Terri Blackstock - Cape Refuge

Books by Terri Blackstock

Emerald Windows

Cape Refuge Series

| Cape Refuge

| Southern Storm

| Rivers Edge

Newpointe 911

| Private Justice

| Shadow of Doubt

| Word of Honor

| Trial by Fire

| Line of Duty

Sun Coast Chronicles

| Evidence of Mercy

| Justifiable Means

| Ulterior Motives

| Presumption of Guilt

Second Chances

| Never Again Good-bye

| When Dreams Cross

| Blind Trust

| Broken Wings

With Beverly LaHaye

| Seasons Under Heaven

| Showers in Season

| Times and Seasons

| Season of Blessing

Novellas

Seaside

B O O K O N E

Terri Blackstock

Cape Refuge

Mobipocket Reader format

Copyright 2002 by Terri Blackstock

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530

ISBN 0-310-26446-4

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version . NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc.,

7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, CO 80920.

Cover design by Ron Huzinga

Interior design by Beth Shagene

This book is lovingly dedicated
to the Nazarene.

C O N T E N T S

P eople often ask me if I base my characters on real people. My answer is usually no. In writing Cape Refuge, however, I depart slightly from that policy. Thelma and Wayne Owens are based on two very close friends of mineNicki and Dick Benz, who created Buried Treasures Ministry in Jackson, Mississippi. Buried Treasures Ministry got its name when Nicki began visiting the women in the Hinds County Detention Center, and started every meeting by blessing each woman individually, looking into their eyes and telling them that they are Gods treasures. These are women who have been treated like trash for much of their lives, and they have treated themselves like trash. Many have horrible pasts. Their futures look grim. But the truth of their worth in Jesus Christ brings them to tears. Then they listen to the message that Nicki and the others with Buried Treasures bring to them and their children through Bible studies, parenting classes, a Girl Scout troop, and ongoing ministry when they are released.

But the battle is not easy, and the Enemy fights viciously for them when they are back in the world. In many cases, they are released without enough money to support them for a week, and they return to the boyfriends, families, friends, pimps, and drug dealers who led them down the wrong path. Often, they fall back into their old habits and eventually wind up back in jail.

For this reason, the Lord put the Buried Treasures Home on Nicki and Dicks heart. When it is built, Buried Treasures Home will be a transitional place for women to recover, learn, and begin new lives in Christ for a year or longer. Like Hanover House in this book, it will be a place of refuge. However, the Buried Treasures Home will be a much more structured place where residents can complete their educations, study the Bible extensively, learn to be good parents, develop new careers, and develop the strength in Christ that will enable them to stand against evil when they are on their own. The first home will be in Mississippi, but their dream is to eventually have homes like it all across the country.

Unlike Thelma and Wayne, Nicki and Dick are very much alive, and I have learned much from them about bearing fruit for Christs kingdom, about loving with Christs love, and about doing Christs work.

For more information about this precious ministry, or to contribute to the building of the first Buried Treasures Home, please write to Buried Treasures Home, P. O. Box 497, Clinton, Mississippi 390560497.

C ape Refuge is a fictitious island which I set just east of Savannah, Georgia, on the Atlantic Coast. To research it, I spent time on Tybee Island, a lovely little beachside community outside of Savannah. Many of my ideas for life in Cape Refuge came from there.

Theres another island just south of Tybee called Little Tybee Island, an uninhabited marshland and wildlife refuge. For this novel, I turned Little Tybee into Cape Refuge, after a few alterations to the terrain and the coastline. I hope the kind people of Georgias coast will forgive me.

I owe a big thanks to J. R. Roseberry, editor and publisher of the Tybee News, for his help in my research.

T he air conditioner was broken at City Hall, and the smell of warm salt air drifted through the windows from the beach across the street. Morgan Cleary fanned herself and wished she hadnt dressed up. She might have known that no one else would. The mayor sat in shorts and a T-shirt that advertised his favorite beer. One of the city councilmen wore a Panama hat and flip-flops. Sarah Williford, the newest member of the Cape Refuge City Council, looked as if shed come in from a day of surfing and hadnt even bothered to stop by the shower. She wore a spandex top that looked like a bathing suit and a pair of cutoff jeans. Her long hair could have used a brush.

The council members sat with relaxed arrogance, rocking back and forth in the executive chairs theyd spent too much money on. Their criticswhich included almost everyone in townthought they should have used that money to fix the potholes in the roads that threaded through the island. But Morgan was glad the council was comfortable. She didnt want them irritable when her parents spoke.

The mayors nasal drone moved to the next item on the agenda. I was going to suggest jellyfish warning signs at some of the more popular sites on the beach, but Doc Spencer tells me he aint seen too many patients from stings in the last week or so

Wait, Fred, Sarah interrupted without the microphone. Just because theyre not stinging this week doesnt mean they wont be stinging next week. My sign shop would give the city a good price on a design for a logo of some kind to put up on all the beaches, warning people of possible jellyfish attacks.

Jellyfish dont attack, the mayor said, his amplified voice giving everyone a start.

Well, I can see you never got stung by one.