Are you a fan of the mutiny on the Bounty? Did you know that Pitcairn Island is very special for the Seventh-day Adventist church? At Lubbock Junior Academy we have 14 new fans of the Bounty and Pitcairn Island. You may wonder why students would be interested in some remote island in the Pacific Ocean and a mutiny that happened back in 1789.
During the last two weeks, I have been telling a continued story of the British naval ship H.M.S. Bounty. It was under the command of Lieutenant William Bligh but was seized by Masters Mate Fletcher Christian and a number of other mutineers. These men forced Bligh, and crew members loyal to him, into a small ship’s cutter, which was then set adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
Christian and his fellow mutineers set off to find a remote island where they and their wives from Tahiti could live out the rest of their days. For if they ever returned to England they could be tried for mutiny and hanged. The little group of travelers discovered a tiny island far from any searching British ship.
The first few years on Pitcairn were relatively calm. The mutineers and their families thrived. However, hostility and treachery led to the death of many of the mutineers. Such a calamity led one of the mutineers by the name of John Adams to begin to read Fletcher Christian’s Bible. A change came over the island as all people began to worship the one and true God.
In 1886, John Tay, a Seventh-day Adventist layman, heard about the now famous Bounty mutiny and Bible-led lives of the Pitcairn people. He began a campaign to bring the Adventist message to the Pitcairn people. Mr. Tay raised the money to build a ship, which he named Pitcairn, and along with others took the message to the dear Pitcairn people. Today, the official religion of this tiny island is Seventh-day Adventist.
All of us are fans of our God who can even use a mutiny to share the Adventist message to a small, remote island. Our God is great!
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