Tag: America

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Remembering the Pilgrim Fathers

On 6 September 1620 the Mayflower sailed from Plymouth to America, the New World, carrying 102 passengers and 25 crew. Most of the passengers were Christians who have come to be known as the “Pilgrim Fathers.” It was not an easy trip with cramped living quarters for a journey taking 2 months. The first half of the voyage was smooth and pleasant but then the weather changed to continuous North-easterly storms. One passenger died, a baby was born, and for several days they could not use their sails and simply drifted until the storm subsided. On 11 November 1620 they set anchor at Cape Cod and thanked the God of heaven who “had brought them safely over the vast and furious ocean.” During the bitter winter, the passengers remained on board Mayflower, suffering scurvy, pneumonia and tuberculosis, which killed half the passengers and crew.

Why did the Pilgrim Fathers leave England for the New World? The “Pilgrims” were Christians who based their faith and life on the Bible and wished to be free to organise religious congregations separate from the English State Church. At the time this was illegal. They were known as “Separatists” because they believed they should be free to establish true churches which were voluntary, democratic communities, separate from the State. They experienced fierce persecution and some of their leaders were imprisoned and executed on charges of sedition. Some had fled to Holland before travelling to America.

The “Pilgrims” had a significant influence on the history of America. In July 1776 The Declaration of Independence stated, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” The First Amendment, ratified in 1791, states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Today the Pledge of Allegiance states that the republic of the United States of America is “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The “Pilgrims” knew that true liberty is found in knowing God and being guided by the truths he has revealed in the Bible. In submitting to God’s authority, we find real freedom. When we cast off all restraints in an attempt to be “free” it leads only to being enslaved. Jesus came “to proclaim liberty to the captives and to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” He said, “If the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”

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When I consider your heavens

The SpaceX rocket, Endeavour, has taken two NASA astronauts, Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, into orbit. It’s the first time since the space shuttles were retired in 2011 that an American crew has made the journey from American soil. The SpaceX crew capsule docked at the International Space Station 19 hours after launch. The hope is that this will be the first step in a programme which will take people to the Moon and then to Mars.

Since November 2000 the International Space Station has been occupied continuously by 240 people from 19 countries. An international crew of 6 people live and work there while travelling at a speed of 5 miles per second, orbiting the earth every 90 minutes. In 24 hours, the space station makes 16 orbits of Earth, the equivalent of going to the Moon and back, travelling through 16 sunrises and sunsets.

The first man to journey into outer space was Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who completed one orbit of the earth in April 1961. Later Nikita Khrushchev, the President of the Soviet Union, said “Gagarin flew into space, but didn’t see any god there.” However, many people who have travelled into space have found it to be an awesome experience.

On Christmas Eve 1968 the crew of Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, made a live television broadcast from lunar orbit, showing pictures of the Earth and the Moon. Jim Lovell said, “The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realise just what you have back there on Earth.” William Anders said, “For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you.” Then the crew took turns reading from the first chapter of book of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

King David, like most of us, never travelled into space but was moved to worship as he gazed in wonder at the heavens. In Psalm 8 he wrote, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? You have made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honour. You made them rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”

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John Wesley’s Story

The 24th May 1738 was a very significant day in the life of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism in England. He became one of the greatest spiritual leaders in English history playing a key role in the 18th century revival of religion. John was the son of Samuel and Susanna Wesley. Of the 19 children Susanna bore, only 3 sons and 7 daughters survived. Samuel was the Rector of Epworth and Susanna was a strongminded mother who practised strict discipline with her children.

John and his brother Charles, the great hymnwriter, went to Oxford University, where they started a small group of students, nicknamed “the Holy Club”, which met for prayer and Bible study. The group stressed the need for both a deep inward faith and practical service to those in need. They visited the sick and those in prison. When he left Oxford in 1735, John accepted an invitation to go, with his brother Charles, as missionaries to the recently founded colony of Georgia.

During the voyage to America there was a terrifying storm and John was afraid he was going to die. He attended a service on board ship with a group of German Moravian Christians. During the service a huge wave engulfed the ship and water poured down into the cabins. The Moravians continued singing – men, women and children – seemingly unafraid. Later John asked one of the Moravians why they hadn’t been afraid. The man told him that because they knew God they were not afraid to die. John realised that they had something he didn’t have. They were able to face death because they knew that God was never going to let them go.

After returning from Georgia, John attended a meeting of Moravian Christians in Aldersgate Street on 24th May 1738. He was not keen to go but at that meeting he had a profound spiritual experience. John described what happened to him, “About a quarter before nine, while the man was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.” John was no longer afraid of dying. Between 1738 and his death in 1791 he travelled more than 250,000 miles and preached more than 40,000 sermons proclaiming to many people the same message by which he had come to know God and England was transformed.

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We will remember them

In 1919 King George V inaugurated Remembrance Day when Commonwealth member states remember those of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. It is held each year at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, which was the time when hostilities ceased in World War I. Many other non-Commonwealth countries also observe the day. There are now very few former soldiers alive who experienced the terrible conflicts of World War II, but what they say reminds us of the horrific nature of battles like those on the beaches of Normandy following the D-Day landings.

On 6 June 1944 infantry and armoured divisions from America, Britain and Canada began landing on the French coast. As soon as they landed, they came under heavy enemy gunfire. Many of the 24,000 Allied soldiers who landed on the beaches died or were seriously injured on the first day. Alan King, who survived D-Day, said, “We weren’t heroes, we were just boys. We were terrified. Since our life expectancy after landing was just one hour, we kept each other going. After I got back, for the first 40 years, I didn’t think about it. Didn’t want to.”

Harry Billinge, a 94-year-old veteran of D-Day, decided to raise £22,442, a pound for every British soldier who died in the Normandy campaign, to help with the construction of the British Normandy Memorial at Ver-sur-Mer. He has exceeded his target. When he was interviewed on the BBC’s Breakfast programme and was shown the Memorial under construction, he choked back tears as he saw the names of those who had died. He said, “Don’t thank me and don’t say I’m a hero. All the heroes are dead, and I’ll never forget them as long as I live. My generation saved the world and I’ll never forget any of them.”

Harry said that when he was 4 years old, he went to Sunday School where his teacher, Miss Thompson, taught the children a chorus that he said was as source of strength to him amidst the horrors on the Normandy beaches on D-Day. “In loving-kindness Jesus came my soul in mercy to reclaim, and from the depths of sin and shame through grace he lifted me. Now on a higher plain I dwell, and with my soul I know ‘tis well; yet how or why, I cannot tell, he should have lifted me. From sinking sand he lifted me, with tender hand he lifted me, from shades of night to plains of light, O praise his name, he lifted me!”

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The story of Tani Adewumi

Tani Adewumi was born in Nigeria. His parents are Christians and were aware of the rise of Boko Haram. The school Tani attended hired security guards and every Sunday, when they went to church, everyone had to pass through an airport-style metal detector. As a family the Adewumis kept a low profile to avoid the militants. But when Mr. Adewumi refused to take on a job from Boko Haram in his printing shop, the family became targets. After a number of near misses and close calls the family fled to America.

They claimed asylum and moved into a homeless shelter in New York. Tani’s father joined other refugees doing low-paid manual work – driving Uber taxis, washing dishes and cleaning houses. Eight-year-old Tani joined a chess club. He had never played the game before. In early 2019, within a year of taking up chess, Tani competed at the New York State Championship and became the champion. The New York Times wrote an article on the homeless kid who had become State Champion. The story went viral.

In March 2019 Tani’s coach set up a crowdfunding page. He hoped to raise a few thousand dollars so the family could move out of the shelter and rent somewhere of their own. Within four hours they had raised $10,000 and in less than two weeks the total reached $260,000! Some people gave large sums, but most gave $5 or $10. Someone bought the Adewumis a car, and another person paid for a year’s rent on an apartment, their first home since fleeing Nigeria two years earlier.

Even before they moved out of the shelter into their new apartment, the Adewumis decided they would do something amazing. Mrs. Adewumi explained, “What had started as a need for a home had become something far bigger. The outpouring of generosity from people all over the world had been far greater than we could have ever imagined. We felt compelled to do something equally great with the money that had been given. We wanted to give other people the same opportunity as we had been given to see their lives transformed.” So, the Adewumis decided to form the Tanitoluwa Adewumi Foundation and to give away the money they had been given – all of it!

The Adewumis know and love Jesus and he is the inspiration for what they are doing. The Apostle Paul wrote, “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.”

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Forgive us our debts

Student debt is a massive problem. Young people who go to university or college in Britain are given loans to help pay their tuition fees and living costs. Every year £16 billion is loaned to students. The value of outstanding loans is more than £105 billion. The Government forecasts the value of outstanding student loans will rise to £450 billion in the next 30 years. The average debt of a recent cohort of students, who have completed their courses, is £32,000. It is estimated that only 30% of current full-time graduates who take out loans will repay them in full.

In America the problem is even greater and has become an issue in the run up to the 2020 presidential election. The total U.S. student loan debt is more than $1.3 trillion and affects 44 million people. The average loan balance is $37,000 and increases every year because of interest charges. Today many Americans in their 20s, 30s and 40s consider themselves fortunate if their job pays them enough to make their student loan repayments. Some former students refer to their loans as a “debt sentence” which they will carry throughout their whole life.

The recent action of billionaire technology investor Robert F Smith has brought great joy to one class of students at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Morehouse College was established soon after the American Civil War to provide education for black male students. Martin Luther King Jnr. was a student at Morehouse. When he was at the College to receive an honorary doctorate, Robert Smith told the students in the class of 2019 that he would pay their student loans. More than 400 students will benefit from this gift which will cost tens of millions of dollars. The College President said the gift will give the students “the liberty to follow their dreams.”

The biggest problem we all face is not financial debt but the debt we owe to God because of our sins. Every day this debt grows, and we can never repay it. The greatest act of love and generosity in the whole of human history was when Jesus, God’s Son, gave his life to pay the debt of our sins. Every day millions of people pray to God, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” When we confess our sins to God, and experience his forgiveness, he sets us free to live a new life in fellowship with him; the life for which we were created.

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All the lonely people

Many people are lonely, especially in the developed world. People are living longer than ever before and see their close friends and family die. Broken relationships, between husbands and wives and parents and children, mean that many people live on their own. At our work place or college we may be surrounded by people but at the end of the day we return to our homes and are alone. Almost 50% of people in America say they feel alone or left out always or sometimes. It is not only the elderly who feel lonely, many young people are lonely. Even those who have many “friends” on social media miss meaningful human friendship and companionship.

A new pet robot called Lovot, has been designed in Japan to be a comforting presence for lonely elderly people. It uses Artificial Intelligence and facial recognition and will be on sale in the USA next year for more than $5000. It has cartoon eyes and furry arms and doesn’t speak or respond to commands. It has been designed to respond to those who talk to it and hug it and it gravitates to those who show it most love. Its designer says, “We try to train people with the power of love to be ready for loving something else.” He claims Lovot will make people “truly happy.” However, after 50 minutes activity Lovot needs to be recharged!

Human relationships are important because God is a personal God. The Bible teaches us there is only one God and that within the godhead there are three “persons”, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, who are bound together in a relationship of eternal love. God has created us as relational beings with an innate capacity to love God and one another. The greatest commands God has given us are profoundly relational. We are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our strength and also to love our neighbour as we love ourselves. When we love God and each other we experience the joy and fulfilment God created us to know.

When we pray we are talking to the living God who hears us, loves us and knows all our needs. He is always with us. Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we also forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”

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Martin Luther King’s Dream

On 4 April 1968 Dr Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated. He was just 39 years old. He was a great civil rights leader who spoke for black people in America. At the age of 35 he received the Nobel Peace Prize and in 1963 was named Man of the Year by Time magazine. He travelled extensively and spoke passionately highlighting the injustices black people in America were suffering. He was a Baptist minister who found inspiration for his powerful speeches in the great themes of the Bible, and especially the teaching of Jesus Christ. Because of this Dr King still speaks to the injustices of our divided world.

His best-known speech, “I Have a Dream”, was delivered on 28 August 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. In his speech Dr King said, “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream that one day ‘every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.’ When this happens we will speed up that day when all of God’s children will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”

Dr King knew there were serious threats to kill him. The same hope in God he inspired in others was also the foundation for his own personal hope. On the night before he died he gave a speech in Memphis, Tennessee, in which he said, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will and he’s allowed me to go up to the mountain and I’ve looked over and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything! I’m not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!”

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When we lose everything

What do you do when you lose everything? Pictures of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Irma on islands in the Caribbean, such as Barbuda and the British Virgin Islands, are heart-breaking. People have lost their homes and all their possessions. They were helpless in the face of the power of the hurricane. When reporters talked to them you could see the shock and bewilderment on their faces as they looked at the ruins of what was once their home. Re-establishing normal life again is a daunting task. Some, however, said that, although they have lost everything, they are thankful to God that they and their loved ones are alive.

In America people have been remembering the events of the 9th September 2001, when the attacks on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York killed 2,997 people and injured more than 6000 others. The total collapse of the towers stunned all who witnessed it and those around the world who saw the pictures. Hearing the stories of those who lost loved ones in the attacks brings home their sense of absolute helplessness as, in the minutes after the attacks, they spoke on the telephone to relatives who were trapped in the towers with no possibility of escape. All they could do was tell each other “I love you” and pray.

The Bible tells the story of a man called Job. He was a blameless and upright man who feared God. He had seven sons and three daughters, and owned thousands of sheep, camels, oxen and donkeys. He also had many servants. On the same day, all his animals were stolen or killed by lightning and all his sons and daughters died as the house in which they were enjoying a meal together was struck by a tornado and collapsed. He lost everything. When the news of these devastating events came to Job, he tore his robe and shaved his head and fell to the ground in worship saying, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Devastating loss is not a sign of God’s displeasure or an indication that those who experience it are worse people than others. We can pray for those who are seeking to rebuild their lives that God will give them the strength they need and also that he will make us truly thankful for all the blessings he has graciously given us.

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Open my eyes that I may see

Scientists at the University of California have developed a remarkable new treatment for infants who have been born with congenital cataracts. The scientists removed the damaged lens and used the patient’s own stem cells to regrow a “living lens” in their eye. In just 3 months the regenerative stem cells have grown into a new, fully functioning and transparent lens. The procedure was successful in all 12 infants under the age of 2, and was without complication compared to the traditional use of plastic lens. The treatment has real potential to be used for other eye conditions.

I remember seeing a programme about North Korea. Eye surgeons from America had gone to the country to perform cataract operations on many patients. When the bandages were taken off the people were full of joy that they could see again. The first thing they saw was a large photograph of their President and they immediately began enthusiastically to give thanks to him for restoring their sight. They knew that, if they were not enthusiastic in their praise, their lives would be in danger. It was very sad.

Our bodies are a masterpiece of God’s creative wisdom and power. In Psalm 139 David reflects on the way God had created him and given him life. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!”

Thankfully we are free to recognise the goodness and kindness of God who blesses us in countless ways. So we must be careful not to close our eyes to the glory of God revealed in the creation around us and especially in his Son, Jesus Christ. One hymn encourages us to ask God to open our eyes to see his truth. “Open my eyes, that I may see, glimpses of truth thou hast for me; place in my hands the wonderful key that shall unclasp and set me free. Silently now I wait for thee, ready, my God, thy will to see. Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!”