The 20 Year Itch...: A word with God!

Many fun and interesting experiences greet us each and every day and they all make an impact. I will share this month's events with y'all later, but the IMPORTANT stuff first:

I must bring it to your attention when one of us (in this case me-Jan) has a DIRECT intervention from the Lord Himself. The kind of intervention that is so CLEAR, so DIRECT, so unmistakably DIVINE that it cannot be denied or ignored.

First, some background: as usual, when Bill and I arrive at a new location at which we will be free on Sundays, or some of our Sundays, we go looking for a temporary church home. In the case of our time at Waccamaw, my research revealed a nearby church called, of all things, Christ Community Church.

As many of you know, this is the same name as Bill's lifelong home church in Zion, IL. We took this as a promising sign, and began attending.

We both enjoyed the preaching AND the welcome was warm and inviting. On the 2nd Sunday we visited, CCC presented a guest preacher. We did not catch her name, but SHE WAS FABULOUS! We didn't focus on her name because we thought we would be able to find it on CCC's webpage later. By our 4th week of visiting CCC, it was clear that I was not being fed by the style of worship music being presented, and that was important enough for me to bring it to Bill's attention. We came to a quick agreement that we would both like to try the church of the "guest preacher" we had heard at CCC several weeks earlier. NOW, to find out who she is and where she preaches. The information could not be found anywhere...not the CCC website, nor anywhere on the web. We could not remember her name, or the name of her church and I was too embarrassed to call CCC and say "hey, we like your church, but not enough to stay, so could you give me the name of that guest speaker we had a few weeks ago?" The week was passing, several days had gone by, with no success in our search.

Now, I am standing in the laundry room, putting a load in, moving a load over and I hear a voice, clearly say "Cheryl Adamson"! What??? Wait??? THAT was the preachers name, and I rush to my computer to discover:

Pastor Cheryl Adamson

An answer to prayer staring me in the face!

We will be traveling this Sunday, but can't wait for the opportunity to hear her again. She is clearly anointed.

We have now been at Waccamaw just over a month:

and are settling into a routine:

I ride when I can, while Bill and Tessa shadow me.

Bill likes to pick garbage alongside the road during the hour I am riding, but Tessa, well, she just likes the scenery.

Cleaning up alongside the messiest roads we have ever seen is not exercised solely during my ride time. We feel so strongly about this

we go out on garbage patrol regularly.

Sometimes our training is just so miserable, but somebody has to do it:

ATV Training Day

Now, to find something to do that would require the use of these machines.

And, of course, we must know what we are talking about when people call or come in looking for our hiking trails. Our best answer "Go up to Cox Ferry", there's about 4 miles of trails up there:

The Cox Ferry Trails are about 20 miles from us here at the Visitor Center, closer to the north end of the Refuge. It is also where our friends Ken and Joanna (whom we met at The Cradle of Forestry-our 1st volunteer assignment) are posted while they are here volunteering at Waccamaw. It was just a sheer coincidence that we both ended up here together. The volunteer world is getting smaller all the time.

The Cypress Swamp is beautiful right now...another month and well be spraying up with Deet! Another month??? We couldn't stand still very long right now!

My need for training on my new Apple computer affords us the opportunity to be down in Charleston a lot. This is good on several levels, not the least of which is that it affords us a chance to see my cousin Kelly (daughter of my cousin Lynn)

over lunch on the waterway.

BUT, during lunch, Kelly and Bill, facing the water, bring to my attention an interesting old boat cruising slowly by. I turn and note the neat old boat, as the conversation continues. The old boat passes several more times and Kelly says "I guess they are filming something".

As I turn and look again, wondering what is going on, FINALLY Kelly says what she has known all along (took her awhile to be sure): "Yea, that's Darius Rucker". "WHAT"!!!!! And you're just telling me now???? OMG, I'm a HUGE fan!"

And Kelly goes on to explain that Darius lives near them. I didn't want to look like a besotted fool, but I HAD to take some pix! Where is my real camera when I need it? Sorry Darius, I apologize for gawking! P.S. I was a fan back when Darius was still"Hootie", just sayin:-)

Plans are in the works for Bill and I to get together with ALL of my cousin Lynn's family who live there in Mt. Pleasant.

That would include Kelly, hubby Charlie,