Gloucester and Rockport, MA – July 18th

“They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;
These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep.”

Gloucester

Yacob was sitting in a café waiting for the buses to show up when a young man came up to him and asked, “Are you going to be in Gloucester today?” When Yacob looked quizzically at him, he added, “The Merrymakers! I was with you in Salem last night.”

So, not only was a very warm and sunny summer day waiting for us as we pulled up to Pavilion Beach and the Sailor Monument in Gloucester, but so were others we met or were just seen by. On Stacy Avenue we met passersby, including a very friendly woman of Portuguese descent whose family had been fishermen for three generations. Fortunately, none of their names was among the 5,000+ names of drowned sailors on the monument.

The Merrymakers are Coming

When we left there to go to Rockport, a woman came up to us and exclaimed, “Here you are!” She had seen our buses in Plymouth, and turned to her husband and said, “If we ever see those buses again, I am going to find out what they are doing.”

Someone had her in mind the next day when we decided to leave the Sailor’s Monument and were considering where to go. Several people we met strongly recommended Stage Fort Park. In the end, we decided to move on to Rockport, where our three buses parked on the side of a busy street. Just as Malachi was getting set up and the musicians and dancers were moving to the center of the square, the woman who had seen us in Plymouth came up to the Garden Bus and greeted Malachi.

She turned out to be a teacher of public speaking and cultural communication in Texas, and was very interested in the Twelve Tribes and Israel, both for herself and as the daughter of a preacher. She said she could write a book about Christianity, and was so refreshed to meet a people actually obeying the Word and not merely talking about it. They exchanged e-mail addresses and we felt honored to meet her.

We met another woman at the Imagine sign. Shelamah went down there, and the woman said, “Oh, you’re the Merrymakers? Someone had written in my guest book that the Merrymakers would be here! And here you are.”

As the rest of us danced and played music, we were joined by two Jewish women who knew one of the dances we were doing, asked for another by its melody, and in general had a good time. When they came up, John had told them, “This is God’s favorite music.” Agreeing, they stopped and danced with us!

They turned out to be touring the United States by themselves, their home being Haifa, Israel. They were thankful their family was in the States now, and we enjoyed hearing their children call their parents “abba and imma” as ours do. Meeting these friendly women allowed us to touch, however distantly, terrible faraway events. We surely live in a time where travel has increased, a time like no other in history.

Afterwards, thoroughly heated up by the brilliant sunshine and vigorous dancing (even in our tiny space), we drove to Crane Beach in Ipswich where, as always, people toured our bus, took photos, and spoke with us. We had a good talk with the beach workers, employees of the Trustees of Reservations, who manage it. Their signboards notified visitors that plans had been implemented to limit human access. The large population of greenhead flies was accomplishing its goal! They are biting horseflies with green heads who pack a wallop of a sting, happily pursuing you into the ocean.

A beautiful campsite awaited us in Salisbury where we settled down to dinner and a good night’s rest. Next day in Newburyport! See you there!

More coming soon!!!