JULY 4

Happy 4th to all our American friends, hope this finds you all safe and well.
We worshipped this morning in Sydney NS. We have church ties to this area going back many years. Diane's stepmom pastored several churches in this area in the 1950's, my brother pastored here in the 1970's and friends pastored here in the 1990's. we were able to talk to people who knew them all and to update them on news.
After a quick lunch at a ocean side park, we toured a Coal Miners Museum in Glace Bay. There is a long and rich history of coal mining in this area dating from the mid 1770's. a highlight of the day is a tour of a now closed but was a working mine until 1996. The main shaft goes down and under the ocean and out seven miles under the sea. No we didn't go out that far but we did get a tour by a retired miner, who worked that mine for a number of years and told us and showed us some of the conditions in which they worked under. In the early years kids as young as eight years old worked underground for as little as 10 cents a day. In recent years even with automation, miners worked in areas where you cannot stand up straight.
Canadians of our era will remember these mines as the place where epic battles were fought between miners and absentee mine owners. Over the years many miners were killed by private armies hired by mine owners and many more died in mine disasters because of lack of safety. Sadly no coal is mined today in Cape Breton.