This Week's Story
click here to play audioCOVID and the American election kicked us out of the status quo and into our quest!
This Week’s Story relives American history and the Bible through brief inspiring stories presented on mp3 audio recordings and text for reading.
Motorcycle Quest, part one
My brother Ethan and I have been motorcycling through all fifty states in the United States. Every state has magnets drawing us. Ethan and I are a team. He knows how to listen. I know how to talk. He’s 26; I’m 24.
Thanks to Mom and Dad, we’ve been training since we stopped burping. Managing our money, maintaining our motorcycles, keeping hydrated, and being defense smart are skills we use.
COVID and the election kicked us out of the status quo and into our quest. We have a year to travel and $30,000 we saved. Our quest is basic to living in 2020. We need practical answers to questions that bother us every day. What has been good in our country? What can be good now that we can put into our lives?
As we travel, we find short-term jobs. It’s a way to know what is driving people. We take time to listen and ask questions. We’re relaxed. Being respectful is a key to people trusting us.
Today we saw posters announcing a community Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Plymouth was the first home of
Pilgrims in what became the United States. We decided to go. Maybe we would find answers in the Pilgrim story.
The Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock 400 years ago had experiences that they did not call good or bad luck. They were convinced that God helped them, though they experienced disease and death. They left Europe to find freedom to worship God as they understood the Bible taught. They left to be able to provide for their families. In the Mayflower they crossed the ocean in 66 days of miserable conditions.
Nearly half of them died their first winter at Plymouth, yet they built the first permanent settlement of Europeans in New England. Within a month of meeting the native Indians, the Wampanoag Indians and the Pilgrims had begun to accept each other. Chief Massasoit and the leaders of the Pilgrim community negotiated a peace treaty. It lasted more than fifty years. That respect and treaty astonished Ethan and me.
The Pilgrims were ignorant newcomers to the New World. They received help from the Wampanoag Indian tribes under the leadership of Chief Massasoit. Squanto, who once had lived on the land of Plymouth, became their survival teacher. To God the Pilgrims gave the credit.
When Ethan and I are at home, Thanksgiving is a happy feast with friends and family. That’s wonderful, but God is a small part of Thanksgiving. That was not the Pilgrim way.
Ethan and I discover that we are attending the 1621 Thanksgiving Harvest Festival with Pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians. It lasts for three days with games, visiting, dancing, singing, and eating. Prayer is before and after every meal.
Long tables are filled with food. Pilgrims and Wampanoag have brought food. It is exciting to see Chief Massasoit, Samoset, Squanto, and 90 Indian men. There are only about 50 Pilgrims, because many died during the previous winter.
This is Barbara Steiner inviting you to return soon for more news about the Pilgrim Thanksgiving Harvest Festival. Conflicting sources were carefully researched.
Enjoy reading stories at www.thisweeksstory.com.
<< previous story] [next story >>
We invite your comments! [click here to comment]
From Frank
I’d never heard about Chief Massasoit, Samoset, or about how many Pilgrims had died or lived. But 50 pilgrims?! It is very hard to grasp how many really died.
Response by Elizabeth at This Week's Story
I too find this hard to grasp. The high number that died, all they endured coming to this land.
Join the conversation.
This Week's Story is a non-profit supported by listeners. [click here to make a donation]