Dear friends, after a remarkable weekend, we are preparing our reports on the 2004 SAICFF. In the meantime, here is a long overdue blog on a very special day in Lexington, Virginia. DWP
With gratitude in our hearts for the mighty providence of God, the 2004 Vision Forum Faith and Freedom Tour stayed the date of September 25 in Lexington, Virginia. There we traversed the campus of Washington and Lee, camped out on the lawn of the Virginia Military Institute, toured the home of Stonewall Jackson, and finally paid our respects by the grave of the man who was probably America’s most orthodox and distinctively Christian general.
Bill Potter recounted the remarkable Christian life of Jackson’s friend and aide, Sandy Pendleton, by the grave of this heroic Confederate officer.
Vision Forum board member Scott Brown and I called for the young men and women (respectively) to come forward and have their fathers pray a patriarchal blessing over them. These men pledged to love their daughters, to walk beside their daughters, and to seek their daughter’s prosperity with renewed vigor. They asked the Lord to raise their daughters as virtuous women, with a love for children and a passion for the home, to send them faithful covenant keeping husbands, and to bless them with legions of children.
Dear fathers, we must dream big dreams for our daughters. We must constantly exhort and encourage them to follow the biblical path of the virtuous woman. We must communicate hope to them. I was not surprised when several of the young women told us that this time of prayer and blessing of fathers over their daughters was the most memorable and encouraging part of a truly blessed trip.
The men prayed that their sons would be godly, covenant keeping, sacrificial, manly men of action. It is exciting to think what the Lord will do with young men who know their history, who love their God, and who have fathers to walk beside them.
Jackson’s cannons: Mathew, Mark, Luke, and John may now be silent, but on this day (September 25) the Gospel was preached again, and with power, at the Virginia Military Institute.
Federals and Confederates were at peace one with another on this great day.
Sarah and Hannah Zes have been traveling with Vision Forum for our Faith and Freedom Tours for half a decade. You can hear their beautiful testimony as daughters who turned their heart to their father on the Vision Forum tape “Victory for Daughters.”
Vision Forum friend, Mr. Jim Reid and family.
VMI is just a sleepy memory to a very exhausted Faith Evangeline Phillips.