Cord Byrd: “Mr, President, nearly 4 centuries ago, a courageous little group of people left their homeland, boarded a small, flimsy…”

“Mr, President, nearly 4 centuries ago, a courageous little group of people left their homeland, boarded a small, flimsy sailboat-- it was not a steamboat; it was a sailboat, a sail ship--and they journeyed across a mighty ocean, and settled in an inscrutable unfriendly wilderness. They did all of this, took all of these risks. Think about the risks that they took. They did not have any cell phones. They did not have any radios. They did not have any weather predictors. They did not have any newspapers to tell them what might lie ahead or what the weather conditions might be 24 hours away. They did not have any hospitals nearby. But they had faith. They had the guiding light of God's word. Many of them took all these risks so that they could go to church, the church of their choice. Think about it. How many of us today have difficulty getting up on Sunday morning in order to go to church? I do. Ah, how I like to lie in bed on Sunday morning. My little dog Billy gets me up many times, or that alarm clock does. But I like to go back to bed on Sunday morning. Can't do it on Monday, you see. Can't do it on Tuesday. But Saturday and Sunday--ah, Sunday. How many of us do not like to walk those few blocks or drive those few miles to go to church? But here were the Pilgrims, crossing a vast ocean--2,500 miles, 3,000 miles--a vast body of water, facing the darkest of unknowns. They did not know what would lie in wait for them.…”