Cape Refuge
Authors: Terri Blackstock
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Emerald Windows
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Cape Refuge Series
1
| Cape Refuge
2
| Southern Storm
3
| River's Edge
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Newpointe 911
1
| Private Justice
2
| Shadow of Doubt
3
| Word of Honor
4
| Trial by Fire
5
| Line of Duty
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Sun Coast Chronicles
1
| Evidence of Mercy
2
| Justifiable Means
3
| Ulterior Motives
4
| Presumption of Guilt
Second Chances
1
| Never Again Good-bye
2
| When Dreams Cross
3
| Blind Trust
4
| Broken Wings
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With Beverly LaHaye
1
| Seasons Under Heaven
2
| Showers in Season
3
| Times and Seasons
4
| Season of Blessing
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Novellas
Seaside
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B O O KÂ Â Â O N E
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Terri Blackstock
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Cape Refuge
EPub Reader Format
Copyright © 2002 by Terri Blackstock
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-56568-0
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 meansâelectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherâexcept 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
Cover photo: (ripples) Stephen Swintek / Stone |
Interior design by Beth Shagene
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This book is lovingly dedicated
to the Nazarene.
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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 mineâNicki 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 God's 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 Dick's 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 Christ's kingdom, about loving with Christ's love, and about doing Christ's 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 39056 - 0497.
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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.
There's 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 Georgia's 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.
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