On the Seventh Day He Rested
by Giles Armstrong | President
This has been a year of blessing. Not only have we seen so many full retreats and many stories of transformation, but we are seeing new opportunities for ministry. Starting in 2023, we will be offering SonScape retreats in Spanish in the U.S. This has been dear to my heart and we are excited to come alongside those who minister in Spanish-speaking communities. Also, we just enjoyed time together at our staff retreat and Angel and I are so blessed to lead an amazing staff who love and value each other. We are also blessed to carry on the legacy that Larry and Barbara modeled, rich in discernment and wisdom.
I am reminded that one of the greatest gifts SonScape provides to our guests is time to rest. In Genesis 2:2 we read, “By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work.”
Rest is a word we often hear, but do we really grasp its importance in our lives? We are a people too busy for our own good, too busy to stop and realize that in our frantic busyness we are actually accomplishing less and aging more. By and large, Americans don’t value rest; instead we have made a virtue of unceasing labor. We constantly talk about how busy we are as if the hectic pace of our lives is proof that we’re important and significant. We feel guilty when we’re not working; in fact, we no longer ask, “How was your day?” but we ask, “What did you do today?”
Culture has trained us to view rest as laziness, yet the bible tells us that God himself rested. Rest is a good thing; and after reading Genesis 2, it’s hard to accuse God of being lazy or unproductive. This balance of work and rest that we see in God’s creative activity is intended to be a model for us. To God, rest is not just wasted time or time when we could be doing something useful and productive. No, rest properly understood has value and worth and peaceful purpose for our lives. In fact, it’s not optional; rest is a requirement. It’s essential to our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being. Rest starts with stopping and it’s only when we stop that we can truly seek solitude and experience soul care.
Why is rest so important? Well, we could talk about this for a long time but let me give you a few reasons I have personally learned what I call the results of rest. Rest allows us to listen to God; if you are like me, you get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of daily life that you become deaf to the still, small voice of God. We can become so busy doing things for Christ that we forget to simply be with Christ.
Without rest we run on a treadmill toward a finish line that never gets any closer. When our lives lack quiet, unhurried fellowship with the Lord, our perspectives become warped and our attitudes poisoned. We start running on autopilot and, instead of being guided by the Holy Spirit, we are guided by hurry; we become controlled by emotion, habit, and circumstance. Time away from our labors and with the Lord helps us to regain our perspective and realign our priorities. It helps us to remember what’s most important, that the things of God are eternal, while the things of this life are temporary. Rest also reminds us of who we are; rest reaffirms our humanity as men and women made in the image of God.
Today we have tied our worth to work, trading our value for vanity. Like a dog chained to a stake, the more we try to work the more wound up we get. Our work has value, but it’s not our work that gives us value. Our value comes from the fact that God made us and gave his Son to die for us. Your value is not dependent on your effort and rest releases us from this lie.
Another great result of rest is that it keeps us humble; it helps us maintain a healthy perspective on our place in the grand scheme of things. A period of withdrawal from our usual responsibilities reminds us that we are not as indispensable as we had imagined. The sooner we embrace this truth, the healthier we can become. When we become too grandiose in thinking of ourselves as essential, then we become either arrogant and prideful or stressed out and depressed. Either way, we’re taking a load upon ourselves that only God is equipped to bear. The truth is that when we fail to rest fully and deeply, we not only hurt ourselves, we run the risk of hurting others. It’s in these times of quiet rest that God tills the soil of our souls.
Thank you for
investing in SonScape and
giving the gift of rest.
The Gift of Peace
by SonScape Alumni
by Dave Williams
During our time at SonScape, I found out about who I am, how I was made and how I relate to others. I am exactly how God wants and needs me to be. This insight, plus learning and understanding how my wife is made, has been transformative. My wife is created uniquely different from me – and that is a good thing! Another huge gift from SonScape and our leaders was the gift of peace. No pressure, no stress, no expectations, no guilt, no shame, no judgment were present. Instead, the peace of God which surpasses all understanding permeated everywhere. Thank you for the gift of rest, peace, joy, and so much more!
by Sheri Williams
My husband and I wanted to have some time during his sabbatical to be refreshed in our relationships with the Lord and in our marriage. We come away encouraged and enlightened about how we can understand ourselves and each other better. After 26 years of marriage, I have incredible new insights into how we each process things and interact with the world around us. I am so grateful for the chance to be in such a special place and be ministered to by leaders who understand the difficulties and joys of being in ministry. We praise God for our time at SonScape!
International Retreats Update
by Rob and Shini Abraham | International Retreat Leaders
Our Spanish-speaking retreat leaders (Hernán and Mariela and Félix and Yury) have been steadily continuing on with retreats planned for this year in two locations in Colombia. As always, God has been faithful in encouraging several pastors and missionaries, often bringing paradigm shifts into their lives and ministry. “Through this retreat, God helped me understand the importance of stillness, bringing healing and transformation into my life,” said one of our guests.
Our last retreat in Colombia will once again welcome guests who are expected to come from Venezuela and Ecuador. As you can imagine, it is typically an arduous journey, spanning several days of unpredictable travel details, and sometimes dangerous. What a privilege to journey with each incredible guest!
As things continue to open up internationally, we hope to be in Colombia and Argentina in the Fall for retreats there, while Julio and Emily complete their training stateside to lead the first ever domestic Spanish retreats here in the U.S. in 2023.
Please pray for us as we continue to help sustain the work in Latin America, while also seeking fresh opportunities in other parts of the world next year. At this point Colombia, India, Thailand, and Argentina are possibilities for 2023. Do pray also for efforts that are quietly taking shape to take SonScape retreats to two highly sensitive nations in 2023. While the needs around us are always great, we do rely on God’s guidance, timing, and full provision to do so.
Thank you as always for standing with us.
Pastor Appreciation
October 2022
While care for pastors needs to be a year round effort, October is the time to give special attention to those called to lead the Church. In these trying times, a special recognition by individuals and/or by the corporate body can make a huge difference. Check out pastorappreciation.org for some meaningful ideas including the possibility of a trip to a SonScape retreat (or a return trip).
All Staff Gathering
On August 6 the SonScape team gathered at the retreat center for their annual staff retreat. It was a wonderful day of fellowship, laughter, team building, planning for the future, celebrating the past, and prayer. God has been so good in these years of transitions. He established a unified team with both passion and commitment under the leadership of Giles and Angel Armstrong. The whole team missed Larry and Barbara being there but were very thankful they had a chance to spend time with family on their vacation.
Bob and Jeanne are retiring . . .
Bob and Jeanne Blahnik have been our first remote, part-time retreat leaders. For two decades they proved the model can work. They have done an incredible job both in understanding the DNA of SonScape and in sharing it with the Christian leaders who have attended their retreats. Bob and Jeanne have impacted literally hundreds of couples and singles. In October they will lead their final retreat and will be sorely missed. The staff celebrated their impact at the staff retreat. Thank you, Bob and Jeanne!
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