New team for Quiet Waters Christian Retreat House

The Quiet Waters Christian Retreat House, on the Suffolk and Norfolk border, is looking forward to starting 2018 with a full staff team, ready to welcome guests to a varied programme of retreats

For the latter six months of 2017, whilst the process of recruiting new team members has been progressing, Mike and Liz Schippers have been valiantly holding the fort at Quiet Waters Christian Retreat House on the outskirts of Bungay

Now the couple are looking forward to entering 2018 with a full complement of staff, as Andy and Debbie Jackman (above left) and Jonathan and Vanessa Griffiths (above right) join the team

Andy and Debbie Jackman joined Quiet Waters, which has been providing a place of rest, renewal and spiritual refreshment for 40 years, on November 30. The couple, from Willingham in Cambridgeshire, have both served on the Diaconate of their local Baptist church and have been involved in different ministries

Andy has worked in estate agency for over 30 years and has been involved with outreach to men, including organising a monthly pub group. Debbie most recently worked providing administrative support to the Adult Learning and Leisure Office and also working with GenR8, a Christian charity taking the Christian message into schools and supporting churches in their work with children. Debbie has also organised various activities including mums and babies, holiday clubs, prayer days and church weekends away

Jonathan and Vanessa Griffiths, from Shrewsbury, will be joining Quiet Waters in January. They have worked together, for a number of years, as teachers at a Christian school for 2 – 11 year olds

The couple have served in the pastoral side of church life as well as the prayer and worship ministry in their own church and other churches in the Shrewsbury area. Both Jonathan and Vanessa have a real interest in art and are gifted musically, skills they are keen to use at Quiet Waters

About the past six months Mike and Liz Schippers said: “We are very grateful to all volunteers for their help and we are thankful for our trustees who have come alongside us and stepped into the gap where necessary. It has been a trying time and a tiring time but this too has passed. There are exciting times ahead of us with the new team coming on board”

The team are looking forward to hosting various day, weekend and mid-week retreats in 2018 focusing on a variety of creative and spiritual subjects including calligraphy, watercolour painting, textile art, the labyrinth, Easter week reflections and a retreat led by Stephen Bishop on the concept of time

To find out more information about events and retreats at Quiet Waters visit their Facebook page

www.quietwaters.org.uk