What Is Spiritual Direction?

From Dale Gish

What is spiritual direction?
Spiritual direction is rooted in a desire to draw near to God, to hear his voice and experience his presence in your life. A spiritual director facilitates spiritual conversations where you can talk about the joys and struggles of your relationship with God, and the obstacles you face in your spiritual journey.  Sessions include prayer, listening, and dialogue between you, the director, and God. Because God is present and at work, everything, both good and, bad becomes the raw material for the work God is doing in your life. As you pay attention to God in your everyday life, you can become more attentive to what the Lord is doing and saying and experience your belovedness in a deeper way. You may bring any topic to the session, but the focus will always be on seeing and hearing what God is doing in the midst of that situation.

The process of spiritual direction
Spiritual direction is an ongoing conversation that takes place over many months. It is more about spiritual dialogue with a soul guide than receiving lessons from a teacher. Spiritual directors may offer suggestions or ideas, but do not tell you what to do—that is for you to discern with the Lord. Through conversation, questions, observations and suggestions for the spiritual journey, a spiritual director helps you center in on God and listen to the voice of his Spirit. Typically people meet with a spiritual director once per month.

Things you could bring to a spiritual direction session:

  • A struggle in your personal, family or work life -and seek to see how God is at work in that situation

  • An experience of God's grace or presence in your life recently -to celebrate and savor what God is doing

  • Your experience in prayer recently, struggles or breakthroughs -to grow in your prayer life

  • Your desires or longings for God -to seek God as your heart's desire

  • Major decisions or life transitions -to discern God's leading and calling

  • Your identity and self understading -to explore who God has created you to be

  • Wanting to love deeply from the heart -Allowing God to soften and open your heart to him

Letter from Sunday Agang

From Sunday Agang:

I bring you greetings. As I continue to ponder on our present situation, I can't help but realise that the global coronavirus pandemic has reminded us that we are one. The barriers we have falsely created are unrealistic and baseless. We are equal humans. We are all vulnerable and desperately in need of each other to survive. In essence, the outbreak of COVID-19 at Wuhan, China in 2019 has exposed our nakedness, weakness and limitation. It has evidently revealed one profound truth: We are one. No wonder, Jesus prayed,  “…[T]hat they may be one as we are one” (John 17:11). 

Superior versus inferior, majority versus minority, developed versus developing political economies and so on are not in God’s vocabulary. They are only humans creation to further estrange themselves from each other to feel safe outside of each other and God. We have created circles of obligation that distorts our God-given moral vision and mission to one another and the world, as equal humans who are expected to stand in solidarity with one another to defeat our common enemy in a fallen and decaying world: Satan and his sin of pride and fear.

Stay safe. You are in our thoughts and prayers! 

Sunday

YWAM Food Pantry in the Tenderloin

Volunteering at the YWAM Food Pantry in the Tenderloin (at 357 Ellis St.) on Thursdays:

12-1:30 pm and includes set-up of tables, social distancing measures, packing food into grocery bags and more with little to no contact with patrons (Max is 10 people).

1:15-4 pm and includes distributing bagged groceries to patrons, managing the queue, and tear-down/cleaning/sanitizing at the end (Max is 5 people)

If you would like to volunteer, please RSVP to emily@ywamsanfrancisco.org and say you are from “Redeemer”.

This is a trial run. Our team will re-evaluate our new procedures regularly to maintain the safety and well-being of all involved and they will keep us updated as we make changes.

Food Pantry in the Mission District

SF Food Bank is providing an essential service of food to those who are even more in need during this time and needs volunteers.  We explored hosting a pantry in our parking lot, but that is not currently a need. They directed us to Grace Fellowship’s pantry on Saturdays, between 11:45 and 3ish. Here are details of how they are organizing in light of COVID 19.  If you would like to volunteer on a Saturday sign up at Bit.ly/gfccfoodpantry. If you can’t do this time and would like to volunteer, you can go to the SF Food Bank site.or volunteer on Thursdays at YWAM Food Pantry in the Tenderloin.

Making Soup for YWAM

Our friend Tim Svbovda is the head of YWAM San Francisco (http://www.ywamsanfrancisco.org). They seek to engage the City with a loving God through their daytime drop in center at 357 Ellis St., which provides a safe shelter for people living in the Tenderloin and on the streets. They provide showers, bathroom services, haircuts, mail services, prayer, referrals, a movie afternoon, a variety of bible studies and a weekly food pantry that serves 300 vulnerable people in the Tenderloin. They are in need of people to drop off a large pot of hearty veggie soup or stew to supplement the fast and easy meals most people get. They also need serving containers, bowls or soup cups. They have more than enough spoons. We can drop off the soup Mon, Weds, or Fridays by 9 am.  You can also help serve the food. Soup can also be dropped off any afternoon, Monday through Friday, and they will heat up and serve the next day we are open. If you would like to drop off soup, contact Steven Binnquist (Steve@ywamsanfrancisco.org).  Let him know you are from Redeemer.

A Shelter In Place Retreat

Dale Gish will be co-leading an online retreat on Saturday April 4.

Basic details:

  • When: Saturday, April 4, 2020 | 9AM-12 PM PST

  • Where: Zoom Video Conference | Link provided when you register

  • Cost: Are you hurting financially? Dale and Barbara want to bless you—Please join for free. Otherwise, join  for a suggested donation of $25. 

  • How to Register: Registration link: https://tinyurl.com/rpk76nz

You can find more details at this link.