Poiema Retreat

2020 Retreat

This year’s retreat will be organized & hosted by Terra Nova at The Pines at Lakeside facility at Word of Life. Registration opens March 29, 2020 and continues through May 15, 2020, as space is available. 

  • May 29-31, 2020
  • The Pines at Lakeside, Word of Life, Schroon Lake, NY [Photos] [Map]
  • $180 (Lakeside or Lodge rooming)
  • Guest Speaker: Laurel Bisset
  • Scholarships are available: Apply HERE. Donate HERE.
  • More information and details can be found in the registration process.

Click Here to Register

If you have any questions, please email Stephanie Jaquez.

This Year’s Focus

by Diane Marcelle

We need time to retreat, time away from the frenzied demands of ‘the next thing’, and time in quiet before the Lord. 

Retreats are hard to find in today’s world.  We are continuously deluged by media madness, whether it’s a world-wide pandemic, the latest financial crisis, or politics as usual, we process an overload of information daily. Being wireless only means that work, news and entertainment reaches instantly and endlessly into our homes, cars, and coffee shops.  To find quiet and the fruit of quiet, a contemplative heart and time and space set aside for eternal things is not easy.

Slices of silence and solitude, particularly in God’s brilliant and beautiful creation, are uniquely suited for time with the Lord in His word and prayer.  Jesus would go into the wilderness or a quiet place to pray, often when he was in such demand we wonder how he had time to spare. Elijah ran from a great victory with great fear.  He went to the wilderness- a quiet place, off the grid, and encountered God. God doesn’t push or beg us to listen to Him; He speaks in a still, small voice. For us to hear Him, and therefore get to know Him more, we have to quiet other things, including ourselves, so we can listen for His faithful, constant and quiet voice.

Likewise, real community is a rare commodity.  We talk about it, long for it, and maybe even wax nostalgic about times of knowing others and being known by them, but we often don’t know how to create or develop those relationships in our busy brokenness.  Retreats provide time set apart for deep, meaningful communion not only with our Creator, but with his most valued creation: one another.

If setting aside time to spend with God in His Word, in prayer, and in community sounds like something you need, join other like-minded women as we seek to hear anew God’s call on our lives to share His love with a broken, hurting world.  

2Cor. 5: 15-20 proclaims this:  

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.  All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;  that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.”

Laurel Bissett (see bio below) will be leading us through the scriptures, teaching us what it means to be ambassadors of Christ, those given the ministry of reconciliation.  We all have this great, high calling, which can seem daunting and difficult in our fallen world. As new creations, let’s dig deeply into His word, with hearts of worship in a community of sisters, so we can live as ambassadors of an eternal Kingdom.  The place is gorgeous, the weather will be fabulous (be praying!), and the food delicious. No detail will be spared! We hope you can come!

 

Guest Speaker: Laurel Bisset

Laurel is the Teaching Director for the Capital District North Community Bible Study, as well as a Teacher & Steering Committee Member for theArbor, a homeschooling co-operative. Originally born and raised in Boston, Laurel has been married to her husband, David for 35 years and has been a homeschooling mom to their seven children (ranging in age from 15 to 30), and mentors other homeschoolers.

 

Get more information and Register for our May 2020 Retreat

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