The Miracle of Concord

​Sorry if this post is a little wordy, but I think it ends in a classic Texas story!
 
So after the fireworks celebration in Concord Arkansas, I drove 9 hours straight  to arrive at 7 AM  in Concord Texas  in Anderson County.  Pastor Rogers was at Concord Baptist Church airing out the parish hall and turning on the air conditioning in his tee shirt.  He invited me to attend Sunday School and the following service.  After I washed up and changed for church, I tried to take a nap, but the sound of the electric pump from the adjacent oil wells made it too loud to sleep, so I wandered around taking some pictures.
 
Concord had once been a vibrant little community, but all that was left in the immediate area was the Concord Baptist Church, the Concord Cemetery, and The Concord Dome Oil Field.  The picturesque cemetery was laid out in the 1870’s and featured the largest holly tree in the state.  I tried to capture juxtaposition of the oil wells adjacent to the church with pictures of the oil slick in the mud pit created by the spillage.
 
Cars started arriving for the adult Sunday School.  I had a chance to meet Anita, Charles, Roy, Tommy, Debby and so many other friendly Concordians.  When I explained to them what I was doing inevitably they frowned for a second and then burst into a smile.  The Sunday School lesson was an elaborate PowerPoint about the story of King David and Bathsheba, but that’s another story.
 
Pastor Rogers, now in a fine blue suit, led the Baptist worship service. While it featured a few more psalms than I was used to, the structure of the service was familiar. What was most impressive was when Pastor Rogers asked the 23 people in the congregation "Who should we pray for?"  This was the time for sharing news, good and bad about the local community.  "Annie has had another c-section and she not healing too good." "David has moved into hospice care." "John has bad bone spurs." "Debby has had a prosthetic eardrum inserted.  It's made her too dizzy to go shopping, which is saving me lots of money." It was clear that everyone looked out for each other with more than just prayers.
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Afterwards, I had a chance to meet a few more of the locals and I was invited out to lunch in nearby Palestine by Charles and Debi Grasty.  Charles works at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Joe F. Gurney Unit. As prison chaplain, Charles ministers to over 2000 souls, and had baptized 27 men the Friday before I arrived. Anderson County is home to four massive Texas prisons and Charles worked hard to redeem lives and souls. As we were talking about redeemed souls, he told me the story of “The Miracle of the Mud Pit.”
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Back in 2009,  Charles Collins was the supervisor of the Concord Dome Oilfield. While he wasn't a believer, he started attending church since there wasn't much else to do in the area.  He noticed that there was an abandoned oil rig on the Church property and since the church was in need of additional revenue, he took it on as a personal project to fix up the old rig and see if he could get it pumping again. He replaced gaskets and found replacement parts and labored away in his free time. Charles also liked enjoyed to partake in a drink and one Saturday night he stumbled home past the church, and beheld in the moonlit oil slick a vision of Christ in flowing robes accompanied by a cherub. There was no one else living in the vicinity of the church, so he headed home, assuming that he alone was privy to this miracle.

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The next morning, Charles was stunned find that the image was still clear in the daylight. he gathered the congregation to witness the vision.  The image of Christ flying across the sky accompanied by a cherub remained in the oil slick for two days. Charles Collins converted before moving away from Concord.