About Us

We are a small group of Christian friends who share a passion for growing in our love for God and His Son Jesus Christ and seeing the fruit of the Holy Spirit increasing in our lives. We have all felt God’s leading to be encouraging others in this journey, to be persevering through the dry times and rejoicing in seasons of plenty. We worship and serve together at a non-denominational Christian community church. As a team, we have enjoyed an amazing two years facilitating single-day retreats and seeing God working in the lives of many Christians across North West NSW.

We firmly believe that Jesus Christ is the only pathway to God and spiritual growth of any kind. Jesus said:

“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

While we are very willing to chat and pray with you, we are not trained counsellors or spiritual directors. We are not experienced in dealing with mental illness, chronic disease, addictions or serious depression. There are other Christian organisations in Australia who are more experienced in dealing with these issues who already run regular healing services and retreats.

Richard and Kate Penrose

We are beef cattle farmers and we live and work on our beautiful property (which is named Retreat). The farm is about half an hour from Gunnedah in North Western NSW. We have three children, about 200 cows and 5 chickens! For the past 14 years we have been incredibly blessed to share time at Retreat with many Christian brothers and sisters who serve God in full-time ministry either here in Australia or overseas on the mission field. The Retreat Homestead has hosted many families and small groups for holidays, longer missionary stays and small youth camps. We are both actively involved in our local church, in areas of leading, preaching and music ministry. We are keen supporters of overseas Christian workers and various humanitarian organisations. Kate studied for a year at Moore Theological College in 1992. Richard and Kate are currently studying Spiritual Direction as part of Barnabas Ministries’ Listen into Life course, and are currently in their final year. Kate is also studying at Tabor College in Adelaide and hopes to have completed the Graduate Diploma of Spiritual Direction by the end of 2024.

David and Kerry Wirth

We live in the lovely country town of Gunnedah with our teenage daughter, the last of our three children remaining at home. At present, David works in home care and Kerry is a maths teacher at the local Christian school. We have been involved in many areas of pastoral care and ministry over the last couple of decades, mostly in a volunteer capacity as part of church life. We love to see God at work in His people. We spent three years studying together at SMBC between 2009 and 2011. After returning to Gunnedah, David spent a short time as a church leader in a small rural parish and was also a Generate Chaplain at a village public school in that parish for three years. It is a great privilege to be able to come alongside people and share in their journey with Christ, and we hope that being involved in Retreat Ministries will allow us to do this more often.

History

Ongoing Retreat Homestead Ministry

Location

Retreat is half an hour from Gunnedah in North West NSW. Gunnedah is a 45 minutes drive from Tamworth (the closest airport to Retreat). When coming to a retreat, make sure you have everything you need as the shops are not close by!

Gunnedah