Faith & Freedom Tour Friday

The next day was Friday and we went to Boston. We could not bring pocket-knifes because we went to the Capitol Building and The U.S.S. Constitution, where we went through security.
We got up at 7:00, the earliest time in the tour (except for the day we left.) We drove to Boston and went to the Massachusetts state capitol building.

We got to have a special tour from Dr. Paul Jehle, which we enjoyed very much. He explained the symbolism of the different paintings, etc. We got a special opportunity to hear his talk in the Representatives' hall.

After that wonderful tour, we went the the Granary Burying Ground, where there were buried three signers of the Declaration of Independence and several victims of the Boston massacre. Mr. Phillips gave us an important talk on how you need different men with different gifts to effect reformation. Here is the grave of James Otis, a fiery orator:


Paul Revere, whose house we visited later, was buried here with his wife.


The next place we went was the King's Chapel burying ground. John Winthrop, the "forgotten founding father" is buried here.

We then went to the Boston Common and had lunch. Then we boarded the busses and drove to the U.S.S. Constitution, Old Ironsides.
This is the bowsprit, the small mast that sticks out the front of the ship.

It had lots of cannon.

It is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world, and it is also the second oldest war ship. (There is one English ship, which is older, but it is permanently dry-docked.) It still has real sailors on it which give tours. Then we went to the U.S.S. Constitution museum, and then went back to Boston and ate dinner.

Faith & Freedom Tour Thursday

On Thursday it was raining. We watched the procession called Pilgim's Progress. It was raining, so we did not get any pictures. After we watched the procession, we went to the Pilgrim Hall Museum. At the museum, there was a library with some of the original documents and copies of others. After the Pilgrim Hall Museum, we went to Thanksgiving dinner at the hotel. After the dinner, Mr. Doug Phillips gave a talk about the Pilgim Thanksgiving and how we should give thanks. The Pilgims had a week long feast and called it the harvest feast. The Pilgims called it the harvest feast because they celebrated thanks giving days with fasting and prayers. We took a picture of our family:
Mr. Phillips did not get to say everything he wanted to because we ran out of time. After Mr. Phillips spoke, we left and we had the rest of the evening to ourselves.

Faith & Freedom Tour Wednesday

On Wednesday, we went to Plimoth Plantation & Salem. At Plimoth Plantation, we went around the English model village, and talked to the pilgrim actors at the village. Joshua also went to the Indian model village with a family that was on the tour with us. Before we went into
Plimoth Plantation, Mr. Phillips asked us to ask the pilgrims some questions. While we were at
Plimoth Plantation, we asked the pilgrims questions, like why they used the Geneva Bible instead of the King James Bible. Some of the questions they knew the answers to, and some they were not so good at answering. We thought they did a very good job though.
After we had finished our time at Plimoth Plantation we grabbed our lunch and went on the bus to go to Salem.

When we arrived at Salem, we met Dr. Paul Jehle, and he gave us a speech on the witchcraft trials in Salem. We also walked around Salem a little bit, and also looked at the model of the Friendship, a ship which was like the one Nathaniel Bowditch sailed. After that we went on the bus and went back to the hotel in Plymouth.

Faith & Freedom Tour Tuesday

On Tuesday we had a very busy day. We started out on a walking tour of the Monuments of Plymouth. We started at Plymouth Rock. Dr. Paul Jehle gave us an introductory talk on the pilgrims.

The next stop was at Plymouth rock.We then moved to the Plymoth's mother's Monument commemorating the women of Plymouth. Of the women, 48% died in the first winter. After that we went to the burying hill. Then we went the the close by statue of Massasoit the Indian chief. We went to the church of the pilgrimage, were Pastor Gary Marks gave us a talk on the church of the pilgrims, and John Robinson, their pastor. We also went the Grist Mill, which was very interesting.
The next place to go the the schedule was to Plymouth Plantation, but we were behind on the schedule, so we left for the Mayflower II. We got to go on the ship and talk with the reenactors. For dinner we got to go to the Plimoth Plantation for a pilgrim thanksgiving dinner.

This was a very full day and we had a lot of fun.

The Faith and Freedom Tour

This week, starting last Monday, we are on the Vision Forum Faith & Freedom Tour of Plymouth. We flew out at 9:00 a.m. from RDU airport to the airport in Boston. We got there safely and went to the opening dinner.

Going to Work

Recently I (Joshua) have started going to work. I go three days a week. We eat lunch on the way to the office, and then get back to the house in time for dinner. We first listened to "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" on the way there, and I liked that very much. Now we are listening to "The Entrepreneurial Bootcamp" talking about business. I get to be in the same office as Daddy. I enjoy going to work.

Reformation Day

October 31, Reformation Day, is a very important day in church. On October 31 in 1517, Martin Luther nailed the 95 theses to the Church door in Wittenburg. With that act he lit the fire of Reformation in Europe. This year our church gathered at the Brown Family Farm to remember the reformers. A handful of children did biographical sketches of the major reformers, Martin Luther, John Knox and John Calvin. I (Joshua) did one on John Knox. John Knox was a great reformer in Scotland. He was driven out of many countries, first he was captured by the French at the siege of St. Andrew's Castle and was put in a galley to row. He was released and then he went to England. Then he was driven to France, and from France to Geneva. Then he went back to Scotland and died there. While he was in Scotland the second time he preached boldly against the Queen, Mary. I had fun preparing the speech about John Knox.

To the right is a picture of St. Andrew's castle, which we took on our March 2006 trip to Scotland.

Our New Family Member

Several weeks ago we got a cat from our friends, the Browns. We named her Kater, because that is the Greek word for cat.
She is very funny and plays with us. For a while she liked to go under cars, but she does not do that now.