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Monday, May 18, 2009

Christian Fight Club 1627

My sister and niece were in town this weekend. We did the usual tour guide thing...on Saturday we traveled to Plymouth. One of the stops was to Plimoth Plantation (spelling is different because that is how Gov William Bradford spelled it - you see there were no spelling rules back then - they followed phonetic spellings - but I digress). PP for short is a living history museum and a replica of the original Pilgrim village as it might have looked 7 years after the original landing on the rock. You walk around the village and see the houses, people and lifestyle they would have lived. The workers are all in character of an actual person that lived in the village. At the top of the hill was a building that was Cory's favorite.

It was the battle house with cannons. The cannons were on the second floor of the structure to give them the best range to defend the village. The ground floor of the building was also where church services were held.

I like to think of this as a very early version of Christian Fight Club. Some of you might have heard my story of coming across Christian Flight Club while I was in Kuwait. That has stuck with me and I continue to look for a way to integrate manhood and the aggressive nature of masculinity within the church. Having cannons inside the church is a good start I think.

Cory played a funny game with me as I approached the building. He ran out and told me to shut my eyes. Always wary of what my kids will have laying in wait for me when I close my eyes I resisted, but he was persistent. He lead me up the steps...eyes closed...I was afraid of tripping over my sister or finding some surprise at the top of the staircase that might cause me to fall down the steps, but instead I found Cory bursting with excitement that there were battle cannons here in the village.

It was interesting to see and hear the Christian perspective of the early settlers. The religious overtones and Christian nature of their mission is certainly downplayed in modern times, but it come out loud and clear here in PP.

We also toured the Mayflower II (replica of I), spied Plymouth Rock, and walked along the rocky sea wall to an interesting geocache (Simplicity One - for those cachers who want to see specifics).


The picture below gives you some perspective on how long we walked on the sea wall. It was much longer than the kids bargained for and a little scarier than anything the moms wanted. So far we are 2 for 2 with our iPhone geocaching app. It hasn't replaced garmin yet...

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