Encounter Ministry

Changing Lives

“What a meaningful and relationally fulfilling time we shared at Men’s Encounter 2.0! This get-together fosters and encourages deep connections as many of the attendees have been coming for years. I love how the men have years of history loving each-other well, and therein have created a haven wherein we can talk freely about our scariest fears and questions about God, the church, anxieties, and how the Bible speaks to them. It provides soul-care and an intimate brotherhood so lacking in our world. I am looking forward to our next gathering for the healing and soul-soothing-salve it always brings.”

– Karl Moe

“I loved it, It was a fun and amazing time for me. This Ministry has brought me closer to my walk with God. The other Ladies, whose are full of faith and strength, are showing me new ways to look at my walk with God, knowing that each of us faces, battles, and turns to God for strength and guidance. Up until recently, I would call myself a closet Christian. To understand this, I have always been a believer in God, but to tell the world about my faith, my lips were zipped. I truly did not see a need for me to shout out to the world. But the need is here, I need to let others know how he saved my life – countless times. When he does it for me, he can do it for others as well. Nothing is stopping God but your fears of trusting in him. and the GROW experience is a steppingstone to where God is leading me to. Yep, I back up, I stumble forward, not believing in me, but God does. As I was listening about Ruth and talking with the other ladies, I am learning to talk out loud with and about God around other believers. I like listening to the stories about what happened in the Bible, especially the women in the Bible. I’m slowly getting better at this.”

– Cheryl Fletcher

“Ed and I, who both grew up in Christian homes as believers, have been on a long and rough journey in our 18+ years of marriage of discovering hidden sins which surfaced after a slow and painful trickle over the last decade. Since discovery, to disclosure, to therapy, to attending and serving at Men’s and Women’s Encounters, to individual group work (“7 Pillars” and “Betrayal and Beyond” by Pure Desires), we finally had a breakthrough in our marriage after attending our first Marriage Encounter together this month (March 2024).

We had both been working so hard in our healing process individually for the past couple of years and it felt like we hit a plateau in our marriage – Ed was pursuing His recovery with God and other brothers in Christ and I was pursuing my recovery with God and other sisters in Christ. However, I felt hopeless in our marriage as a couple pursuing God because it felt like we were on two separate islands.

Thankfully, the Marriage Encounter, where we were encouraged to put God first and then each other second- “together”- was the uniting bridge we were missing and so desperately needed to be connected. The structure and layout of the Marriage Encounter, the preparations and prayers, the environment and facility, the content and worship, the facilitators and servers, the speakers and attendees, and all the testimonies were all sovereignly conducive to allowing God to open us deeply to Him and each other so intimately and authentically that the Holy Spirit was able to freely flow and operate in our hearts without hinderance all weekend!

Sweet dreams and God bless,
Trish Hsu