HEART TO HEART 

By Dave Gentry

August 27, 2006

Greetings!  I pray that this newsletter arrives in your hand finding you settled and centered in the Father.  I realize that you, like many of us, must enjoy this state of centeredness even amidst circumstances that are anything but settled and centered.  But our God is able to bring peace and centeredness even in the midst of turmoil, tension and transition.  Isaiah 26:3 is a great promise to me in this regard as it reads:

        “You (God) will keep in perfect peace he whose mind is ‘stayed’ (fixed, centered, inclined) upon you.”

This directive in times of challenge and change make the next verse in Isaiah so powerful!

            “So trust in the Lord—commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him—for ever; for the Lord God is an everlasting rock—the Rock of ages.”

What a promise to any of us who are walking through difficult times.

The past 6 months have been those kinds of times for all of the Westwood family as God has led us to walk through some transitional times.  Beginning in December and culminating in January some of the leaders of Westwood began to revisit our passion, vision, goals and current ministry.  We discovered several realities:

·   We desired to stay centered on God’s design for us as a kingdom team and our vision of ‘Joining God by coming alongside Christian leaders, their families and ministries to cultivate health, renewal and transformation in the kingdom of God’  was still God’s vision for us. 

·    We desired to be relevant to the ‘emerging kingdom church’ in our day.

·     We realized that our retreat setting was losing its ‘retreat’ atmosphere due to development and traffic on and around our property

·     We realized that our setting needed to be much more secluded and, thereby, provide quietness and stillness for our clients and guests.

·     We also realized that God’s call to ‘simple kingdom lifestyle’ needed to be more deeply emphasized in our campus and ministry.

·   We realized that to lead kingdom leaders and their families to this kingdom lifestyle, that Westwood must live out and portray that very same simple kingdom lifestyle.  Therefore we were led to simplify our campus and ministry.  The leaner the overhead the more energy and resources can be invested in kingdom servants and their health.

·      We realized that God still had a powerful passion for this kingdom team that he has raised up and that his hand is very much upon us!

These realizations have led the Board of Westwood in a decision to sell our present campus and relocate to a larger more secluded property still in the Kerrville area.  We are not leaving the hill country.  Westwood’s home is the Hill Country and Kerrville remains our center of operation.  Over the last few months God has moved miraculously.  The property sold quickly and was purchased by one of our directors for commercial purposes.  We have been allowed to keep guests and clients at the retreat center through the end of the year and God miraculously provided interim business offices in Kerrville.  Our offices are now at 213 C Street in Kerrville.  We could not have asked for a smoother transition.   Due to the generosity of the new owner of the retreat center, our staff has been allowed to stay in their houses rent free until the end of the year.

Our guests and clients continue to come!  Praise God, our staff have not missed a beat in taking care of all those that God brings through our doors that need rest and healing so desperately.

During this transitional time we need several things from you as our partner:

·  We need your prayers (finding property, the physical move, housing for staff and spiritual protection).

·    We need your calls and emotional support.

·  We need your faithful financial support especially during these transitional times.

As we look for new property in the hill country, pray that God will give his wisdom and discernment to our leadership team.  Also pray for God’s miraculous intervention as we find, purchase, build and move to the new property.  I know that God’s mighty hand is on this ministry and the transition that we are in.  That is the only reason that I feel the peace that I am experiencing even as I write this letter. I invite you to call me and let me pray with you over what is going on in your life and the above prayer concerns (210-912-6584).

Thanks for your prayers and interest in what God is doing in our day through this kingdom team.

 Blessings,

Dave Gentry, Founding Director

Westwood Ministries, Inc.

830-895-3082

daveg@westwoodministries.org