Oasis experiences which might serve you

The Life Impact Sunriver Oasis Experience is primarily to strengthen YOU, the Missionaries and Humanitarian Aid workers making a difference in foreign cultures.

Your hosts at The Oasis, Dave and Sheri Grissen, want to provide you with a refreshing place of rest and informal mentoring in areas of your felt needs. They want to see your motivations enhanced and see you strengthened in order to live and work more effectively in a foreign culture.

If you have some needs in your life which you believe Dave and Sheri can help meet, please look at the list of services below to determine if a visit to The Oasis would benefit you. If so, contact us at: david.grissen@lifeimpactministries.net

All of the Sunriver Oasis Experiences listed are informal coaching and mentoring experiences scheduled into a time period of relaxation and refreshment - they are not professional, formal counseling experiences. If they discern professional help would be beneficial, they can refer you to others.

Note Related to Children

We love kids! However over the years we realized that when Christian workers come with their children, the value of The Oasis experience is minimized for the parents. Children take the time and attention of parents as they should. However this competes with the parents need for personal refreshment, retreat, processing, reflection, and refocus. Therefore The Oasis is limited to providing couples and singles the space they need for their own rest and dealing with issues.

Exceptions: Babies are always welcomed. Sometimes we grant an exception for an older teenager coming with parents depending on the purpose of the visit.

Coaching

Since we are not providing psychological counseling to guests, our default method of helping you is "coaching". Sometimes we depart from that for mentoring - sharing from our experiences of 30 years of involvement in missions and pastoral work. If we believe that counseling would benefit you, we will recommend that to you.

Click to go directly to section Coaching and Processing of Specific Needs R & R Pre field Orientation Sabbatical Planning and Supervision Long-Term Rest and Recovery Spiritual Enrichment Home Leave Effectiveness Ministry Strategy Processing Missionary Caregiver Retreat Trauma/Crisis Debriefing Pastoral Retreat for Sending Churches Raising Kids Overseas Transitioning Missionary Calling - "Am I Fit for Missions?" Donor Enrichment

If you have been living and working on a foreign field, or pastoring a church for at least six months, this could benefit you. While you've been in your stressful context you have discovered some issue(s) that is hindering you in your life and work. Often these are family, personal, or marriage issues, cultural adjustment, in-law problems, co-worker relationships, or something which has surfaced from your past that is now dogging you and bringing you down. You feel it is time to focus on this issue in an informal and relaxed setting, discuss it with someone 'safe' and try to gain greater perspective on it -- all this in a place where the kids can have fun as well.

To help strengthen you in your area of need, we would like to have you come to Sunriver for more than a couple days. Upon arrival, we will get acquainted, understand your issue, and then together determine a timetable to profitably use your visit. This will include personal time, fun, refreshment, as well as some serious coaching concerning your issue(s).

You qualify for this experience if you have been living and working on a foreign field for over one year and feel the need for a total break and refreshment without any mentoring. We'd love to have you come to Sunriver for a period of time and gain that refreshment here while we get acquainted with you and your Field. We do have other locations for the R&R experience, and some of those may be utilized for a family vacation. Check under the Partners Page to find suitable locations.

You are headed for the field soon, have most of your money raised, specific organizational orientation completed, and are tired because of that process. You would like to get some rest, and at the same time gain further perspective on your upcoming adventure. Thinking about some of the "BIG PICTURE" issues would be helpful to additionally prepare you.

We can talk about your adjustments, family challenges, operating systems, team assimilation, identity in the new culture, language learning downers, etc. Come and join us for a week and we'll talk in-between your bike rides, pool visits, skiing trips, snowmobiling and quiet walks.

Sabbatical Planning and Supervision You have been on the Field for 7-10 years or longer and it's time for you to apply a "Sabbatical Rest" to your pressured and busy missionary life. Your Organization agrees that you should pull out of responsibility for 4-6 months or longer. But you feel a need for some help in structuring your Sabbatical, and accountability along the way. We have enjoyed such an experience in our own lives and would like to "walk with you" on this path in your life. The beginning step would be a week in Sunriver where you could gain physical and spiritual refreshment while we work together to determine the best Sabbatical plan for you. We would help you set up your "support team" wherever you locate for this time, track with you periodically via phone to help keep you focused, and then you could wrap up again in Sunriver with us, if possible.

You and your supervisor agree that you are very tired, stressed, and possibly burn out. Your need is for a longer term rest and pull-out from field responsibility. A quiet, restful place to be for a month or more is your desire. Sunriver often offers furnished rental condos or houses from $900+ per month, plus utilities. If you choose to gain your rest here, we will help you locate a quiet place, and would be willing to meet with you regularly to discuss the issues which have brought you to your present emotional, physical, and spiritual state. We can also refer you for professional help if needed and desired. Check on this web-site under the Partners Page and the Links Page to discover other locations to go for longer periods of rest.

Have you been in a spiritual wasteland for awhile? Do you feel that God is far away and your intimacy with Him is lacking? Is it time to pull away from the ordinary and focus on the internal experience of your soul and spirit in deeper unity with Him? We invite you to come to the Sunriver Oasis for a week of spiritual enrichment.

We will help determine what type of personal "retreating" you need to do with the Lord and help form your schedule for the week. If needed we can also . . .

Home Leave Effectiveness You are planning to spend 4-12 months in the USA on your Home Leave from the Field. You would like someone to help you plan your time and track with you for accountability while you are home. We'll interact with you concerning your Home Leave issues and needs to help make your time a success. It would be best to come to the Sunriver Oasis on the front-end of your time, so we can personally discuss your plans, help you organize them, all while you get a much needed rest and a "breath of fresh air" before hitting the trail!

You have been working hard in your situation, but feel stalled in your strategical thinking. You would like to get some mental stimulation "thinking outside the box" and have your paradigm of ministry challenged. You would like to interact over issues like contextualization, multiplying your ministry, equipping leaders, etc. If you come to Sunriver for this reason in the Strategy Impact Experience, we first need to understand . . .

Then we can discuss how to proceed in some new directions as we present ministry tools to sharpen your thinking. You will have the opportunity for relaxation as well, but hours will be given to interaction.

You are a person who is caring for Missionaries and Humanitarian Aid workers somewhere in the world or USA. You could use a break yourself. We would like to invite you to come to the Life Impact Center in Sunriver for a week of rest and refreshment. Perhaps we could also carve out a few hours to understand what you are learning about care giving and discuss how we can be a resource for each other in the future.

The world of the 21st century is very unstable and dangerous - especially for American workers overseas after 9/11. Families face personal and political violence, military incursions, unplanned evacuations, and unanticipated personal tragedies. If this happens to you and you need a place to come for rest and processing, check on availability at The Oasis

Pastoral Retreat for Sending Churches Most churches have missionaries they are sending and supporting. Often the pressure of local issues within these "sending" congregations, forces the Pastor to focus so much on local issues and problems that their vision for the global task is clouded. If you are the Pastor of a missionary sending church, need a few days of retreat and refreshment and want your mission vision sharpened at the same time, join us at The Oasis. While you get reconnected with the Lord or your spouse, we'd like to spend a few hours discussing your church's mission program, the work your missionaries are doing, and why missions is vital to our world today.

We as parents don’t understand the process, issues, and challenges which affect our kids in the cross-cultural experience. Arm yourself with this knowledge so you can be a more effective parent while overseas. We can help you process educational issues, wounded kids issues, blame for choices, when to return home, etc.

There are many transitions a missionary may face: leaving his home country for the first time, transitioning jobs or fields, leaving missions and moving in a new direction, etc. While in transition it’s sometimes helpful to process the questions, issues, doubts, hopes, and fears that transitions create in our hearts and minds. Come for a week to gain some rest, perspective, and discussions on the issues of your transition.

You think that you have a “calling” to missions but are not sure if you really fit in cross-cultural work, know the costs to go, nor how to take the first steps toward missions. Spend some time with us and we’ll interact with you about your desires, goals, and the process of getting from here to there.

You are a member of the Life Impact Donor Support Team and desire to see and experience The Oasis for yourself. Let us know your availability and we’ll book you in for some R & R when missionaries are not here. During your time here, we’ll inform you more specifically on the vision of The Oasis, update you on the work, and have prayer together for this ministry.