What I wasn't expecting on my first visit was how much my soul longed for what the Springs gives: quiet, rest, peace, slowing-down, unplugging, and nurturing of my walk with Jesus. There have been times I've celebrated life with God, while other times, I've wrestled through life with God. But the one constant is God has always met me where I'm at in that season of life.

I was introduced to NEWIM 20 years ago by my Aunt Susie Kimes. My first memory of NEWIM is the Springs Retreat. My aunt invited me to attend to “taste and see that the Lord is GOOD.” The Lord met me right where I was, his favorite prodigal daughter.

A friend introduced me to NEWIM in 2022. Since then, I have made many new friends across the country. Three Rivers Springs Retreats introduced me to the importance of time away with Jesus. Realizing the blessing of these retreats, I helped form the Georgia Springs Team. We have hosted 2 Springs Retreats with another planned for February 2026.

I was first introduced to NEWIM around 2000 when Jackie Rettberg came to our church for an Oasis retreat.  This was the first time that I intentionally made time to spend 2 hours alone with Jesus and it changed my life!

I attended my first Springs retreat in 2005 at the invitation of my mentor and dear friend Betsy Stowe who thought I would benefit from going and might be willing to do the registration for a new Northern California Springs retreat.  I was once again changed forever!  Spending uninterrupted time with the Lord is the best thing I do and I like to do it everyday.

I have learned how much I am loved, cherished, forgiven, empowered, equipped, and called by God!  I can trust Him!

Since I am in ministry and needed a place for renewal, everything NEWIM represented caught my interest… God answered my prayer when I discovered that, in addition to all the activities NEWIM offered, they held retreats for women and pastors' wives. I attended the Santa Cruz pastors’ wives retreat in 2024….When we arrived at the Villa Maria Del Mar, I felt the tiredness slowly dissipating from me.  The water, the air, and the time to dwell entirely on the Lord through devotionals, worship, and small groups literally revived me. I was thrilled to meet Luann and a few others I had only known through Zoom. I left The Springs feeling refreshed, revived, and revitalized. 

I was first connected with NEWIM through the Northern California Pastor’s Wives retreat in 2024. It was such a blessing to just be loved on and gently invited into honest and vulnerable conversation with God and with other women who “get it”. I was also grateful for the opportunity to join the Spiritual Formation Cohort the following fall. This was a truly transformational process for me, bringing me clarity in my sense of identity, calling, and purpose and helping me to broaden my “toolkit” as I continue my journey with God through new seasons of life and ministry as a young mom.

When I was introduced to NEWIM, I was in a very dark, lonely period in my life, and ministry. I was mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted from service to the Lord’s church, and I had no one who understood how I felt. I was running empty!! Then a dear friend introduced me to NEWM. I was skeptical at first about another women’s group, and spending time at a retreat with women who were looking to advance themselves. However, I discovered NEWIM was not like most Retreat organizations I knew. This ministry offered women who supported, encouraged and prayed for me when I didn’t have the words to pray for myself. In the past 10 years, I have met women who understood my need for rest, reconnection with the Lord, and offered encouragement, all without selfish gain.

Love Jesus? Don’t have a ministry? Visit our website, look into one of the many opportunities available where you too will be embraced, encouraged and mentored by women who welcome the same in return. 

Having served in ministry for many years, I have experienced the dryness and need for divine refreshment. I have also met other leaders and workers who needed the same. God put a mission in my heart to help women in ministry receive that spiritual rest and refreshment. When a friend invited me to a NEWIM retreat, I was thrilled to realize the heart of NEWIM was the same as mine.

Newim has been a lifeline for me, a source of living water. I’ve been to Springs retreats in Santa Cruz and Atlanta and completed the Newim-Fuller Spiritual Formation this year.

With each of these opportunities, in friendship with other women, I go deeper in my faith and trust in our loving Father. I’ve learned to live a life of worship, with the joy and peace of Christ, and it wouldn’t have happened without Newim.

During seasons where I was pastoring in very difficult situations, NEWIM retreats provided space to be alone and process, to receive prayer, to simply be led by others in worship. After stepping down from those situations, NEWIM would be a place where I could go be with other women in ministry and realize how I was doing, how angry I was, how much residual I was carrying. The other women's honest responses, their reactions to my stories, their willingness to pray with me and for me -- to speak into my life -- would all help.

As anyone who knows me can testify… NEWIM has been used by God to make me more like him, and has provided the resources and relationships to bring other women with me on that journey. I have deep gratitude for the original group of women who started NEWIM out of their need for resources and connection with Jesus and each other. I am just one woman of so many who have benefited from their decision to go beyond meeting their own needs by working to bring so many women to NEWIM.

I’m sure we can all admit that at one time or another, we’ve wondered, “there has to be more…”.  to the Christian life. The annual retreats at The Springs have certainly shown me that YES – there is MORE!!  But this past year has opened up volumes of possibilities of “the more” that He has in store for ALL of us – YEP - even me! 

I think back to when I was unsure of my calling and still nervous about stepping into it. NEWIM was instrumental in providing a platform for me to gain the confidence I needed to better accept that calling. The encouragement and love I received there became part of the tapestry of my story today.

June Chambliss

Founder & CEO,  Women Who Matter Too

I have been part of Newim since almost the beginning and have served in different capacities over the years. Newim and all the ladies have been a blessing in my life in so many ways. They have ministered to me and loved on me over the years and I am forever grateful!

Bev Amsbary and then the Orange County National leaders were amazing role models and encouragers! They loved on me and spoke life into me from my dream of publishing book #1 thru to book #61! Our monthly meetings in San Diego were “iron sharpening iron.” So, it was my delight to one day accept the call to lead the San Diego chapter and watch God bless and blossom our fellowship.

What comes to my mind as I think back on my time serving with Newim is the absolute joy of watching the Lord create ministries out of what was not visible. He would plant an idea in someone’s mind, then confirm it in others, then open doors, provide servants, and literally create something he wanted. He would then sustain and make it fruitful. And the other thing I am so grateful for are the remarkable women who served with me who are still my dearest friends today

The Lord had a hidden agenda for me, however. He knew that my life would go sideways as my children began to be wayward and that the women of NEWIM would become my strong support group, my prayer warriors and dearest of friends.

I was first introduced to Newim six months into stepping into a new role as Director of Women's Ministry at my church.  I was so focused on performance and getting "it" right that I had lost sight of the fact that God had called me into this role and He would equip me. My first Springs helped me fall back in love with Jesus. I would need to do this again and again.

These women in NEWIM encouraged and affirmed me, shared in my joys and sorrows, and became conduits of God’s love in ways I could never have fathomed. Although our time together has officially ended, on days when I struggle to rest in God’s grace, I am grateful I can still count on these friends to point me back to the easy yoke of Jesus.

Looking back at the completion of our ten months together in NEWIM’s spiritual formation cohort, I have to laugh at myself for my fears. This has been a time of growth, both relationally and spiritually. While apprehensive and anxious at the beginning, I’m grateful and thankful for the experience and for the loving relationships that were forged in our small group.

I found friendship at NEWIM, and so much more. After relocating to the Sacramento area in June 2020 and attending church online until January 2022, I found myself feeling very isolated and in need of connection…When I was invited into the NEWIM-Fuller Spiritual Formation Cohort and learned what it would entail, I was intrigued by the idea…I was nervous at first about fitting in and whether there would be "realness" in the group, but I was fascinated at the instant level of openness, vulnerability, and togetherness I experienced with my small group…

When I found myself in the middle of some very painful, even traumatic situations in our new church. I didn’t know how to continue on in the ministry…I was invited to a pastors’ wives retreat in Newport and later to the Springs retreat in Arizona. Those safe spaces gave me room to breathe, to grieve, to be with God. I found rest for my soul, enough to keep going.

NEWIM became a place of connection, a lifeline, a safe place to share and grow with other Christian women, and my life has been strengthened and transformed.

This community has been a beautiful place where God has allowed me to use my gifts in ways I never imagined. The friendships I've formed here, through serving and retreating together, are incredibly meaningful and will most likely last a lifetime.

In 2007, I came to my first NEWIM Springs Retreat. I came reluctantly. This was the third year I had been invited by my friend, our Women’s Director. I turned her down originally, saying, “A day of solitude would not only be boring, but not even possible for me!” But by the third invite, God’s Spirit had reached my heart and I said, “Yes.”

My dear friend and pastor’s wife at the time, invited me to a one-day Silent Retreat. I believe my exact words to her were, “Have you met ME?” I really couldn’t conceive of not talking for seven hours (9 a.m. – 4 p.m.). I did, however, really want to get away for a couple of nights with a girlfriend, and my husband really encouraged me to go. So I reluctantly agreed.