A Personal Retreat Experience: Vivian and Brandon Li
Vivian and Brandon came all the way to Iona House from Philadelphia in late October. We asked them to share a bit about their stay with us. If you’re interested in a personal retreat, please visit the Retreat page.
Q. How did you hear about Iona House?
Our connection to Iona House was a friend of a friend of a friend -- 3 degrees of separation! We were looking for places to go on retreat and a friend of a friend recommended checking out Iona House, even though they hadn't been themselves. When we read the description on the website, in some ways it reminded us of other ministries we've been blessed by in the past, but it also had a distinct vision that wasn't quite like anything else we had come across, so we were intrigued! And the farm animals had us sold.
Q. Why were you interested in visiting?
We had already known that we wanted to spend some time on retreat in October and were thrilled to discover Iona House. As part of her emergency medicine residency program, Vivian had an "elective block" in October, which is essentially unstructured time in her schedule without any hospital shifts. Her original plan was to go on a service trip in South Africa with other doctors. When the original plan had fallen through, Vivian tried to arrange other alternative plans to still make the most out of this opportunity. However, while at a wedding earlier this year, a friend encouraged her with a word they had received in prayer around "rest", and upon receiving that word Vivian knew immediately that instead of filling this time with activity, that God was inviting her to draw near to Him and experience rest. At the same time, Vivian also had a big decision to make related to career as well as where we would be in the future. Iona House felt like the perfect place to slow down, rest, and create space to contemplate this decision, as well as to receive anything else God would have for us.
Q. What were the highlights of your stay?
There were so many great highlights, it's hard to concisely summarize so we'll just list them out:
The overall daily rhythm was truly restorative and rejuvenating. Being in that environment and disconnected from technology also meant that we went to bed naturally at 8:30 PM each night, which was extremely unusual for us high-strung East Coasters but also exactly what we needed. We felt amazing when we left.
Fixed hour prayer was not a familiar practice for us, but it ended up being surprisingly delightful, and we actually still do it back home at Philadelphia.
Of course, feeding and spending time with the animals. Vivian enjoyed long walks with Festus the Mini Mule and Joan the Llama. Brandon is not even an animal person, but they were truly a delight (the duck that gathers with the goat herd was Brandon's favorite).
Spiritual direction was super helpful. It helped us to identify some themes and points to focus on during our times of solitude and contemplation. Thanks Elizabeth!
It turns out that Vivian just really enjoys raking wood chips. Strangely satisfying.
Enjoying some delicious tomatoes from the Iona House vegetable garden. We also snagged some great produce and apple cider donuts at the nearby farms.
We got to listen to a really compelling talk on creation care from Harlan Young (an arborist who volunteers at Iona House).
Looking out at the beautiful landscape in the warm autumn sunlight.
And finally, just being able to carve out some space for reading and contemplation.
Q. How did you experience God during your stay?
We experienced a truly restorative rest that felt like the kind of rest God gives us as described in the scriptures. One reflection Brandon had while at Iona was that prior to coming to Iona, our lives were basically full of alternating between work and entertainment. We entertain ourselves as a reprieve from our work as our idea of recuperating, and then we work harder because we feel anxious about not having done enough. None of this, including entertainment, is necessarily restful. But while at Iona, it felt like we were able to break from this cycle with a third option of true rest. We were able to just receive God's care for us and experience a deep sense of peace and contentment.
Vivian also received a lot of peace in particular with her decision involving future career direction. And she experienced a new warmth in her relationship with God the Father, something that was previously pretty unfamiliar and foreign.
Brandon had some rich devotional times in Luke. He left with a new perspective on God's expectations for him, as well as a sense of freedom + patience with respect to the topic of "calling."
Q. What would you share with someone who is interested in having a personal retreat at Iona House?
For us retreat-ing at Iona as a married couple, it was actually really valuable to intentionally have times of solitude apart from each other. We still spent the majority of each day together at Iona House, but there was something to be said for also having our own time with God, especially for Vivian who -- as a strong extrovert -- was also processing her fear of loneliness.