After we left Khao-I-Dang we did not find out until the next day that the North Vietnamese had probed and killed 30 people right there at the intersection in front of the Khao-I-Dang Camp just after we left. You may recall that I wrote about the man at that camp who had been the only pastor in Cambodia, and how the Khmer Rouge had found him and put him into one of their killing fields camps. I told how God had actually sent one of his “shinning angels” to miraculously protect him from certain execution, just like others Billy Graham wrote about in his book, Angels.
However, we wanted to visit one more refugee camp before dark, Sa Kaeo II. By now things were working just as the KGB had planned. The North Vietnamese Communists were coming into Cambodia and driving the Khmer Rouge out. This was a new camp and was already mostly populated by Khmer Rouge refugees who were themselves escaping Cambodia.
When we arrived, they were pulling this enormous chain across the entrance to block any North Vietnamese tanks from coming in. There were no UN people there. The place was run by a Thai officer. They called him down to the entrance to check our credentials, and right away we found how casual this place was. He came down only clad in his T-shirt and his drawers. He was really nice. He put a soldier on the outside step of our little bus with his automatic weapon and told us to go anywhere we wished.
Everything there was made of big stalks of bamboo, and most all of it was still green. The people here were much younger than the previous camp, and there were many young children.
I walked up to the top of a hill where a Swiss NGO had constructed a hospital. All workers at the hospital had already gone home, but there was a group of the most interesting young boys gathered there. They were all between the ages of 12 and 16. But what was so strange was that almost every one of them had some kind of injury. Some had lost a leg or an arm or and eye, but most just had flesh wounds that were almost healed. They all crowded around me, for they were all in the process of learning English in the hopes of getting to the US some day and had never met an American.
One of the older ones was named Hem-Hatch. He could speak fairly good English, so I asked him about all these boys. Where were their parents? He said: “No parents.” So I asked: “What is your story?” So, he told me that they all had the same story. They had all been in Cambodia in different villages. The Khmer Rouge had come to their villages and lined everyone up and started going down the line, shooting every person, one at a time. These guys saw their parents and siblings shot. They realized that if they did not get out of there, they were going to be dead. So, they just bolted for the jungle. They ran as fast as they could, zigzagging as they ran to dodge the bullets. Most had been hit at least once or lost an eye to the thorns as they crashed through the jungle. What a strange group of orphans, but they were full of energy and enthusiasm.
I corresponded with Hem-hatch for quite a while and sent him some Thai Baht that I could buy at a Dallas bank. I don’t know what finally happened to him. In the last letter I received from him he stated that he had the chance to go to France, but they were trying to get him to go back into Cambodia. I wrote him to get his rear-end into France, for I knew that the North Vietnamese were intercepting those repatriation busses as soon as they crossed the border and killing everyone on them.
When I got back to our little bus, the folks there had found this young lady. She was somewhere between age 19 to 24. She was one of those new Christians that were coming out of Cambodia that I mentioned earlier. And they were not just casual Christians. That terror had bonded them so close to God that it was spooky. This girl had taken upon herself the task to teach bible stories and Christian principals to every young child in the camp that she possibly could. She was teaching groups of children all day and into the night. There were 90,000 people already in that camp. She stayed on the verge of exhaustion all the time. Her dream was to get to the US and attend a bible-oriented college some day.
She gave me the name and address of a young lady friend who worked for the UN and would be able to bring things into the camp to her. When I got back to Dallas I went to several Christian book stores and bought all the different boxes of felt bible stories and sent them to her. Those are where you put up the different characters of a bible story on a felt board for the children as you tell the story. She wrote back how thrilled she was and how she used them to great effect for all those children. I also sent her quite a lot of Thai Baht so that she could buy things such as soccer balls for the older children.
So, before we left, we wanted to have a prayer for this lovely young Christian lady. I was sitting on the front row of the little bus and she sat just above me on the chrome supports. After we prayed, she prayed. And I will never forget for the rest of my life what happened. The bus was air conditioned, so it must have been cooler than normal for her. But as she prayed, I felt water dripping down onto me. When that girl prayed, the intensity of her prayer, the intensity of her communication with God, caused her to become wet all over. Evidently, because of the necessity of what she was doing, God had infused her with a prodigious amount of his mighty Spirit Power.
To this day, I feel guilty that I have never been able to pray like that……with the intensity of that girl.
“Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.”
When apathy takes over, it can be difficult to get motivated. You have so much to do, but you just don’t feel like proceeding. Why have despair and boredom taken such a profound hold of you?
Many answers are possible. Perhaps you’re facing overwhelming pressures and you just want to give up. Maye you’re not where the Lord wants you. It could even be that you’re angry at yourself for where you are in life. But realize, you don’t have to allow discouragement to rule you. Instead, you can renew your passion by doing whatever is before you to God’s glory.
It is quite impossible to be where the Father wants you—doing your best and giving thanks from a grateful heart—and still be bored. So when you’re disheartened, remember reaching God’s potential for you is more about who you are than what you’re doing—it’s more about glorying Him than past mistakes or pressures.
Therefore, close your eyes, focus on Him, and thank Him for everything you can think of. He will certainly inspire you.
(Do read this true story below as related by the intended victim. It is preceded by a history of whaling which is how this man who was almost eaten got to these savage islands and was captured.)
“There she blows!” cried the lookout, sighting the great white whale, Moby Dick.
The classic book, Moby Dick, was written by New England author Herman Melville, published in 1851. In the novel, Captain Ahab, driven by revenge, sailed the seas to capture this great white whale who had bitten off his leg in a previous encounter.
In the 1956 film Moby Dick, actor Gregory Peck played Captain Ahab. Ahab finally caught up with Moby Dick in the Pacific Ocean. As fate would have it, when the harpoon struck Moby Dick, the rope flew out so fast it snagged Ahab, pulling him out of the boat. Entangled in the harpoon ropes on the side of the great whale, the revenge-filled Captain Ahab was pulled underwater several times till finally to his death.
The angered Moby Dick then sinks the Pequod. The only survivor was Ismael, who spoke a line from the Book of Job, “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
Melville drew inspiration for his novel from the real life fate of a whaling ship from Nantuket, the Essex. In 1820, under the command of Captain George Pollard, Jr., the Essex chased an enormous sperm whale thousands of miles west of South America. The whale destroyed the ship, and killed most of the sailors. The remaining sailors, enduring gruesome starvation, attempted to sail their whaleboat thousands of miles to land. Only eight survived.
The story of the Essex was written down by its first mate, Owen Chase, and the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson. Nathaniel Philbrick retold the account in his award-winning book, In the Heart of the Sea (Viking Press, 2000), which was turned into a movie in 2015, directed by Ron Howard.
Whales were hunted primarily for their blubber, which was boiled down into whale oil. This was the main source of oil throughout the early 1800s. Whales were being hunted to the verge of extinction.
Fortunately for the whales, in 1859, “Colonel” Edwin Drake drilled “The Drake Oil Well” on his Pennsylvania farm. Soon the petroleum industry in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma developed which extracted oil from the earth, thus “saving the whale” from begin hunted to extinction.
Decades later, Winston Churchill switched the British Navy from burning coal to oil. Britain had limited sources of oil, such as one small oil field located in the Sherwood Forest of Nottinghamshire, and another in the British Crown Colony of Trinidad. Oil was discovered in the Middle East, and in 1908, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was formed, which later changed its name to British Petroleum (BP).
One of the fears of sailing distant seas was being shipwrecked on an island where there was cannibalism. This was first recorded on Columbus’ second voyage, and resulted in the naming of the “Caribbean Sea.” “Caribe is the Spanish word for “piranha,” a razor-toothed carnivorous fish of South America. It was also the name given to a ferocious tribe that migrated from South America, which depopulated one island after another, cannibalizing the peaceful native inhabitants.
Cannibalism occurred mostly in the Pacific Islands. British Captain Cook first landed in Hawaii in 1778. Soon after, whaling and navy ships stopped there. Some of their muskets and small swivel cannons were stolen or were bartered to natives.
With the help of these, King Kamehameha won his battles to conquer and unite all of the Hawaiian Islands. His wife, Queen Ka’ahumanu, ended human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. She changed the kapu-taboo religion and replaced it with Christianity brought to Hawaii by American missionaries.
The story of how missionaries arrived in Hawaii begins in 1807, when the American whaling ship Triumph left Hawaii for New England. Two Hawaiian boys had stowed away aboard the ship, Henry Opukahai’a and Thomas Hopu. Through their movement to New England, they heard the Gospel and converted to Christianity. Their stories inspired Hiram and Sybil Bingham to begin a missionary movement to the Pacific islands in 1820.
In 1822, African-American Betsey Stockton went to Hawaii on the second ship of Christian missionaries, being the first single female missionary sent out from America. Betsey was the teacher at the very first mission school in Hawaii for common people.
In 1840, the whaling ship Acushnet left New England. On board with the crew was the young Herman Melville on his first whaling voyage. Herman Melville, born August 1, 1819, was the grandson of a Boston Tea Party “Indian.” At the age of 12, his father died. His mother raised him, inspiring his imagination with biblical stories.
The Acushnet, after a year and a half at sea, visited the Marquesas Islands in the Southern Pacific. The Marquesas Islands are considered by some as the remotest place in the world. They were first visited by American Maritime Fur Trader Joseph Ingraham in 1791, who named them Washington Islands.
At the Marquesas Islands, Herman Melville and his friend, Toby, jumped ship from the Acushnet, and deserted. They climbed up high into the island mountains to avoid being arrested and carried back to the ship. His friend, Toby, injured his leg in a fall. They unfortunately fell among the cannibals there, where Melville and his friend were given sumptuous food and were befriended by a beautiful tribal maiden. Tribesmen adamantly forbade them from trying to leave the village. They had “other plans” for them.
(Yes, that is the Herman Melville that later wrote Moby Dick.)
Just before a big native feast, Melville’s friend, Toby, suspiciously disappeared. Melville was not allowed to be at the feast. Afterwards, when Melville inquired about his friend’s whereabouts, the tribesmen quickly changed the subject, leading Melville to suspect he was eaten.
When a small boat piloted by a passing native providentially came close to shore, Melville fought his way into the water and climbed into it, barely escaping with his life. He wrote of the experience in his first book, Typee (1846), concluding: These disclosures will lead to ultimate benefit to the cause of Christianity in the Sandwich Islands.”
When Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian led mutiny on the HMS Bounty, April 28, 1789, Captain William Bligh sailed for two months in a small life boat 3,500 miles from Tahiti past the Fiji Islands to Kupang, Indonesia, writing in his journal that they dared not to stop at any land along the way out of fear of being eaten by cannibals.
In 1853, a native Hawaiian, Samuel Kauwealoha, sailed as a Christian missionary from Hawaii to the Marquesas Islands where he planted churches and started schools.
Another missionary from Hawaii to the Marquesas Islands was James Kekela. In 1864, James Kekela rescued an American seaman from death at the hands of hungry cannibals in the Marquesas Islands. In gratitude, Abraham Lincoln sent James Kekela an inscribed gold watch.
Robert Louis Stevenson related the story in his book, In The South Seas when he visited the Marquesas Islands in 1888-89: “During my stay at Tai-o-hae a whole fleet of whale-boats came from Ua-pu. On board of these was Samuel Kauwealoha, one of the pastors, a fine, rugged old gentleman, of that leonine type so common in Hawaii. He entertained me with a tale of one of his colleagues, James Kekela, a missionary in the great cannibal isle of Hiva-oa.
It appears that shortly after, a kidnapping visit from a Peruvian slaver arrived. The boats of an American whaler put into a bay upon that island, were attacked, and made their escape with difficulty, leaving their mate, a Mr. Jonathan Whalon, in the hands of the natives.
The captive, with his arms bound behind his back, was cast into a house; and the chief announced the capture to James Kekela.”
Robert Louis Stevenson continued relating the story of Mr. Whalon’s rescue from the cannibals: “In return for his act of gallant charity, James Kekela was presented by the American Government with a sum of money, and by President Lincoln personally with a gold watch.
From his letter of thanks, written in his own tongue by James Kekela, I give the following extract. I do not envy the man who can read it without emotion:
‘When I saw one of your countrymen, a citizen of your great nation, ill-treated, and about to be baked and eaten, as a pig is eaten, I ran to save him, full of pity and grief at the evil deed of these benighted people. I gave my boat for the stranger’s life. It became the ransom of this countryman of yours, that he might not be eaten by the savages who knew not Jehovah.”
The New York Times published the article “Lincoln and the ‘Cannibals'” by Jeffrey Allen Smith, Feb. 25, 2014: “The American whaling ship Congress from New Bedford, Mass dropped anchor. Sailors lowered two longboats loaded with trade goods, and a small detachment of men led by the first officer, Jonathan Whalon, rowed toward the beach in Puamau Bay.
Foolishly, Whalon went ashore alone with the Marquesans. Once well inside the tree line, the Paumau men seized Whalon, stripped him of his clothes and bound him. Tribal members reportedly pinched him, tweaked his nose, bent his fingers back over his hands, menacingly swung hatchets at him and eventually began building a fire with which to cook him. A Hawaiian missionary improbably named Alexander Kaukau (Kaukau is Hawaiian pidgin for “food” or “to eat”) and Bartholomen Negal, a local German carpenter, tried and failed to dissuade Mato, the Paumau chief, from killing Whalon.
Fate interceded with the arrival of another Hawaiian missionary, James Kekela, the first Hawaiian ordained as a Christian missionary and Kaukau’s senior. He had fortuitously just returned from a neighboring island to reports of a ‘white man is about to be roasted.'”
The New York Times article continued: Kekela donned his black preacher’s jacket and, with only his Bible in hand, set off for Mato’s village. The negotiations were tense, and at one point Kekela declared he would trade ‘anything and everything he possessed’ for the sailor’s release. Ultimately Kekela purchased Whalon’s freedom with much less: his black preacher’s jacket and his prized whaleboat.
Kekela returned Whalon to the waiting Congress, which sailed to Honolulu, where tales of ‘cannibals’ capturing an American sailor and Kekela’s heroics prompted the American minister to Hawaii, James McBride, to write a note to Secretary of State William H. Seward. McBride’s letter, dated Feb. 26, 1864, detailed the harrowing events in the Marquesas and requested that Seward ‘show to the world we have tender regard for each one of our number, and that we highly, very highly, appreciate such favors.’
Taking almost a month to make its way across the Pacific, the letter arrived on Seward’s desk by April 18, 1864. Three days later Seward replied that he had submitted McBride’s account of the rescue to Lincoln and that the President had ‘instructions’ for the diplomat. McBride was directed to ‘draw on this department for five hundred dollars in gold’ to purchase presents for Whalon’s rescuers.
On Feb. 14, 1865, McBride sent gifts to the Hawaiian missionary Kaukau, the German carpenter Negal and even the young Marquesan girl who warned the sailors in the two long boats. He gave Kekela two new suits and a gold Cartier pocket watch with the inscription, ‘From the President of the United States to Rev. J. Kekela For His Noble Conduct in Rescuing An American Citizen from Death on the Island of Hiva Oa, January 14, 1864’.
Kekela wrote a seven-page letter of thanks in Hawaiian, retelling of how he saved ‘a citizen of your great nation, ill-treated, and about to be baked and eaten, as a pig is eaten’. The heartfelt prose in Kekela’s letter to Lincoln moved many, including Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote in his book In the South Seas: ‘I do not envy the man who can read it without emotion.'”
Robert Louis Stevenson recorded the words of James Kekela: “(The Gospel) was planted in Hawaii, and I brought it to plant in this land and in these dark regions, that they might receive the root of all that is good and true, which is love.”
James Kekela concluded: Great is my debt to Americans, who have taught me all things pertaining to this life and to that which is to come. How shall I repay your great kindness to me? Thus David asked of Jehovah, and thus I ask of you, the President of the United States. This is my only payment—that which I have received of the Lord, love-(aloha).'”
Ron(Do read this true story below as related by the intended victim. It is preceded by a history of whaling which is how this man who was almost eaten got to these savage islands and was captured.)
“There she blows!” cried the lookout, sighting the great white whale, Moby Dick.
The classic book, Moby Dick, was written by New England author Herman Melville, published in 1851. In the novel, Captain Ahab, driven by revenge, sailed the seas to capture this great white whale who had bitten off his leg in a previous encounter.
In the 1956 film Moby Dick, actor Gregory Peck played Captain Ahab. Ahab finally caught up with Moby Dick in the Pacific Ocean. As fate would have it, when the harpoon struck Moby Dick, the rope flew out so fast it snagged Ahab, pulling him out of the boat. Entangled in the harpoon ropes on the side of the great whale, the revenge-filled Captain Ahab was pulled underwater several times till finally to his death.
The angered Moby Dick then sinks the Pequod. The only survivor was Ismael, who spoke a line from the Book of Job, “And I only am escaped alone to tell thee.”
Melville drew inspiration for his novel from the real life fate of a whaling ship from Nantuket, the Essex. In 1820, under the command of Captain George Pollard, Jr., the Essex chased an enormous sperm whale thousands of miles west of South America. The whale destroyed the ship, and killed most of the sailors. The remaining sailors, enduring gruesome starvation, attempted to sail their whaleboat thousands of miles to land. Only eight survived.
The story of the Essex was written down by its first mate, Owen Chase, and the cabin boy, Thomas Nickerson. Nathaniel Philbrick retold the account in his award-winning book, In the Heart of the Sea (Viking Press, 2000), which was turned into a movie in 2015, directed by Ron Howard.
Whales were hunted primarily for their blubber, which was boiled down into whale oil. This was the main source of oil throughout the early 1800s. Whales were being hunted to the verge of extinction.
Fortunately for the whales, in 1859, “Colonel” Edwin Drake drilled “The Drake Oil Well” on his Pennsylvania farm. Soon the petroleum industry in Pennsylvania and Oklahoma developed which extracted oil from the earth, thus “saving the whale” from begin hunted to extinction.
Decades later, Winston Churchill switched the British Navy from burning coal to oil. Britain had limited sources of oil, such as one small oil field located in the Sherwood Forest of Nottinghamshire, and another in the British Crown Colony of Trinidad. Oil was discovered in the Middle East, and in 1908, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company was formed, which later changed its name to British Petroleum (BP).
One of the fears of sailing distant seas was being shipwrecked on an island where there was cannibalism. This was first recorded on Columbus’ second voyage, and resulted in the naming of the “Caribbean Sea.” “Caribe is the Spanish word for “piranha,” a razor-toothed carnivorous fish of South America. It was also the name given to a ferocious tribe that migrated from South America, which depopulated one island after another, cannibalizing the peaceful native inhabitants.
Cannibalism occurred mostly in the Pacific Islands. British Captain Cook first landed in Hawaii in 1778. Soon after, whaling and navy ships stopped there. Some of their muskets and small swivel cannons were stolen or were bartered to natives.
With the help of these, King Kamehameha won his battles to conquer and unite all of the Hawaiian Islands. His wife, Queen Ka’ahumanu, ended human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. She changed the kapu-taboo religion and replaced it with Christianity brought to Hawaii by American missionaries.
The story of how missionaries arrived in Hawaii begins in 1807, when the American whaling ship Triumph left Hawaii for New England. Two Hawaiian boys had stowed away aboard the ship, Henry Opukahai’a and Thomas Hopu. Through their movement to New England, they heard the Gospel and converted to Christianity. Their stories inspired Hiram and Sybil Bingham to begin a missionary movement to the Pacific islands in 1820.
In 1822, African-American Betsey Stockton went to Hawaii on the second ship of Christian missionaries, being the first single female missionary sent out from America. Betsey was the teacher at the very first mission school in Hawaii for common people.
In 1840, the whaling ship Acushnet left New England. On board with the crew was the young Herman Melville on his first whaling voyage. Herman Melville, born August 1, 1819, was the grandson of a Boston Tea Party “Indian.” At the age of 12, his father died. His mother raised him, inspiring his imagination with biblical stories.
The Acushnet, after a year and a half at sea, visited the Marquesas Islands in the Southern Pacific. The Marquesas Islands are considered by some as the remotest place in the world. They were first visited by American Maritime Fur Trader Joseph Ingraham in 1791, who named them Washington Islands.
At the Marquesas Islands, Herman Melville and his friend, Toby, jumped ship from the Acushnet, and deserted. They climbed up high into the island mountains to avoid being arrested and carried back to the ship. His friend, Toby, injured his leg in a fall. They unfortunately fell among the cannibals there, where Melville and his friend were given sumptuous food and were befriended by a beautiful tribal maiden. Tribesmen adamantly forbade them from trying to leave the village. They had “other plans” for them.
(Yes, that is the Herman Melville that later wrote Moby Dick.)
Just before a big native feast, Melville’s friend, Toby, suspiciously disappeared. Melville was not allowed to be at the feast. Afterwards, when Melville inquired about his friend’s whereabouts, the tribesmen quickly changed the subject, leading Melville to suspect he was eaten.
When a small boat piloted by a passing native providentially came close to shore, Melville fought his way into the water and climbed into it, barely escaping with his life. He wrote of the experience in his first book, Typee (1846), concluding: These disclosures will lead to ultimate benefit to the cause of Christianity in the Sandwich Islands.”
When Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian led mutiny on the HMS Bounty, April 28, 1789, Captain William Bligh sailed for two months in a small life boat 3,500 miles from Tahiti past the Fiji Islands to Kupang, Indonesia, writing in his journal that they dared not to stop at any land along the way out of fear of being eaten by cannibals.
In 1853, a native Hawaiian, Samuel Kauwealoha, sailed as a Christian missionary from Hawaii to the Marquesas Islands where he planted churches and started schools.
Another missionary from Hawaii to the Marquesas Islands was James Kekela. In 1864, James Kekela rescued an American seaman from death at the hands of hungry cannibals in the Marquesas Islands. In gratitude, Abraham Lincoln sent James Kekela an inscribed gold watch.
Robert Louis Stevenson related the story in his book, In The South Seas when he visited the Marquesas Islands in 1888-89: “During my stay at Tai-o-hae a whole fleet of whale-boats came from Ua-pu. On board of these was Samuel Kauwealoha, one of the pastors, a fine, rugged old gentleman, of that leonine type so common in Hawaii. He entertained me with a tale of one of his colleagues, James Kekela, a missionary in the great cannibal isle of Hiva-oa.
It appears that shortly after, a kidnapping visit from a Peruvian slaver arrived. The boats of an American whaler put into a bay upon that island, were attacked, and made their escape with difficulty, leaving their mate, a Mr. Jonathan Whalon, in the hands of the natives.
The captive, with his arms bound behind his back, was cast into a house; and the chief announced the capture to James Kekela.”
Robert Louis Stevenson continued relating the story of Mr. Whalon’s rescue from the cannibals: “In return for his act of gallant charity, James Kekela was presented by the American Government with a sum of money, and by President Lincoln personally with a gold watch.
From his letter of thanks, written in his own tongue by James Kekela, I give the following extract. I do not envy the man who can read it without emotion:
‘When I saw one of your countrymen, a citizen of your great nation, ill-treated, and about to be baked and eaten, as a pig is eaten, I ran to save him, full of pity and grief at the evil deed of these benighted people. I gave my boat for the stranger’s life. It became the ransom of this countryman of yours, that he might not be eaten by the savages who knew not Jehovah.”
The New York Times published the article “Lincoln and the ‘Cannibals'” by Jeffrey Allen Smith, Feb. 25, 2014: “The American whaling ship Congress from New Bedford, Mass dropped anchor. Sailors lowered two longboats loaded with trade goods, and a small detachment of men led by the first officer, Jonathan Whalon, rowed toward the beach in Puamau Bay.
Foolishly, Whalon went ashore alone with the Marquesans. Once well inside the tree line, the Paumau men seized Whalon, stripped him of his clothes and bound him. Tribal members reportedly pinched him, tweaked his nose, bent his fingers back over his hands, menacingly swung hatchets at him and eventually began building a fire with which to cook him. A Hawaiian missionary improbably named Alexander Kaukau (Kaukau is Hawaiian pidgin for “food” or “to eat”) and Bartholomen Negal, a local German carpenter, tried and failed to dissuade Mato, the Paumau chief, from killing Whalon.
Fate interceded with the arrival of another Hawaiian missionary, James Kekela, the first Hawaiian ordained as a Christian missionary and Kaukau’s senior. He had fortuitously just returned from a neighboring island to reports of a ‘white man is about to be roasted.'”
The New York Times article continued: Kekela donned his black preacher’s jacket and, with only his Bible in hand, set off for Mato’s village. The negotiations were tense, and at one point Kekela declared he would trade ‘anything and everything he possessed’ for the sailor’s release. Ultimately Kekela purchased Whalon’s freedom with much less: his black preacher’s jacket and his prized whaleboat.
Kekela returned Whalon to the waiting Congress, which sailed to Honolulu, where tales of ‘cannibals’ capturing an American sailor and Kekela’s heroics prompted the American minister to Hawaii, James McBride, to write a note to Secretary of State William H. Seward. McBride’s letter, dated Feb. 26, 1864, detailed the harrowing events in the Marquesas and requested that Seward ‘show to the world we have tender regard for each one of our number, and that we highly, very highly, appreciate such favors.’
Taking almost a month to make its way across the Pacific, the letter arrived on Seward’s desk by April 18, 1864. Three days later Seward replied that he had submitted McBride’s account of the rescue to Lincoln and that the President had ‘instructions’ for the diplomat. McBride was directed to ‘draw on this department for five hundred dollars in gold’ to purchase presents for Whalon’s rescuers.
On Feb. 14, 1865, McBride sent gifts to the Hawaiian missionary Kaukau, the German carpenter Negal and even the young Marquesan girl who warned the sailors in the two long boats. He gave Kekela two new suits and a gold Cartier pocket watch with the inscription, ‘From the President of the United States to Rev. J. Kekela For His Noble Conduct in Rescuing An American Citizen from Death on the Island of Hiva Oa, January 14, 1864’.
Kekela wrote a seven-page letter of thanks in Hawaiian, retelling of how he saved ‘a citizen of your great nation, ill-treated, and about to be baked and eaten, as a pig is eaten’. The heartfelt prose in Kekela’s letter to Lincoln moved many, including Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote in his book In the South Seas: ‘I do not envy the man who can read it without emotion.'”
Robert Louis Stevenson recorded the words of James Kekela: “(The Gospel) was planted in Hawaii, and I brought it to plant in this land and in these dark regions, that they might receive the root of all that is good and true, which is love.”
James Kekela concluded: Great is my debt to Americans, who have taught me all things pertaining to this life and to that which is to come. How shall I repay your great kindness to me? Thus David asked of Jehovah, and thus I ask of you, the President of the United States. This is my only payment—that which I have received of the Lord, love-(aloha).'”
(As far as we know Clara Barton personally experienced more deaths of people and also their miraculous recoveries than any person in human history. There is no telling how many hundreds and hundreds of young men and also women she held as they said their last words and breathed their last breath. Do read below the story of this amazing woman.)
When Clara Barton was ten-years-old, her older brother, David, fell off the roof of a barn during barn-raising in Massachusetts.
The doctors had given up hope on him, but Clara helped nurse him back to a full recovery.
He became a Captain and served as Assistant Quartermaster for the Union Army during the Civil War.
In 1839, at the age of 17, Clara Barton earned her teacher’s certificate.
She taught for 12 years in schools in Canada and West Georgia.
In 1852, Clara Barton moved to Bordertown, New Jersey, where she opened the first free school in the state. Under her leadership, it grew to over 600 students.
In 1855, she moved to Washington, D.C., where she was hired as the first woman clerk at the U.S. Patent Office. During Democrat President James Buchanan’s administration, Clara was fired because of her “Black Republicanism .” When Republican President Abraham Lincoln was elected, Clara Barton was rehired at the U.S. Patent Office as a copyist.
Soon after the Civil War began, there was a riot in Baltimore, Maryland, April 19, 1861, with the first blood of the war shed. Forty wounded Union soldiers of the 6th Massachusetts Militia were brought by train to Washington, DC., then transported to a makeshift medical unit in the unfinished Capitol building.
Clara Barton volunteered to care for the wounded soldiers, recognizing many of them as they were from her home state, with some even having been her students. On her own, she worked with Ladies’ Aid societies to collect and distribute medical supplies for the care of wounded soldiers.
In 1862, she received permission to work with the Army on the front lines. Once, after attempting to carry a wounded soldier off the battlefield of Antietam, September 17, 1862, Clara Barton wrote: “A ball had passed between my body and the right arm which supported him, cutting through the sleeve and passing through his chest from shoulder to shoulder. There was no more to be done for him and I left him to his rest. I have never mended that hole in my sleeve. I wonder if a soldier ever does mend a bullet hole in his coat?”
Clara Barton was present at some of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War: Battle of Manassas, Battle of Cedar Mountain, Second Battle of Bull Run, Battle of Antietam; and Battle of Fredericksburg.
The National Park Service recorded that Clara Barton first visited Chatham or “Lacy House” in early August 1862, bringing food and hospital supplies to help “her boys.” She returned during the Fredericksburg Campaign, December 1862. Clara Barton helped care for the wounded soldiers of both sides that were brought into the house.
A physician requested her help in the city, which required her to cross a pontoon bridge over the river. As she stepped off, an officer offered his hand. Suddenly a shell passed under their arms, tearing away part of her skirt and his coattail. The wounded officer later died.
Clara Barton set up a soup kitchen at the Lacy House, which became a makeshift hospital for the Union 2nd Corps. With doctors too busy to keep medical records, Clara wrote in her diary the names of the men who died and where they were buried. Her diary is at the Clara Barton National Historic Site in Maryland.
On December 13, 1862, the day of the heaviest fighting, Clara was in the doorway of the Lacy House when an exploding shell severed a soldier’s artery. She applied the tourniquet that saved his life. Crossing the river again, a Union provost marshall thought she was a civilian and volunteered to escort her to safety, but looking at the thousands of Union soldiers, she politely declined the offer saying she was the best protected woman in the world.
When a shell struck the door of the room she was in, “she did not flinch, but continued her duties” assisting the doctors. The next two weeks at Chatham, Clara saw “hundreds of the worst wounded men I have ever seen,” occupying every room of the house. They “covered every foot of the floors and porticos” and stair landings. A man “thought himself rich” if he laid under a table where he would not be stepped on. Clara saw five men stuffed onto four shelves of a cupboard. Others shivered in the cold muddy yard on blankets, waiting for someone inside to die so they could be brought in. Clara set up a soup kitchen in a tent in the yard to help them.
The Library of Congress has the letter Clara Barton wrote to her cousin from the Head Quarters of the 2nd Division, 9th Army Corps-Army of the Potomac Camp near Falmouth, Virginia, December 12th, 1862, 2 o’clock a.m.: “My dear Cousin Vira: Five minutes time with you; and God only knows what those five minutes might be worth to the many-doomed thousands sleeping around me. It is the night before a battle.
The enemy, Fredericksburg, and its mighty entrenchments lie before us, the river between — at tomorrow’s dawn our troops will assay to cross, and the guns of the enemy will sweep those frail bridges at every breath. The moon is shining through the soft haze with a brightness almost prophetic. For the last half hour I have stood alone in the awful stillness of its glimmering light gazing upon the strange sad scene around me striving to say, ‘Thy will Oh God be done.’ The camp fires blaze with unwanted brightness, the sentry’s tread is still but quick — the acres of little shelter tents are dark and still as death, no wonder for us as I gazed sorrowfully upon them. I thought I could almost hear the slow flap of the grim messenger’s wings, as one by one he sought and selected his victims for the morning sacrifice. Sleep weary one, sleep and rest for tomorrow’s toil. Oh! Sleep and visit in dreams once more the loved ones nestling at home.”
Clara continued: “They may yet live to dream of you, cold lifeless and bloody, but this dream, soldier, is thy last, paint it brightly, dream it well. Oh northern mothers, wives and sisters, all unconscious of the hour, would to Heaven that I could bear for you the concentrated woe which is so soon to follow, would that Christ would teach my soul a prayer that would plead to the Father for grace sufficient for you. God pity and strengthen you every one. Mine are not the only waking hours, the light yet burns brightly in our kind hearted General’s tent where he pens what may be a last farewell to his wife and children and thinks sadly of his fated men. Already the roll of the moving artillery is sounded in my ears. The battle draws near and I must catch one hour’s sleep for tomorrow’s labor. Good night, dear cousin, and Heaven grant you strength for your more peaceful and less terrible, but not less weary days than mine. Yours in love, Clara.”
Clara Barton’s patriotism came from her father, who served in the Army under General “Mad Anthony” Wayne. She wrote of helping soldiers: “What could I do but go with them, or work for them and my country? The patriot blood of my father was warm in my veins.”
Toward the end of the war, Clara noticed that thousands of letters were piling up for soldiers, with no one responding. She contacted President Lincoln’s office and was given permission to set up an office at 437 1/2 Seventh Street, in Northwest Washington, D.C., to search for missing soldiers.
During the Franco-German War, 1870-1871, Clara Barton went to Europe where she worked with Henri Dunant, founder of the International Red Cross. Dunant was the first recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He founded the Geneva chapter of the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association).
Inspired by Henri Dunant’s International Red Cross, Clara Barton established the American Red Cross Society, MAY 21, 1881, serving as its head until 1904.
Clara Barton stated: “An institution or reform movement that is not selfish, must originate in the recognition of some evil that is adding to the sum of human suffering, or diminishing the sum of happiness. I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it, and while our soldiers can stand and fight, I can stand and feed and nurse them. I am well and strong and young — young enough to go to the front. If I cannot be a soldier, I’ll help soldiers.”
During the Spanish-American War, 1898, Clara Barton helped in hospitals in Cuba. She wrote: “In time of peace we must prepare for war, and it is no less a wise benevolence that makes preparation in the hour of peace for assuaging the ills that are sure to accompany war.”
President William McKinley stated regarding Clara Barton in his Second Annual Message, December 5, 1898: “It is a pleasure for me to mention in terms of cordial appreciation the timely and useful work of the American National Red Cross, both in relief measures preparatory to the campaigns, in sanitary assistance at several of the camps of assemblage, and later, under the able and experienced leadership of the president of the society, Miss Clara Barton, on the fields of battle and in the hospitals at the front in Cuba. Working in conjunction with the governmental authorities and with the enthusiastic cooperation of many patriotic women and societies in the various States, the Red Cross has fully maintained its already high reputation for intense earnestness and ability to exercise the noble purposes of its international organization, thus justifying the confidence and support which it has received at the hands of the American people.”
President McKinley continued: “To the members and officers of this society and all who aided them in their philanthropic work the sincere and lasting gratitude of the soldiers and the public is due and is freely accorded. In tracing these events we are constantly reminded of our obligations to the Divine Master for His watchful care over us and His safe guidance, for which the nation makes reverent acknowledgment and offers humble prayer for the continuance of His favor.”
President Woodrow Wilson mentioned the Red Cross in his Proclamation of a Contribution Day for the aid of stricken Jewish people, January 11, 1916: “Whereas in the various countries now engaged in war there are nine millions of Jews, the great majority of whom are destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; and have been driven from their homes without warning, deprived of an opportunity to make provision for their most elementary wants, causing starvation, disease and untold suffering; and Whereas the people of the United States of America have learned with sorrow of this terrible plight of millions of human beings and have most generously responded to the cry for help. Now, Therefore, I, Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States … do appoint and proclaim January 27, 1916, as a day upon which the people of the United States may make such contributions as they feel disposed for the aid of the stricken Jewish people. Contributions may be addressed to the American Red Cross, Washington, D.C., which will care for their proper distribution.”
Opening the Second Red Cross Drive in New York City, President Woodrow Wilson stated, May 18, 1918: “Being members of the American Red Cross a great fraternity and fellowship which extends all over the world this cross which these ladies bore here today is an emblem of Christianity itself. When you think of this, you realize how the people of the United States are being drawn together into a great intimate family whose heart is being used for the service of the soldiers not only, but for the long night of suffering and terror, in order that they and men everywhere may see the dawn of a day of righteousness and justice and peace.”
On December 8, 1918, in an appeal of support for the American Red Cross just a month after the fighting in World War I had ceased, President Woodrow Wilson stated: One year ago, twenty-two million Americans, by enrolling as members of the Red Cross at Christmas time, sent to the men who were fighting our battles overseas a stimulating message of cheer and good-will. Now, by God’s grace, the Red Cross Christmas message of 1918 is to be a message of peace as well as a message of good-will.”
Her very last disaster mission brought her to the Texas coast.
In September 1900, Galveston faced one of the city’s worst hurricanes. Destruction and casualties abounded. Although Clara was in her 80s, she just had to be there. Clara Barton arrived on site and worked as a member of the Central Relief Committee, the team tasked with leading the recovery mission. They say that with all her experience with disasters, she was of enormous help.
Clara worked to distribute supplies for the recovery efforts. This included boots on the ground, and $120,000 in financial assistance. During her time in Galveston she also helped to acquire supplies to rebuild homes and established an orphanage for victims of the hurricane.
When asked about being in Galveston to help in her 80s, Clara iterated her favorite saying……….”You must never think of anything except the need, and how to meet it” and “I may be compelled to face danger, but never fear it”.
On May 1, 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt greeted the chairman of the American National Red Cross, Norman H. Davis, in Washington, D.C.: “The great International Red Cross organization, founded 76 years ago by the amazing Clara Barton to bring mercy to the battlefield. I am confident that whatever may be the problems which intensification of warfare may bring, the American people will respond to any appeal for funds when the Red Cross deems it necessary to call upon them for additional aid.
By such response we can aid in sustaining the spirit and morale of those in distress abroad until the happy day we all pray for, when hostilities shall cease.”
“You don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.”
Have you talked to the Father about the desire burning in your heart? You don’t have to be embarrassed or think what you yearn for is too insignificant for His notice. God cares about you, and He’s interested in what concerns you. But you’ll miss His blessings if you refuse to open your heart to Him fully.
So talk to God as a friend—share your inmost hopes and desires with him. The more specific you are about your goals and longings, the better you can see Him working in your situation.
The Father may say yes to your request immediately or He may instruct you to wait for His perfect timing. He may also show what you’re asking for doesn’t fit His plan for your life and that He has something much better for you.
Although God may not always answer in the way you think He will, the most important thing for you to understand is that He is willing and waiting to respond. So talk to your heavenly Father and be assured—He loves you and He’s listening.
Carl Sandburg was one of America’s most popular, “down to earth” literary authorities and poets of modern times. He deeply loved God and America. However, he was greatly concered about what the young people of America were being taught. I have recorded here what others thought on the same subject. Also, here I have recorded some of his most popular sayings and writings for you to review, appreciate, and enjoy. Ron
In an interview with Frederick Van Ryn of This Week Magazine (January 4, 1953, p. 11.) The great poet, Carl Sanburg stated: “I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us, I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision.”
Carl Sandburg was born on January 6, 1878, to Swedish immigrants who worked on the railroad.
After 8th grade, Carl Sandburg left school, borrowed his father’s railroad pass, and traveled the country as a hobo.
Carl Sandburg volunteered for military service, was sent to Puerto Rico in the Spanish-American War, and then attended college on a veteran’s bill.
Carl Sandburg wrote children’s fairytales, called Rootabaga Stories, and mused of his wanderings in American Songbag.
Once he was hosted for a gathering of poets by Katherine Lee Bates, daughter of a Congregational minister, who wrote the lyrics of America the Beautiful.
Carl Sandburg wrote in Remembrance Rock (1948, ch. 2, p. 7): “A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.”
He continued his pro-life remarks: “A baby, whether it does anything to you, represents life. If a bad fire should break out in this house and I had my choice of saving the library or the babies, I would save what is alive. Never will a time come when the most marvelous recent invention is as marvelous as a newborn baby. The finest of our precision watches, the most super-colossal of our supercargo and plants, don’t compare with a newborn baby in the number and ingenuity of coils and springs, in the flow and change of chemical solutions, in timing devices and interrelated parts that are irreplaceable.
A baby is very modern. Yet it is also the oldest of the ancients. A baby doesn’t know he is a hoary and venerable antique — but he is. Before man learned how to make an alphabet, how to make a wheel, how to make a fire, he knew how to make a baby — with the great help of woman, and his God and Maker.”
Carl Sandburgi, in 1926, wrote Abraham Lincoln-The Prairie Years, and in 1939 he wrote Abraham Lincoln-The War Years, for which he received a Pulitzer Prize.
In 1959, Sandburg was invited to address Congress on Lincoln’s birthday.
On October 25, 1961, Sandburg was invited to the White House by John F. Kennedy.
In his Complete Poems, for which he won a Pulitzer, 1951, Carl Sandburg wrote: “All my life I have been trying to learn to read, to see and hear, and to write. At sixty-five I began my first novel. It could be, in the grace of God, I shall live to be eighty-nine. I might paraphrase: ‘If God had let me live five years longer I should have been a writer.'”
In his poem Prayers of Steel, Carl Sandburg wrote: “Lay me on an anvil, O God. Beat me and hammer me into a crowbar. Let me pry loose old walls. Let me lift and loosen old foundations. Lay me on an anvil, O God. Beat me and hammer me into a steel spike. Drive me into the girders that hold a skyscraper together. Take red-hot rivets and fasten me into the central girders. Let me be the great nail holding a skyscraper through blue nights into white stars.
Sandburg wrote: “God, The game is all your way, the secrets and the signals and the system; and so for the break of the game and the first play and the last. Our prayer of thanks.”
Sandburg wrote in “Washington Monument by Night” (Slabs of the Sunburnt West, 1922): “The Republic is a dream. Nothing happens unless first a dream.”
Carl Sandburg wrote: “When a nation goes down, or a society perishes, one condition may always be found; they forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what had brought them along.”
Sandburg’s statement is similar to Pulitzer Prize winning historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., who wrote in an op-ed titled “Folly’s Antidote” (The New York Times, January 1, 2007): “History is to the nation as memory is to the individual. As persons deprived of memory become disoriented and lost, not knowing where they have been and where they are going, so a nation denied a conception of the past will be disabled in dealing with its present and its future. ‘The longer you look back,’ said Winston Churchill, “the farther you can look forward. I believe a consciousness of history is a moral necessity for a nation.”
John F. Kennedy wrote in the Introduction to the American Heritage New Illustrated History of the United States (1960): ): “History, after all, is the memory of a nation. Just as memory enables the individual to learn, to choose goals and stick to them, to avoid making the same mistake twice – in short, to grow – so history is the means by which a nation establishes its sense of identity and purpose. History, after all, is the memory of a nation. Just as memory enables the individual to learn, to choose goals and stick to them, to avoid making the same mistake twice – in short, to grow – so history is the means by which a nation establishes its sense of identity and purpose.”
Harvard Professor George Santayana wrote in Reason in Common Sense (Vol. I of The Life of Reason, 1905): “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Judge Learned Hand wrote: “The use of history is to tell us past themes, else we should have to repeat, each in his own experience, the successes and the failures of our forebears.”
Aristotle, in his book Rhetoric (4th century BC), called this “deliberative rhetoric,” using examples from the past to predict future outcomes: “The political orator is concerned with the future: it is about things to be done hereafter that he advises, for or against.”
Lord Acton wrote in 1877: “The story of the future is written in the past.”
Patrick Henry stated March 23, 1775: “I know of no way of judging the future but by the past.”
Edmund Burke wrote in Reflections on the Revolution in France, 1790: “People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward to their ancestors.”
Cicero stated in Ad M. Brutum, 46 BC: “Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever.”
J. Edgar Hoover warned in the introduction to Edward L.R. Elson’s book, America’s Spiritual Recovery, 1954: “We can see all too clearly the devastating effects of secularism on our Christian way of life. The period when it was smart to “debunk” our traditions undermined high standards of conduct. A rising emphasis on materialism caused a decline of “God-centered” deeds and thoughts.”
Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall stated: “Along with our higher education came a debunking contest a sort of national sport. It was smarter to revile than to revere more fashionable to depreciate than to appreciate. Debunking is a sign of decaying foundations.”
Socialist historian Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States (1980) has been one of the primary works “debunking” America’s heritage.
An exposé revealing Zinn’s manipulation of the facts has been written by Mary Garbar, Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America (2019).
Zinn’s tactic was one of deconstruction, a type of “gene-replacement therapy” for a culture, which uses a “Drive–Neutral–Reverse” methodology to ideologically undermine a nation. The first step is to separate students from their country’s past by portraying the founders of the country in a negative light, ignoring the fact that the founders gave them a system which provides for maximum individual liberty and opportunity; then students are in a neutral phase of being “open-minded”; finally, the students are indoctrinated with a whitewashed socialist-sharia cancel-culture future.
President Donald Trump stated July 3, 2020: “The violent mayhem we have seen in the streets of cities that are run by liberal Democrats, in every case, is the predictable result of years of extreme indoctrination and bias in education, journalism, and other cultural institutions. Our children are taught in school to hate their own country, and to believe that the men and women who built it were not heroes, but that were villains. The radical view of American history is a web of lies — all perspective is removed, every virtue is obscured, every motive is twisted, every fact is distorted, and every flaw is magnified until the history is purged and the record is disfigured beyond all recognition. No movement that seeks to dismantle these treasured American legacies can possibly have a love of America at its heart. No person who remains quiet at the destruction of this resplendent heritage can possibly lead us to a better future.”
Will & Ariel Durant wrote in The Story of Civilization, 1967: “History is an excellent teacher with few pupils.”
The Durants wrote in The Lessons of History, 1968: “Civilization is not inherited; it has to be learned and earned by each generation anew; if the transmission should be interrupted civilization would die, and we should be savages again.”
Reagan warned the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce, March 30, 1961: “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well thought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
Carl Sandburg died July 22, 1967.
At his 85th birthday party (6 January 6, 1963, Sandburg had stated (The Best of Ralph McGill: Selected Columns, 1980): “Time is the coin of your life. You spend it. Do not allow others to spend it for you.”
President Ronald Reagan stated in his State of the Union Address, January 25, 1984: “Each day your members observe a 200-year-old tradition meant to signify America is one nation under God. I must ask: If you can begin your day with a member of the clergy standing right here leading you in prayer, then why can’t freedom to acknowledge God be enjoyed again by children in every school room across this land? America was founded by people who believed that God was their rock of safety.”
Reagan concluded:
“I recognize we must be cautious in claiming that God is on our side, but I think it’s all right to keep asking if we’re on His side. The famous Carl Sandburg said………….
‘I see America not in the setting sun of a black night of despair. I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun fresh from the burning, creative hand of God.'”
Our nation is always in need of prayer. In good times and bad, whether at war or at peace, during seasons of overflowing abundance or great need, it’s always important for us to intercede for our country.
Why? First because our fellow citizens need to accept Jesus as their savior. if we desire for our nation to be characterized by godly families, wise and capable leaders, and strong communities, then we need to pray our countrymen will enthrone the Lord to their homes and hearts.
Second, we need the Father’s favor and protection against threats and terrorist attacks, natural disasters, epidemies, and economic downturns. If we wish for our country to remain safe, productive, and strong, we will need God’s divine provision.
So today, kneel before the Lord, seek His face, repent from your sins, and ask Him to bless the nation. Only the Lord can truly transform our country . And He has promised to do so when we ask according to His will and act in obedience to Him (2 Chronicles 7:14).
After the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore the Northwest from May 1804 to September 1806, meeting natives tribes along the way.
Several years later, in 1831, three Nez Perce Indians and one Flathead Indian, traveled 2,000 miles, all the way from the Oregon Territory to St. Louis, Missouri, looking for the “Book to Heaven.”
Bishop Rosati wrote in the Annals of the Association of the Propagation of the Faith, December 31, 1831: “Some three months ago four Indians who live across the Rocky Mountains near the Columbia River (Clark’s Fork of the Columbia) arrived at St. Louis. After visiting General Clark who, in his celebrated travels, has visited their country they came to see our church and appeared to be exceedingly well pleased with it.
Two of our priests visited them. They made the sign of the Cross and other signs which appeared to have some relation to baptism. The sacrament was administered to them.”
William Walker, who was the first provisional governor of the Nebraska-Kansas Territory, gave an eye-witness account. His account was printed, March 1, 1833, in the Christian Advocate & Journal and Zion’s Herald of New York, a Methodist Episcopal publication which at the time had the largest circulation of any periodical in the world: “Immediately after we landed in St. Louis, on our way to the west, I proceeded to Gen. Clark’s, superintendent of Indian affairs. While in his office he informed me that three chiefs from the Flat-Head nation were in his house, and were quite sick, and that one (the fourth) had died a few days ago. They were from the west of the Rocky Mountains. Curiosity prompted me to step into the adjoining room to see them, having never seen any, but often heard of them. I was struck by their appearance. The distance they had traveled on foot was nearly three thousand miles to see Gen. Clarke, their great father, as they called him, he being the first American officer they ever became acquainted with”
Walker continued: “Gen. Clark related to me the object of their mission, and, my dear friend, it is impossible for me to describe to you my feelings while listening to his narrative. (They had heard) the white people away toward the rising of the sun had been put in possession of the true mode of worshiping the great Spirit. They had a book containing directions how to conduct themselves in order to enjoy his favor and hold converse with him; and with this guide, no one need go astray, but every one that would follow the directions laid down there, could enjoy, in this life, his favor; and after death would be received into the country where the great Spirit resides, and live for ever with him. Upon receiving this information, they called a national council to take this subject into consideration. They accordingly deputed four of their chiefs to proceed to St. Louis to see their great father, Gen. Clarke, to inquire of him.”
William Walker wrote further of being at William Clark’s home in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1831 and meeting the Nez Perce and Flathead Indians: They arrived at St. Louis, and presented themselves to Gen. Clark the latter was somewhat puzzled being sensible of the responsibility that rested on him; he however proceeded by informing them that what they had been told by the white man in their own country, was true. Then went into a succinct history of man, from his creation down to the advent of the Savior; explained to them all the moral precepts contained it he Bible, expounded to them the decalogue (ten commandments). Informed them of the advent of the Savior, his life, precepts, his death, resurrection, ascension, and the relation he now stands to man as a mediator—that he will judge the world.
The published account of the Nez Perce and Flathead Indians visiting St. Louis inspired Dr. Marcus Whitman. In 1835, he went with missionary Samuel Parker to minister to Nez Perce and Flathead Indians in Idaho and Montana.
The next year, Marcus and his newly-wed wife, Narcissa, left Massachusetts and become missionaries to the Indians of Oregon and Washington. Accompanying them were Presbyterian missionaries Henry and Eliza Spalding. This made Narcissa and Eliza the first white women to cross the Rocky Mountains.
President Warren G. Harding, in dedicating the Oregon Trail Monument, July 3, 1923, recounted how Dr. Marcus Whitman traveled, clad in buckskin breeches, fur leggings and moccasins, an) episode took place within these walls. Seated at his desk was, John Tyler, tenth President of the United States. Facing him was the lion-visaged Daniel Webster, Secretary of State. The door opened and there appeared before the amazed statesmen a strange and astonishing figure. It was that of a man of medium height and sturdy build, deep chested, broad shouldered, yet lithe in movement and soft in step. He was clad in a coarse fur coat, buckskin breeches, fur leggings, and boot moccasins, looking much worse for the wear.
It was that of a religious enthusiast, tenaciously earnest yet revealing no suggestion of fanaticism, bronzed from exposure to pitiless elements and seamed with deep lines of physical suffering, a rare combination of determination and gentleness – obviously a man of God, but no less a man among men. Such was Marcus Whitman, the missionary hero of the vast, unsettled, unexplored Oregon country, who had come out of the West to plead that the state should acquire for civilization the empire that the churches were gaining for Christianity.”
Harding continued: “The magnificence of Marcus Whitman’s glorious deed has yet to find adequate recognition in any form. Here was a man who, with a single companion, in the dead of winter (1842), struggled through pathless drifts and blinding storms, four thousand miles, with the sole aim to serve his country and his God. He was pushing grimly and painfully through this very pass on his way from Walla Walla to Fort Hall, thence, abandoning the established northern route as impassable, off to the South through unknown, untrodden lands, past the Great Salt Lake, to Santa Fe, then hurriedly on to St. Louis and finally, after a few days, again on the home-stretch to his destination, taking as many months as it now takes days to go from Walla Walla to Washington.”
Harding continued: “It was more than a desperate and perilous trip that Marcus Whitman undertook. It was a race against time. Public opinion was rapidly crystallizing into a judgment that the Oregon country was not worth claiming, much less worth fighting for; that, even though it could be acquired against the insistence of Great Britain, it would prove to be a liability rather than an asset. Webster before had pronounced Oregon ‘a barren, worthless country, fit only for wild beasts and wild men’; Whitman turning to the President Tyler added beseechingly: All I ask is that you will not barter away Oregon or allow English interference until I can lead a band of stalwart American settlers across the plains. For this I shall try to do!’ The just and considerate Tyler could not refuse. ‘Doctor Whitman,’ he rejoined sympathetically, ‘your long ride and frozen limbs testify to your courage and your patriotism. Your credentials establish your character. Your request is granted!'”
Harding added: “Whitman a few months later (1843) had completed an organization of eager souls, and led the first movement by wagon train across plains and mountains along this unblazed trail. What a sight that caravan must have appeared to the roaming savages! And what an experience for the intrepid pioneers! More that two hundred wagons, bearing well-nigh a thousand emigrants, made up the party. They traveled by substantially the same route that Whitman had taken when he first went out to Oregon; from a rendezvous near what is now Kansas City they moved due northwest across northeast Kansas and southeast Nebraska to the Platte River; followed the Platte to the middle of what is now Wyoming, thence crossing the mountains by way of the Sweetwater Valley and the South Platte; and from Fort Hall, following the well-known route, roughly paralleling the Snake River, into Oregon.
The difficulties of the trip, involving beside the two hundred wagons, the care of women and children, and of considerable herds of live stock, were such that its successful accomplishment seems almost miraculous. But stern determination triumphed and the result was conclusive. Americans had settled the country and in the end the boundary settlement was made on the line of the forty-ninth parallel, your great Northwest was saved, and a veritable Empire was merged in the young Republic. Never in the history of the world has there been a finer example of civilization following Christianity. The missionaries led under the banner of the cross, and the settlers moved close behind under the star-spangled symbol of the nation.”
Harding acknowledged the missionaries by name: “Among all the records of the evangelizing efforts as the forerunner of human advancement, there is none so impressive as this of the early Oregon mission and its marvelous consequences. To the men and women of that early day whose first thought was to carry the gospel to the Indians—the Lees, the Spauldings, the Grays, the Walkers, the Leslies, to Fathers DeSmet and Blanchet and DeMars, and to all the others of that glorious company who found that in serving God they were also serving their country and their fellowmen—to them we pay today our tribute; to them we owe a debt of gratitude, which we can never pay, save partially through recognition such as you and I have accorded today.”
Unfortunately, when an outbreak of measles occurred, several Cayuse Indians died. The mission was blamed and the Whitmans, along with 11 others, were massacred.
President Harding concluded his Oregon Trail tribute by acknowledging: My appreciation both as President of the United States and as one who honestly tries to be a Christian soldier, of the signal service of the martyred Whitman.”
The State of Washington placed the statue of Dr. Marcus Whitman in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall.
In 1856, Mother Joseph led five missionaries to the Pacific Northwest where they founded: 11 Hospitals, 7 Academies, 5 Indian schools, and 2 Orphanages.
The State of Washington placed a statue of Mother Joseph in the U.S. Capital.
Chief Moses befriended Missionary Henry Spalding and was educated at a Presbyterian mission school. Chief Moses traveled to Washington, D.C., where he met with President Rutherford Hayes.
In the Wind River area of Wyoming, Shoshone Chief Washakie (whose father was a Flathead), learned to speak French, English, and numerous native languages. Around 1840, he united the Shoshone tribes. He became friends with fur trappers and explorers, such as Kit Carson, John Fremont, and Jim Bridger. At the urging of Jim Bridger, who became his son-in-law, Chief Washakie attended councils and signed treaties with the U.S. Government, preserving the existence of the Shoshone.
Missionary John Robert translated the Bible into Shoshone and Arapahoe, and with the help of Chief Washakie, founded a Christian boarding school. In 1897, Chief Washakie was baptized as a Christian in the Episcopal faith. His statue is in the U.S. Capital.
In 1859, Oregon became the 33rd state to join the Union. The original Oregon State Constitution stated: “Bill of Rights, Article I, Section 2.:
All men shall be secure in the Natural right, to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their consciences.”
Ron
7 academies,
5 Indian schools, and
2 orphanages.
The State of Washington placed a statue of Mother Joseph in the U.S. Capital.
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance.
What do think of when you hear the word heir? Does it evoke images of wealth handed down through generations? Perhaps it reminds you of someone you love who has passed away.
The truth is, not many people inherit a vast estate or receive great gifts from wealthy relatives. But when Jesus becomes your Savior, He makes you a co-heir of all God’s immeasurable riches (Romans 8:16-17). He wants to be your fullness and abundant supply for every aspect of your life.
Do you need strength? God has all power and gives you energy for every task. Do you lack wisdom? He provides discernment and insight that can cut through even the densest fog of confusion. Are you searching for contentment? Jesus gives you peace beyond human understanding. Friend, material wealth can be depleted and taken away. But the inheritance you have in Christ is unchanging and inexhaustible forever. Therefore, embrace how rich you truly are in Him.
(General Thomas Gage had blockaded Boston and occupied it with 4,000 troops. Boston harbor was filled with his whole fleet. It was his plan to leave and burn the whole town to the ground as he left. General Washington knew that 300 miles north, on the Canadian border, Fort Ticonderoga had 59 large, long-range cannons. General Washington sent young Henry Knox way up there in the dead of winter to bring those cannons back down to Boston. Through amazing innovations and great difficulty, braving vicious blizzards, Knox got all of them back down to Boston.
In the dead of night General Washington got all of them up onto the high bluffs overlooking Boston and its harbor. The next morning when General Gage saw that look line of cannons looking down on him; he knew that General Washington could destroy his whole fleet right there. This changed the whole complex of the war for independence.
Do read the story below to see what happened, and the rest of the life and exploits of the amazing Henry Knox.)
William Knox had emigrated from Scotland to Ireland; then to the West Indies; then to Boston in 1728.He helped establish the Church of the Presbyterian Strangers. William Knox died in 1762 while on business in the West Indies.
His 12-year-old son, Henry Knox, began supporting the family by working as a bookbinder at Wharton and Bowe’s Book Store.
In 1771, at the age of 21, Knox opened his own bookstore in Boston. At age 23, while hunting birds on Noddle Island, his fowling piece misfired, taking off two fingers of his left hand. From then on, when in public, he covered that hand with a handkerchief.
A young woman who frequented Henry’s book shop was Lucy Flucker, whose father was Thomas Flucker, the Royal Secretary of the Province of Massachusetts.
To her father’s disapproval, Henry and Lucy fell in love. Her parents considered Henry in a lower class, and were put off because he associated with patriotic rebels. They tried to entice Henry to take a commission serving the King in the British Artillery, but he refused.
When Henry and Lucy were married, June 16, 1774, her parents disowned her.
Henry Knox witnessed the Boston Massacre in 1770. Then during the Boston Tea Party in 1773, Henry, who was six feet tall and over 250 pounds, served on guard duty to make sure no tea was unloaded from the ship Dartmouth until the night Sam Adams and the Sons of Liberty arrived.
On May 13, 1774, British General Thomas Gage arrived as Military Governor of Massachusetts. On June 1, 1774, Gage commenced a blockade of Boston’s Harbor by British ships. Knox experienced the resulting city’s deprivation.
With 4,000 British troops, Gage imposed a military occupation, confiscating over 2,000 muskets from the citizens. He prohibited town hall meetings, complaining that “democracy is too prevalent in America.”
Gage had Knox’s name put on a list of the most dangerous persons. Gage made Boston a prison. No one was permitted to leave.
The British looted Henry’s bookshop and used his home to lodge soldiers. One night in the spring of 1775, 25-year-old Henry, and his 19 -year-old wife, fled on horseback out of Boston. Lucy had sewn his sword inside her cape.
In March of 1775, Parliament replaced Thomas Gage with British Commander William Howe. Howe filled Boston with 4,500 more troops.
The Battle of Bunker Hill soon followed on June 17, 1775. Knox volunteered to serve in the American military. General George Washington, age 43, made Henry Knox a colonel because of his amazing exploits while fighting in that battle.
On December 1, 1775, General Washington sent Colonel Henry Knox to Fort Ticonderoga in upstate New York near Canada to bring 59 cannons to Boston to drive out the British.
Knox and his men arrived at Fort Ticonderoga. Knox put the cannons on big flat-bottomed boats, and rowed them through freezing weather to the southern end of Lake George. Knox dragged the cannons across the snow, as he reported to Washington, December 17, 1775: “I have had made 42 exceedingly strong sleds and have provided 80 yoke of oxen to drag them as far as Springfield where I shall get fresh cattle to carry them. I hope in 16 or 17 days to be able to present your Excellency a noble train of artillery.”
They arrived at the Hudson River, but the ice was not thick enough to support the sleds and one sank. On January 8, 1776, Knox wrote in his diary that local pastors organized farmers to help: “Went on the ice about 8 o’clock in the morning and proceeded so carefully that before night we got over 23 sleds and were so lucky as to get the cannon out of the River, owing to the assistance the good people of the city of Albany gave.”
The 3 month endeavor of dragging the cannons over 300 miles from Ft. Ticonderoga to Boston was called by historian Victor Brooks “one of the most stupendous feats of logistics ever performed in Young America.”
Knox arrived at Cambridge, Massachusetts. On the night of March 4th, a diversionary attack was made to distract the British, while Washington’s men wrapped the wagon wheels with straw to muffle the noise and frantically moved the cannons up to a strategic point on Dorchester Heights overlooking Boston Harbor.
To make it appear even more impressive, they painted some logs to look like cannons. The next morning an astonished British General William Howe looked up at Dorchester Heights and remarked: “The rebels did more in one night than my whole army would have done in one month.”
On March 6, 1776, from his Cambridge Headquarters, General Washington ordered: “Thursday, the 7th being set apart by this Province (Massachusetts) as a Day of Fasting, Prayer and Humiliation, to implore the Lord and Giver of all victory to pardon our manifold sins and wickedness, and that it would please Him to bless the Continental army with His divine favor and protection,’ all officers and soldiers are strictly enjoined to pay all due reverence and attention on that day to the sacred duties to the Lord of hosts for His mercies already received, and for those blessings which our holiness and uprightness of life can alone encourage us to hope through His mercy obtain.”
Coincidentally, on that Day of Fasting, March 7, 1776, General Howe was assembling 3,000 troops to land and charge up Dorchester Heights, but a violent snowstorm arose causing the sea to be too turbulent for the attack.
General Washington wrote his younger brother, John Augustine Washington, March 31, 1776: “Upon their discovery of the works (cannons on Dorchester Heights) next morning, great preparations were made for attacking them; but not being ready before the afternoon, and the weather getting very tempestuous, much blood was saved and a very important blow prevented. That this most remarkable Interposition of Providence is for a wise purpose, I have not a doubt.”
Rev. Alexander MacWhorter, who was a chaplain with Henry Knox’s brigade, wrote December 12, 1799: “General Washington attended divine services with his brigades. He considered the distinction of the great denominations of Christianity rather as necessary shades of differences, than anything substantial or essential to salvation.”
Because of that massive array of cannon looking down on them, on March 8, General Howe sent word to Washington that if the British were allowed to leave Boston unmolested, they would not burn the city on their way out.
Eights days passed, and on March 16, 1776, the Continental Congress approved without dissent a Day of Fasting: “Congress desirous to have people of all ranks and degrees duly impressed with a solemn sense of God’s superintending providence, and of their duty, devoutly to rely on his aid and direction do earnestly recommend a Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer; that we may, with united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and, by sincere repentance and amendment of life, appease God’s righteous displeasure, and, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ, obtain this pardon and forgiveness.”
The next day, March 17, 1776, British General Howe finally gave the order to his troops to board their ships and evacuate Boston. Sailing away with the British forces were nearly a thousand British loyalists. Among them were Lucy Knox’s parents, the Fluckers. She never saw them again.
Being newlyweds when the war started, Henry was separated from his wife, Lucy, for months at a time. He wrote to her: “I maledict this war only because it separates me from my Love. No man on earth separated from all that he holds Dear on earth has ever suffer’d more than I have suffer’d in being absent from (my Love) whom I hold dearer than every other object I think of rarely any thing else. Indeed, my dear Girl, I love you too well to be separated from you at all.”
Henry wrote to Lucy, August 25, 1777: “I shall reserve myself until I have the ineffable pleasure of seeing you. When that will be I can’t say, but please God at all events before Christmas. May God soon bring us together again and I sincerely beg Him to bless you, your affectionate husband. H Knox.”
Henry Knox went on to fight in New York, where Washington told his army after receiving a copy of the Declaration of Independence, July 1776: “This important event will serve as a fresh incentive to every officer, and soldier, to act with fidelity and courage, as knowing that now, the peace and safety of his country depends, under God, on the success of our arms.”
Knox fought in the New Jersey campaign. Also, he arranged Washington’s crossing of the Delaware River with John Glover’s seamen from Marblehead, Massachusetts, rowing the boats. It was Knox’s artillery that helped defeat the Hessian mercenaries at the Battle of Trenton after crossing the ice laden river.
Knox as promoted to Brigadier General, and fought at Princeton, in the Philadelphia campaign, Germantown, Monmouth, and Yorktown.
George Washington wrote to Henry Knox, March 2, 1797: “It is not for man to scan the wisdom of Providence. The best he can do, is to submit to its decrees. – Reason, Religion & Philosophy teaches us to do this, but ’tis time alone that can ameliorate the pangs of humanity, & soften its woes.”
In 1782, Knox was promoted to be the army’s youngest major general. In 1785, he was chosen as the nation’s second Secretary of War, following Benjamin Lincoln. In addition to Fort Knox, located in Kentucky, places named for him include: 14 counties and cities across America, including Knox County Texas, just north of Abilene.
In 1985, the U.S. Post Office issued a stamp honoring Henry Knox.
For nearly 20 years, Henry and Lucy did not have a home of their own, living in military encampments and army bases.
In the midst of the Revolution, Knox wrote to his wife, Lucy:
“We want great men, who when fortune frowns will not be discouraged. God will I trust in time give usthese men.”
“The sheep follow him because they know His voice.”
Do you know how investigators are trained to recognize counterfeit money? They diligently study the true currency—the real thing. Then, when held against the standard, the counterfeit bills stand out.
Likewise, the best way to learn the Lord’s voice is by studying the words He’s declared to all generations—by reading the Holy Bible.
There are several principles you can apply to what you’re hearing to gauge whether it is of God, but the most basic and most important is whether the message conflicts with Scripture. The Father won’t tell you to do anything that counters what He already has recorded for all mankind.
Therefore, the best way to know His voice is to get to know Him. Spend time in His Word and immerse yourself in His truth. Because as you do, you’ll be able to differentiate God’s direction from the messages the world, the enemy, or your flesh are sending you. You will know His voice, and He will certainly lead you well.
True Texan Tales 