Major Highlights from 2021

NEWIM entered 2021 with reserved expectations. After the year that changed everything, we hoped to return to normal.  You know, a normal without fear, a normal without canceling retreats, a normal of meeting goals and dreams. What we got, however, was something better.  It was definitely a new normal, one that did not disappoint.

Change was, of course, unrelenting with a fair amount of adaptation. Yet, God continued to be faithful and we are thankful for his blessings and some amazing accomplishments. We are grateful that June Chambliss accepted our invitation to serve a three-year term on the Board of Directors. She is bringing her expertise in Leadership Development to serve the whole organization.

Celebrate with us as you read what God has done in and through NEWIM this year.

Prayer Ministry

2021 is the second year our weekly Online Prayer Gathering met. Women from CA, AZ, ID, CO meet via Zoom for an hour each week to pray for requests we receive and other needs as they arise. God has proven faithful in answering prayers this year.

We would love for any woman to join us, this is not just for NEWIM leaders. It is for anyone in need of prayer support or who enjoys interceding for others. These prayer times are confidential.

One-on-one prayer continues to be offered at The Springs retreats in Three Rivers, CA and Prescott, AZ. Many women seek out prayer during their time of solitude and silence as the Lord brings things to mind. These times in prayer are precious and important and have helped many women gain a more full experience with the Lord while on retreat.

Prayers continue to arrive via email and through our social media. Each one is prayed for and individually answered by Elaine Russell. We value the trust you place in our prayer teams to support you through prayer.

Book Club

This year NEWIM’s Book Club read four books from various genres (nonfiction, fairy tale, modern analogy, childrens literature). We met on zoom and were blessed to have two guest speakers join us to help us better understand the background of the books.

In February, NEWIM hosted author and senior editor at InterVarsity Press, Cindy Bunch, for a conversation about her new book, Be Kind to Yourself.

In May, Dr. Christi Williams joined the group to share her insight into George MacDonald, specifically focusing on his fairie tales.

In August, we read and discussed The Baggage Handler, a 2019 Christy Award Winner.

And in November we discussed C.S. Lewis’ Voyage of the Dawn Treader (part of the Chronicles of Narnia series).

Interestingly, the books did have a common theme of Transformation. In Be Kind to Yourself, Cindy Bunch encourages her readers to pay attention to what brings them joy and advocates that using contemplative practices to bring more joy into our lives will help us to grow in God’s grace, transforming our character to be increasingly like Christ. Writing in the mid'-1800s, Scottish author and pastor George MacDonald wrote The Princess and the Goblin for his children. It is a story rich with themes of Christian theology showing God’s providential care and goodness. Through the princess and Curdie, MacDonald shows how not everyone has eyes to see God. Doubt is part of the faith journey. The Lord guides us as we seek him but we have choices to make all along the way. Reading MacDonald’s stories awakens a desire we have for goodness. This desire C.S. Lewis refers to as Joy. Lewis was actually touched by the experience of Joy in another MacDonald book and eventually, his quest to discover what was behind Joy actually led him, reluctantly, to Jesus.

The Baggage Handler is an extended analogy about three people who get their luggage mixed up at the airport. We see how we all carry our own baggage and how the Baggage Handler gives us freedom to choose if we want to deal with what’s in our suitcase or not.

In much the same way, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a story about transformation. Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, Prince Caspian, and other characters have choices to make. Turning toward Aslan draws them further into goodness. Turning away also has a transforming effect, but not nearly as nice.

As we get together with others to discuss books, we learn from one another, and the richness each book contains is received. That’s not to say that we all appreciate the various genres to the same degree. Some of us loved MacDonald while others just couldn’t get into it. The same was true for Rawlings’ book. Nevertheless, it’s been great to be exposed to various authors and stories.

The Springs - Three Rivers | Two Retreats: April 20-22, 2021 and Oct. 20-22, 2021

Women had a great time retreating at Three Rivers after being unable to meet for 18 months during covid-19. We modified the retreats to accommodate social distancing, and found that it didn’t have a negative impact on the retreat. Women loved being able to meet in-person once again.

Beautiful, worship-filled chapels and long, leisurely hours to spend alone with Jesus are the hallmarks of this retreat. Women never cease to find the time at the Springs to be extremely meaningful as it solidifies their confidence in the Lord’s love for them and deepens their trust in his goodness. Increasingly women are making this retreat part of their annual rhythm. One participant shared this testimony with us:

I’ve come a long way since first coming to the Springs. I’ve finally come to believe that I am truly his beloved. I’ve spent time trying to understand his character, but fall short in “knowing” him. I struggle in the relationship and communion with Him. I know He is faithful in having begun this work in me…and He will continue to lead me into an intimate friendship with Him. I want to recognize that He is near. —Pam Thomas

This marks the fifteenth year NEWIM has offered The Springs in central California. Once again, we were blessed to be able to cover part, or all of the cost of this retreat for the women who requested financial assistance.

Arizona Springs Retreat | Prescott, Arizona: October 29-31, 2021

We celebrated the 5th Annual Arizona Springs Retreat. What an amazing blessing! This year we had participants from 5 states as we gathered together and looked at The Lord's Prayer as our theme. The weather was beautiful in Prescott and we were able to hold our final session outside at the Rock Chapel under the trees. We are thankful for such a gorgeous setting. A new team member, Jean Pallone, has joined our existing team of Deanna Harder, Mary Williams, Tracy Millward, Kim Bagato, and Barb Nurmi. The 2022 Retreat is on the schedule and we can't wait to see what the Lord has for us.

Pastors’ Wives Newport Beach Retreat | Three Retreats: May & October 22-24 and 26-28, 2021

The Pastors Wives retreat was truly answered prayer. We had 10 women from the two 2020 canceled retreats that were eager to attend. After much prayer, the Lord led us to have 4 women and only 1 retreat in the spring. The other 6 women attended our fall retreats. The women were able to each have their own bedroom and bathroom upstairs in the beautiful Bay Island home. Janae was unable to come out for the May retreat, so Kimmy flew out from Tennesee and served with Pam. 

The women came from various states and were SO VERY grateful to come away with Jesus after waiting a year through the most challenging season of ministry. It was beautiful to see how the Lord handpicked them to come…knitting their hearts, hurts, prayers, triumphs and stories together. It is such a humbling ministry…to God be all the glory!

One participants sent a thank you letter for us to share with all of the donors who make the Pastors’ Wives retreats possible. In her letter, she wrote about the long-term impact the retreat has:

The time away enables us to deal with and process the unique hurts, wounds, and hardships that accompany full-time pastoral ministry. We are able to do this in a safe place and with safe people who understand and have experienced similar things. As wives, we are often laboring in the shadows of our husbands and absorbing and feeling their hurts and heavy burdens along with our own. Your decision to invest in the lives of pastors’ wives through this ministry has an impact that reaches past our husbands and into the lives of the people in our congregations. Our husbands don’t persevere in ministry if we are unable to persevere.

These retreats are so much more than a weekend away. They really are strengthening women, families, and congregations in significant ways.

Beautiful Day Retreat - South Africa, May 2021

Glenda writes: We sold 107 tickets of which 43 were USA sponsored including providing an Internet connection for 21 ladies. Women in Zurich, Namibia, Canada, England and USA were able to watch with us in their time zones.

The feedback has been phenomenal. Even though the adjustment to getting set up online was a stretch, it worked. Many who had previously attended an in-person retreat before, especially enjoyed the worship which allowed them to “get back to Jesus”. So powerful.

I see how God has REVEALED himself via our first ONLINE retreat in April. It was a new concept for us, but we stuck to the vision of our retreats “Finding HIS lap and HIS heartbeat.” We sold (including sponsorships) 107 tickets. In our follow-up conversation with some of the attendees, we easily discovered that ONLINE is an option! Here’s the link to that retreat: https://youtu.be/8GtC-i26tkY 

The pandemic still lingers. Thanks to our Newim friends in the USA we were able to have 41 ladies (including our team) sponsored at this retreat called: “I Come: ONE-day'' held on 27th November immediately after we discovered the Omicron variant! But God in His infinite grace allowed us to gather. . .What an incredible experience. There was no speaker. Just worship and encouragement from the team members and those women who survived the covid infection, divorce, unemployment, loneliness, loss of family and friends, and isolation. Read Glenda’s full letter.

The Streams, Santa Ana, June 5, 2021, facilitated by Jill Austin

 Hosted in a private home, women enjoyed a day meditating on Nehemiah: The Joy of the Lord is My Strength. The retreat guide is available as a free download.

Abundant Life Ranch, One-Day Retreat, “Abiding in Christ”, Wednesday, May 26, 2021

“It was not only a moment of rest that I didn’t realize how much I needed to not do anything and to be reminded that I am a doer but that it’s God who makes me purposeful...not me in my doing. To be for a moment was really restful and unexpected. I learned a lot about the pruning, that God not only takes away the branches that don’t produce fruit but also prunes the ones that do produce fruit...that really blew me away, the way he shapes us and refines us.” –Allie

Writers Team including Writers Getaway and Saturday morning group

Leadership Team Strategic Planning Weekend

Leadership Team Retreat | Oct 1-3, 2021, Oceanside See full report and photos by clicking HERE

We had a weekend full of wonderful conversations that brought us together and helped us align in mission as we seek to lead NEWIM’s ministries forward in three strategic areas: Broaden Engagement/Increase Participation, Intentional Inclusion, and Creating Safe Spaces.

Social Media

NEWIM posts multiple times a week to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with the hope of encouraging women in their relationship with Jesus and helping them to find NEWIM. We’ve seen a steady increase in engagement and followers across our social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and in 2021 we added Pinterest. Social media is one of the fastest ways to keep up with what’s happening in NEWIM and for women to find resources and encouragement. We love connecting with women all over the world through our online presence.

Newsletter

Our list of newsletter recipients remained steady in 2021. Every month, we send a newsletter via email to the women in our network. Each issue is packed with current events happening in NEWIM, encouragement from scripture, inspirational writing and poetry from a variety of writers, and resources we have found helpful in our walk with the Lord.

In 2021 we added the “Insights for Leaders” column which was started by June Chambliss Turner. We discovered an escalating trend and need for women leaders to have practical and insightful resources to help them lead in their areas of ministry, work, family, and community. This column aims to meet a felt need for informative and inspiring resources for women who lead. This area of ministry quickly found traction in our network and beyond.

Website and Online Retreat Resources - Including Guided Silent Retreat handbooks

Use of the NEWIM website continues to grow. This year there were over 4,700 different users who viewed over 10,000 pages on our website. That’s up 15% over last year. Users were primarily in the United States, but some also came from China and other countries. We are thrilled they are finding our resources. We can also see that people downloaded 1,300 free documents from our website. The top downloaded documents continue to be the Silent Retreat Guides (over 600 downloads), Oasis Retreat, and the Writers Handbook. And on NEWIM’s YouTube channel, 1,100 people used our videos. The top viewed videos: Visio Divina, Confession-Wisdom from C.S. Lewis, and Prayer of Examen.

Looking to 2022

In 2022, the leadership of NEWIM is giving full attention to three key initiatives:

1. deepening our understanding for how to create a safe environment for women in leadership;

2. being intentionally inclusive by deepening relationships and eliminating barriers keeping women of all backgrounds, races, and ages from knowing NEWIM is an organization for them; and

3. increasing engagement so that women in more locations come to know about NEWIM and experience the benefit of evangelical, contemplative retreats.

As NEWIM looks to 2022, we are eager to advance in each of these areas. God is working and we can't wait to see what he does.