Friday, November 21, 2008

Thanksgiving


It was a wonderful experience for me to teach a class at Redeemer (following our Reformation class) about the Reformation moving to North America. Specifically, we looked at the colony of Jamestown (Church of England) and Plymouth (Pilgrims, who were Calvinist separatists).

What made researching and presenting enjoyable for me was the opportunity to delve into the lives of extraordinary men and women (English and Indians) who had such a profound and lasting effect on this country. It was amazing to read about people like William Bradford who endured so much to live out their faith. In researching these people they came alive and I discovered (again) that the reality is much more profound than the myth.

Some suggested reading:
Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick
A Land as God Made It: Jamestown and the Birth of America, by James Horn

An excerpt from Mayflower:

"For sixty-five days the Mayflower had blundered her way through storms and headwinds, her bottom a shaggy pelt of seaweed and barnacles, her leaky decks spewing salt water onto her passenger's devoted heads. There were 102 of them - 104 if you counted the two dogs: a spaniel, and a giant, slobbery mastiff."

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