Cataclysm's Ark

A little over six months ago, a Category 5 hurricane came ashore just to the east of Panama City, Florida.  Directly in the path of the eye, on a sliver of land protecting a shallow bay, was Tyndall Air Force Base.  

"Was" is the operative word.  The base was completely destroyed.

Hurricane Michael swept north and over the working class/retirement community of Callaway, nestled just inland of Tyndall, and the results were cataclysmic. 

Upon retirement from the Air Force in the late Seventies, the Colonel's in-laws settled in Callaway, and built a modest home in a new neighborhood carved out of a sandy pine barren.  They joined a very small church located at the entrance to their neighborhood and leaned in to build, and reach the lost.

Carlisle Baptist Church, named for an early benefactor, had very humble beginnings; and, from the Colonel's close association with it over the last forty years, never lost its humility -- even as it grew from a dozen folks meeting in a tent to a campus with a beautiful worship sanctuary, and a half dozen other buildings providing office, education, and recreation space.  

Perhaps the signature building of the complex is the unadorned two story cinder block, metal-roofed -- the Colonel searches and the best descriptor is -- "ark" that houses classrooms, a commercial kitchen, and a basketball court-sized gym.  

"Is" is the operative word.  The ark is the only building standing.  The only building on the complex that did not have catastrophic damage.  

The "ark" was/is, in the Colonel's not so humble opinion, not a pretty building.  It sits tall, squat, ungainly, and out of place on the corner at the neighborhood's entrance, looking for all the world like a beached...

well..., 

ark.    

The Colonel and his bride -- the comely and kind-hearted Miss Brenda -- attended Easter Services at Carlisle last week.  The Colonel spent the intervening week trying to figure out how to put into words what he saw and felt.  

He's still not sure he can.

It's been six months since 150 mph winds flattened Callaway and blew away the pretty part of Carlisle Baptist Church's campus.  

It still looks like it happened yesterday. 

The skyline of tall pines and oaks is gone.  The tallest features on the landscape now are enormous debris piles.  The color blue (tarps covering holes in walls and roofs) dominates the palette. 

Many homes are abandoned.  Some have already been bulldozed.

It is as near a post-apocalyptic scene as the Colonel has seen, outside of photos of 1945 Japan and Germany.  

Whether or not Michael's ground zero will ever recover is an open question.  A significant portion of the area's population is gone. The stores that are open (and there are more destroyed and closed than open at this point) are hard pressed to find workers.  Workers are hard pressed to find housing.  Repairs to repairable housing is moving at a snail's pace, for a variety of reasons not the fault of the residents. 

The one sure way to invigorate rebuilding would be the rebuilding and reopening of Tyndall Air Force Base.  But that depends on massive Federal funding, so...

In the gap stands the brave and faithful members of a small church with one building left standing.

The Colonel spoke briefly to the pastor -- a young man whose family the Colonel has known for 40 years; who grew up in Callaway, surrendered to the ministry, and led two churches before returning to pastor his home church just months before the hurricane flattened its buildings -- before services that Easter Sunday morning. 

His spirit and leadership in the midst of the challenge of his life is amazing.  He told the Colonel, "Not having any church buildings has forced us to look outside of our buildings."

Carlisle church has done just that. From the moment they were able to make their way past the abatis of fallen trees blocking every road, they converged on their one standing building -- their ark -- and made it a rallying point for hope and relief for the entire community. As supplies poured in from outside help, the ark's gym became a distribution center.  When power came back on, the ark's kitchen provided hot meals. 

Carlisle is ministering in a community in which hope is in very short supply.  

Can the Colonel tell you about their Easter services?  He wishes he could.  

All he remembers is wiping away tears for a solid hour.