Hunting Island State Park, St. Helena Island, South Carolina
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, and the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and He healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed Him. Now when He saw the crowds, He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and He began to teach them saying: ~ Matthew 4:23-5:2 There is so much background within these few verses! First, let’s look at the size of the area Matthew is covering for us – we’re looking at an area within a 100-150 mile radius. And many (maybe most) people walked! Where did they stay? Where did they get food? What about other necessities? Now consider that many brought along loved ones who were suffering in some way. How difficult was their journey to Jesus? Yet sometimes we complain if it takes us twenty minutes to drive to church, or if the kids are noisy in the car, instead of assuming an attitude of gratitude – that we don’t have to walk all the way, and that our children are healthy enough to make noise and jostle. Moving on. When a teacher spoke, he most often sat, and people gathered around to listen. Jesus is about to rock people’s world as He prepares to teach His ‘Sermon on the Mount’. He walked up (as Moses did), sat down and began to speak – to His closest followers which included more than the Twelve because they weren’t chosen yet – and also to the crowds below. As our pastor once told us, think of Him as a Teacher, bending His head down to look at those closest to Him, and then up and out at the crowds. Are you one who wants to be as close as possible to Jesus and His teaching? Or are you just there for what you believe He can give you? Or maybe you’re one who really just wants to see a good show?
We splurged on a boat tour today. Splurged is a good word for it. Especially when we discovered that the island Coastal Expeditions took us to was pretty much the same as the one we were already living on.
There were a few perks though – the viewing of a couple of ghost shrimp and a stingray in the marsh before we left, the wind in our faces and the goosebumps on our bodies when they took off at high speed, a small dolphin pod, a couple of tiny little sharks on the far shore (which I could barely see because of size and distance), and the privilege of being able to say that we walked on an island formerly owned by Ted Turner – and seeing his former house.
AND if you’re interested, you can rent the house for $12,000 for a 5-night stay (that’s the minimum), or you can actually, I kid you not, rent the entire island for $20,000 for the same 5-night stay, which also gives you things like your very own Park Ranger led programs.
If you decided to visit St Phillips Island, in any capacity, you’d best bring bug spray, and lots of it.
So here’s how it works. You purchase your tickets from Coastal Expeditions. You show up in the morning up the street from us where you hop onto an open air, but covered boat. They give you a ride to St Phillips Island where Mr. Turner made his retreat for over 40 years. All the trails we walked on were put in by him.
Anyway, during the boat ride, they stopped a couple of times for the girl to talk about nature stuff. We determined, based on her uncertainty in some of the questions posed that she’s more educated in the ways of dolphins than anything else.
They put us on the smaller one with the brown top at the end of the dock.
Once you arrive at the island, you get off the boat and board a tram pulled by a pickup truck, for a slow and bumpy ride through the jungle. Along the way, they’d stop periodically to talk about something and when they did, the arms would start flailing. Remember the bug spray admonition? I’m not sure how much people were actually paying attention to her.
We’ve learned about them in the past.
It’s a place where Native Americans basically dumped their trash, and they’re usually filled with oyster shells.
This one was uncovered fairly recently when a storm blew the tree over.
The National Park Service (who now owns the island) won’t allow Coastal Expeditions to excavate it.
It’s believed to be about 800 years old.
When the tram reached its destination, we had about an hour and a half to ourselves to go and do and explore in any way we wanted. Some brought chairs and bags of stuff, presumably to sit on the beach and look at the Atlantic Ocean and eat a picnic lunch. We took off to find ‘his’ house, eat a quick bite on the boneyard beach, then walk as many of the trails as time would allow. We even walked all the way back to the boat dock. 😊
It’s much like The Boneyard we visited the other day.
Not as fancy as we were expecting.
What about you?
All you can see, or else what’s left of the airplane that crashed here at some point.
Had to turn around because we realized we didn’t have time to finish it and still get to the boat dock on time.
As it turned out, we had about 15 minutes to spare. Good job, Blaine!
As soon as we returned home, we set out to walk our own beach for about an hour or so before dinner.
Further up there was no one, except a couple of beach walkers like ourselves.
Despite the way this post sounds, we did enjoy ourselves and met some nice people! Although everything I said is completely true, I know I could’ve written from a more positive perspective. Sometimes, the drama of it all seeps through my fingers and onto the keys and I’m unable to control it. 😊