Selah by the Sea - Pilgrims on the Way

Описание: Our journey into creating "Selah by the Sea" retreat house as part of "Pilgrims on the Way", and an invitation to partner with us!

Hello and greetings from Thailand!
We’d like to share with you a bit of our journey and invite you to be a part of the opportunity that has recently opened up.
For the past 33 years in Thailand, we have helped to pioneer a student ministry, Thai worship music, the NRTC training center, the Asia Leaders Learning Community, and other initiatives.

Upon ending a season of national leadership, we took a sabbatical, walking the 500-mile Camino pilgrimage in Spain, which was a life-changing experience. The following year, we moved from the concrete jungle of the city to a rural area called the green lung of Bangkok, and began a shift in our ministry focus - from broad leadership to the deeper, spiritual growth of individuals.

With plenty of space around our new rent house, the Lord began teaching us about creating beauty with God in the garden and creating space for leading prayer retreats, mentoring and offering hospitality to provide spiritual refreshment for weary, over-worked ministry staff - both Thai and foreign.

The Camino experience was so inspiring, we began dreaming of writing a devotional book for pilgrims on their journey with God, as we were also writing songs to reflect this theme. In January of this year, we set aside time to meet with some like-minded friends in South Thailand for a planning session. But the week before, we learned that our landlord planned to sell our house! Somehow, we had a feeling God was doing something unexpected in this shocking news, and so we were not stressed about it. When we met with our friends a few days later, we learned that their ministry owns a house in South Thailand, which had just become vacant that same week! They said, “Why don’t you take over our vacant learning center and turn it into a retreat house?

After some prayer and counsel with others, we began to see that this is an invitation from the Lord. And so that led to an expanded vision of what we are calling, “Pilgrims on the Way”. If we co-create with God to publish a devotional book about life as a pilgrimage, release songs that compliment the book, produce a podcast of conversations around being a pilgrim, create contemplative communities like prayer retreats, and offer camino experiences, we will enable countless individuals to deepen their experience with God. It is a beautiful ministry vision that we can see ourselves doing for many years to come!

Thankfully, God has been providing the funds to renovate the house into a 4-bedroom retreat space - which we are calling “Selah by the Sea”. It has been a challenging journey, but we’re making great progress. We are looking forward to hosting our first group soon. Now we are looking for partners to help us sustain this vision by funding ongoing prayer and creative retreats for those in ministry. We especially want to bless those Thai and indigenous ministry leaders who often cannot afford to get away for refreshment.

Would you or your church prayerfully consider how you might contribute to this vision? Every amount makes a difference!

And thank you for walking with us as pilgrims on the way!


Music from "You Are A Thin Place" by Phil Porter