At the start of this year, my wife and I felt a spiritual nudge… to facilitate a quiet retreat day…

Stillness and silence are very foreign to most of us – we all lead busy, noisy lives; balancing all the pressures and demands of the day, the week… the year. In some respects deliberately encountering stillness and silence are as about counter cultural as it gets.

So we went about organising a space, a place of quiet, where people could come for a day, have their ‘logistical’ physical needs provided for (shelter, food, warmth, safety, community)… so that they could engage spiritually in silence, stillness – ‘wasting’ time in the presence, the person of God.  Hearing not from a guest speaker, but from the source of life Himself.

Seventeen brave souls came along to meet in the silence, following our naive, inexperienced expression…. invite people to come and then get out of the way to let God work in each person.

And our ever faithful, ever loving, heavenly father… well…

He met each person where they were at.

The stories and the feedback we’ve received – are sacred… and  I won’t share them here… all I can say is that they were deeply meaningful to each person… way beyond what my wife and I could have imagined.

What this has shown me is that there is a place for stillness and silence in todays world.  A place were, when we intentionally close out the noise and business around us… to be with our beloved God… He is already there waiting for us.

If there is something that responds in you about this  – a desire to go silent, to go to the deeper places in God… well… we hope to run another retreat later this year, and you would be very welcome to join us.

The following links are to the blog of one of the folks, a writer, who came along and experienced the day…

Silent Retreat Day – The Cross

Silent Retreat Day – Playing With Pictures

Silent Retreat Day – Tent Pegs and a Ball of String

all by Melanie Kerr

Here are images of some of the resources created for the day…