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The Final Word DECEMBER/JANUARY, 2006

John H. Giesler

ONWARD is published 10 times a year, with two double issues, by the Moravian Mission Society, South, Inc. You can subscribe for $10 per year. Changes of address and/or checks should be made out to the Mission Society, and mailed to PO Drawer Y Salem Station, Winston-Salem  NC  27108 – Attention Sheila Beaman.  Editor is Rev. John H. Giesler, 1116 Tommy’s Lake RD, Winston-Salem  NC 27105. E-mail Bethsalem@triad.rr.com  ONWARD on the world wide web www.bethabara.org/ONWARD.htm  Submit articles by last day of month

We have come to a milestone in the life of ONWARD. We have completed our 25^th year – a quarter century of sharing the Good News of the Gospel in a Moravian frame. We continue in the new mode of working with the Board of World Mission. We are so grateful to Br. Sam Gray for taking time to share from his first hand knowledge and contacts. This issue had to be held back as he was in the Republic of the Congo for an important conference. His reports on pages 1,3 and 7 give us the FRESH news! We are grateful to Br. Fred Linyard, editor of the British Moravian Messenger for Pages 2 and 4. The editor continues with Pray Every Day on Pages 5 and 6. Our president writes on page 7 of the fabulous Mission Lovefeast held on November 6 at Macedonia Moravian Church where a real outpouring of the Holy Spirit took place. I want to thank Sr. Shiela Beaman for helping with technical matters between computers, and my wife Barbara for typing and proof reading of this edition of ONWARD.                 

Barbara and I had the wonderful experience of attending the annual Convention of the Trail of Tears Association, held this year in Chattanooga, TN. The president of this very active Association is Br. Jack Baker, who traces his family through Moravians from the Georgia Mission. Chattanooga is the beginning of the Trail as Ross Landing was Cherokee territory. The group is made up of 10 State Associations that carry on their work in competition with the other groups, but they all are working for the good of the whole. We were warmly received and felt right at home with about 175 active members. Sr. Anna Smith was one of the principal presenters of historical and practical sessions about the experiences on the Trail of Tears. She told of the testimony of several of the Cherokee young women who were educated at Salem and how they used their gifts to aid in the cause of their people. At the close of the business sessions most of the participants traveled south to Chatsworth, GA to the Vann House and the Springplace Moravian Mission. There were many political and government representatives to honor the thousands of Cherokees who achieved so much only to be illegally and cruelly driven out of their home lands because of the greed of those who seized the properties of the Indians, as well of the Moravian Mission school, farm, and church building. The folks who run these historical sites have recently added 78 acres to the park. There were many sincere tributes to the Moravian missionaries who educated so many important leaders