15
upfront
“We have great endurance in hardships and in persecutions. We didn’t
lose courage in a time of stress and calamity … We’ve endured many
troubles, had sleepless nights, and even gone hungry.” 2 COR. 6:4-5 TPT
THINK I will always remember this issue. As I sit here writing, I am still evacuated from Hurricane Florence 12 days after
leaving my Wrightsville Beach
home.
This should have been the worst
of times, but for me it was possibly
the best of times.
I spent the evacuation in a stunningly
beautiful mountain lodge with five families:
seven adults and eight young people from
four other nations, one dog, and two fish. I
was safe, and I was well fed.
Half of our magazine team evacuated, the
rest stayed behind. With God’s grace and
guiding hand, we executed the plan pretty
flawlessly. You hold the result. Inside are
stories we have been building and crafting
over many months.
On the cover you see what for us will
forever be a symbol of the people of our
region — the strong, proud, enduring
Carolina Mustang that survives decade after
decade on scraps of sand on a barrier island
off our coast.
Also in this issue we tell you about
North Carolina Supreme Court Justice
Barbara Jackson — who with her husband
has a home at Kure Beach — to highlight
the all-important judicial races on the
November ballot. I can’t urge you enough to
take the elections for judges to the district,
superior, appellate and supreme courts seri-ously.
Imagine if you were standing in front
of them waiting for a sentence to be handed down. What qualities and experience would you desperately want them to embody?
I dedicate this issue to teammates Cissy Russell, Allison Potter, Kim Benton and Jim Rees, who stayed behind, and to Shawn Best
and Simon Gonzalez, who like me evacuated with all their equipment so we could work remotely. Also to Louise and Harry Bizzell and
LouAnn and Charlie Wallace for sheltering me in a place I love dearly; Brad Styron for his wild mustang photos; Ken Ketchie for use of
his High Country Press offices in Boone; and Margo Foster at Wilkes Office Supplies for use of their offices, Internet, and printer.
And then to my new friends: Claudia, Andrea, Filiberto, Olivia, Betito, Mary Michelle, Carina, Amaris, Zenaida, Giovanny, Sandra,
Aura, Elizabeth, Amy, and Laura. What a blessed time we’ve had!
God’s GRACE to you.
Editor/Publisher
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM
I
Back row from left: Charlie and LouAnn Wallace, Olivia and Beto Vazquez, Claudia Buddy,
Carina Sosa Hill, Louise and Harry Bizzell. Third row from left: Aura LeBron, Elizabeth Escoto,
Zenaida and Giovanny Bustos. Second row from left: Amy and Laura Baez, Pat Bradford,
Betito Vazquez. Front row: Andrea Buddy, Amaris Hill, Mary Michelle Vazquez, Sandra Bustos
and Mory at Apple Hill Lodge, Moravian Falls.
JOHN BIZZELL