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Part Two: When Breakthrough Rings in Bellville 

By Cynthia Wenz Part One: Read Here Flash forward to today. I sit in the seat of CEO for the very ministry that once held space for my healing. It’s not lost on me how full-circle God’s fa…

Experience the Unthinkable

By Eric Miller My health had declined in ways that doctors couldn’t explain, then I lost my job, and most painfully, God felt silent. I was still praying and living for Him, but my d…

Breakthrough Has a Sound 

By Interim CEO & Board Member, Cynthia Wenz 

Part One: When Breakthrough Rings Like a Bell 

I still remember the first time I encountered Serenity Retreat. It wasn’t at a gala or a board meeting. It was at a memorial service, a sacred gathering for mothers like me who had experienced the deep grief of abortion.  

I had just completed my very first post-abortion healing class, and Serenity was still in its infancy, meeting in an Upper Room in Garden Oaks. I can still see Kathryn Eason, our gracious host, leading us as we gathered to grieve, to pray, and to lay down the burden that had weighed on our hearts for so long.  That day I wept freely.

Tears seemed to ring through my heart like a bell. It was a holy sound, the sound of grief colliding with hope, the sound of a heart breaking open so healing could begin.  

That healing became a turning point in my life. Soon after, my simple volunteer role at a local pregnancy center became a full calling. I found myself stepping into the CEO role at a pregnancy center just 10.4 miles away from the massive 78,000 square foot Planned Parenthood facility that was being built—the largest in the western hemisphere at the time. 

As that building rose, my heart rose in response. World Magazine even featured my reflections in an article called Taking on Goliath. That season was my personal battle with Goliath. But like David, my weapon wasn’t a sword, it was prayer. My heart’s cry to the Lord became my sling and stone. 

We served women and families with the hope of life in Christ. We educated. We prayed. We adjusted our business hours to match the rhythms of the abortion industry. And behind every act of service was a tear-stained prayer that Goliath would fall

And now, 15 years later, that Goliath has fallen. 

The massive facility that once cast its shadow over our city is finally closing its doors. Even still, I’ve learned through the years that while laws can change, doors can close, and buildings can be torn down, there yet remains the battle for hearts. 

Now in my service as Interim CEO of Serenity Retreat, I can see clearly why the Lord has brought me back to this sacred space. Because breakthrough has a sound—and that sound is incepted in the prayers of God’s people. 

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