The Next 30 Years: June 14, 2009 Sunday, Savannah, GA

We had a wonderful ride through Savannah today beginning with visiting First Baptist Church at 223 Bull Street at Chippewa Square. The Greek revival sanctuary is Savannah’s oldest house of worship built in 1831, though the church was established in 1800. The church has a rich old history including that in 1884 the pastor of this church left as a missionary to Burma to join Adoniram Judson, one of the first Baptist missionaries. This church was one of the few southern churches that remained active during the Civil War and held services before and after the city fell to the Union forces. We arrived early and were invited to attend a Sunday School class which was great. The class was involved in a discussion of 1 John 4, love being a fruit of the spirit–they were very friendly, and we felt at home. Isn’t it wonderful where you find God. The worship service music was led by a huge pipe organ that filled the front of the sanctuary. The pastor’s message from Mark 4 encouraged us that God works through our small gifts just as the tiny mustard seed grows into a great tree.

We left our bikes in the park guarded by the 9 foot bronze statue of James Oglethorpe. He was the great soldier who founded the colony of Georgia in 1732 and there are many stories of his philanthropy and bravery.

After the service, we continued our ride through the beautiful city, back to the Trustee Gardens, to eat lunch at the Pirate House. Here was the Herb House, built in 1734, the oldest building in Georgia where the Gardens manager originally lived and worked. Next to it was built a bar and inn run by Captain Flint. It was here that Robert Louis Stevenson was staying when he got the idea for the novel Treasure Island. There is now a restaurant which includes both buildings and Pirate Molly was there to take us on a tour of the house including sharing the legends of local men being carried off to sea from a tunnel from the cellar. In addition to being interesting pseudo-history, they had a wonderful southern buffet luncheon. The table board included collards, sweet potatoes, chicken pot pie, butter beans, Savannah red rice, fried tilapia, pulled roasted pork, squash casserole, etc.

Our ride brought us to the John the Baptist Cathedral where we stopped to sit in on a few minutes of an afternoon organ recital. This Catholic Church was built in 1873. The stained glass windows and wall murals inside were quite beautiful and the music echoed from the lofty vaulted domes.