I had the privilege this week of visiting the Bolivar Peninsula for a fishing and "old friends" time with long-time friend Charles Miller. We had access to a condo on a beautiful canal. I had never spent a single night on this peninsula just above Galveston.
September 13, 2008 was a devastating day for Bolivar, as well as Galveston and other small towns and cities strung out along the Gulf. Hurricane Ike came ashore, and when He left entire communities along the upper Texas coast were simply wiped out. Elevation is about six-feet in most places. Winds and storm surge reduced houses to protruding poles or bare concrete slabs.The peak surge reached twenty-one feet. Water depths on Bolivar were from five to fifteen feet. The town of Gilchrist had about 1,000 buildings. 99.5% of them were knocked off their foundations. Of those off their foundations some were destroyed and others were simply washed into the swampland behind the town.
Today, three years after the devastation, there is clean-up and rebuilding. It is amazing to see the resolve of folks to make a go of life on this strip of land. It is beautiful, in it's way. The efforts put forth are phenomenal. Bolivar Peninsula lives once again! Near Port Bolivar and Chrystal Beach is a new school building, Crenshaw Elementary and Middle School, K 8. High School kids ride a ferry each school day to Ball High School in Galveston.
Had the people stayed on that peninsula hundreds, even thousands would have died. They wisely evacuated as they heard the call of extreme danger.
We are not so wise in hearing calls of warning in other areas of life. The Book gives out such messages throughout it's pages. Perish or perished is used over a hundred times. Some of the times it was directed toward nation. In other cases it is quite personal. The clearest example is this: "God so loved the world that he gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him should not PERISH but have eternal life."(John 3:16). How much clearer could a warning be? We either believe in Who and What Christ is and does, or we perish.
