-
RetreatsSix-day retreats providing a place to reconnect
with God and work through personal and ministry challenges
Upcoming Retreats
To find out upcoming retreat dates, please contact Bob Armstrong:Phone (604.832.6792)
or Email bobandpennyarmstrong@gmail.com
Retreat Dates
Due to the overwhelming popularity of Oasis Individual Focused Encounters in 2018 we are pleased to announce that in 2019 we are making Oasis Individual Focused Encounters our primary offering. Because of this decision we have been able to create space to facilitate additional Individual Focused Encounters. If you are considering an Oasis Individual Focused Encounter please contact us at your earliest convenience with a suggested date and we'll do our best to accommodate you. .A SAFE PLACE TO REFRESH
In a safe and confidential environment, Oasis offers four-day/3-night retreats designed to provide a place and time to reconnect with God and work through personal and ministry challenges.
For the past 20 years, nearly 1500 participants – from over 62 denominations and missions agencies across Canada, USA and 33 other countries – have found a healthy balance of relaxation, interaction, counselling and instruction at an Oasis Retreat. Professional and caring staff provide tools and strategies that serve to strengthen and enhance relationships and areas of service.
Cost: $3495
What others have to say about our retreats
Powerful, great insight, sensitive, painful, releasing, enlightening and hopeful are all the words we would use to describe our experience. Your warm, understanding and accepting attitudes helped us let down our guard and engage in the process. Your God-focus insight throughout helped you correctly read where we were at and what we needed. We feel like now that we are aware of what is inside us, we can choose to acknowledge it and continue to work it out. Thank you for helping us to get to this place of awareness, empowerment and hope.

Very personable...felt safe to open up and express ourselves…wonderful to rest, nap, walk, wind down and be refreshed in the afternoons...thoroughly enjoyed accommodation...perfect, private, comfortable…; amazing, delicious food; teaching sessions were wonderful…we delved into areas that we didn’t know how to unlock; perfect balance...great content...skilled leaders…blown away with Brent’s presentation...words cannot express...Bob, Penny and Susan are a great combination of people...so obviously friends...wise...compassionate...not afraid to get involved (get hands dirty)...1-5 scale 6 ...gave permission and opened us up to feel: loss, tragedy, sadness, joy, peace in chaos...perfect balance of sessions; Accommodations were perfect, private, comfortable...Excellent balance of sessions/time off...Dr. John’s topic was brilliantly presented...a sensitive and deeply informed communicator...appreciated interaction...absolute GOLD!; Ron’s session was a great reminder; Penny’s session on Burnout brought clarity to my condition and provided hope that I could make it through; Brent’s session was a powerful use of words of imagery...Bob, Penny and Susan are a great team!...Sensitive ,supportive and appropriate...wonderful times of worship and tasteful video clips...this retreat came at a crucial and strategic time for us...while distracted and hurting from our recent crises, we have received a very special care package of love, sensitive and wise counsel, spiritual and emotional support and encouragement, and especially renewed hope in returning to normal, productive life...it has been a powerful, intimate, safe, and refreshing 6 days...thanks so much...you’re working on an excellent formula, keep it up...Oasis is an amazing, much needed ministry...Blessings on the team for responding to the call to provide it...I experienced safe community, felt loved and ministered to...the schedule was organized very well in that it felt safe by the time we were to tell our stories...accommodations were wonderful, so comfortable and tastefully decorated, felt pampered...quality, variety and verbal description of the food was amazing...really appreciated the openness, relationship and vulnerability of Bob, Penny, and Susan...Very skilled, great big hearts, very real, you’re an amazing team; felt poured into, validated, embraced and given good information and strategies to move forward...really appreciated couples counselling.

Accommodation and Meals: Way more than expected!; outstanding; felt pampered; beautiful and comfortable; the location is so much a part of the healing…couldn’t pick a better place!…it was meaningful to have our own space to go away to as needed…own bathroom too…awesome.
Teaching sessions: great info and presentation style, very informative, excellent content, engaging and energetic, charts/diagrams helpful to visualize the process, created a great environment for conversation, cleared up so much for me, a real eye opener, very easy to follow and relate content to my life, very relevant, the visualization was excellent.
Facilitators: very friendly and welcoming…made the environment always a safe one; Wow, they are not only great, but they have inspired me to be a kinder more dedicated guest service person in my own setting…they are incredible!; easy to talk to…good to hear they are human too, and enjoyed hearing how they worked through things…appreciated their genuine care and kindness; Penny and Bob are great working with participants…you have wonderful gifts for this…Susan is a breath of fresh air…I love how you were all available to us…thank you for loving me in my dark places…your reflections after everyone shared their stories were powerful; great hosts…the two of you are a great team…kind and prophetic!...look forward to staying in touch! Thank you!; genuinely accepted and loved…it has to be a strain on each of you to be engaged for so many days in a row and it isn’t unnoticed…thank you.
Effect that this RETREAT has had on you and your spouse (if married): Has helped us to see the areas that we are suffering or struggling in…has given us hope and encouragement for what’s to come; it has brought us as a couple close again and it has given me a better outlook on life; I don’t think I can ever go back…I finally had my wife with me, that’s a first!!!; it has been good to hear things together and be able to talk things through as a couple; I’m excited by your ministry and believe it has the potential to do deeper and greater ministry in the healing and forming of leaders…I have experienced wonderful affirmation personally and for my ministry; allowed break-through for us to stand together and remove the barriers between us and face out battles together; powerfully helpful…great insights and some new direction…the personal counseling may have been the highlight for us; for one of the first times we have finally felt heard and understood…we are thankful for a strong marriage right now so it was refreshing to come together and be loved and supported together during a time of need; much needed turning point in a rather dark, hopeless time.

Great accommodation and amazing meals; excellent at revealing things about what I was going through; loved how John would pray as led by the Holy Spirit; excellent counseling…tools for anger and grieving; excellent information and relatable…process of forgiveness was very helpful; really liked the meditative exercise…great balance between cause, effect, and recovery; thanks for speaking honestly from your heart…it is incredibly helpful to hear what burnout is, your honesty about how it has affected you, and your honest journey of working through it; very practical…thank you!; very creative and powerful; very insightful…found some rest and peace within my spirit…the journey allowed room to breathe in chaos; insightful and prophetic…some of verses spoken to me will stick and help…most powerful: God is giving me treasures that can only be mined in darkness”; thanks for being real, for calling the tough calls and for holding me in honour yet with grace; very sincere; I am so thankful I came…God has met me here and worked powerfully in me; thank you to all for the welcoming and caring space…appreciated Bob’s wisdom and strength…Penny’s understanding and experience with love…and Susan’s, compassion and tenderness; we experienced peace and rest…I may not see the ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel, but now there is a ‘light’ in the tunnel; I came in feeling like I was not coping well to this retreat but am leaving with something new…hope; I’m still processing information for myself…feeling more at peace than I have in months…renewed hope…observed some transformations already in my spouse; had a wonderful experience…don’t won’t to go.

Feedback from participants:
Beautiful facility, genuine and caring hosts, amazing meals; appreciated the interaction, transparency, real examples of the presenters, loved the heart and spiritual content of the presenters…how they would just stop and pray…appreciated the opportunities to ask questions and dialogue, very practical and very helpful.
“Please don’t stop doing what you are doing…there are hundreds of us who need this…I have been to a lot of conferences which were informational and inspirational, but this retreat was informational, inspirational, and transformational.”
Facilitators: Bob/Penny/Susan Comments:
You guys opened your heart and life to us…thank you so much for that gift!...I really appreciated your generosity, genuineness, thoughtfulness, and the way you guys “eased” us into a deeper level of openness and transparency, which I feel to me happened faster than I thought it would, and yet not forced or over uncomfortable; a very accepting, affirming, environment was created…very, very good to hear your story at the front end…this opened the door for everyone else…awesome support and wisdom…thank you!; Bob and Penny really set the foundation when they shared their story, Thank you!...You made us feel so comfortable…the atmosphere you all created made us feel that we were heard and we were among friends…Susan’s love for the Lord and her understanding, nonjudgmental way was so welcoming….I felt as if we’d know you all for a long time!; Great listeners…Great servants of God with Big Hearts filled with love and compassion…they truly understand the life of pastors…they truly model the heart of Jesus; lovely…thank you so much for your ministry and being faithful servants.
Describe the effect that this RETREAT has had on you and your mate (if married):
I came burdened with a mess of feelings…trying to make sense of what happened and afraid to trust…I had been badly hurt by community and here in this place God used community who understood , heard even my unspoken words, loved me, affirmed and prayed for me, and extended healing and hope for future trust; the retreat was a time to tell our story, to be affirmed, to be renewed, and help with changes that need to be made going forward regarding self-care and setting healthy boundaries; it has given us some ideas as to how we can be more intentional with self-care; lots of awesome information… sharing our story was hard but important and the prayer support was amazing!...definitely helped us with how to approach the next part of our journey.

Powerful, great insight, sensitive, painful, releasing, enlightening and hopeful are all the words we would use to describe our experience. Your warm, understanding and accepting attitudes helped us let down our guard and engage in the process. Your God-focus insight throughout helped you correctly read where we were at and what we needed. We feel like now that we are aware of what is inside us, we can choose to acknowledge it and continue to work it out. Thank you for helping us to get to this place of awareness, empowerment and hope.

Very personable...felt safe to open up and express ourselves…wonderful to rest, nap, walk, wind down and be refreshed in the afternoons...thoroughly enjoyed accommodation...perfect, private, comfortable…; amazing, delicious food; teaching sessions were wonderful…we delved into areas that we didn’t know how to unlock; perfect balance...great content...skilled leaders…blown away with Brent’s presentation...words cannot express...Bob, Penny and Susan are a great combination of people...so obviously friends...wise...compassionate...not afraid to get involved (get hands dirty)...1-5 scale 6 ...gave permission and opened us up to feel: loss, tragedy, sadness, joy, peace in chaos...perfect balance of sessions; Accommodations were perfect, private, comfortable...Excellent balance of sessions/time off...Dr. John’s topic was brilliantly presented...a sensitive and deeply informed communicator...appreciated interaction...absolute GOLD!; Ron’s session was a great reminder; Penny’s session on Burnout brought clarity to my condition and provided hope that I could make it through; Brent’s session was a powerful use of words of imagery...Bob, Penny and Susan are a great team!...Sensitive ,supportive and appropriate...wonderful times of worship and tasteful video clips...this retreat came at a crucial and strategic time for us...while distracted and hurting from our recent crises, we have received a very special care package of love, sensitive and wise counsel, spiritual and emotional support and encouragement, and especially renewed hope in returning to normal, productive life...it has been a powerful, intimate, safe, and refreshing 6 days...thanks so much...you’re working on an excellent formula, keep it up...Oasis is an amazing, much needed ministry...Blessings on the team for responding to the call to provide it...I experienced safe community, felt loved and ministered to...the schedule was organized very well in that it felt safe by the time we were to tell our stories...accommodations were wonderful, so comfortable and tastefully decorated, felt pampered...quality, variety and verbal description of the food was amazing...really appreciated the openness, relationship and vulnerability of Bob, Penny, and Susan...Very skilled, great big hearts, very real, you’re an amazing team; felt poured into, validated, embraced and given good information and strategies to move forward...really appreciated couples counselling.

Accommodation and Meals: Way more than expected!; outstanding; felt pampered; beautiful and comfortable; the location is so much a part of the healing…couldn’t pick a better place!…it was meaningful to have our own space to go away to as needed…own bathroom too…awesome.
Teaching sessions: great info and presentation style, very informative, excellent content, engaging and energetic, charts/diagrams helpful to visualize the process, created a great environment for conversation, cleared up so much for me, a real eye opener, very easy to follow and relate content to my life, very relevant, the visualization was excellent.
Facilitators: very friendly and welcoming…made the environment always a safe one; Wow, they are not only great, but they have inspired me to be a kinder more dedicated guest service person in my own setting…they are incredible!; easy to talk to…good to hear they are human too, and enjoyed hearing how they worked through things…appreciated their genuine care and kindness; Penny and Bob are great working with participants…you have wonderful gifts for this…Susan is a breath of fresh air…I love how you were all available to us…thank you for loving me in my dark places…your reflections after everyone shared their stories were powerful; great hosts…the two of you are a great team…kind and prophetic!...look forward to staying in touch! Thank you!; genuinely accepted and loved…it has to be a strain on each of you to be engaged for so many days in a row and it isn’t unnoticed…thank you.
Effect that this RETREAT has had on you and your spouse (if married): Has helped us to see the areas that we are suffering or struggling in…has given us hope and encouragement for what’s to come; it has brought us as a couple close again and it has given me a better outlook on life; I don’t think I can ever go back…I finally had my wife with me, that’s a first!!!; it has been good to hear things together and be able to talk things through as a couple; I’m excited by your ministry and believe it has the potential to do deeper and greater ministry in the healing and forming of leaders…I have experienced wonderful affirmation personally and for my ministry; allowed break-through for us to stand together and remove the barriers between us and face out battles together; powerfully helpful…great insights and some new direction…the personal counseling may have been the highlight for us; for one of the first times we have finally felt heard and understood…we are thankful for a strong marriage right now so it was refreshing to come together and be loved and supported together during a time of need; much needed turning point in a rather dark, hopeless time.

Great accommodation and amazing meals; excellent at revealing things about what I was going through; loved how John would pray as led by the Holy Spirit; excellent counseling…tools for anger and grieving; excellent information and relatable…process of forgiveness was very helpful; really liked the meditative exercise…great balance between cause, effect, and recovery; thanks for speaking honestly from your heart…it is incredibly helpful to hear what burnout is, your honesty about how it has affected you, and your honest journey of working through it; very practical…thank you!; very creative and powerful; very insightful…found some rest and peace within my spirit…the journey allowed room to breathe in chaos; insightful and prophetic…some of verses spoken to me will stick and help…most powerful: God is giving me treasures that can only be mined in darkness”; thanks for being real, for calling the tough calls and for holding me in honour yet with grace; very sincere; I am so thankful I came…God has met me here and worked powerfully in me; thank you to all for the welcoming and caring space…appreciated Bob’s wisdom and strength…Penny’s understanding and experience with love…and Susan’s, compassion and tenderness; we experienced peace and rest…I may not see the ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel, but now there is a ‘light’ in the tunnel; I came in feeling like I was not coping well to this retreat but am leaving with something new…hope; I’m still processing information for myself…feeling more at peace than I have in months…renewed hope…observed some transformations already in my spouse; had a wonderful experience…don’t won’t to go.

Feedback from participants:
Beautiful facility, genuine and caring hosts, amazing meals; appreciated the interaction, transparency, real examples of the presenters, loved the heart and spiritual content of the presenters…how they would just stop and pray…appreciated the opportunities to ask questions and dialogue, very practical and very helpful.
“Please don’t stop doing what you are doing…there are hundreds of us who need this…I have been to a lot of conferences which were informational and inspirational, but this retreat was informational, inspirational, and transformational.”
Facilitators: Bob/Penny/Susan Comments:
You guys opened your heart and life to us…thank you so much for that gift!...I really appreciated your generosity, genuineness, thoughtfulness, and the way you guys “eased” us into a deeper level of openness and transparency, which I feel to me happened faster than I thought it would, and yet not forced or over uncomfortable; a very accepting, affirming, environment was created…very, very good to hear your story at the front end…this opened the door for everyone else…awesome support and wisdom…thank you!; Bob and Penny really set the foundation when they shared their story, Thank you!...You made us feel so comfortable…the atmosphere you all created made us feel that we were heard and we were among friends…Susan’s love for the Lord and her understanding, nonjudgmental way was so welcoming….I felt as if we’d know you all for a long time!; Great listeners…Great servants of God with Big Hearts filled with love and compassion…they truly understand the life of pastors…they truly model the heart of Jesus; lovely…thank you so much for your ministry and being faithful servants.
Describe the effect that this RETREAT has had on you and your mate (if married):
I came burdened with a mess of feelings…trying to make sense of what happened and afraid to trust…I had been badly hurt by community and here in this place God used community who understood , heard even my unspoken words, loved me, affirmed and prayed for me, and extended healing and hope for future trust; the retreat was a time to tell our story, to be affirmed, to be renewed, and help with changes that need to be made going forward regarding self-care and setting healthy boundaries; it has given us some ideas as to how we can be more intentional with self-care; lots of awesome information… sharing our story was hard but important and the prayer support was amazing!...definitely helped us with how to approach the next part of our journey.

Powerful, great insight, sensitive, painful, releasing, enlightening and hopeful are all the words we would use to describe our experience. Your warm, understanding and accepting attitudes helped us let down our guard and engage in the process. Your God-focus insight throughout helped you correctly read where we were at and what we needed. We feel like now that we are aware of what is inside us, we can choose to acknowledge it and continue to work it out. Thank you for helping us to get to this place of awareness, empowerment and hope.

Very personable...felt safe to open up and express ourselves…wonderful to rest, nap, walk, wind down and be refreshed in the afternoons...thoroughly enjoyed accommodation...perfect, private, comfortable…; amazing, delicious food; teaching sessions were wonderful…we delved into areas that we didn’t know how to unlock; perfect balance...great content...skilled leaders…blown away with Brent’s presentation...words cannot express...Bob, Penny and Susan are a great combination of people...so obviously friends...wise...compassionate...not afraid to get involved (get hands dirty)...1-5 scale 6 ...gave permission and opened us up to feel: loss, tragedy, sadness, joy, peace in chaos...perfect balance of sessions; Accommodations were perfect, private, comfortable...Excellent balance of sessions/time off...Dr. John’s topic was brilliantly presented...a sensitive and deeply informed communicator...appreciated interaction...absolute GOLD!; Ron’s session was a great reminder; Penny’s session on Burnout brought clarity to my condition and provided hope that I could make it through; Brent’s session was a powerful use of words of imagery...Bob, Penny and Susan are a great team!...Sensitive ,supportive and appropriate...wonderful times of worship and tasteful video clips...this retreat came at a crucial and strategic time for us...while distracted and hurting from our recent crises, we have received a very special care package of love, sensitive and wise counsel, spiritual and emotional support and encouragement, and especially renewed hope in returning to normal, productive life...it has been a powerful, intimate, safe, and refreshing 6 days...thanks so much...you’re working on an excellent formula, keep it up...Oasis is an amazing, much needed ministry...Blessings on the team for responding to the call to provide it...I experienced safe community, felt loved and ministered to...the schedule was organized very well in that it felt safe by the time we were to tell our stories...accommodations were wonderful, so comfortable and tastefully decorated, felt pampered...quality, variety and verbal description of the food was amazing...really appreciated the openness, relationship and vulnerability of Bob, Penny, and Susan...Very skilled, great big hearts, very real, you’re an amazing team; felt poured into, validated, embraced and given good information and strategies to move forward...really appreciated couples counselling.

Accommodation and Meals: Way more than expected!; outstanding; felt pampered; beautiful and comfortable; the location is so much a part of the healing…couldn’t pick a better place!…it was meaningful to have our own space to go away to as needed…own bathroom too…awesome.
Teaching sessions: great info and presentation style, very informative, excellent content, engaging and energetic, charts/diagrams helpful to visualize the process, created a great environment for conversation, cleared up so much for me, a real eye opener, very easy to follow and relate content to my life, very relevant, the visualization was excellent.
Facilitators: very friendly and welcoming…made the environment always a safe one; Wow, they are not only great, but they have inspired me to be a kinder more dedicated guest service person in my own setting…they are incredible!; easy to talk to…good to hear they are human too, and enjoyed hearing how they worked through things…appreciated their genuine care and kindness; Penny and Bob are great working with participants…you have wonderful gifts for this…Susan is a breath of fresh air…I love how you were all available to us…thank you for loving me in my dark places…your reflections after everyone shared their stories were powerful; great hosts…the two of you are a great team…kind and prophetic!...look forward to staying in touch! Thank you!; genuinely accepted and loved…it has to be a strain on each of you to be engaged for so many days in a row and it isn’t unnoticed…thank you.
Effect that this RETREAT has had on you and your spouse (if married): Has helped us to see the areas that we are suffering or struggling in…has given us hope and encouragement for what’s to come; it has brought us as a couple close again and it has given me a better outlook on life; I don’t think I can ever go back…I finally had my wife with me, that’s a first!!!; it has been good to hear things together and be able to talk things through as a couple; I’m excited by your ministry and believe it has the potential to do deeper and greater ministry in the healing and forming of leaders…I have experienced wonderful affirmation personally and for my ministry; allowed break-through for us to stand together and remove the barriers between us and face out battles together; powerfully helpful…great insights and some new direction…the personal counseling may have been the highlight for us; for one of the first times we have finally felt heard and understood…we are thankful for a strong marriage right now so it was refreshing to come together and be loved and supported together during a time of need; much needed turning point in a rather dark, hopeless time.

Great accommodation and amazing meals; excellent at revealing things about what I was going through; loved how John would pray as led by the Holy Spirit; excellent counseling…tools for anger and grieving; excellent information and relatable…process of forgiveness was very helpful; really liked the meditative exercise…great balance between cause, effect, and recovery; thanks for speaking honestly from your heart…it is incredibly helpful to hear what burnout is, your honesty about how it has affected you, and your honest journey of working through it; very practical…thank you!; very creative and powerful; very insightful…found some rest and peace within my spirit…the journey allowed room to breathe in chaos; insightful and prophetic…some of verses spoken to me will stick and help…most powerful: God is giving me treasures that can only be mined in darkness”; thanks for being real, for calling the tough calls and for holding me in honour yet with grace; very sincere; I am so thankful I came…God has met me here and worked powerfully in me; thank you to all for the welcoming and caring space…appreciated Bob’s wisdom and strength…Penny’s understanding and experience with love…and Susan’s, compassion and tenderness; we experienced peace and rest…I may not see the ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel, but now there is a ‘light’ in the tunnel; I came in feeling like I was not coping well to this retreat but am leaving with something new…hope; I’m still processing information for myself…feeling more at peace than I have in months…renewed hope…observed some transformations already in my spouse; had a wonderful experience…don’t won’t to go.

Feedback from participants:
Beautiful facility, genuine and caring hosts, amazing meals; appreciated the interaction, transparency, real examples of the presenters, loved the heart and spiritual content of the presenters…how they would just stop and pray…appreciated the opportunities to ask questions and dialogue, very practical and very helpful.
“Please don’t stop doing what you are doing…there are hundreds of us who need this…I have been to a lot of conferences which were informational and inspirational, but this retreat was informational, inspirational, and transformational.”
Facilitators: Bob/Penny/Susan Comments:
You guys opened your heart and life to us…thank you so much for that gift!...I really appreciated your generosity, genuineness, thoughtfulness, and the way you guys “eased” us into a deeper level of openness and transparency, which I feel to me happened faster than I thought it would, and yet not forced or over uncomfortable; a very accepting, affirming, environment was created…very, very good to hear your story at the front end…this opened the door for everyone else…awesome support and wisdom…thank you!; Bob and Penny really set the foundation when they shared their story, Thank you!...You made us feel so comfortable…the atmosphere you all created made us feel that we were heard and we were among friends…Susan’s love for the Lord and her understanding, nonjudgmental way was so welcoming….I felt as if we’d know you all for a long time!; Great listeners…Great servants of God with Big Hearts filled with love and compassion…they truly understand the life of pastors…they truly model the heart of Jesus; lovely…thank you so much for your ministry and being faithful servants.
Describe the effect that this RETREAT has had on you and your mate (if married):
I came burdened with a mess of feelings…trying to make sense of what happened and afraid to trust…I had been badly hurt by community and here in this place God used community who understood , heard even my unspoken words, loved me, affirmed and prayed for me, and extended healing and hope for future trust; the retreat was a time to tell our story, to be affirmed, to be renewed, and help with changes that need to be made going forward regarding self-care and setting healthy boundaries; it has given us some ideas as to how we can be more intentional with self-care; lots of awesome information… sharing our story was hard but important and the prayer support was amazing!...definitely helped us with how to approach the next part of our journey.

Powerful, great insight, sensitive, painful, releasing, enlightening and hopeful are all the words we would use to describe our experience. Your warm, understanding and accepting attitudes helped us let down our guard and engage in the process. Your God-focus insight throughout helped you correctly read where we were at and what we needed. We feel like now that we are aware of what is inside us, we can choose to acknowledge it and continue to work it out. Thank you for helping us to get to this place of awareness, empowerment and hope.

Very personable...felt safe to open up and express ourselves…wonderful to rest, nap, walk, wind down and be refreshed in the afternoons...thoroughly enjoyed accommodation...perfect, private, comfortable…; amazing, delicious food; teaching sessions were wonderful…we delved into areas that we didn’t know how to unlock; perfect balance...great content...skilled leaders…blown away with Brent’s presentation...words cannot express...Bob, Penny and Susan are a great combination of people...so obviously friends...wise...compassionate...not afraid to get involved (get hands dirty)...1-5 scale 6 ...gave permission and opened us up to feel: loss, tragedy, sadness, joy, peace in chaos...perfect balance of sessions; Accommodations were perfect, private, comfortable...Excellent balance of sessions/time off...Dr. John’s topic was brilliantly presented...a sensitive and deeply informed communicator...appreciated interaction...absolute GOLD!; Ron’s session was a great reminder; Penny’s session on Burnout brought clarity to my condition and provided hope that I could make it through; Brent’s session was a powerful use of words of imagery...Bob, Penny and Susan are a great team!...Sensitive ,supportive and appropriate...wonderful times of worship and tasteful video clips...this retreat came at a crucial and strategic time for us...while distracted and hurting from our recent crises, we have received a very special care package of love, sensitive and wise counsel, spiritual and emotional support and encouragement, and especially renewed hope in returning to normal, productive life...it has been a powerful, intimate, safe, and refreshing 6 days...thanks so much...you’re working on an excellent formula, keep it up...Oasis is an amazing, much needed ministry...Blessings on the team for responding to the call to provide it...I experienced safe community, felt loved and ministered to...the schedule was organized very well in that it felt safe by the time we were to tell our stories...accommodations were wonderful, so comfortable and tastefully decorated, felt pampered...quality, variety and verbal description of the food was amazing...really appreciated the openness, relationship and vulnerability of Bob, Penny, and Susan...Very skilled, great big hearts, very real, you’re an amazing team; felt poured into, validated, embraced and given good information and strategies to move forward...really appreciated couples counselling.

Accommodation and Meals: Way more than expected!; outstanding; felt pampered; beautiful and comfortable; the location is so much a part of the healing…couldn’t pick a better place!…it was meaningful to have our own space to go away to as needed…own bathroom too…awesome.
Teaching sessions: great info and presentation style, very informative, excellent content, engaging and energetic, charts/diagrams helpful to visualize the process, created a great environment for conversation, cleared up so much for me, a real eye opener, very easy to follow and relate content to my life, very relevant, the visualization was excellent.
Facilitators: very friendly and welcoming…made the environment always a safe one; Wow, they are not only great, but they have inspired me to be a kinder more dedicated guest service person in my own setting…they are incredible!; easy to talk to…good to hear they are human too, and enjoyed hearing how they worked through things…appreciated their genuine care and kindness; Penny and Bob are great working with participants…you have wonderful gifts for this…Susan is a breath of fresh air…I love how you were all available to us…thank you for loving me in my dark places…your reflections after everyone shared their stories were powerful; great hosts…the two of you are a great team…kind and prophetic!...look forward to staying in touch! Thank you!; genuinely accepted and loved…it has to be a strain on each of you to be engaged for so many days in a row and it isn’t unnoticed…thank you.
Effect that this RETREAT has had on you and your spouse (if married): Has helped us to see the areas that we are suffering or struggling in…has given us hope and encouragement for what’s to come; it has brought us as a couple close again and it has given me a better outlook on life; I don’t think I can ever go back…I finally had my wife with me, that’s a first!!!; it has been good to hear things together and be able to talk things through as a couple; I’m excited by your ministry and believe it has the potential to do deeper and greater ministry in the healing and forming of leaders…I have experienced wonderful affirmation personally and for my ministry; allowed break-through for us to stand together and remove the barriers between us and face out battles together; powerfully helpful…great insights and some new direction…the personal counseling may have been the highlight for us; for one of the first times we have finally felt heard and understood…we are thankful for a strong marriage right now so it was refreshing to come together and be loved and supported together during a time of need; much needed turning point in a rather dark, hopeless time.

Great accommodation and amazing meals; excellent at revealing things about what I was going through; loved how John would pray as led by the Holy Spirit; excellent counseling…tools for anger and grieving; excellent information and relatable…process of forgiveness was very helpful; really liked the meditative exercise…great balance between cause, effect, and recovery; thanks for speaking honestly from your heart…it is incredibly helpful to hear what burnout is, your honesty about how it has affected you, and your honest journey of working through it; very practical…thank you!; very creative and powerful; very insightful…found some rest and peace within my spirit…the journey allowed room to breathe in chaos; insightful and prophetic…some of verses spoken to me will stick and help…most powerful: God is giving me treasures that can only be mined in darkness”; thanks for being real, for calling the tough calls and for holding me in honour yet with grace; very sincere; I am so thankful I came…God has met me here and worked powerfully in me; thank you to all for the welcoming and caring space…appreciated Bob’s wisdom and strength…Penny’s understanding and experience with love…and Susan’s, compassion and tenderness; we experienced peace and rest…I may not see the ‘light’ at the end of the tunnel, but now there is a ‘light’ in the tunnel; I came in feeling like I was not coping well to this retreat but am leaving with something new…hope; I’m still processing information for myself…feeling more at peace than I have in months…renewed hope…observed some transformations already in my spouse; had a wonderful experience…don’t won’t to go.

Feedback from participants:
Beautiful facility, genuine and caring hosts, amazing meals; appreciated the interaction, transparency, real examples of the presenters, loved the heart and spiritual content of the presenters…how they would just stop and pray…appreciated the opportunities to ask questions and dialogue, very practical and very helpful.
“Please don’t stop doing what you are doing…there are hundreds of us who need this…I have been to a lot of conferences which were informational and inspirational, but this retreat was informational, inspirational, and transformational.”
Facilitators: Bob/Penny/Susan Comments:
You guys opened your heart and life to us…thank you so much for that gift!...I really appreciated your generosity, genuineness, thoughtfulness, and the way you guys “eased” us into a deeper level of openness and transparency, which I feel to me happened faster than I thought it would, and yet not forced or over uncomfortable; a very accepting, affirming, environment was created…very, very good to hear your story at the front end…this opened the door for everyone else…awesome support and wisdom…thank you!; Bob and Penny really set the foundation when they shared their story, Thank you!...You made us feel so comfortable…the atmosphere you all created made us feel that we were heard and we were among friends…Susan’s love for the Lord and her understanding, nonjudgmental way was so welcoming….I felt as if we’d know you all for a long time!; Great listeners…Great servants of God with Big Hearts filled with love and compassion…they truly understand the life of pastors…they truly model the heart of Jesus; lovely…thank you so much for your ministry and being faithful servants.
Describe the effect that this RETREAT has had on you and your mate (if married):
I came burdened with a mess of feelings…trying to make sense of what happened and afraid to trust…I had been badly hurt by community and here in this place God used community who understood , heard even my unspoken words, loved me, affirmed and prayed for me, and extended healing and hope for future trust; the retreat was a time to tell our story, to be affirmed, to be renewed, and help with changes that need to be made going forward regarding self-care and setting healthy boundaries; it has given us some ideas as to how we can be more intentional with self-care; lots of awesome information… sharing our story was hard but important and the prayer support was amazing!...definitely helped us with how to approach the next part of our journey.
