Earlier this year Phil was invited to Dominican Republic to facilitate a spiritual retreat for the DR/Latin America team. Carlos and Raydel organized a weekend retreat in the mountains at the home of a church member. Using his new material as a guide, Phil walked the leaders through a self discovery and discussion of steps needed for each participant to finish their race. Here are a few reflections from that retreat:

“Well when we think of DR and the Caribbean we usually think of beaches and sun. However earlier this year I (Phil) was able to spend time with our Ministry Coaches and their team in the mountains of Dominican Rep. (DR). It was a great setting for a reflective time of looking at our lives thus far and what adjustments or changes may need to take place in order to finish the race before us.

Of course during “mid life,” or even “the last third” of life, course corrections are a relatively recent phenomena (last couple hundred years) as life expectancies have increased. With longevity inevitably comes various stages of life that need to be navigated. Along the way we inevitably pick up wounds and this baggage if not dealt with can negatively impact how healthy we are emotionally, mentally and even physically towards the latter part of our lives.

During the pandemic as I was dealing with my own losses, I put together this new material (Finishing the Race) which provides the opportunity for a leader to reflect upon their own journey. They are then given time to spend alone with the Lord as well as discuss with others any course  corrections they may need to make as they move towards the latter years of their lives and ministry. Even some of the younger participants were able to make application in their lives as they interacted with those who were in the last half of their lives.

Thank you for making ministry to these leaders possible. As a ministry we anticipate being able to help leaders by facilitating this retreat with the rest of MCNet  teams as well as other networks of leaders.”

As we gather in the beautiful mountains of Jarabacoa in DR to reflect on our different leadership roles as Christian leaders in the Ministry God has appointed to us, I personally  came out this retreat with a very deep conviction of the importance of daily & regular Spiritual Disciplines I should observe in my personal walk with the Lord in order to finish well my race and listen to my Lord say “Well done faithful servant”. You have done well, you finished well, specially in the context of the statistics which show that  more than 70% of leaders do not finished the race well.  I thank our Lord for my brother Phil Jeske for visiting DR in May and spend time with us facilitating this wonderful retreat for our reflection and grow as leaders.                                             Carlos, Empowering Action/MCNet Regional Coordinator