Over 4,000 miles, across 14 states, and visiting 10 Family Policy Councils, the FPC Summer Tour was an incredible experience.

Where are FPC’s headed in the future?  Let’s hear from the Presidents to see what they think…

On our final stop of the tour, we were in Virginia to meet with The Family Foundation. One of the oldest FPC’s now has one of the youngest FPC Presidents.  Victoria Cobb, who started as an intern with TFF in college, invited Sam and me to a special pastor’s breakfast on Friday morning.  The breakfast was to help launch their new program, Winning Matters. TFF, much like other FPC’s, are encouraging pastors to make sure their congregations are informed and involved in the political process.

While many Christians assume that everyone around them on Sunday morning is an active voter, studies have shown that sometimes nearly 50% of church-going adults don’t vote. Why does winning matter? Well, we have seen a trend across the country that it only takes a few hundred votes (as TFF pointed out to pastors, that’s just a normal sized church) to change a legislature from pro-life to pro-choice, from liberal to conservative.

Virginia is also unique in that it has an election this year for state-wide positions as well as their House delegates. The Family Foundation is putting a lot of effort, prayer, planning, and finances into making sure that voters are informed for this election, that Christians are voting, and that pro-family leaders are elected.  

Thanks to Victoria and The Family Foundation for sharing their work with us. We look forward to hearing some great things in Virginia, especially during the upcoming elections.

Enjoy this music video we made on the trip today.  

 

Just to let everyone know, we have safely arrived in Washington, D.C.  

We’ll be posting a very funny video soon.  Our video from our 10th stop, The Family Foundation in Virginia will be up sometime next week.  

Sam will also be putting together a final video with some footage that we haven’t shown from some of the interviews.  That will be up in the next week, so make sure to check back.

For now, thanks for being apart of this crazy tour!

Today we got a chance to visit with some of the staff from NC FPC.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to grab an interview since they were in the middle of some tough legislative battles.  Much like West Virginia, a few people in the NC legislature are preventing the people from voting on a marriage amendment. This is the main battle that NC FPC will be fighting for the next few years, hopefully before a court radically redefines marriage in North Carolina.  

Take a look at our quick video from our stop at the NC FPC.  

P.S. – NC FPC did impress us because their entire office is run on Mac computers (same as Jeremy Dys in WV).  For all you FPC’s out there that are sick of having your PC’s freezing, shutting down, and not working, you should follow suit and load up your office with Macbooks.  (Disclaimer: Apple did not pay me to say any of that)

Over the Tour, we’ve met with some leaders that have been involved with FPC’s for almost their entire careers. Jeremy Dys, President of FPC of WV, is no exception. Except unlike the leaders that we’ve met that have had careers spanning decades, Jeremy’s work has just began over the past few years. In that short time, Jeremy has been a strong and often singular voice for families in West Virginia. The past few months, he led a charge to encourage the state legislature to let the people of West Virginia vote on a marriage amendment.

While most of the state legislature would have been fine with letting the people decide, a select few in power made sure that this wouldn’t happen in 2009. Other than these few politicians getting in the way, perhaps the biggest battle is convincing the people of West Virginia that they are just a court decision away from seeing marriage radically redefined by judges. Over the next few months and years, Jeremy will be leading the charge at FPC of WV to make sure that the people have a chance to vote on marriage’s definition before the courts decide.

It was very enjoyable to spend time hearing Jeremy’s passion for his state and the work he does. Unlike the other Presidents that we’ve visited, the word “potential” comes to mind after visiting with Jeremy. While many FPC’s are looking at victories in the rearview mirror, FPC of WV’s biggest victories lie on the road ahead of them.

On Tuesday, Sam and I had a chance to meet with the man responsible for electing President Bush in 2004. Well, at least that’s who Phil Burress is known as nationally. But in the Buckeye State of Ohio, Phil is known for his strong stance against pornography, sexual-oriented businesses, and cleaning up indecency in his hometown of Cincinnati. As President of Citizens for Community Values, Phil leads the effort in keeping indecency out of Ohio.  

While Phil could probably tell an impressive history, from being one of the first pro-family activists in starting marriage amendments in states around the country, he would rather tell you how his relationship with Jesus Christ changed his life 180 degrees, ending his battle with pornography addiction. While Phil could talk for hours about his own accomplishments in the political world, he would rather talk about the Lord’s work in the country that Phil has been apart of.     

Phil is known as one of the most influential grassroots leaders and is someone that everyone respects and admires among the “FPC world.” It was a joy to spend a few hours just hearing stories from him about being one of the first leaders of the movement to define marriage across the country.  

On Tuesday, Phil was even gracious enough to treat us to a visit to the Creation Museum, which was a great experience. 

Tonight – Wednesday – we just arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina.  We’ll be putting up our video from West Virginia later today.

We kicked off our 2nd week of the FPC Summer Tour with Curt Smith and the staff at Indiana Family Institute. At every stop along the way, we are meeting people with very unique backgrounds, and Curt is no different. Starting out as a journalist and then moving into the political world in D.C., Curt has an extensive history of running successful campaigns and leading winning issues. Around the country and especially in Indiana, it is hard to go far without running into someone who has worked under Curt’s leadership. Much like many people involved in the work of FPC’s, Curt felt a calling to leave a successful career in D.C. for God’s work at IFI.

IFI has two unique programs that we’ve yet to really see on the tour thus far.

While liberals want to attack conservatives for not working to strengthen marriages, IFI is a great example of an FPC that is leading the charge to truly strengthen marriages in their state.  As leaders for the upcoming Hoosier Commitment program, IFI will be working with inner-city couples to build stronger marriages and stronger futures for families in Indiana. By lessening the burden of government to help fix the fragmented family, IFI will be playing a leading role in preventing families from being torn apart.

Another very unique part of IFI’s work is their Policy Leadership Series which develops young conservative leaders to be informed on issues and ready to be leaders in the government and the marketplace. This program, which has only been in existence for a few years, will hopefully pay dividends in the future as these young leaders start to make an impact in the Hoosier state.

It will be very exciting to see the results of these two unique programs that IFI will be leading.

I just wanted to make sure you checked out a little bit of our bloopers from our tour thus far…there are more to come.  

 

It seems that at every stop along the tour, Sam and I are completely in awe of what we are experiencing. Rolling into Kentucky on Thursday evening, we were exhausted from 5 long days and over 2,000 miles. When we arrived in Lexington, we had a burst of energy after we had dinner with Kent Ostrander, The Family Foundation’s Executive Director. Kent, much like Jerry Cox in Arkansas, has been leading this organization for over 20 years.    

Kent shared with us in great detail how The Family Foundation is built around relationships instead of causes, around people instead of finances. Unlike the FPC’s that we have seen so far, TFF is set up in a very unique way. With a representative in almost every part/corner of the state, Kent directs things from his office in Lexington while the rest of the staff works from their homes. In each area of the state, TFF has a staff person that develops relationships with the communities, speak at churches, and is able to inform their community about what issues are going on in the public policy arena.  

During each part of the tour so far we have asked the FPC directors if they feel that family/conservative values are on the decline or will be lost. For the most part, the answer has been that these values are still strong. However, Kent gave us an answer that we had not heard before. He said there is some truth to the idea that our values are on the decline (especially as higher education often succeeds at tearing down in kids what the families have built). But in realizing that, he said that as FPC’s, we must be encouraging churches and believers to stand up and be “more salt and more light.”  

Kent and The Family Foundation are doing exactly that in Kentucky.  

At the mid-way point of this adventure, we can’t say enough about the southern hospitality that we received so far. Everyone has been so gracious in opening up their homes to 2 strangers from Phoenix. Sam and I leave every town completely amazed at how blessed we have been. It is such a blessing to be connected to others around this country because of our values and because of Christ.