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Welcome to Shade and Fresh Water, a space for grace!
Shade and Fresh Water is a program agency of the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church. Our vision is to provide a transformative sanctuary for individuals and their families who are professionally associated with the Florida Conference of the UMC for the restoration of body, mind, and spirit toward more abundant living.
Currently we are serving the individuals and families of the Florida Conference by offering help in ministry areas: personal retreats, clergy covenant group retreats with spiritual and/or group direction, and managing change in new appointments. If you would like information on any of these ministry areas, please click on the corresponding button on the side bar.
We have received many positive reviews from our clergy covenant group retreats offering individual spiritual direction to participants. Be sure to check out the latest information under Retreats.
For more information: Contact Jim Cook, Co-Chair, at 352-376-6615 or by email at
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or Rev. Dionne Hammond, Co-Chair, at 727-784-9250 or by email at
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To
“listen”
another’s soul into
a condition of
disclosure and
discovery
may be almost the
greatest service
that any human being
ever performs for another.
Douglas Steere from Gleanings: A Random Harvest
Important disclosure and discovery will never occur without confidentiality. Confidentiality is the assurance that the story and the person will be treated with utmost respect. Shade and Fresh Water approaches each person with this basic sense of honor. That means participants are allowed intimacy of expression with the understanding that anything discussed will remain completely private.
To confide means to “place into another’s keeping.” What an honor and what a need. Each person deserves a place to be totally vulnerable and open. That calls for trust—absolute certainty.
The complications of life sometimes call for examination and companioning by another person’s sympathetic listening. In that listening period, sometimes for the first time, a person is able to voice their thoughts and hear them clearly. To be able to sort thing in the presence of a care filled listener is the basis of spiritual direction.
Scripture says we should “love the Lord our God and our neighbor as our very selves” (paraphrase).
The lyrics of a song are: Sacred is the call
Awesome indeed the entrustment
Tending the holy, tending the holy
To be able to treat one another as holy—our worthy and high calling at Shade and Fresh Water.
A note about Confidentiality...from Jim Cook
To
“listen”
another’s soul into
a condition of
disclosure and
discovery
may be almost the
greatest service
that any human being
ever performs for another. (Douglas Steere from Gleanings: A Random Harvest)
Important disclosure and discovery will never occur without confidentiality. Confidentiality is the assurance that the story and the person will be treated with utmost respect. Shade and Fresh Water approaches each person with this basic sense of honor. That means participants are allowed intimacy of expression with the understanding that anything discussed will remain completely private.
To confide means to “place into another’s keeping.” What an honor and what a need. Each person deserves a place to be totally vulnerable and open. That calls for trust—absolute certainty.
The complications of life sometimes call for examination and companioning by another person’s sympathetic listening. In that listening period, sometimes for the first time, a person is able to voice their thoughts and hear them clearly. To be able to sort thing in the presence of a care filled listener is the basis of spiritual direction.
Scripture says we should “love the Lord our God and our neighbor as our very selves” (paraphrase).
The lyrics of a song are: Sacred is the call
Awesome indeed the entrustment
Tending the holy, tending the holy
To be able to treat one another as holy—our worthy and high calling at Shade and Fresh Water.
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