Prayer Ministers – Page 2 – Serenity Retreat

Preparing for New Wine: Why TPM 201 Immersive Is the Next Step You’ve Been Waiting For

Written by Angela Miller on November 23, 2025. Posted in Prayer Ministers, Serenity Blog, Serenity Retreat Bellville, Transformation Prayer Training, Transformation Prayer Training. No Comments on Preparing for New Wine: Why TPM 201 Immersive Is the Next Step You’ve Been Waiting For

By Barbara Rolen, Program Director, Serenity Retreat

You know that feeling when you can sense God’s up to something, but you’re not quite sure what it is yet? That’s been me—and honestly, all of us here at Serenity Retreat—for the better part of this year. Collectively, we sense the Lord forming new wine skins—new rhythms and new structures so we are ready for what’s to come.

I am proud of the effective training courses we offer at Serenity Retreat, from intro to internship. Since there’s always room for improvement, each of the courses is undergoing refinement this year and next to improve the effectiveness and experience for participants.

And now God is also stretching us to expand our training to include TPM 201 Immersive for those looking for the convenience of a self-paced on-demand course, culminating with a dynamic, immersive experience at our Bellville Retreat Center.

The Real Heart of TPM 201: You First

Both our six-week TPM 201 course and the new Immersive format are designed to help you tend to your own heart first—before you even think about helping anyone else.

Here’s what I mean: you learn to recognize what’s actually happening inside you when thoughts like these won’t quit plaguing you:

“Where did that explosion of anger come from? I hate hurting my family like this.”

“I know God’s Word says that He’ll never leave you or forsake you, but it sure feels like I’m all alone, even abandoned.”

“I’m sick and tired of fear running my life.”

“God, make it stop! It’s just too much!”

“When will my life ever change? Will I always feel like there is something wrong with me?”

Whether you choose the six-week TPM 201 course or the TPM 201 Immersive, the goal is the same: learn how to use TPM as a lifestyle so you can gain God’s perspective any time of day, anywhere—even 3AM lying in your bed, or in your office, or while mowing your lawn or folding clothes.

Introducing the TPM 201 Immersive: A Whole New Way to Learn

Let me explain how TPM 201 Immersive is different from our standard six-week course.

The traditional TPM 201 is six weeks of live classes—one session per week, everyone moving through the material together on the same schedule. The first hour each week is spent discussing the homework questions and chapters read. During the second hour, students get to experience TPM in small groups in breakout rooms with a coach mentoring the sessions.

The Immersive? It’s designed for people who need more flexibility and want the in-person experience in Bellville. Here’s how it works:

On-demand course—Complete the core teaching modules at your own pace, covering the same content as our six-week TPM 201 course

Three Connect Points—Join your classmates for Saturday Zoom calls where you’ll share insights and get questions answered. (We keep it real with optional breakout rooms for your own TPM sessions—so you can experience what you’re learning, not just talk about it!)

Your own TPM sessions (at least 3 before the gathering)—Experience the transforming work of the Holy Spirit for yourself with a trained mentor, so you arrive at the weekend gathering having already experienced the process of TPM multiple times to prepare you to use TPM on yourself.

Community digital platform— Connect with your cohort and coaches between sessions, ask questions, and share insights as you go deeper with the material.

A multi-day, hands-on gathering at the Serenity Retreat Center in Bellville, Texas—This is where it all comes together. You’ll deepen your understanding of TPM’s purpose and principles, practice in small groups, and experience the gift of a like-minded community all moving toward the same goal: using TPM as a lifestyle. (Jan 29 – 31)

Is This For You?

Maybe you’ve been feeling that tug—that there’s got to be more than this feeling when it comes to your relationship with God.

Maybe you’ve wondered if God might be calling you toward prayer ministry, but you weren’t sure how to take the next step.

Or maybe you know someone in your life—someone with a heart for listening, for caring, for shepherding others—who would thrive in this kind of formation.

If any of that resonates? We’d love to have you join us.

Grateful for This Season

As we head into Thanksgiving, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude for what God is cultivating here at Serenity Retreat. He’s building something steady and lasting—deepening and expanding what’salready been rooted in His presence.

Thank you for walking with us. For praying. For supporting. For listening to what God is stirring in your own heart.

And thank you for being part of what He’s forming here.

May your Thanksgiving be full of rest, warmth, and the quiet awareness that God is preparing you—and this ministry—for good things ahead.

With love and gratitude,

Barbara Rolen
Program Director, Serenity Retreat

From Doing an Assignment to Being on Assignment: A Tribute to Emma Alvarez

Written by Angela Miller on August 12, 2025. Posted in Prayer Ministers, Serenity Blog, Spanish Ministry, Transformation Prayer, Transformation Prayer Training. No Comments on From Doing an Assignment to Being on Assignment: A Tribute to Emma Alvarez

By: Angela Miller

This Fall, we celebrate a beautiful transition in the life of one of our beloved team members, Emma Alvarez, who has stepped into a new season from the Lord as a teacher in the public school system. Emma leaves Serenity Retreat not only renewed, but transformed, a living testimony to God’s faithfulness, healing, and commissioning power.

As one of the administrators who had a small hand in Emma’s hiring, I look back now and simply say: Praise You, Jesus. He showed up for Emma in powerful, undeniable ways during her time at Serenity. There were hard days and months of transition that stirred old wounds and brought deep places of the heart into the light. And yet, God used every moment of discomfort, every challenge, to do what He does best: refine, restore, and use ALL things for His good (Rom. 8:28).

Transition often jostles things in our hearts. For Emma, those seasons became sacred spaces where God met her in profound ways. She leaves with blessing and joy from our team and with an eager anticipation for what God is about to do in and through her in this next assignment.

Emma once carried anger, anxiety, and rejection, wounds deeply rooted in childhood trauma. Those burdens shaped how she saw herself, how she related to others, and how she approached God. But in 2022, everything began to shift.

“Through Transformation Prayer Ministry at Serenity Retreat, I encountered a new level of healing. One by one, the lies I had believed for so long began to unravel as God gently replaced them with His truth. He didn’t just touch the surface—He went to the root. And He didn’t just heal me—He transformed me.”

That transformation didn’t stop with her. It began to impact every part of her life, her marriage, her family, her view of the world, and most importantly, her understanding of who she is in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17, Ephesians 1, and Romans 8).

“For the first time, I believe God can use me in ministry—not because I have it all together, but because He said, ‘You are mine, and I will use you for My glory.’”

For the past two years, Emma has served faithfully and joyfully as our Ministry Coordinator, then Office Manager and Prayer Minister and recently Bilingual Prayer Minister with Serenity (plus all the other duties as assigned). Her life and leadership have left a mark on many. She walks away from this season not with regret, but with freedom, joy, and a passion to share what God has done and continues to do.

“Serenity Retreat has been a vital part of my journey, and I’m forever grateful. I feel fully alive again and passionate about sharing what God has done.”

And so, with hearts full of gratitude, we bless Emma as she steps into this next chapter. She goes from doing an assignment to being on assignment! No longer striving, but walking in the Spirit’s leading. May every student, coworker, and classroom be touched by the light of Christ in her.

To God be all the glory.

– Angela Miller, Follower of Christ, Wife to Eric, Momma to Samuel, Program Manager & Prayer Minister

For Whom My Bell Rings (It’s Jesus)

Written by Tiffany Pardue on July 30, 2025. Posted in Prayer Ministers, Serenity Blog, Serenity Retreat Bellville, Spanish Ministry, Transformation Prayer. No Comments on For Whom My Bell Rings (It’s Jesus)

By: Dr. Emi Barresi

I rang the bell.

The Serenity Retreat property is a tranquil and holy plot of land, situated close to the city, yet with such a (beautifully) distant atmosphere. In this space, God’s kingdom meets earth. Its grounds are much what I envision when praying the Lord’s Prayer, ‘thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.’ Between the serene landscape, delightful food, and genuinely hospitable servants of Christ, who were a profound blessing on my healing retreat, 24 hours left me with the location’s namesake… serenity.

Initially, I heard about TPM when seeking deliverance on my journey to healing from a life marred by the weight and hurt of sin, both my own and that which was a shadow over my early life. I had not previously heard of TPM until I came to the foot of the cross, crumbling, looking on the internet for a ministry that could reach my soul more deeply than I had ever needed to go before. Christ has already healed and delivered me from so much in the years I’ve spent following Him, sometimes in just a touch. But my heart still had straggling weeds of anxiety, discontentment, and frustration, leaving heavy rocks on days I desperately wanted peace.

During my prayer sessions, I set down the shields of lies related to a performance-based perspective of measuring myself, and exchanged those rocks in the pit of my heart for peace and the shimmer of Christ in me. The new sheen was guided by prayer ministers who led me through the process with gentle care, and His presence in those moments was palpable.

I rang the bell because of that moment, where I could set down the weight of the false armor, hand it over to the Lord of all, and cry at His feet in gratitude for His beauty. Even after years of tearing down the walls of lies I had amassed from a worldly life lived far from Him, there was residue deep within that needed to be yanked from the bitter root. I could not be more grateful for and inspired by this place, for the people who lit the hours with their souls in conversation and gracious love.

Serenity Retreat helped restore parts of my soul, providing an inner ambience of joy and a glimpse of paradise. Where else can you feel in just 24 hours as if you’d walked in the glory of Eden for years? I’m not sure, but this is one of those places.

When you step into peace, freely given in exchange for our sorrow, anxiety, and earthly wounds, you can be reminded that it is by grace and His blood alone that such deeply transformative experiences with our creator exist. Through prayer, through communion 1:1 with the Lord, through contact with His beauty in the greenery and still waters of His creation, and the fellowship with those we will one day call sisters and brothers in the majesty of eternity, we find spiritual nourishment and connection.

For now, until that eternity is at my hands (by His sacrifice!), I know I can find serenity right here.

And so I rang the bell, a symbolic act of surrender and gratitude. It was my way of acknowledging the healing and transformation I had experienced, as well as my commitment to continue on this spiritual journey in relationship with my Savior.

It is indeed for Jesus Christ that my bell rings.

“It shall come to pass

That before they call, I will answer;

And while they are still speaking, I will hear.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭65‬:‭24‬ ‭NKJV‬‬