The journey of Captain Thomas Sutherland to Australia in 1881 Essay

Greetings to you all. My name is Thomas Sutherland and, along with my wife Adelaide, was the first officer sent to Australia to commence the work of the Salvation Army by the General, William Booth. For me to give you all a true picture of my journey to Australia I need to go back to my youth. You see, I wasn?t always a true follower of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes I went to Sunday school when I was a lad, but during my teen years I lost my way causing great concern to my parents. I began to behave in a wicked way and would become one of the best blasphemers going around. I became the leader of a gang of roughs having shown good leadership skills amongst the group. It wasn?t long before I moved from these wild ways to that of drinking at the public houses, became idle and loathsome. This is where I picked up the name of ?Drunken Tom?. I picked up work as a farrier and had several close shaves with horses that didn?t like me. I then decided to move from my home town of Brancaster, in the Norfolk County, to London. I had learned music during my younger days and I was able to put these skills to use as a strolling vagabond (or a busker as you would now call them). While in London I would often think about what my parents would think of me in my dishevelled state. This would lead me to become lonesome and I would delve deeper into my wicked ways as well as my drunkenness. I very rarely communicated with my parents as I was ashamed of what I had become and didn?t know how to stop it. One day while in the streets of Hackney, feeling lost and sorry for myself, I heard the pleasant sounds of singing. I had not heard such a cheerful and loving sounds since I stoped going to Sunday school. I followed the sound of the voices... ... at night, and God came very near as Mrs. Sutherland and myself spoke of His love. The devil raged and tried to upset us, but it proved an entire failure, so we got the victory through the blood. We are teaching a present salvation, and the captain, mate and sailors listen to us. Several of the passengers are very much interested in The Salvation Army. But above all, God is with us. We have some roughs on board, and they commence to play their games when we hold our meetings. But God says ?Go on!? and on we go. The journey would become a lot smoother as we headed into the southern summer and after 43 days of sea travel, on the 17th of February, we would finally reach our destination of Adelaide in South Australia. The temperature was well over 100 degrees when we arrived, but that wasn?t going to stop us from commencing the Lords work in this vast land.