“Now the Lord had said unto Abram, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee.” Genesis 12:1
Could you do it? Could you get on a tiny ship in one country? Would you sail across the ocean not knowing where you will land? There was a group of people who had such strong beliefs in their desire to worship God freely that this is exactly what they did.
The Pilgrims hired a ship, the Mayflower, to take them and some other adventurous people across to the New World. There were 102 people aboard the ship making this big trip. Just over half were Pilgrims and their dependents. The rest were just people wanting a better way of life or freedom to own land, etc. Of the dependents, some were indentured servants; young people with no families brought to help and then be freed when they became of age.
The captain, Christopher Jones, was not a religious person at all. However, something impressed him about the Pilgrims on the way across the ocean. Maybe it was the way they met each hardship with a prayer to God and a plan? Maybe it was that in the face of seeing rough seas, they prayed? Or when the first person died on board ship, a young man, they did not despair.
What was the Mayflower like?
I remember visiting the Mayflower as a family when I was a teen. The replica sitting in the harbor was beautiful but as we approached it, I could see just how small this ship was. We were led down some stairs to the area where the passengers would have been living and it was VERY small with low ceilings. I can’t imagine the courage it took to sail across the Atlantic in cold temperatures in such a small ship!
Their faith was so real and so apparent that when land was spotted in late November, the captain told his crew he would not sail back to England until he knew they had shelters built.
This meant spending the winter on the ship and helping the new colonists to build homes. Their faith was so alive and real that even when person after person got sick and died, they did not give up.
Captain Jones saw this faith and I hope it led him to accept it for his own.