Bibles, Beaufort & Gecko

Once again, we experienceone of the great joys of staying at churches. Today, Thursday, was the weekly Bible Study Breakfast of the Brothers of Church of the Palms, UMC.  This is one of the men’s ministries here at this 200 or so attender church.

About 30 of us gathered this morning for a lively continuing discussion in 1^st Corinthians. Pastor Pete led the discussion and shared the biblical meat we gnawed on after the FRESH biscuits, bacon, eggs, jam, and grits were partaken of.  And they do this deal EVERY Thursday at 8am. Well, the cooks arrive at 6.

Then Mona and I were off to libraries.  First was Ridgeland, SC, about 20 miles northeast.

On the way we passed the grave of a signer of the Declaration of Independence for South Carolina and near the site of a battle between descendants of those same signatories to the Declaration.  So sad.

You don’t see this kind of sign along the highways very often.

Next we were off to Beaufort, SC (pronounced BU=fort, unlike the North Carolina Beaufort which is pronounced BO-fort).

After two Goodwill’s and the Beaufort Library its lunchtime and we find the perfect spot right on the harbor. Only small private craft dock here now but throughout the Civil War Beaufort was a Union Army supply and Naval station.  For that reason there was little to no destruction of its beautiful antebellum homes.

We watched the Sea Island Bridge open to let a commercial barge go through while we ate our lunch: Amish Macaroni Salad.  Isn’t Walmart’s deli  selection interesting? And it was GOOD!
  

These homes are much like the Charleston homes we visited a couple of days ago, but the town is smaller so the yards and gardens tend to be larger, just less of them.

Beaufort is the home of the first freed slave black church congregation of South Carolina and the congregation meets today in its second building, built in 1885, 20 years after the war ended and about 10 years after the end of Reconstruction.




This was about the time white southerners were bringing down the ‘Jim Crow’ laws on all persons of color in the south. It amazes me that these people could build and maintain such a building in that environment.

 Beaufort is also home to the area's first Jewish Synagogue. 

Jews were not ostracized to any greater or lesser extent than elsewhere in the US before or during the war. President Jeff Davis had a Jew on his cabinet.

But years after the war, when the KKK was restarted in the 1890's, Blacks, Jews, and Catholics were all classed as non-persons or sub-humans by the supposedly 'Christian' Klan. I imagine this might have been a hard time for Beaufort Jews to build their first church.

The armory building, which predates the war, of course became a Union military facility after the town’s capture.  But it was the home of the first recruits from Beaufort to the Confederate Army so has a special place today in the hearts of home town people.

A short drive across several waterways and we were in Old Port Royal, and on Port Royal Sound, which was the first target of the Union Navy in 1861. Sand Beach sits on the point of land of Port Royal’s peninsula and looks directly across at Parris Island, the famous US Marine Corps recruit training facility.

We could here rapid single shot volleys being fired about 2-3 miles away over the bay by what might have been a hundred or so shooters. I prayed for the safety of every one of those men and women not just today, but well into their, and our, uncertain future. 

And praying especially for you, Private Ryan Best, USMC, and Marine Devin O’Rourke, who we have come to know personally and through family friends.

We stopped at one last thrift to look for books before heading back to the church and our home (right across the highway).  I was in the DVD aisle when I saw the store pet. Well, they didn’t know he was the store pet till I told them he was here, molting a bit and rubbing the dry skin off his face like a dog scratching his nose.

And he still is the store pet because, well, have you ever tried to catch a gecko?

-Ken