The Rescue Alpha and Omega

How do you sum up the most amazing week of your life in a single blog entry?

You don't.

For those who are unfamiliar with The Rescue, know the following points:
1- 30,000 children have been abducted from their homes in East Africa over the past 23 years in the longest running war in Africa. 3,000 are still fighting as child soldiers today.

2- I have been heavily involved with an organization called Invisible Children since 2005. We work to be the voices and to show the faces of these "invisible children" in this war to the world.

3- From mid-February to April 24th I worked with Invisible Children intern Daniel Trigg as well as SLU student Cassie Herrington and filmographer Dan Parris to plan out the event called The Rescue which took place in 10 countries, in 100 cities

4- April 25th was the start of this epic adventure called "The Rescue"; The event would not end until someone of cultural influence came to the rescue of the city by making a statement of support. Saint Louis was rescued by NFL linebacker Chris Chamberlain at 2pm on Sunday April 26th and then it was off to Wichita with Emily and Brittany and Trigg as well as 8 or so of our new friends from Nashville, TN

5- Wichita was rescued at 10am by a representative of Senator Brownback's office and I was back in Columbia, MO ready to sit through my film class (a bizarre feeling, to be sure)

6- Thursday night, April 30, I get a text from Brittany Heenan that I need to get to Chicago--the final unrescued city--NOW. She puts me on speaker phone so I can hear Jason Russell speak to the masses of people assembled in Munster, IN about the plan of action for the next day

7- After an agonizing hour of debate, I throw myself in my car with Brittany Toon and Brandon Schatsiek and we speed off to The Rescue: Chicago to hopefully make it in time to catch Oprah rescue all 500 of us gathered outside her studios

8- 6:30am or so I get a text stating that Oprah is in fact going to rescue us--still 2 hours outside Chicago

9- 8:50 we park the car and SPRINT to Harpo Studios where we find the masses of people in AK-47 tshirts standing ready to go on Live TV in ten minutes, anticipating the END of The Rescue!

10- Oprah rescues Chicago on Live tv at 9:00am, to be replayed at 4:00pm that same day for the rest of the nation! It brought me to tears for the first time in years; tears of joy.

This is possibly the most emotion-less entry I could submit for the most emotional time of my life, but as I stated before, it would be impossible to sum up the experience accurately. I was rescued by Oprah, reunited with my family, in the presence of some of the most amazing people ever to walk the earth, and a firsthand witness to the beginning of the end of the Longest Running War in Africa!