On the right 
Kurt Daudt is the Speaker of the House in the Minnesota Legislature. He is on the left. He is one of the original Project 24 guys and was there at the project’s inception and also helped put video production together for publicity on a second trip. Our Kenyan friends were prophetic and they told us that they believed that Kurt would be a “high politician” one day. At that time Kurt was a county commissioner.
Rev. Don Fondow is the president of the Minnesota North District of the LCMS and he spoke the invocation at the legislative assembly. I don’t know if he was able to bang the gavel or not but he gets to do that in his District conventions. Pastor Fondow is partnering with Project 24 and the LCMS to work on Project 24 and build a center in Kenya along with the North Dakota District (North Dakota voted in their convention for a modified approach).
On the right is Deb Kiel, a member of Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Crookston and she will probably get a 6 degrees of separation article here someday.
Right here we see in action the Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms that is often reviled by some but amazing in it’s simplicity and Biblical fidelity.
LCMS President Matthew Harrison explains it like this.
“We stand and bear witness to the genius of Luther’s two-kingdom doctrine. Religion and government are distinct. “Our churches teach that lawful civil regulations are good works of God. They teach that it is right for Christians to hold political office, to serve as judges, to judge matters by imperial laws and other existing laws, to impose just punishments, to engage in just wars, to serve as soldiers, to make legal contracts to hold property . . .” (Augsburg Confession XVI 1–2). “The Gospel does not introduce laws about the public state, but is the forgiveness of sins and the beginning of a new life in the hearts of believers” (Apology of the Augsburg Confession XVI 58). “Therefore the two governments, the spiritual and secular, should not be mingled or confused” (Augsburg Confession XVIII 12). Governments do not possess authority over the mind and heart, and certainly not faith. “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s” (Mark 12:17). We seek no Christian government per se. We seek governments that recognize the basic and universal dignity of all people, the right of free speech for all people, and the right of freedom of faith and worship for all people and all religions. Such freedom guarantees the free course of the Gospel.”
Take the time to thanks God for the elected leaders of our country at whatever level who trust in Christ and serve their country in elected offices and fulfill their vocation in God’s world.
