The Search For Spiritual Family - Part 2

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The Ladies Retreat

There were many things brewing under the surface with a resistance to the moving of the Holy Spirit and those who were embracing it. Including between the pastor and the board. We were new Christians but we knew that the encounters that we had had with the Spirit were unlike anything we had ever experienced before and it was drawing us into deeper relationship with God and one another. Could such a thing be wrong?

Well the Pastor had had enough battling it out with the board. He announced his resignation and we were in shock. There were many times that we had had them over to our house and that they had had us over to their house. The fact that he married us and was with us through Caleb's birth meant that we felt like we were losing our own dad. We were very sad and his leaving added to our spiritual confusion.

It wasn't long before the church had a new pastor, one who was certified non-charismatic by the board. As much as this was seen as a victory for the church board, there were many of us who were getting together and having times of prayer and worship in small groups and the spirit was alive as ever.

The new pastor was just starting to get settled in before the womens retreat, I am sure he had no idea as to what was going to take place.

The retreat was mainly planned by a group of women from the church headed up by the church secretary, Laura. Laura was one of our good friends that was very excited about the moving of the Spirit in the church. The retreat took place at Cedar Lodge and guest speaker was brought in from another church. I was so happy that Sarah would get a chance to go on this ladies retreat and build relationship with other women in the church.

I have trouble remembering why, but at the last minute Sarah was not able to go. We now know that God was protecting her from what was to happen there, but at the time we were very confused.

This is what we later heard happened at the retreat:

The ladies arrived on a Friday night, they found out that the original speaker for the retreat had come down ill, but that Cedar Lodge had found somebody else to fill in, a charismatic. The evening service was very intimate and many ladies were touched for the first time by the spirit, some were not. The next day there was a healing and deliverance time in which again there were moves of the spirit that many had never seen, many tears and laughter.

But one person was very scared by what was going on and called the head of the church board. She immediately got in her car and drove out to Cedar Lodge. When she walked in the doors at the Lodge, many described it as though Satan himself had walked in the door. She proclaimed that "this stuff" does not happen in our church and this retreat is over!

The fall out of that action was far reaching. There was much confusion for the women that had been there and experienced something wonderful, and new. The situation was exacerbated when the following Sunday our new pastor officially apologized for what had happened at the retreat. The apology was more of an insult than anything.

That was the last straw for many of our close friends, little by little they left to various different churches throughout the city in search of this new move of God. I am not sure why we didn't leave with them, but for the next couple months we stayed even though it was very lonely.

We eventually did leave, there was really nothing to keep us there and the search for a new home began. We found out that a couple months after we left that the new pastor had resigned. A couple years later we ran into some old friends that still attended and they told us that the last couple with kids had just left the church. I still grieve for that church.

One last and very strange event in relation to that church happened about four years ago, when the head board member (the one that was described as Satan himself at the retreat) died tragically in a house fire.

The long and lonely search begins.