TIME CHANGES ALL THINGS (INCLUDING US) (April 29 - May 11, 2018)

As we pulled on to our property in southern Indiana and drove down the narrow lane to our cabin, it meant that our spring Southeastern adventure had come to an end.  Our times in North Carolina and South Carolina would now be memories to be cherished.

Our final two weeks at the Wyndham Ocean Ridge Resort on Edisto Island, South Carolina were a time of wonderful weather, awe inspiring sunsets, playful dolphins, and good long time friends.  They really were days we had hoped to have when we planned this nomadic lifestyle.  Days of renewing both friendships and ourselves.

This time our guests were Don and Jane Dunnington from Oklahoma and Darwin and Jean Pressler from Indiana.  Both couples have served in ministry assignments throughout their adult lives, the Dunningtons in the educational arm of our denomination and the Presslers as pastors.  We are blessed with so many wonderful friends and it is good to be able to share our life with them in some beautiful places.

Next up is a three week stay in Indiana and a two week jaunt through Ohio visiting the homes of more long time friends.  Plans were to just hang around the Midwest for the summer but plans change.  Just yesterday we accepted an invitation to be interim pastor at the Eagle River Church of the Nazarene in Eagle River, Alaska.  Yep, it's back to the "Last Frontier" for the summer (we leave June 21).  And life moves on with its twists and turns.

REFLECTIONS

One of the places we "discovered" during this adventure to Edisto Island, South Carolina, was a place called Botany Bay.  It is a secluded location run by the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources.  It includes a driving tour through what used to be two large plantations and a 1/2 mile walk through the Low Country to a mysteriously beautiful Atlantic beach.

The stops along the driving tour are interesting and the broken remains of plantation life are a curious reminder of days long gone by, but it is the beach that is most amazing.  While it has taken centuries for the buildings and land to have drastically changed, it only took a strong hurricane two years ago to change the landscape of the beach.

The salt water that surged onto the land turned beautiful green trees into skeletons of their former selves and the push of the water onshore changed what used to be a wide expanse fronted by tall, old beautiful trees into an eerie meeting to surf, sand, and dead trees stretching their uncovered branches toward the sky.

Once again I am convinced that there is a lesson to be learned here.  A lesson about how everything changes.  Some changes come quickly and some changes take place at a slower pace; but all the time things are changing.  I know people who try to resist change but it happens none the less.  As individuals, we buy the latest diet/health item that is lauded on TV and expect that somehow we can stop the changes that are happening to our bodies.

Some have seen their life change gradually throughout the years, no catastrophic event, just slow change.  They realize that they can't do all that they used to be able to do.  Others have experienced a sudden storm in their life that made an immediate impact on their living.  It seemed that everything changed overnight.

But whether your "change" has been long coming; like the plantations, or sudden; like the beach, you can still be a beautiful reminder to those traveling by that, in spite of the years or the storms, one can still hold a certain beauty to be enjoyed and admired.

Change will happen!  Embrace it and allow the changes to, in their own way, be a wonderful example of how God makes all things beautiful.