Back rubs are beaches

Jackie:

(photos from today)

We spent the day in the Pamlico Sound with the Koenigs trying to catch a couple hundred clams. We set out this morning with a tin boat being towed behind and didn't return to Kitty Hawk until this evening. We made a fair catch- but the clams didn't come as easy as we hoped. Once we made it out of the channel and hit the first shoal, Brenden and dad had to pull the boat. Immediately, Brenden clumsily jumped around as he noticed and felt a crab latched onto his ankle. All of the sudden I was a little skitish getting into the water to begin raking. I did have my yellow, French, rubber shoes on that I found at a thrift store, however, they did not cover my ankles. No worries though, I did not end up having any encounters with crab claws.

Anyways, on our way back home we sat in the back of the Explorer, sticky, salty and hungry but too tired to do anything about it. Some weather had been moving in all afternoon and as we drove across the Oregon Inlet Bridge it was becoming more apparent. The windows were rolled down and I could smell the smoke from nearby cookouts as Brenden rubbed my sunburnt neck. It honestly felt so soothing and it made me feel sad. I couldn't help but think about how much I will miss the beach. I know we will only be in Montana/overseas for 6 months but the uncertainty of not returning to the beach was saddening.

Sometimes it's hard to enjoy the present moment because you are dreading its end. It's like a back rub- nothing could feel better- yet the thought of the person stopping and walking away almost makes you tense. They say "okay, 5 more minutes" and instead of enjoying the back rub I start to worry that the 5 minutes will be up soon. That's how I feel when i'm by the water. I love it so much I almost can't handle the thoughts of having to be away from it- sometimes to the point I can't even enjoy it. But that's no way to live. We shouldn't do not do things because they might end. We shouldn't not love because we might get hurt. We shouldn't stay in the shade because if we're in the sun we might get a little burned right?

So for now, I will welcome any back rub and soak up every moment I can while I'm living in a place I love.

Operation Liberation

Brenden:

Well, my days at the rental station have come to an end. I thought I was going to go crazy sitting under an umbrella in the summer heat for 8 hours. Luckily, the grandmother of some of our friends had some work for us to do at her cottage in Kitty Hawk. So I had to give the boss my notice. Thank you again "Go-Dog-Go" rentals for your supplemental income this summer.

The work at the cottage thus far has consisted of waging war on a terrorist vine population devouring the entire back yard. The area is roughly a 1/4 of an acre and on a steep decline. At first we thought we would plow through some light foliage and cut some vines and we'd be in business. Oh how we were mistaken. The vines that we have been combating have literally sucked the life out of most of the prominent trees in the area. At times we have come across adolescent trees that have died and "fallen" yet still stay suspended in mid air via vine. Its a sad situation for the trees. However, there are two young saplings who aren't going down without a fight....Jackie and I worked for about fifteen minutes the first day with some slow progress. It wasn't until then that I remembered the hedge trimmers in the shed. It almost reminds me of a horror movie as I plow through a wall of vines with the vine trimmers. Our goal is to work path ways around trees and then double back to free the tree of any vines. It is crazy. Sometimes I'm actually scared.

The most frightened I have been up until this point has been when I came to the vines epicenter which we have dubbed "home tree". When we stumbled on to this vine system that was thicker then most of the trees I couldn't help but feel a sense of erie-ness. It wasn't that I thought the vine was going to tangle me up and envelop me like many might expect from a large man eating vine. It was that there was a sense that this vine had a brain. Not feelings or that it was in pain, the vines were just watching me. It's pretty creepy. I used a small hand saw to cut through its base, however I could have easily used a chain saw. Our goal this week was to make it to the street. I'm happy to say that we made it. But the war is far from over.

Future Farewell Food Function

Anyone who is actually reading this....

We are planning a "Get Together" for August 28th in Richmond at the Thompson House. We want to see you all before we leave so mark your calendars...or don't..because we're not that planned-ahead but that's what we're thinking.

Jackie:

This summer has been un-stressful and soothing so far. It's very strange because I know we're on the brink of doing something that will be like a shock to the system. The calm before the storm.

For me, I know I will be challenged by the exterior and interior of the next half year. Brenden asked me yesterday, "Don't you ever just get sick of the beach?" ....."No", I said. When I think about leaving the Outer Banks for some reason, I can't bring myself to do it. I already miss the water before I've even left it. The exterior of this trip, the mountains, will be a challenge. I hope I can resist the urge to drive 12 hours just to see the Pacific Ocean. Probably not a do-able weekend trip. The interior of this school will be hard in that our lives will be lived in a highly concentrated Christian environment full of prayer, worship, teaching and fellowship. It feels like since I graduated from college my life has been void of most of these things. The isolation, socially and spiritually, that comes with living on a small island will come into play as we enter this next phase.

On a different note, we have been blessed with some work. Brenden will finish his pseudo-beach-rental company job at the end of this week and then together we will begin doing some odd jobs for a family friend at her beach house.

The photo is of a recent thunderstorm that came in over the sound. I took my camera out and it took a good 5 minutes before it would begin to de-fog because of all the humidity. The storm was incredible. In a matter of seconds you felt it go from hot and humid to a rush of cool air come over you. The sea grass flattened out and the lightning put on a show as the rain swept across the water.

Jackie:

Just to warm the heart I thought I should post a few pictures of Buxton, Mikey's new puppy. Brenden and I made a quick trip to Richmond this past weekend so we could re-organize my parent's basement/make it into an apartment to live in for when we return from Montana in February. My true motive was to see the baby who has become Mikey's best bud. The funny thing was that Brenden and I were dogsitting his parent's dog, Scupper, so we had to bring him along too. My mom and I decided to not tell my dad, instead, just show up with yet another extra dog in the Thompson house. Scupper, Buxton and Maggie ran around in a pack, peeing on anything they could lift their little legs up high enough to squirt. Good times.

Jackie:

So, we have officially raised $7,030 for tuition fees this fall to go do YWAM. That means we need about $5,000 more. It's actually incredible that we've raised that much. Never having fundraised before, we were both a little nervous and apprehensive. It's truly amazing to see how so many people have been so generous--it's almost hard to accept sometimes. It's like when someone gives you a really nice gift and you are like "no, you shouldn't have", or when someone gives you something of their own that they could be using at the time and you're like "oh no, i'm fine, you keep it" but they keep insisting. You know you want to accept their gift but you feel bad or undeserving so it's easier to just reject their kind offer, which is not so nice in the end. So many times I find I am prideful just as much as I am selfish. This time of fundraising has certainly taught me humility and that I am in need. Not just in need of money to do YWAM but just in need of God and in need of love. Thanks for all your prayers and donations. It's looking like this whole thing is going to happen.

Brandon:

So I recently had an interesting situation occur. While I was sitting at the beach a CHILD came up and asked if I knew a Brandon with the Ramada Inn.

I said, "well....I'm Brenden." And he told me that some guy told him to look for a guy named Brandon.

And I was like, "are you supposed to work here or something?"

"Yeah, you are supposed to tell me everything about the rental company." He replied.

I then proceeded to tell him much about our vast selection of rental crap. Something seemed a miss though. The person I was talking to seemed a little small for doing any kind of work, so I asked his age. It turns out that my new CO-WORKER is only 14. I realized then that I have the same job as a 14 year old. Sometimes life is sad and confusing.

FOJ: Fourth of July.

Jackie:

For the 4th of July we had some friends and family come down to the beach and we all stayed in the Koenig's house. We basically had a slumber party in our bedroom for 3 nights. Brenden's uncle Jim from Kansas rode his motorcycle into town, his cousin Alicea came in from Chapel Hill and his brother and his family came in from northern VA. It felt like we did many cliche summer activities that weekend. We rode bikes in the dark to get icecream, bought lemonade from a lemonade stand, listened to someone's country music blastin on the crowded beach, went tubing, had a crab feast, played some hillbilly horsehoes and all got a some kisses on our skin from the hot sun:)

Brenden:

Good news, I found a "job". I realize as I'm about to write this that people are going to be either really jealous or really thankful they don't have my job. My job is to sit on the beach all day and rent pseudo beach equipment. Okay, the rafts are legit. But everything else is a hard sell because we don't exactly have top of the line surf/body/skim boards. As John Thompson put it, we are Wings on the beach. If you don't know what Wings is, come down and check out the coastal sensation. They basically sell beach related crap.

To be honest, its probably the easiest job I could hope for. Besides the wicked hot sun and getting sand in my lunch I really don't have much to worry about. I am my own manager and I have a little help when I get delirious from the heat. Sometimes my faithful wife will come down to the beach and keep me company or she will watch the goods while I surf for a little to cool off. I guess some might say I have the life. I'm not going to lie, its pretty sweet. However, I don't get paid very much and I have to deal with some pretty sketchy locals who try to pick up my wife when they aren't talking about the different assorted drugs they took the night before (maybe to impress my wife.)

The owners of the company have just begun putting up locations at various hotels capitalizing on the many beach goers who aren't looking to lose their shirt on beach equipment. It really is a great company and I am working for some good people. It is a business and the owners are trying to make money, but they are very generous. I am aloud to barter with people which is fun and recently I let some kids use a surfboard and a body board for almost no money. It was good day. I feel lucky at this point to have a job. God has been faithful and good to my family.

Matthew 6:27

Jackie:

(a view from the Koenig's dock- not too shabby)

"Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"- Matt 6:27

I don't think any of us can actually be completely free of worry. Most of the time we are looking to the past for memories or looking ahead to create future ones. It's hard to realize that what we are doing right now in this moment will soon be a vague memory that we will soon long for.

Since we have decided to take this step to pursue YWAM, it has really changed my perspective already. The program is only 6 months long. Relatively speaking, not long at all. However, quitting your stable jobs, moving out of a home you love and venturing forth into the "unknown" can be uncomfortable. What is the unknown though?

As I was praying this morning about the country we will be sent and what we might be doing there I actually realized how God just already knew all of this. He knows everything...all the time.I know it seems simple and I should probably think like this more often, just trusting God with our future, but it's those small moments when you whole heartedly just believe Him. In those moments it seems to clear that you are following someone that has already gone before you ...and all you have to do is just keep going.

As we have been living here up in Kitty Hawk with the Koenig's, literally taking one day at a time, we can both say we have experienced a new sort of freedom. We don't have to know what's ahead now. We are all here today, alive and well, even if something really hard is going on in your life right now as you read this, you are still here. God has brought you to this point. What makes us think He would ever just abruptly leave us?

"Twas grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home"

The Anniversary

Yesterday Brenden and I had our 3 year wedding anniversary. After I babysat all day we went out to see Toy Story 3 in 3D. Little did we know, it was also somewhat of an opening night for the Eclipse movie or something. Never in my life have I seen the Kill Devil Hills movie theater so swollen with humans! Toy Story was excellent. We also celebrated by having a scavenger hunt type thing that led to "The Dunes", one of Brenden's favorite spots for breakfast. We have both had this random cold/cough thing so since BK wasn't feeling too well I decided to let him skip out on one of the challenges which was kayaking to find the hidden message.

I am thankful for my dear husband whom I love so. He is my best friend and I am so happy that we have spent these past three years of our little lives together! Even though swimming in a wedding dress was pretty fun, it couldn't compare to all the times we've shared together since that soaking wet night

.