Shepherd’s Canyon

This blog post is part of a series that I began for telling our story. You can read the first post here.

We leave today for a retreat, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Things at church lately have been a bit stressful. Sometimes that happens in ministry. Sometimes folks at church don’t understand why certain decisions were made, and they make their unhappiness known.

For us, being in ministry is a team effort. We have worked together in one form or another for almost as long as we’ve been married. It’s a partnership that continues to grow through the years as we each learn and grow and mature, and as our marriage grows and matures. It’s truly a gift from God.

This retreat is designed for church workers. In fact, I’ve been to it before, by myself. I was invited at the last minute in January of 2015 to fill a spot vacated by someone else. The retreat is designed for a minimum of three couples, a maximum of four, with group sessions in the morning to facilitate healing and afternoon individual and/or couple time for processing. Counselors, a chaplain, and the leaders of the retreat center have put together an impressive model for healing and growth.

We’ve been trying to schedule a retreat for over a year now, but last year it just didn’t work for us to go. This year, the timing worked out well. I am sure we will return refreshed and rested, ready to jump into ministry again and love the people God has called us to serve.

We love this congregation and the people in it. We are thankful to be able to serve in ministry, and we can’t wait to begin the next chapter of it!

Meanwhile, for the sake of my own processing and mental health, I’m going to press pause on this blog. Not for long, though. I will post again after we return, probably a few days after since I’m sure I will have a lot of work to catch up on when we get back that will be pressing. Thanks for sharing this journey with us, and for your patience as I skip a few days. I want to make sure that my content reflects both where we’ve been in the past and also where we are right now. I know from my previous experience that we will have a new focus when we return, and I want to be able to share that new outlook with all of you. Blessings on your day!

Next post coming soon.