished us all well ‘til he could move back to Roseburg with the rest of real mankind. If only he and Ed would stop laughing.
Dave, Ed and Scott boarded American Air for home. FIN