The Mayflower set sail from Holland on September 6, 1620. The ship’s 102 passengers were determined to establish a settlement in the New World that would honor God. In the book, Making Haste from Babylon, Nick Bunker captures the essence of the Pilgrim’s worldview: “The Pilgrims believed that everything followed a plan, laid down by God before the beginning of the world, but it was a secret plan.”

They intended to land on a small island known as Manhattan, where there was reported to be a sprinkling of Dutch fur traders who they thought would welcome them. But it just so happened the Mayflower drifted off course and landed on the edge of Cape Cod – 250 miles north of their intended destination.

They landed on November 9, two months after their departure. It was a rugged trip. Two young men died en route, and one baby was born. When they arrived, there were no friends to welcome them, no inns to entertain them, no settlement to protect them, just a barren country full of woods and thickets and unknown savages who might attack at any minute.

When they realized they were 250 miles north of their target, they considered sailing south to their intended destination, but howling headwinds, treacherous tides, and dangerous shoals persuaded the ship’s captain, Christopher Jones, that they shouldn’t attempt it. The Pilgrims, not surprisingly, perceived that as God’s providence. God must want them to stay on this desolate shore. God had brought them to precisely the right place.

William Bradford, who went on to serve 30 years as governor of the new colony, recalled the moment with gratitude. “Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and mysteries thereof to again set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element.”

The Pilgrims were surprised to discover an area near the shore that had been cleared of trees. It just so happened that Native Americans had cleared twenty acres of land and planted corn but had vacated the spot a few months before because of a terrible plague that had decimated their numbers.

And it just so happened that the area had an abundant water supply. Bradford described, “A very sweet brook and many delicate springs of as good water as can be drunk.” They also discovered patches of ripened blackberries to eat.

In his book, The American Miracle – Divine Providence In The Rise Of The Republic, Michael Medved wrote: “The Pilgrims couldn’t avoid marveling at their own good fortune and seeing in it, ‘The good hand of God.’” He quotes one of the settlers, Edward Winslow, as writing, “…it was God’s good providence that we found this corn for else we know not how we should have done.”

Those early settlers experienced a brutal first winter in which almost half didn’t survive. But one day in early spring, a single Native American appeared in the distance walking toward their settlement with long, purposeful strides. The Pilgrim’s assigned defenders ran down to intercept him but were dumbfounded when the stranger bellowed, “Welcome Englishmen!” Then he added, “Do you have beer?”

This Native American spoke broken English! The new settlers discovered his name was Samoset, and he had learned a little English from some Cod fishermen far to the north. He returned a few days later with another Native American named Squanto who spoke much better English and proved to be a big help to the Pilgrims.

Squanto had been kidnapped at 12 years of age by a marauding sea captain and taken to England as a slave. There he learned English and some European agricultural techniques. After nine years as a slave, Squanto was released and returned to his native land.

It just so happened that Squanto was very knowledgeable about surviving in the harsh land. He taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn: five kernels in a mound surrounded by three fish as fertilizer to nourish growth. He taught them how to fish for eels at the bottom of the local streams. He taught them how to catch alewives by setting up low dams at strategic points that trapped the fast-moving fish and produced an abundant harvest.

Michael Medved points out the Pilgrims just happened to encounter the only Native American on the continent who spoke English and had mastered the European agricultural technique that rescued the new colony from hunger and privation. Squanto also helped negotiate a peace treaty with the local Wampanoag Native American tribe. That agreement, which was famously celebrated in the first Thanksgiving, lasted for more than 50 years.

According to Governor Bradford, Squanto made a deathbed confession of faith in Jesus Christ and proved his loyalty to his new friends by leaving his meager possessions to them as remembrances. Michael Medved wrote, “Without Squanto, there might have been no Thanksgiving feast and no survival. To William Bradford, he was ‘a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond expectation.’”

“… for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)

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