From a Texas Cattle Sale Barn to the US Capitol
Humble Beginnings
In 2006, Pastor Dan and JoAnn Cummins planted an interdenominational church in a cattle sale barn on the Kiepersol Ranch in the small East Texas community of Bullard, Texas. With a handful of friends, they started Bridlewood Church. Visiting every home in town they asked folks who had quit going to church for whatever reasons to let Bridlewood be their "last chance church." They grew from a handful to over a hundred people from every denomination you could name. About two years later they left the barn and moved into a storefront in town. No one could have ever guessed where this journey of faith would lead.
"Lord, if there is any way"
At the beginning of 2010, they began praying for America. In just a small storefront country church, Pastor Dan remembers closing their prayer service one Wednesday evening with these words, "Lord, if there is any way, open a door for this country church to be a blessing to our nation." Within three years that metaphoric "door" prayed for in a storefront church would become the literal door to the US Capitol in Washington, DC. On September 22, 2010, they organized about 30 churches in East Texas to gather in the Bushman Center in Bullard, Texas, asking folks to "COME PRAY WITH ME." Over a thousand people came. It was the first of several prayer rallies held in the East Texas area.
Washington A Man of Prayer 2012
The next step in their journey of faith came as JoAnn and Pastor Dan became part of the mobilization staff for The Response USA, a national prayer event in Houston's Reliant Stadium in the summer of 2011. Over 42,000 people came to pray for America.
A few months later, Pastor Dan had the idea of holding an event in Statuary Hall of the US Capitol to honor President Washington's first inaugural and the first act of that First Congress. On April 30, 1789, the newly elected president and Congress held a Divine Service in St. Paul's Chapel, led by the first Senate chaplain the Reverend Samuel Provost, to offer dedicatory prayers on behalf of the new Republic.
Pastor Dan and JoAnn had no idea the level of impossibilities they faced when emailing then Speaker of the House John Boehner asking him to allow the use of Statuary Hall, the original chamber of the House of Representatives, as the venue for their event - Washington A Man of Prayer.
On May 8, 2012, miracles-of-miracles, Speaker Boehner granted a storefront country pastor and his wife permission to use this prestigious room for their first "Washington A Man of Prayer" event in Statuary Hall. That was twelve years ago.
So much has happened since that Wednesday night prayer service in a storefront church in tiny Bullard, Texas. So many miracles have happened along the way it would take an entire website to list them.
Pastor Dan and JoAnn want to encourage you to never despise the day of small beginnings. Little is much when God is in it. Follow your dreams and visions. Inspire the world!
And most importantly know this, "God is not finished with America yet!"