Page 52 - Pilgrims in Georgia

V
Coming to America

Survey of Savannah by a
Moravian Surveyor with the
Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf The Community of Herrnhut Brethren lots marked

In 1722 Moravians fleeing persecution in Bohemia and Moravia found refuge in Saxony (Germany on the estate of
Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a Lutheran pietist nobleman, and began to build the community of Herrnhut.
The new community became the haven for many more Moravian refugees and grew. Count Zinzendorf encouraged
them to keep their church, the Unitas Fratrum, and he gave them the vision to take the gospel to the far corners of the
globe. By August 13, 1727, a great spiritual renewal for the Moravian Church had take place, and by 1732 the first
missionaries were sent to the West Indies. Welcomed by the Georgia Trustees in London, they, granted them 500
acres on the Ogeechee River, plus two 50-acre tracts in Savannah. Zinzendorf said, “I therefore look into every
opportunity which presents itself [to make Jesus known among the “heathen”]. On February 3, 1735, they left London
for the new colony of Georgia. On board was a young Anglican priest, named John Wesley, whom the Georgia Governor

Oglethorpe had invited to serve as a pastor in Savannah. During the voyage a fierce storm came upon them the ship was
soon in danger of shipwreck. The Moravians were in the midst of a worship service and praising God with much
intensity, but Wesley was terrified. Wesley recounts the event in his diary; “In the midst of the Psalm wherewith their
service began, the sea broke over, split the main-sail in pieces, covered the ship and poured in between the decks, as if
the great deep had already swallowed us up. A terrible screaming began among the English. The Germans calmly sung
on. I asked one of them afterwards; ‘Were you not afraid?’ He answered, ‘I thank God, no.’ I asked: ‘But were not your
women and children afraid?’ He replied mildly: ‘No, our women and children are not afraid to die.’”. Wesley simply
could not relate to that kind of trust in God though he served Him professionally.