Merry Christmas from the Benwares

Grove Park Inn

Recent Date Night:
Or should we call it our new summer hang out... We visited this beautiful Inn after having heard about it from friends. We quickly realized we'd never visit the spa with their prices hitting the top of the charts, which would be expected if one owned the 13th ranked spa in the world.



previous pictures provided by: www.groveparkinn.com

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The Infamous Gingerbread Contest at The Grove Park

1st Place


Brenton's Favorite


Another One of the Many

Music Moves

provided by: www.selahonline.com

Last night was the second to last event at The Cove for the year. After registering guests, I slipped into the back of the auditorium to hear Selah for about half an hour. I have to say that their cds don't do them justice. The singers voices were amazing; they so purely sang a variety of hymns accompanied by the piano.

I have realize over the last year or so how much music moves me. I was sitting in the back getting teary-eyed, like I do every Sunday during worship. My thoughts were taken back to a lady who stopped through registration and grabbed a few tissues. I joked with her that she couldn't plan on crying in advance and she told me she was emotional due to being pregnant with her third child. Sadly, I have no excuse. Music just moves me. Maybe, just maybe, it's because music fills in when words are not adequate. It can be majestic, worshipful, moving, holy, and some many other things that I often don't have the words for.

Also during registration, I met a lady who told myself and the volunteers about her conversion experience. She mentioned she had been ostracized from her town in another country upon becoming a believer. After being unwelcomed or safe in her town, she came to the states as a mail-order bride. While standing in the back of the concert, I saw her moving more joyfully and worshipping more passionately than anyone else in the auditorium. That could partially be her personality, but I bet she understands freedom and joy more than most of us, or should I say Christians, in America.

Decorating the Tree in the Admin. Building

The call to head to the lobby, away from my cubicle, was more than welcomed last week! The ladies upstairs, and Don, patched together a Christmas tree full of frosted leaves and poinsettias. While there was no Christmas music, the lobby filled with laughter and chatter pretty quick.



A few of my co-workers hung around to create mishievious displays in the other lobby decorations and others stopped by just to join the light-hearted fun. It felt like the end of the semester Christmas parties in elementary school. Everyone was ready for a fun afternoon break after focusing so hard this past seminar season. Whether we were creating mayhem or stuffing the tree with plants, it was a much needed breather.

When Your Friends Borrow Your Camera...

Well I figure if I am subject to surprise, my friends are also! The ladies I work with are loads of fun and keep me on my feet. That's for sure.

Today I asked two co-workers to take a few pictures in the training center for my bro-in-law. I rarely get up now since seminars are over, but I told Brandon I'd help him out with his sermon props. (Hope I'm not jumpin' ahead too much brotherman.) I just had to share the fun. As we were leaving, I ran into the two mischievious ladies and could tell more went on than I was currently aware of. Sure enough, as you're finding out, they went on a fun little adventure for me. That's what friends are for and that's how blogs get to be so interesting!

Thanksgiving '08

A Sweet Fragrance ~

"Majesty, Majesty, Your grace has covered all of my sin..."

The sweet fragrance rose up and floated into the Holy of Holies. We started our journey in the Outer Courts as we worshiped this past Sunday during a worship service and moved from the Holy Place to the Holy of Holies. Worthy of all our praise, the shed blood of our Savior, Jesus Christ, now amazingly allows us to dwell in the most holy place. No longer are we only allowed to visit like the priests in the Old Testament, we may now dwell in His temple.

~Most often we visit the places we were meant to dwell and dwell in the places we were meant to visit.~

This past month we have taken a journey through the tabernacle, of the Isrealites, during our Sunday services. It has been a beautiful experience; I don't recall walking away from church filled to the point of overflowing so often. I'm quite aware that the point of church is not to be filled up, but when you are communing with the Lord you cannot help but be poured into.

This Sunday was one of pure worship. What was most impacting was the fact that we were communing with the Lord in the most intimate way, in His temple, worshiping the Majesty, and He was fully present and pleased. We were worshiping in a bar, and I knew the Lord was there and honored that His children were seeking Him. It was a beautiful oxymoron; but then that is the Son of God, Himself.

Sweets for the Spunky

As always, this is a little late in coming. My immediate supervisor's mother has made it to The Cove for a few week long visits. I'll tell ya, I never knew a spunkier 90 year old lady. Bea has been a joy to work with. She comes in for six to eight hour days and is on her feet all day long. The other employees and myself get tired from watching all her movement!


I believe the first week I met Bea was in Candy's attempts to keep Bea's surprise party a secret. Our task was to pile on the projects so Bea had no time to get suspicious. We did our job; Bea has now been back the last two week for another number of days to volunteer.

While we did not attend the big shabang, Bea's actual 90th birthday was two Wednesday's ago. I baked a cake and the staff at The Cove's admininistration building celebrated Bea's birthday with her.


Happy Birthday Bea!

Time to Kick Off Those Shoes...

After this seminar season in another week, that is exactly what I (Kelly) intend to do. First, B was busy with soccer season and now I rarely get home before 6:30pm with the seminars. Plenty of ten to twelve hour days with a half hour break. Oh, where does the time go?! Please do tell if you have the answer.

The bits and pieces I've been able to glean from the gifted Cove speakers has been a blessing, but a break will be nice. On the late nights when I'm monitoring break out groups, I take a short while to slip into the back of the auditorium to hear Skip Heitzig, Steve Brown (wrote The Scandalous Gospel) or listen to Anne Graham Lotz (Anne was from the monitor, too tired to stay). Then I'll get up early, for me, to start another long day which usual begins in a cubical proofing or pulling materials out of archives for a notebook.

I have definitely learned a good deal and know that I may never have another opportunity to be around such influencial people. It is a gift in many regards.

Though in my stressed moments, I found I needed an outlet. That usually is outpoured into the blog, but last weekend it was beginning to slowly decorate for Christmas. I figured if my sister-in-law, Claudia, already had her tree up, I could put a few things out! Love you Claud.

Fall Festivities

Brenton and I came home from work a few weeks back to find our over grown field had been mowed. We had the best weekend running with Lexi and throwing the football around (I tried at least). A day after the field had been mowed, we came home to hay bails. It was the perfect Fall greeting. What was even more perfect, was that we'd agreed to go to a costume party with some friends. So I caught B and the pup out for the perfect photo shoot.

The pumpkins were from the costume party; I won't tell you which was our since I'm disappointed in it!

What Lies Ahead

(After pulling this article for two notebooks at The Cove, I decided it was time to post it on the blog...)

One day many years ago, as I was driving home from town with one of our sons, he kept urging me to hurry. "Go faster, Mother!" he insisted. But he was too young to read the road sign that said 45 mph.

by Ruth Bell Graham

And again, "Pass him, Mother." But he was too small to see that there was a double yellow line.

Then I began applying the brake. "Why are you stopping?" he demanded.

"There's a school bus ahead that has stopped," I replied.

I thought to myself, "When God is at the wheel, we may request—but never insist. We are too young to read certain signs, too small to see what lies ahead."

George Macdonald writes, "There is a communion with God that asks for nothing, yet asks for everything. ... He who seeks the Father more than anything he can give, is likely to have what he asks, for he is not likely to ask amiss."

There may be a long interval between these two clauses from John 16:24: "ask, and ye shall receive" and "that your joy may be full" (KJV). But the end of true prayer is always joy.

provided by: billygraham.org

A Tribute to a Mother

After two and a half hours of a pounding heart and the score 0-0, penalty kicks were inevitable. This Saturday was the first round of Conference Tournament and the game ended with no score. The competition continued on into two over-times ending the same.

There was a low turn out of spectators; so, on the bleachers to my right were the Montreat fans and to my left were the opposing fans. The pressure was high and emotions were running ragged as we all cheered for the team we thought should win. After the first fourth of the game, I started talking to one of the mothers from the opposing team. Like every mother, she wanted the win for her son and like every coach's wife, I wanted the win for my husband. It was also inevitable that one of us would walk away disappointed.

The intensity increased as we moved into each over-time, penalty kicks (pk), and then to individual penalty kicks. As the pk score came to 3-1 (Montreat with the advantage), the mother by me mentioned her son was up for the final kick. She then said that once before he had been in the same position, where he missed the kick.

While feeling torn for this mother, I prayed for Howard, our goalie. I asked the Lord, "Guide his hands and may Your angels guard the goal." I had prayed this with every shot, but this one was different. One college would continue in season and the other would have to be content with the loss.

My eyes teared up, emotional that we were about to win but anxious that we could be the ones done. The Lord has been reminding me that we need to be content with all circumstances (with the tournament and elections near...). This brought on new meaning today.

With the final two shots, the lady's son missed and our fourth player stepped out on the field scoring the fourth pk. Montreat had won.

After a few minutes, the mother and I exchanged names. She finally asked who I was. A little hesitant, I mentioned, "I'm the Montreat coach's wife."

She simply told me to tell my husband, "You coached a good game." The lady walked away saying she'd look for me at the next game. Her son had lost the last shot and she had sent a message of encouragement to the other coach. Goodness knows that she was full of disappointment. Just a continued reminder to myself and others, make the most of the moment but regardless of the circumstances, never give up on the One who knows all.

Seasons in the South

A Trip to Lookout Mtn.

This gorgeous view is just a little hike up from the Montreat campus. The first time we tried to make it up, I was in sandals. And I should probably correct the fact that Brenton did make it up. I was the one to slack...the shoes, bear stories, the sky turning dark...making it to the top was not my priority.

I've truly have been a little nervous to hike too far up; a couple recently told us they saw two black bears from the trail. And most excitingly, we hiked up early evening both times, right when the bears like to make their appearance. However, when Heather and Wes invited us last weekend, the idea of having a group of people and two dogs around grew on my pretty quick. Not that it would do much good since Roxy is a small, timid critter that loves to yelp and Lexi is an overzealous puppy in a big body. We'd probably have gotten ourselves into more trouble riling a grumpy black bear up!

~ Less Than Our Best ~

October 23, 2008


Dear Betty,

Have you ever completed a project to find it was done incorrectly? Today, at The Cove, I was preparing letters for the Registration volunteers. I had finally completed the project sitting on my "To Do" list for the last two days, or so I'd thought. There were too many projects to catch up with on my down week. I began to get flustered, which led to the following. As I began my final proofing of each letter, with varying details, I noticed one major flaw. All the letters began with, "Dear Betty..."

Today, Nelson, Ava, Laura and all the others on my list were "Betty", and completely unaware of their name changes. The wheels began turning in my mind. How many other times, aware of unaware, have I finished an incomplete task. A task, a ministry, a promise, what do these matter if they are not done thoroughly, lacking our best?

The Word of God instructs us to do whatever we are doing as if we were serving the Lord not man. If we truly lived our lives so that every action reflected a response to the Savior of the universe, our actions would be more than thorough. We would not want to give anything than the best to the King of Kings, our daddy who died for us.

What a pity that we, I, do not live more committed lives. And that you Jesus for Your grace that loves and accepts us always.

Sincerely -

Kelly

GAME NIGHT!

Mixed into the last weeks have been late nights for me (Kelly) with registration for events at The Cove, soccer for Brenton and major chill time when we make it home. Lexi always tries to join in the fun, though I'd bank on saying that game night was not her favorite.

In this past week, Brenton coach the Montreat Cavaliers through two more wins. It's been encouraging and the team for earlier this year is beginning to reappear. With the last few games of the seaon, it is a little unnerving to think of th final outcome. All the rest of the games are Conference and many of the teams have been going strong this year. The Cavaliers are more than capable of winning the last three games, though they may be tough. Regardless of the outcome, the guys have made some great achievements this year.

Life at The Cove is still in peak season. The trees are starting to turn and the leaves are beginning to fall, which is attracting quite the crowd. This last week, we had two events with Erwin Lutzer, a seminar with Don Wilton and a Steve Green concert. Between editing commentaries, researching intensive training material and overseeing registration, it seems there has been little down time. Life will start to slow down just before Thanksgiving, when seminars come to a close. It's been a fun and needed change to help with registration for a season!

More Visitors

Within three months of our new residency, we have had both of our parents and the Wrights come visit. It has been so good to see familiar faces and we are thankful that these "drop-bys" were able to happen.

The latest visit was Nate Wright and his father, a college buddy of Brenton. We had a meal and plenty of time to stop by the soccer field so they guys could kick around a ball. It was a quick visit, but worthwhile.

The pictures above were of the most recent Cavaliers' game. They guys won last Saturday and had a victory run. Teammates had gone out on their own before the game to buy the flag that represented their country.

And lastly, the puppy in the second picture was the dog I watched for a weekend, about a month ago. The little gal in the picture, is the daughter of the Assistant Athletic Director at Montreat. Everytime we told her to give the puppy a kiss, she went in for a bite!

A Weekend With the In-Laws

Brenton's parents were able to come in, last weekend, for one of the few home games this season. It was an unnerving, fingernail munching event. We sat on the edge of our seats between the poor ref, rough start for the Montreat crew and the fact that it was one of five games listed to watch on the NAIA website. The guys pulled through and won 1-0. They've still yet to play many conference games, so the real battle begins now.





With a storm brewing and little time with the in-laws, we decided to visit Montreat's campus. The drizzles didn't start misting until late that evening after a brisk walk downtwon Asheville.




Of course I had to throw in these few pics of Lexi. The girl's getting big. On her arm is her infamous play toy, Hoover, whom she decided to potty on. Only the 2nd time ever, and during our casual evening on the porch with Brenton's parents. All too entertaining.




Mama and Papa B's time ended with the most stunning sunset. We made it home with less than five minutes before the mountains enveloped the sun. Brenton begs to differ saying he saw a more breath-taking view while he mowed last week. Guess well never know who's right.

Hallelujiah Joy

So I have been a terrible aunt and failed to mention our newest family member. Brenton's oldest sister had her fourth child recently. After three boys, Hallelujiah Joy arrived, a precious litte girl. Congrats to the Jaeger clan.

In addition to our niece update, one of the employees in the Seminar Department at The Cove finished up her last week with our team. I have been going through entertainment withdrawals and was thrilled when the ladies agreed to let me host the going-away luncheon at our place.



Shirley, the lady transferring to another department, is in the middle. To my left is Teresa, and to the right of Shirley are Candy and Michelle. Candy is also my current supervisor. This is The Cove's Seminar team, minus our Supervisor who arrived a little late. Our department organizes and implements the ins-and-outs of the seminars The Cove offers. Coming up are Micheal Easley and Joe Stowell, both former presidents of Moody Bible Institute.

Are We Really in America?

For most of the world, it was a regular week. I'm sure it revovled around work, bills, and family. Asheville was a completely different story. Had I realized last Sunday, the high gas prices would have been the least of my worries.

Lines I first thought were for traffic turned into gas lines just so families could make it home at night. For the last two weeks gas has been scarce. Two weeks ago fuel could be found if needed, though you had to drive around awhile to find a gas station with supply left. This week, everyone raced to a gas station when it opened. On Tuesday morning I drove to work to realize my empty light was on. Foolish of me, I know. The problem was, there were only two gas stations around Asheville with fuel and I wasn't sure if I could wait long enough to fill my tank. Hearing talk that it could be another two weeks until gas flowed regularly, a few co-workers and I drove 30 minutes away to fill up. Gas was being rationed, so we had to stop at multiple places. If you did not have cash, you were out of luck.

All week my co-workers have been leaving for long periods just to wait in line for enough gas to hold their vehicles through. One co-worker waited in a two hour line just for the fuel to run out four cars in front of her. Another employee of The Cove mentioned he drove an hour and a half away the night before to fill up his truck. Others talked about four hour lines.

It is unheard of, the rationing of gas in the US. Needing cash to fill up; not being able to fill up gas containers for friends stranded on the side of the road, literally. The problem continues as Asheville folk hoard what they can get in their time of need. We have seen some relief but until the aftermath of the Gulf hurricane's clear up, the gas will still be rationed.

Shockers...

1) Hawaii, Alaska, and Asheville, North Carolina are the nations areas with the
highest gas, or so I've been told.

2) Montreat Cavaliers ranked #16 in the nation for NAIA.
(Weekly updates above under "Soccer Updates")

3) Lexi now barks to let us know it is time to go outside, that is if we ignore her
bell ringing!

It has been an exciting and informative week!

Enjoying the View & a Victory

We found out pretty quick upon our move to NC that Craig's List is not so helpful. It is for the first person to email or contact the seller, but we rarely heard back from anyone.

Thankfully we found a patio set that we love; glad the internet proved ineffective for once! We had just about decided that we were out of luck in finding outdoor furniture this season, with all items clearance, until a little hardware store near us mentioned their last few sets. It's now dinner on the patio every evening, oh so peaceful.

I (Kelly) have also picked up a few more hours at The Cove through December. I will be the interim fill-in overseeing the volunteers with seminar registrations. When Brenton's home, I'll be working late and when he's at away games, I'll be home. I guess that is how it always plays out! In all honesty, we are truly grateful for the extra hours. It will be the perfect variety from my hours at the desk.

As you may have read in the soccer update, the Montreat Men's Soccer team beat the #1 team in the nation today, Saturday. We are thrilled for a strong start, though there are many games still to come. Brenton says the guys are hard workers and determined to do well. After the team's ranking of 1st in their conference this last week, it will be interesting to see where they place next.

Painting With the Pups

Our own little grapevine

Last week I ventured into the world of paint and puppy sitting. Brenton headed out with the Montreat soccer team for five days and I thought I'd have fun with some friends. Come to find out they were all busy too, and instead, I inherited another pup for about three days.

Roxy is a black lab and border collie mix not more than three months old. Our friends Heather and Wes just adopted their little runt of the litter. She was a cutie but scared as could be with our over-zealous nine month old lab. It took a good day before the two could be out together. So, in the mix of painting, I was switching pups out of kennels for potty breaks and meal time.

Poor ole Lexi wanted to be good and close, so she'd lay right by me against fresh walls of paint. For the following week, we had a chocolate dalmation dog with blue spots. Roxy learned to hold her own and, from what I've been told, she is now crate trained.

Aside from the busy weekend for both Brenton and I, we were thrilled to have some time together before another work week. Sadly our luck ran out pretty quick. Brenton found out Monday was not a holiday and the same night he returned, we locked ourselves out of our house. We were thankful for our spare, but quickly learned that it was no good. So, we called around for locksmiths to find one available.

After an hour of him trying to get us in, we were wore tired to realize he'd jammed our side door. The next day he came back and attempted to charge us, asking if someone had tried to break in. He said that he was in no way responsible. He realized that we were not buying it, frustrated from the Pennzoil scam, and that he was loosing our future business. So he fixed our door for free and gave us a ton of business cards. The locksmith left telling us, "The Lord bless you folk."

The next day, I found myself locked out again. This time with a dog, no leash, and Brenton at soccer practice. I was blessed to sit outside for two hours! So I chose the back of the house cause I've heard our neighbors like to watch us. All to say, we are now checking for the house key everytime we walk out the door.