Summer

Our neighborhood street festival...besides snow-cones, the girls love riding their scooters down the middle of the street. :)

We walked to the local bakery on my b-day. On theirs, we go to Dunkin' Donuts. But it was my b-day, so it was local and lovely!

We spent a long weekend in VA Beach with Mom and Dad Blackman. One day the girls & I headed to the boardwalk rides, and at night we introduced Grandma & Grandpa to "Spot It."

The girls on the VA Beach ferris wheel. One of my new favorite pics of them. :)

On July 8th, a sudden, violent wind storm blew through RVR, snapping huge trees. Several campers were injured and one was killed. It's been a summer of enormous heartache and healing at RVR. Evelyn was a camper that week, along with several other staff kids. Our hearts still break for the dear mom who lost her son. Please pray for Antoinette Benns as you think of her.

RVR was inundated with cards of sympathy and compassion. These are just a few, posted in the camp office. My favorites were often notes from other camps around the country offering encouragement from God's Word.

It's been tempting to feel jarred and upset by the jolting rhythm of summer 2014. But what a reminder in the sea, whose rhythms are different every day--sometimes glassy and lilting, at other times choppy, forceful, and violent. But the sea is constantly moving, active, and alive, and I am refreshed by it. May life, infused with God's Spirit and Word, offer daily refreshment in its activity and alive-ness!