FOR THANKSGIVING 

A HEROIC STORY OF TRUE PILGRIMS WHO HELPED COLONIZE GEORGIA 

Hello Brothers and Sisters, 

Beginning on October 31st, 1731, twenty thousand Lutheran Protestants were expelled from their homes in the Province of Salzburg in Austria, because they refused to renounce their Lutheran Faith and return to the Roman Catholic Church. Through the work of the Christian Trustees of the Georgia Colony, eventually as many as 1200 of these refugees would make the Pilgrimage to the New World and occupy the settlement in Georgia. Their Pastor Jonhann Martin Blotzius understood their migration to be more of a religiously motivated pilgrimage than and emigration. And called it a journey “into danger, but closer to God”. And danger was correct for so many adults and children died in their first year that they abandoned their first location for another and created the first orphanage in Georgia for their orphaned children. Yet, they persevered, and the town they went on to found and grow named New Ebenezer, soon went on to become the largest in the colony, was for a time the capitol of the Colony, and produced the first Patriot governor of Georgia John Adam Treutlen. Today their town is a retreat center, and their church building, New Jerusalem, still stands as the oldest church and public building in Georgia. It still houses the oldest continuously worshiping Lutheran Church in America. Their story is a humbling and inspiring one as they and their Pastor greatly contributed to the Christian character and success of the early Georgia colony. Please take time this Thanksgiving to read the whole story of the Salzburgers on pages 44-49, and Pastor Jonhann Martin Blotzius on pages 80-81 of Pilgrims in Georgia https://online.fliphtml5.com/plczp/epit/ . It will move you to give thanks for the Christian heritage you have here in America. 

May God Bless, 

Jonny