Summer Season

The WILD Retreat summer season is coming to a close. We had a great summer. The Salt Lake Area retreat was a success despite the occasional rain. It was an amazing weekend filled with extraordinary feats of courage, persistence and discovery. Even playing some crazy games in the lodge while God showered the earth with rain resulted in new friendships, laughs and gave us rest before we experienced a deep worship time around the fire.
I will remember you women always and hope we keep in touch occassionally to know what you are up to.
I got to go to Peoria , IL for a retreat in July. It was a blast! Literally. We shot shot guns, rifles, pistols and even an AK-47. Wow. Admist all the action: ATV's water polo, ulitmate frisbee women met Christ in new ways; some for the 1st time and some allowed him to work in their life in a new way. The women there are an amazing community and it was a blessing to spend the weekend with them.
Lastly, in Aug. it was back up to Big Canyon for the SMCC WILD Retreat. Many new women came, connected and made new friends. Old fears were conquered and dreams were reclaimed. We added a luau to saturday nights festivities and all I can say is: ALOHA! Thanks to all the gals for being good sports. In the end the campfire worship and committment time allowed women to turn their life over to God and encouraged them to embark on a new journey with Him at the helm.
Thanks to Sheri and Karen and Tracy for their dedication and committment to WILD Quest.
And thanks to all the team leaders, worship leaders and especially the women for allowing God into their hearts.

Spring

Summer retreat season is gearing up. God is active with WILD Quest so far this year and is moving our ministry along at his pace. It is exciting to be adding an additional WILD Retreat June 12 - 14. It is open to Salt Lake area women and should be a great time. Check out the camp schedule for more information.
We need lots of prayer though as we prepare for the camps, and for the women who God wants there.
Happy Easter to you all.

Soul Quest

We had a wonderful soul filled time at Soul Quest. God gave us fresh snow for the weekend - it was beautiful. There were many opportunities to spend time in the word, in prayer and listening to God. Teaching sessions included information about contemplative prayer, meditation, silence and solitude. We also got introduced to many different ways to meditate and journal. Several women enjoyed the meditation room, and others enjoyed the igloo. All enjoyed watching a movie and eating truffles and chocolate.
I'm so encouraged by the weekend that a fall Soul Quest is in the works already...
Thanks to those who came, to Sheri and Karen for their dedication and service and of course to Big Canyon Christian Adventures and Retreat (it just keeps getting better).

August

I'm trying to get used to this blog thing, and not doing so great. That being said, my new commitment is to blog once a week. August was a blur with getting kids back to school and finishing up summer. The highlight however was a WILD Quest Retreat in Peoria, IL. The retreat was held at the Hanssen Ranch and had women attending from several churches in the area. The activities were fun, we even got to fire a revolver which was a new experience for all. The best part was meeting the women and talking about their struggles. We spent several hours sitting around and African style fire pit sharing about our lives. It was a joy for me to share the lessons God has taught me, and encourage the women into a journey to discover who God created them to be. It was so exciting to help women embrace the truth that their stories are God victories and are meant to be shared.
I hope to go back again sometime in the future. Thank you ladies of Peoria! You are all beautiful.

Now I am in the heat of planning the Big Canyon Music Fest on Sept. 19 and 20th. It is a big event and we are hoping to get alot of people up to Big Canyon Ranch to experience what there is to offer. I will need a break after that for sure.

Until next week.

WILD Weekend

I just got back from finishing a weekend at Big Canyon with the women of South Mountain Community Church. What a great time we had. I am so impressed with the women that came and what they over came while they were there. Some didn't want to come at all but let friends bring them anyway and others showed up by themselves without knowing anyone. We repelled, built rafts, rode ATV's, fired shoot guns and completed many team challenges. Everyone pushed themself to the limit, stretched themselves and challenged their fears. Women got connected with each other and trusted each other with their stories, struggles and victories.
God has never failed to show up at these WILD retreats and this year was no exception! Even when the Big Canyon Percussion Irregulars participated in the worship time.
If you attended the retreat I would love for you to write what the weekend meant to you.
Thanks to all who participated. Thanks to the leaders ... Sheri, Jo and Karen. And thanks to Big Canyon Christian Adventure and Retreats!

Don't Drink the Water

"Gabriel! Michael! All the rest of you in heaven! Can you believe it? Stop and look down there at Israel. Look at what My people have been doing! Doesn't it make you shudder with terror for them? These people of Mine have committed two great evils. They first show their rebellion by not coming to drink from My pure springs of water. As if that isn't enough, they further insult Me by trying to quench their thirst with the murky runoff water they catch in their makeshift cisterns. What a sad exchange! Israel doesn't have to live that way. They aren't slaves; they aren't captives! They don't have to drink brackish water from such stagnant, leaking basins; I want them to enjoy living water from Me. Yet, sadly, they have brought this on themselves."
God to his heavenly hosts as recorded in Jeremiah 2: 12-13 paraphrased by Jim Berg in his book Changed Into His Image.

I am reading Jim Berg's book right now and this section really sums up our human condition we like to call independence. We snub what God has to offer in order to do it ourselves, to provide for ourselves, even to sustain ourselves. The funny thing is God created us to be dependent on him in a loving relationship. But, He just loves us enough to give us our independence with the desire that we choose to love him back. The sad twist; it is our independence that ends up separating us from Him. We make ourselves captives and slaves to everything we give our hearts away to in order to be satisfied and filled. Our makeshift cisterns and leaking basins consist of anger, depression, sex, drugs, shopping, relationships out side of God, food, materialism; the list goes on. What we don't understand or stop to realize is that our Father, creator is longing for us to come to Him for pure love, living water, and His presence. His desire for us is to have life and have it to the fullest, the purest. We don't need to settle for the murky runoff of this world. That water not only doesn't satisfy but like any murky water it will eventually make us sick. God is looking for those who can be devoted to him. He longs for us to be in a pure loving relationship with him so we can quench ourselves on His living water.

I have never compared what the world has to offer with murky runoff but, looking at it that way makes me think twice about what I quench my thirst with. I want to continue to devote myself to my Father, making the choice to depend on Him for life, for living water.

What is WILD Quest?

This is the first official entry into the WILD Quest blog. I thought it was important that readers understand what WILD Quest is and how it started.



WILD Quest is a journey. It is a journey for women to find their true selves as God has always intended for them. I developed WILD Quest because in the course of my journey God brought me to a place where I discovered that my personal struggle is very common among women. My struggle has been one where I questioned myself daily; never feeling I measured up to other women. I believed lies such as I wasn't thin enough or attractive enough, my clothes weren't right, I didn't have the right personality, I wasn't feminine enough and I was sure everyone knew I wasn't spiritual enough. Over time these negative self beliefs ate away my self confidence and diminished my effectiveness. Like most women who struggle with this I took up ways to compensate and prove myself. My attempts to prove myself were unhealthy, consistently ineffective, and joyless.

When I was 39 I finally turned myself over to God. I made the decision not to hate myself anymore and let God start loving me. I allowed God to correct, teach and love me through His word. Over the course of several months and now years I have learned to embrace myself the way God sees me, as a masterpiece created for a purpose that God has always intended for me. I have come into my forties an new creation, finally!

For years I whined to God complaining that he didn't have a purpose for me. But God was waiting for me to surrender and stop trying to take charge of what he had already planned in advanced. In a very clear message God pulled together the main paths I took to finally become this new creation and be truly free. Through my quest with God I learned the importance of being willing, I started being more vulnerable in my relationships, I began to share God in a lifegiving way and most important I experienced the joy of being fully devoted to Him.WILD Quest is your journey to discovery how God loves you and what he has planned for your life.

I feel The Lord is calling me to share this message with women. I am now embarking on another quest with God -the development of WILD Quest Adventure Retreats and Spiritual Journeys. I am developng retreats where women can experience the outdoors and participate in activities that help them understand their struggles and discover how God can lead them through their own personal quest to becoming the woman God always intended them to be. We have run two retreats with South Mountain Community Church in Utah and are planning to expand this to other women and churches. See wildquest.org for more information on WILD Quest.



I hope this blog will start dialog exploring what women struggle with, why it holds them back and how God can work in our lives to set us free. Thanks for reading, I hope I hear from you soon.
In Him
Stacy