[I decided to expand upon the petitions mentioned in the last Note. The actual petition made in Virginia reads (as translated by Andreas Mielke):
To all pious Christian Readers of this in Europe, we wish God’s Mercy and Blessing through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Since in none other is salvation; and also since man is given no other name under the sky in which he can be blessed than in the name of Jesus Christ, Acts 4, It is therefore an unspeakable goodness of God, and to man a joyful message; that he gave man not only his son for our salvation but also that he has this gospel be preached to the entire world, Matt. 24, as initially in the Orient, so also now in recent times here in the Occident, in America; as we see various people come together from Europe and elsewhere almost daily: because we note with them a big difference in their divine service, we have concluded to establish also here in the land Virginia Christian churches and schools for us Germans, so that our children and off spring shall not get into heathendom, enthusiasms, or other sects and errors, and this would lose the blessedness so dearly gained by Christ: But rather maintain the true Evangelical-Reformed divine service after our death, and publicly preach in the German language according to the guide line of the divine word, administer the holy sacraments according to Christ’s order, teach the youth in schools (especially the catechism known in the Heidelberg lands), maintain the teacher; all to the fellow brothers in Christ him who shows this, the honorable Mister Jacob Christoff Zollickoffer, born out of the city St. Gall, of Switzerland, to pleadingly request a merciful contribtuion to above mentioned Christian endeavor in the hope that every Christian Reader of this shall contribute according to his ability and expect for it the blessing of God which we wish to all of you to enjoy constantly in this transitory and afterwards in the eternal life.
(L.S.) Henrich Häger/Servant of God with the Germans in Virginia 1719
Johann Jost Merdten
Hans Jacob Richter
Elders In the name of the congregation
We gratefully acknowledge the work of John Blankenbaker who published over 2,500 Germanna History Notes via the Germanna-L@rootsweb.com email list from 1997 to 2008. We are equally thankful to George Durman (Sgt. George) for hosting the list and republishing the notes via rootsweb.com.