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ARC Retreat
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1680 - 373rd Avenue NE, Stanchfield, MN 55080
763-689-3540
arcretreat@hotmail.com
(Located 8 Miles Northwest of Cambridge, MN)
Click
here for directions.
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ARC
(Action, Reflection, Celebration), is a retreat center operated by a residential
community, rooted in Christian tradition, emphasizing the values of simplicity,
justice and healing, mercy and prayer, serving individuals and groups seeking
time apart, rest and spiritual renewal.
  
The Lodge at ARC
ARC is located 55 miles
north of Minneapolis (ten minutes north of Cambridge), on 90 acres in central
Minnesota's pine woods. We offer four-season hospitality for about 20 people in
our cedar Lodge, Hermitage, and Cottage (which is a complete log home.)
Spiritual direction, retreat ministry, and a labyrinth meditation experience are
available to retreatants, as well as a fine library of spiritual books and
journals. Therapeutic massage can be arranged with advance notice. Reiki, a form
of natural healing drawing upon the energies of the body, can also be arranged
with sufficient notice. Trails for walking, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing
wind through woods and wetlands.
“There are few places of genuine
spirituality in the world and this is one of them.”
Guest ~ July, 2008

Summer Specials
Mid-week special, Sunday through
Thursday:
Any 2 nights, 3 days, 6 meals--$120
Extend your retreat to 5 days, 4 nights and receive a special discount:
All midweek days, M-F $240
5 days including the weekend: $275
Accommodation in Hermitage or Lodge includes meals
Cottage: meals $25/person/day
(Cottage has a full kitchen)
All specials contingent upon availability

 
The Cottage at ARC

See Calendar page for
open dates in 2010-2011.
Consider gathering your group for a mid-week retreat.
Greater availability, lower cost.
Volunteers sought:
Gardener to tend help tend our perennial beds and labyrinth landscaping 1-2
days a month.
We would also appreciate a volunteer 1-2 hours a month with expertise in
Human Resources.
We welcome volunteers in the house or woodshed at almost any time.

Some of those visiting this site may be familiar with
founders Ruth and Loren Halvorson.
Loren departed this life for his final homecoming on Monday,
February 15, 2010.
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ARC Wish List
(Most
are tax deductible. Ask your tax advisor.)
 | Wok |
 | Sturdy commercial quality washer and dryer |
 | Simple, easy-to-use digital camera |
 | Picnic baskets. Fully removable lids are best. |
 | White twin bed sheet sets, towel sets, twin-size quilts |
 | Tea Pot - large, about 10 c - with handle that
does not get hot |
 | Woodcutters -- people willing to work in nearby woodlots or our
own woodshed almost any day; cutting, splitting, stacking |
 | Firewood - downed trees or
cut wood, especially oak; tax credit given |
 | Vacuum Cleaner(s) - heavy duty, canister type that uses bags
(no bagless styles, please) |
 | Land stewards - people
interested in preserving our native Minnesota woods and wetlands. |
Hospitality offers a place where change can take place
by Jan Wiersma, Director
When I arrived nearly five years ago,
nest
was an image that held ARC’s truth for me. A nest is a small and intimate
home, a sanctuary, a place where life comes into being, where nature can
take its slow and confident course shielded from danger and distraction. And
so it is here. We like to quote Henry Nouwen, “Hospitality means primarily
the creation of a free space where the stranger can enter and become a
friend instead of an enemy. Hospitality is meant not to change people, but
to offer them a space where change can take place.”
That transformation does occur when people experience time and space apart
is beyond doubt; or else why would so many people be drawn to retreat at
all, and then drawn back year after year, as if following some deep
migratory or homing impulse? People come for reasons as varied as the birds
of the woods. We do not always ask, but people often volunteer: they come to
rest, to write, to grieve, to find clarity in decision-making, or to ponder
a major life change. Often it is not until after the retreat is over that
the transformation becomes apparent in a new assurance, acceptance, peace or
life path.
Something very similar occurs during prayer, as I have come to know it here.
In recent years, ARC’s twice-daily gathering in the chapel has gravitated
toward silence, the most inclusive of worship. Cynthia Bourgeault, who
practices and teaches the form of meditation known as Centering Prayer,
speaks of the value of non-verbal prayer, where thoughts and feelings are
stilled. It is, she says, “not about piety, but about the rewiring of the
brain…. Meditation changes how we think and perceive reality.” When I sink
into silence in the company of others, the quality of my prayer changes. I
relinquish myself to the Spirit in a deeper way and let God re-arrange
what’s inside. “Relax, open,
yield, soften. Let go,” Bourgeault counsels. Change will occur.
Change, says a friend, is loss. Perhaps; but it is also gain. Each ending is
also a beginning. Every time I unclench the fist of my heart, God slips an
unexpected gift through the
cracks. Every time I quiet the inner hammering of my thoughts, love and
quiet confidence enter my soul. This is welcome change, world-bending
change.
In my years at ARC, I’ve learned a lot about change, and little bit about
birds and their nests, too. Birds don’t live in nests, really. They use them
briefly, as the eggs are laid and incubated, as the young are hatched and
fed, and fledge. Once the babies try their wings, they belong to the air,
the trees, the grasses. Nests are necessary for warmth and protection until
the time has come to leave, to move on to the next phase of growth.
And so the time has come for me to move on, as well, to leave this ARC nest
of safety and security, of challenge and growth, to answer another call.
Others will be departing, too: Bob, Nicole, Melody, and our faithful
volunteer coordinator Heidi Wagner. I see these leave-takings as more gain
than loss: How much we have all learned from our time together; how much of
ourselves we will leave behind! And we open space for others to come after
us, to stay for a time, to rest and risk themselves for a greater good. The
mission of ARC endures. ARC will be here: a space where strangers can enter
and become friends, a nest where transformation is as natural as breathing.

If you are interested in hermitage or small group retreats, be sure to
visit
The Dwelling in the Woods,
another "sanctuary in time."
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