Manteo...

I'm homesick. Not for the place where I grew up or the place I lived after college, but for the first place I considered "home."
The Outer Banks.
Reading Rick's blog always makes me homesick for Nag's Head Church.
Nag's Head was the first church we joined as a newlywed couple and where we discovered a true sense of God's call on our lives. We were warmly welcomed and accepted there. We grew in our faith through Rick's teaching of the Word, but also in my women's Bible study and Paul in his men's Bible study. We were surrounded by a group of people that loved Jesus and loved one another. It spoiled us!
When we think about the Outer Banks, we can't help but talk about our good friends (too many to name, really) but we always walk down the memory lane of restaurants too good to be duplicated anywhere else. Top of the list: The Full Moon. Owned by our dear friends Paul and Sharon, it is one of our favorite places to be.
Paul and I talk about the Outer Banks a lot. We have so many friends there. After Hurricane Katrina damaged our house, we had a group of men from "back home" come to help us install new flooring. They not only helped us, they asked who else they could help and did a lot of work for a single mom we knew. But that is a friend for you. They love you and care about not only you, but your community.
Maybe one day God will show us an extraordinary amount of love and grace and send us back to the coast.
We can dream, right?