Savannah was a planned city, founded in 1733 by philanthropist and reformer
General James Oglethorpe and laid out according to his design. In 1735,
Oglethorpe invited John Wesley to come to Georgia as the colony's chaplain.
Wesley sailed for Georgia on October 14, 1735, along with his brother Charles,
who was to serve as Oglethorpe's private secretary.
Others in the party included Benjamin Ingham and Charles Delamotte, members
with the Wesleys of "The Holy Club" at Oxford. The faith of a group
of Moravian Christians on board the Simmonds with the Wesleys made a deep
impression on John.
On February 6, 1736, the ship's passengers set foot on Peeper (now Cockspur)
Island, and John Wesley led them in a prayer of thanksgiving. (A monument now
marks the spot.) Exactly a month later, on March 7, he preached his first
sermon in a hut in Savannah that served as both a courthouse and a place of
worship.
The next two years were very difficult ones for the Wesley brothers. Charles
was not temperamentally suited to be Oglethorpe's secretary. He also was not
suited to be the parish priest to the new settlement at Fort Frederica on St.
Simons Island, about seventy-five miles south of Savannah. He ran into trouble
with the colonists, had bouts of illness, and became so disheartened that he
returned to England in August, just six months after their arrival.
John faced his own problems. He, too, was at times unpopular with the
colonists, and a disastrous love affair with Sophy Hopkey only made his
situation worse. Continued contact with the Moravians led him to question the
state of his soul, and he failed to realize his hopes of a mission to the
American Indians in Georgia. He wrote in his journal, "I came to convert
the Indians, but, oh, who will convert me?"
John Wesley sailed for England on December 2, 1737, discouraged and
uncertain about his future. He later said that he was only "beating the
air" during his time in Georgia.
However, the time was not wasted. The questions that drove him from Georgia
brought him "very unwillingly" to a meeting in Aldersgate Street in
May, 1738, where he had his famous "heart-warming" experience. One
could say that his months in Georgia were an important apprenticeship for the
work that would be his for the next fifty years.
http://www.gcah.org/research/travelers-guide/john-wesleys-american-parish
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