A care ministry of YWAM Chiang Mai
Spiritual Direction
A place to be honest about struggle, doubt and insecurity, without having to perform. One to one, unhurried, and old enough to have outlasted most of the things it gets confused with.
The need
Somewhere to stop performing.
People who have moved across the world to serve God spend a great deal of their time being encouraging. Newsletters get written, teams get led, visitors get hosted. The struggles, the doubts and the insecurities go somewhere, and often that somewhere is nowhere.
Spiritual Direction exists to be a safe place where those things can be said out loud, and where a life can be affirmed as a journey given graciously by God, one He has been present in the whole way, including the stretches where that was not remotely obvious at the time.
What it is
An old practice, recently rediscovered.
Spiritual Direction began in the early years of Christianity, around 300AD, when people followed the desert mothers and fathers out into the wilderness to ask them how to know God. Versions of it have since appeared across many faith traditions. Within the Christian faith it was kept alive mainly through the Roman Catholic Church, and the Protestant church is now rediscovering it.
In practice it is one to one. A director sits with one person, regularly, and helps them notice what God is doing rather than telling them what to think about it. The work is self-discovery, and the integration of faith, healing and personal transformation, on the timescale those things actually take.
A place to discover that our lives are not problems to be solved but journeys to be taken.
Spiritual Direction, YWAM Chiang Mai
The silent retreat
Three full days without speaking.
Once a year the ministry runs a silent retreat at the Seven Fountains Jesuit Retreat Center here in Chiang Mai. The shape of it is simple and it does not vary.
Everyone gathers on the first day to be introduced and to share. Silence begins after dinner that evening and is kept for three full days, meals included. Direction is available throughout for anyone who wants it. On the final morning the group regathers after breakfast to share what happened and to close, and then eats lunch together, talking.
Solitude begins with a time and a place for God, and him alone. Silence is the way to make solitude a reality. In the silence of the heart we can listen to the One who speaks to us. There is a sacred centre in each of us, and it may not be analyzed.
Henri Nouwen, Bread for the Journey, quoted at the opening of the retreat
Dates change from year to year, so we do not publish them here where they would go stale. Ask, and we will tell you when the next one is and whether there is space.
Who leads it
Manuela, Spiritual Director Coordinator.
Originally from Milan, and in Thailand for more than two decades. In her own words: "I have always been curious, I always wanted to know about people and life in general. At the same time I wanted to be known. I reached out to God in need, yet I still had questions, struggles, doubts and, in a way, I knew that there had to be more about God. It's this quest and this wondering that led me, little by little, to Spiritual Direction."
She trained on a two year course and has been practising since. When she first went looking for that training, spiritual direction was barely known in mainstream Christian circles, which is part of why it is worth saying plainly that it is available here now.
Get involved
Come and sit down
There is nothing to prepare and no standard you need to be at. If you are wondering whether this is for you, that wondering is usually the qualification.
Contact
Get in touch
Enquiries go through the base office. Email the base and mark it for Spiritual Direction.
P.O. Box 113 CMU, Chiang Mai 50202, Thailand.
Follow along
Get social
This ministry keeps no accounts of its own, which is in character. Base news goes out on Facebook and Twitter.