Just before Christmas, my family and I visited Old Salem.  This area of Winston-Salem, NC is a Moravian community that was settled in the 1700's.  Today, this area has been preserved.  Craftsmen and tour guides show life as it was in the days of the Moravian settlement.  Revolutionary in its time period, they began the oldest girls' school in the country.  It began in a time when it was believed that women did not need an education.  We thoroughly enjoyed the visit.  I have been reading the Heroes of the Faith book Count Zizendorf to my sons.  He was the father of modern missionaries and he began a place of refuge for the persecuted Morvaians called Herrnhut in Germany.  He came to America to evangelize the native Americans and some of the people from his settlement relocated to Old Salem.

At Christmas, I was talking about it to my family and they reminded me that the Cherokee Indians of my hometown were evangelized by the Moravian  missionaries before they went on the Trail of Tears. 

When I returned home, I began receiving emails from ministries who would like to re-institute a call to prayer and a re-dedication to God the way the Moravians dedicated themselves to God.  I believe this is a key time period for us to examine the dedication of these forefathers and how their ways can be incorporated into these times today.  They are a wonderful model to follow as they exemplified the church in Acts.