Gather at the River

Good Sunday Morning to you all. This morning I feature another Christoval, Texas picture from about 1900. The picture shows ladies preparing a picnic on the shores of the South Concho River. It was part of a week long old-time tent revival meeting.

You see, Christoval used to be a great meeting place for tent revivals and encampments. These types of meetings would run all summer along the South Concho, and thousands of people from all over the country would attend.

My dad shared with me that his earliest memories were sitting on the banks of the South Concho river at one of these revival meetings, sitting in his mother's lap, and listening to the fiery preaching of Dr. George Washington Truett, one of the biggest evangelist of the day. 

These tent revivals and encampments went on from the late 1800's on up into the 1930's. In the 1930's there was a major flood, and it washed out the facilities, and with the Great Depression, there was not the resources or the energy to rebuilt.

The area now is the local hangout, where teenagers go to drink beer and smoke pot on the weekend. To me it is a shame that we had such a wonderful legacy, and then let it go.

Perhaps we should try and restart the tradition of the old tent revivals along the river. Hmmm . . . maybe a sunrise Easter service there would be a start.