Tent Revival

Good Wednesday Morning to you all. Hope you all are having a good week. Today's picture shows one of the old time tent revival meetings on the South Concho River in Christoval. The picture looks to be from the 1920's. The tents are not the revival tent, but are the tents people camped in while attending the week long revival meeting.

Looking at all these old revival pictures makes me nostalgic, and it makes me think we should try and get the old tent meetings going again, and bring back this wonderful Christoval Legacy. Hmmm . . . maybe start small, with an Easter Sunrise Service in the park, right where this picture was taken. Thats what we should do, and that is what we are going to do. Consider yourselves invited! 

Camp Revival

Good Tuesday Morning to you. I hope you are having a good week, and maybe enjoying the pretty springtime weather. Today's picture shows a Camp Revival meeting on the South Concho River. You can see the kids having a good time swimming in the river, and you can see some of the camp tents in the background.

Revival Meeting

As you know, we have extended Christoval, Texas week for another week. Today's picture was taken around 1900, and shows a group of people on the banks of the South Concho river. The people were attending a revival meeting. As I read about these meetings, I learned it was not unusual for a hundred people to be baptized at a time in the river. 

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.