The beginnings of our nation began on this day in 1607. One-hundred colonists had arrived from England, eager to start a new life on new soil. The original settlement was called James Fort, named in honor of King James I, in what was to become Virginia. James Fort soon became known as Jamestown and the territory was known as Virginia because the Virginia Company in England had promoted this venture to the new world. Virginia was the name of Elizabeth I, the virgin queen of England who died in 1603.
Arrival in America was met with immediate challenges. A drought was occurring, so the ship rations were quickly consumed. Christopher Newport, captain of the voyage, took 40 crew members and returned to England in the summer of 1607 to report to the king and to gather more supplies. The Algonquians killed many of the settlers. Those who weren’t killed suffered from dysentery, typhoid, and starvation.
England continued to send more settlers and more supplies. Many of those who came suffered similar outcomes as the original settlers. The settlers made it through the drought, only to be hit with a harsh winter described as “The Starving Time,” during which more than 100 of them died. Firsthand accounts describe desperate people eating pets and shoe leather. Some Jamestown colonists even resorted to cannibalism. George Percy, the colony’s leade, wrote:
“”And now famine beginning to look ghastly and pale in every face that nothing was spared to maintain life and to do those things which seem incredible, as to dig up dead corpse out of graves and to eat them, and some have licked up the blood which hath fallen from their weak fellows.””1
Amazingly, there was growth in the colony despite the frequent setbacks. Attempts were made to form alliances with the Algonquins. The most famous of these was precipitated by the efforts of John Smith and the marriage of the Algonquin princess, Pocohontas, to John Rolfe.
Today, we have a population of 333.3 million people in the United States, and it all began 417 years ago with 100 colonists, most of which had died. Had it not been for the tenacity of those early settlers, many of us would still be under a king and we would be eating things like haggis, bangers, mash, Cullen skink, jellied eel, and black pudding.
While we are thankful that those early settlers weren’t quitters, aren’t you glad that those of the early church weren’t quitters, either? Think about what they went through.
Acts 4:1-3 And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, (2) Being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. (3) And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide.
Acts 5:17-18, 40 Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, (18) And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison… and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his [Stephen’s] death. And at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Many more passages could be read that would tell us about the persecution faced by the early church. Secular historians recorded the atrocities against Christians. Certainly, with so much persecution, those early believers could have quit, and Christianity would have dissolved. But that’s not what happened.
The church was birthed in the blood of Jesus and fueled by the blood of the martyrs. Paul said in Philippians 1:14 that, “… many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” The tenacity of these early saints was rooted in an Old Testament truth found in Psalms 27:13-14. “I had fainted (literally, I would have quit and given up), unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. (14) Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.”
Some days, we might feel like throwing in the towel and giving up. DON’T! Stay strong. Don’t quit. As the hymn writer said, “There are souls to rescue, there are souls to save, SEND THE LIGHT!” Like Jamestown, let’s keep sending more people and supplies to grow the colony – I mean, the KINGDOM!
1https://www.history.com/topics/colonial-america/jamestown
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