On Parliament Hill

On Thursday February 4th, I was pleased to attend the 63rd National Prayer Breakfast in Washington DC. This event highlighted the importance of praying for our nation and our leaders.

The National Prayer Breakfast is an annual event in Washington DC, which brings together thousands of people from over 140 countries. It attracts a number of high level dignitaries including an address by the President of the United States. Among the many dignitaries, I was honoured to meet Dr. Ben Carson, a current presidential nomination candidate.

Some of the notable speakers at the event included an address by President Barack Obama and Mark Burnett and Roma Downey acting as key note speakers. Mark is best known as the creator of reality shows such as “The Apprentice”, “Survivor”, “Shark Tank” and “The Voice”. While Rona is known for her role in the 1990’s series, “Touched by an Angel”.

With the number of high profile speakers, I was especially moved by the story of Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe. Sister Rosemary is a Catholic nun who has dedicated her life to helping girls formerly held captive by warlord Joseph Kony of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in northern Uganda.

For 25 years, under the leadership of Joseph Kony, the LRA abducted children for the purposes of recruiting child soldiers and sex trade workers. Both boys and girls were abducted, some forced to commit horrific crimes while many girls were made into sex slaves.

During the 25 year long war, Sister Rosemary and other nuns worked together to help and shelter innocent people from the ravages of war. Facing personal danger and a number of other serious challenges, Sister Rosemary’s vision became a reality when she successfully developed vocational schools to educate girls victimized by the LRA.

The schools have now become self-sustaining and have given students an opportunity to sew uniforms for local schools, cater for important events, and create purses from pop-tabs and yarn which they sell internationally.

Sister Rosemary’s work has drawn the attention of Bill and Chelsea Clinton, Forest Whitaker and other high-profile supporters.