By Jim on Wed, 01/17/18 Society & Culture Current Events Shortly after 8 a.m. local time, the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency sent an alert to cell phones on the islands stating, “Ballistic missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill.” A television banner added, “A missile may impact on land or sea within minutes.” State government officials revoked the alert after 38 minutes, according to media reports, and later said the message went out because of human error. But amid heightened tension with North Korea, some Hawaiians and tourists thought their lives could end within the hour. Kentucky pastor and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Hershael York was vacationing with his wife and 85-year-old mother on the Big Island when the alert came. “Each of us responded to it differently,” York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort, Ky., told BP via email. “My mother just kept putting on her makeup, less concerned than if she had received notice that it might rain.” York reasoned through the what might happen in the coming minutes with “complete confidence in the Lord that He would be with us no matter what.” York’s wife, Tanya, also “had an incredible calm and serenity, but it occurred to her that in a matter of moments we might see Jesus,” York said. So she sent a text message to their sons and their sons’ families stating, “We just got an inbound ballistic missile threat to Hawaii … should it be real … love you guys intensely and be faithful and I’ll see you in Heaven!”
