Grateful and Humble Hearts

2012 was a good year for us in terms of the number of people who came to us for one-on-one care as well as the number who participated in our retreats. We drove and flew many miles safely (and with surprisingly few delays!). Our health was good. We did our best to live into our calling and character. For these and many more blessings Rich and I are deeply grateful. Below is a brief ministry report. All glory to God!1)    We have about 30 people (most of whom are vocational Christian leaders) involved in a quarterly Deeper Journey weekend retreat ministry focused on the care of their souls.2)    We added one church (Living Stones) to the 4 churches who are currently in the quarterly Leader’s Journey experience (Savannah Christian Church, Grace Community Church of Noblesville, IN, Harvester Christian Church of St. Charles, MO, and Sojourn Church of Louisville, KY).3)    We serve as a spiritual formation influence for Sojourn Network, a growing group of young pastors around the world who plant churches. We spoke at three of their Cohorts during the year as well as coached at least 12 of their church planters (and some wives).4)    We offered Christian counseling and spiritual direction to more than 100 ministry leaders in the United States and internationally in 2012 (beyond the DJ, LJ, and Sojourn Network leaders).5)    We did at least 12 ‘interventions’ with ministry leaders because of serious problems they were facing.6)    We will have led approximately 40 retreats this year (most of which were multi-day experiences). We spent over 70 days out of town leading these retreats. These included DJ, LJ, Marriage Enrichment, Elder Training, Staff Development, and Self-Clarity retreats.7)    We provided the spiritual formation emphasis for The Society of Christian Psychology (a professional organization of hundreds of counselors and researchers). We also wrote for their professional journal and newsletter.8)    We continued to do significant work with InterVarsity, both in leading retreats and doing one-on-one coaching many of their leaders.9)    We regularly retreated to Gethsemane Abbey for days of solitude and silence, contemplative reading and prayer.10)  We made significant progress on our book The Relational Soul. We hope to have it roughed in for a publisher by the end of February.11)  We posted on the CP as well as the DJ blog sites.12)  We lead our annual Enneagram Certification seminar.Thank you for your prayer. And please remember us in 2013. We already have more than 30 retreats on our calendar. And one of the most exciting things for us is our increasing opportunity with seminarians and young pastors. We feel like their spiritual "fathers." Hopefully, God will use us to help them set a healthy and holy trajectory for their souls.