PICO doesn’t have an effort in Little Rock, Arkansas, but you might not know it from a short trip to First United Methodist Church. The exhibit was set up on Sunday, November 1st, and church goers– from the simply curious to the deeply committed– had the opportunity to experience the stories from all over the country.

A group of leaders from the congregation gathered to reflect on the moral obligation to provide quality, affordable health care for all people.  After prayer and reading from Scripture, Rev. Edward Matthews, the former Pastor, offered a faith reflection based on the writings of Thomas Moore: “The things dear Lord, that we pray for, give us the grace to work for.”

“If we’re going to pray for the relief of the poor, for a new health program, we have to work for it,” Rev. Matthews said. “And this group right here is committed to do that.”

Watch the news coverage of the event in Little Rock, Arkansas, below:

I started to blog the events of Tuesday in Washington, D.C., but I kept realizing that the most exciting parts of the day happened in the halls of the Senate office buildings and the White House… Places the exhibit didn’t visit!  So before I wrote posts about the twenty security clearings that we had to go through before setting up in the Capitol, I thought we should hear from the people that brought our stories to our Senators, Representatives, and administration officials in meetings all day on Tuesday. So here is the first guest blog feature from Washington, D.C.   Christy Figueroa, a leader from San Diego, writes about her experience in Washington, D.C.:

I have to admit that on my way to DC I didn’t know what to expect but still I was excited just knowing that GOD is good and his work is so rewarding.  I had a thirst to leave a touching memory of our family’s stories and the message that affordability is soooooo important to all of us across the nation!  I kept thinking to myself…. “how can I make a difference and bring it back home proudly?”.  Karen and I shared some stories and knew that we had a big trip ahead of us…. Unsure of the specifics, but ready to go.  It’s funny because I thought I talk a lot, but Karen keeps up with me!!! Lol.

Okay, when we got to the hotel I had NO ROOM reserved and the hotel was full!!!  I got a little worried and realized this was not how I was going to allow my trip to start nor end.  Ended up with a great room!  Thank you Jesus!  In this room Hannah 1 and 2, Tim, Karen, Angela and myself put together our skills and came up with our plan for capital hill! I had the meat of my part as Chair, but knew I needed to sleep on the dessert!  Oh! This first night we all became Policy Experts  love it!

We got an early start meeting with Boxer and Feinstein’s offices and leaving a huge stack of stories with their staff member, but we certainly made great efforts to succeed in our goals.  Great teamwork Karen! Straight to the press conference we went. Powerful, Powerful testimonies given by every single one of our Leaders.  Powerful Prayer and We looked GREAT!  Gordon and all the staff,Thank You!  Your leadership is outstanding!

Then we had just an insightful, informative and motivating meeting with Health and Human Services where I feel proud to be a part of as we were highly respected and appreciated as a National organization.  Congratulations to all of you!!!  Our efforts across the country were recognized as the driver of Healthcare Reform Affordability and we felt really good about this visit.  I felt smarter and smarter!  Karen and I walked over to Congresswoman Susan Davis’ office and met with Spencer Young.  This was informal but productive and I let him know that we wanted to recognize Susan and him for their continued support.  Susan was scheduled to fly in from San Diego that evening @ 5:30pm., our event would be ending but she would stop in… My prayers began.

Still feeling good about our progress and his responses we took a taxi to…..  Where????….  The White House!!!! Just Beautiful!We were welcomed by Joshua DuBois’ assistant who rushed over to start the meeting for Joshua because he was tied up in a meeting.  Again,
told that we were all to be thanked and recognized for our work.  We were told that amongst the top organizations, we were up there!!!  WOW!  The administration said this!!!  Great meeting and Joshua came in pretty quick to
meet with us.  He opened his door to our work and is willing to support our efforts by relaying the messages to his boss!!!!!!!!!!!!!~  It doesn’t get any better than that!!!  Oh no!  Now its time to go back to the capital for our exhibition.  As the exhibition was getting the finishing touches I sat down and gathered my thoughts to chair the meeting.  I didn’t feel it until
now!!!  We had a great experience and everything was going great… Spencer was there and I recognized him and Susan Davis as mentioned.  I noticed he hung around a bit… Then Susan Davis walks in and is greeted and thanked. She was so impressed with our exhibition that she asked for the room to be used longer so that the congressional caucus members could come see it after their caucus ended.  Long story short, Susan brought everyone in with us including Pelosi and Waxman!!! About 20-30 of them came in and we shared our stories with them!!!  Gotta go for now…..