Miranda Heathcote | Vision & Values

vision & values

Our call is to foster fruitful Christian workers in limited access nations (places where it is difficult to be a native or cross-cultural mission worker). We do this by helping them remain spiritually and emotionally healthy. We support people by providing leadership development, debriefing, spiritual direction, and through facilitating residential as well as wilderness retreats.

The purchase of a property will open up new opportunities: We'll be able to host more people, and that means we can run group retreats and debrief experiences as well as things like marriage enrichment courses, leadership training, church leadership team retreats, and other community-building events.

it starts with a vision

VALUES: hospitality

Hospitality is an important value for us. Not in the sense of the decor, the cordon bleu cuisine, or the great sound system playing tunes in the background. The real gift of hospitality lies beneath the wrapping, it’s what happens in us and between us as we share these moments of relationship. Hospitality, then, is a gift we offer to the guest for whom we make room. A gift of friendship and welcome, of listening and heart connection.

As we offer hospitality, we have the opportunity to rehearse the story of God together. We receive one another - just the way we are, at whatever point in our journey with Jesus - and we live into the reality that we are accepted, we are included, there is room for us, we belong. As we listen attentively, as we adapt to the needs and desires of our guest, we remember that God the Father listens to us and cares about our needs. As we share our stories, our grief and pain as well as our joy, we are reminded of our common humanity and common need for the grace and healing of our Lord.

In this sense it becomes obvious that we do not invite guests so that we can preach at them, or correct them, or face them up to their failings. No, we invite them so that we can receive them as we have been received by Jesus ourselves, wholeheartedly and unreservedly, no matter what our state, our questions, or our mistakes.

VALUES: creativity

At The Place of Springs, we value creativity. Whether making bread or pots, designing poetry or collage, turning wood or painting pictures, we believe that creativity can awaken us to the presence of God.

We offer guided processing of art-making - to help people debrief their past season, listen to their own hearts and encounter God. Time and again, we find that creativity helps people express internal realities for which they did not yet have words.

VALUES: nature

At The Place of Springs, we love to support people’s spiritual journeys by facilitating God-encounters in wild places. These encounters with God are part of strengthening people to be effective and fruitful in their lives with others.

Tim is training as a mountain guide which will enable him to lead groups on reflective hike experiences, designed as ‘active retreats’ and opportunities to become aware of God in the beauty of nature. Tim especially has in mind those in ministry, leadership, or from challenging contexts like our region who are searching for new and deeper ways to connect with God. The Place of Springs has great access to mountain trails for this kind of active retreat.

a place for spiritual pilgrims

We work with people that are on pilgrimage, a spiritual journey. Often it's taken them from their homeland and their families to live and serve in places that can be hard and challenging. They often pass through valleys - painful times - and storms. We want to create a place that can be like a refuge, a place of beauty and rest, where people can experience God as their refuge and find a spiritual place of springs. After a short while, they would leave refreshed and ready to continue their journey - participating in the work of God wherever they've been called. To join us in Phase 2 of fundraising for the purchase of this property, click here: thank you!