Home

THE REVEREND DOUGLAS DRANE'S TRANSPORT SUNDAY MESSAGE

  
     
   
     
  February 8 2009 marked the first celebration of Transport Sunday at the Mariner's Church in Gloucester Docks and as well as the paparazzi's hymn "Guide me O Thou Great Jehovah" the Reverend Douglas Drane also chose the following scriptural texts to support his address:  
     
  Exodus Chapter 14 Verses 5 - 33  
     
  "When the king of Egypt was told that the people had escaped, he and his officials changed their minds and said "What have we done? We have let the Israelites escape, and we have lost them as our slaves!" The king got his war chariot and his army ready. He set out with all his chariots, including the six hundred finest, commanded by their officers. The Lord made the king stubborn, and he pursued the Israelites, who were leaving triumphantly. The Egyptian army, with all the horses, chariots, and drivers, pursued them and caught up with them where they were camped by the Red Sea near Pi Hahiroth and Baal Zephon.

When the Israelites saw the king and his army marching against them, they were terrified and cried out to the Lord for help. They said to Moses, "Weren't there any graves in Egypt? Did you have to bring us out here in the desert to die? Look what you have done by bringing us out of Egypt! Didn't we tell you before we left that this would happen? We told you to leave us alone and let us go on being slaves of the Egyptians. It would be better to be slaves there than to die here in the desert."

Moses answered "Don't be afraid! Stand your ground, and you will see what the Lord will do to save you today; you will never see these Egyptians again. The Lord will fight for you, and there is no need for you to do anything."

The Lord said to Moses "Why are you crying out for help? Tell the people to move forward. lift up your stick and hold it over the sea. the water will divide, and the Israelites will be able to walk through the sea on dry ground. I will make the Egyptians so stubborn that they will go in after them, and I will gain honour by my victory over the king, his army, his chariots, and his drivers. When I defeat them, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord."

The angel of God, who had been in front of the army of Israel, moved and went to the rear. The pillar of cloud also moved until it was between the Egyptians and the Israelites. The cloud made it dark for the Egyptians, but gave light to the people of Israel, and so the armies could not come near each other all night.

Moses held out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back with a strong east wind. it blew all night and turned the sea into dry land. The water was divided, and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground, with walls of water on both sides. The Egyptians pursued them and went after them into the sea with all their horses, chariots and drivers. Just before dawn the Lord looked down from the pillar of fire and cloud at the Egyptian army and threw them into a panic. he made the wheels of their chariots get stuck, so that they moved with great difficulty, The Egyptians said "The Lord is fighting for the Israelites against us. Let's get out of here!"

The Lord said to Moses "Hold out your hand over the sea, and the water will come back over the Egyptians and their chariots and drivers. So Moses held out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the water the water returned to its normal level. the Egyptians tried to escape from the water, but the Lord threw them into the sea. The water returned and covered the chariots, the drivers, and all the Egyptian army that had followed the Israelites into the sea; not one of them was left. But the Israelites walked through the sea on high ground, with walls of water on both sides.

On that day the Lord saved the people of Israel from the Egyptians and, and the Israelites saw them lying dead on the seashore. When the Israelites saw the great power with which the Lord had defeated the Egyptians, they feared the Lord and had faith in the Lord and his servant Moses."

  
     
  The Gospel according to St Matthew Chapter 3 Verses 1-3  
     
  "At that time John the Baptist came to the desert of Judea and started preaching "Turn away from your sins," he said "because the Kingdom of heaven is near!" John was the man the prophet Isaiah was talking about when he said,

"Someone is shouting in the desert, "prepare a road for the Lord; make a straight path for him to travel!"

  
     
  TRANSPORT  
     
  In the millions of years of the Earth's existence, the wheel has been a comparatively recent development, although most authorities regard it as one of mankind's oldest and most important inventions. The wheel, as far as is known, originated in the 5th millennium before Christ in the Ubaid period of ancient Mesopotamia ( now Iraq ) as a device for spinning clay pots.

Wheeled vehicles however can be traced back to the northern side of the Caucasus where they have been discovered in graves dating back to 3700 BC and a four wheeled cart is also depicted on the Bronocice pot of 3500 BC excavated in southern Poland.

The great Sarsen and Prescelli Blue stones were most likely transported to Stonehenge around 2 500 BC by sleds and by using round logs as rollers while the Nubians are thought to have used potter's wheels, ox powered water wheels and horse driven chariots imported from Egypt. These Egyptian chariots - like those of the Andronovo culture of 2000 BC - were also likely to have had spoked wheels rather than simple discs of bound wooden sections.

However, making and balancing even crude wheels on axles and attaching them to carts with axle sockets requires skill and imagination. It is for this reason that may of the great pre-Colombian civilizations of South America grew without wheels, not least because it is far easier to persuade a llama to carry a load up a mountain than push a cart.

Although Celtic chariots had wheels with iron rims it was not until the 1870s AD when spoked wooden wheels were challenged by wire wheels and pneumatic rubber tyres which could by then run on the smooth Turnpike roads pioneered by Thomas Telford and John MacAdam but often built on Roma foundations.

By that time too, iron wheels were running on iron railways and in the century to come the steam and gas turbines would take wheels to a whole new level. Similarly, tarmacadam and concrete surfaces have proved crucial to the development of dual carriageways and Britains 50 year old Motorway network.