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TESTIMONIES |
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By SUSAN Westland |
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10βͺJANUARY 2024βͺwww . cmausa . org |
Each year in March , CMA National hosts a Pastor β s Retreat on Iron Mountain to renew , refresh , and revive our pastors . CMA member and pastor , Susan Westland , shares how God moved in her life through attending the 2023 CMA Pastor β s Retreat .
Mark and Tammy
Mark and Tammy Heid oversee the Rocky Mountain Region as National Evangelist .
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A JESUS ENCOUNTER AT THE
PASTOR β S RETREAT ! you ever been so
HAVE tired that every bone and muscle in your body ached , and you couldn β t explain why ? That is how I had felt for about two years when our state coordinators , Bob and Gale Stringham , asked my husband Rich and me to attend the CMA Pastor β s Retreat this past March . Being tired had not always been the way things were in my life . When I first gave my life to Christ and professed Him to be my Lord and Savior , I woke up every day excited to tell the world about Jesus ! Those early years were years of plenty , and daily believing Jesus had asked me to follow
Him . There were years when it felt like our daily walking and talking together would never end .
But then β¦ came the years of desert dryness . Years of thirsting and hungering after Jesus , but finding only what felt like a barren wasteland , with just enough food and water to keep me going . After years of desert dryness , even though I was serving God as a pastor , I had concluded I was not where God wanted me to be and , like Peter in John 21:3 , I told my husband , β Well , Rich , I guess I β ll go back to fishing !β
But then β¦. Rich and I went to the Pastor β s Retreat at Iron Mountain . We were both so tired the drive felt overwhelming , and when we pulled into the parking lot at Iron Mountain , it felt like I heard a voice from God shouting , β Hey friend , is your net empty ?β ( John 21:5 ) All I could say back was , β Yes ! Yes , Jesus , I am empty ! Yes , Jesus , I want to walk away from being a pastor and from CMA because I don β t know if this is what You want me to do anymore .β
Praise God that into my emptiness , into the poverty of my spirit , came the voice of Jesus saying , β Take heart , my daughter , for I am with you !β During those four powerful days at Iron Mountain , Jesus came to Rich and me . When Jesus came , it felt like every message that was preached , every song that was sung , and every prayer that was given had been handpicked just for us .
On the second night of the retreat , during the prayer time , John Ogden Sr laid hands on me and told me to pray : β Jesus , I relinquish my life over to You ; I relinquish my family and my finances and my calling over to You ; I relinquish my calling over to You , I relinquish my will over to Your will ; I relinquish everything about my life over to Your plans for me !β Then , together , we prayed for Jesus to release me from all the lies the enemy had spoken to me , and I felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted off my shoulders .
John Sr told me God would renew my spirit and body that night . He prayed I would awake in the morning with a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit who would restore me and give me a new vision , a new bounce in my step , a new twinkle in my eye , as Jesus would come and refresh me as I slept β and that is exactly what happened ! Not only did God do all the things John told me would