Hi. Our names are Brad and Margie Fogal. We are Retreat Shepherds with Standing Stone Ministry and we live on Anderson Island that is up in the Pacific Northwest Coast. We are so grateful for this season in our life to be able to host retreats on our island one on one with couples, and also provide couples that just need rest, that just need to get away.
We kind of call them unofficial retreat weeks where we say, if you can get here, we’ve got shot. Yeah, we’re able to tuck people, couples, missionary, pastoral couples into homes. Just provide them with the amenities of the beautiful forested island that we live on. And they can just rest and unplug. It’s been amazing.
We’ve done quite a few this year, but we’re convinced that God primarily works through committed relationships. And so our our purpose is to build relationship, to provide an environment where pastors and pastors wives can let their guard down. Just be real, transparent, vulnerable, and also share their heart. We’re listening ears. And we love to come alongside, pray for support, do whatever we can to enable, encourage and empower them to be what they’re called to be.
So we just hope and pray that this next year we’re able to make the most of every opportunity, every person that the Lord draws our way. This last year has been a huge blessing. There’s been a at least a dozen or so that we’ve been privileged to come alongside, and we hope to continue to make the most of it this next year as well.
And we want them to feel safe. So we just try to just offer our hearts and, you know, just tell story, share about our lives. They share that with us. They know that they have listening ears. So many of us just are dying to just be listened to. And then when you’re talking, you find a voice for things and feelings that you’ve never felt before.
So it’s just a joy. We laugh with them and we cry with them, and we play. It’s just so much fun. So those retreat weeks are just a huge blessing, Joy. And the rest of the ones are just exciting, too.
We’re blessed to be a blessing.
