Yesterday, my dear husband gave me the most precious gift: the gift of time! We always have a half day on the last day of the marking period, and, since I don’t start until 11:00, I would need to go in for one class. I was giving a test in that period and he was as well, so he offered to cover my class, and I stayed home. What a wonderful gift! So, what did I do? I wrote!
“Journey of Faith” is up to 51,000 words. 75,000 class it as a novel. I love writing Christian historical fiction, but all the research can become tedious. This story is special to me because it is based on my ancestry, a brave group of German immigrants who settled in Williamsport–Blooming Grove to be exact. One of my relatives kept a journal of the ocean voyage and my mother had a copy. For years, I had heard about this book but never saw it until we moved in with Mom to take care of her in 2020. It fascinated me so much that I decided to make it the setting of my next book.
Digging into history produces so many treasures! I am a slave to accuracy, so I read and look at maps and visit museums! This group of nine families landed in Philadelphia on September 19, 1804. The man who wrote the book writes that he had fifty cents in his pocket when he stepped off the ship onto a new land. That would equate to about $12.50 today! What did he do? Where did he go?
This is where the fiction part becomes necessary. We only have the skeleton of their journey. Combining all the facts would only give you a documentary, which might be enough for the purist, but I need a little flesh on the bones! Enter: Sophia Vinninger, a fictitious character who has lost her newlywed husband on the voyage. Her life is shipwrecked as well. She has lost the will to live, but… Well, you’ll have to read the book! 😉
So, how did they get to Williamsport from Philadelphia, around 160 miles? THEY WALKED! I can’t even imagine it, but in that day, it wasn’t that uncommon. Why? Ah, this little thing called money!
As I dug deeper, I found the route they took. It is NOT a walk in the park! I’ve been on the road which takes you on part of that journey. It’s beautiful, but it takes you through the Appalachian Mountains. They either carried their few belongings or pulled them in a cart or, as one relative has told me, they pushed them in a wheelbarrow.
Such fortitude and determination puts me to shame! Why did they come and press on to my hometown area? They left Germany because of religious persecution. Some of their young men had been imprisoned for being, what we would call today, a conscientious objector. Napoleon was warring with everyone and needed manpower. The prisons were overflowing, so he gave them the option to leave Germany or stay in prison. They left their homeland looking for religious freedom. They came here for financial reasons: Land was cheaper. And their faith wove the Gospel into the fabric of this area.
Therefore we also,
Hebrews 12:1,2
since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight,
and the sin which so easily ensnares us,
and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross,
despising the shame,
and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
What kind of legacy are we leaving for our children? Will they look back and remember us as a people of faith, willing to do the hard thing? That is quite a challenge, but oh the benefits are out of this world! We will never look back at this life when in heaven and say, “Oh, I wish I hadn’t done so much for the Lord!”
(The photo is of the William and Mordcai Evans house in Limerick, possibly a stopping point for these travelers. [It is a stopping point for Sophia and her traveling companion.] George Washington made this home his headquarters in the Battle of Brandywine, and it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005.)
Beyond Common Sense 