Abbotsford, BC resident Iona Snair is eager to come home to the Westman Region as guest speaker at the 'Joy in the Journey' women's retreat taking place at Turtle Mountain Bible Camp in late September.
Snair was born and raised in Brandon and still has strong ties to the community so there was no hesitation from the retreat organizing committee to ask Iona to join them at this, their second retreat for women in southwest Manitoba.
Rob and Iona Snair developed and direct the Life Teams program in Abbotsford. The couple is part of Youth Unlimited, which is also known as Youth for Christ around Canada. They have been running the Life Teams ministry training school for the past 25 years.
"It teaches and trains and equips young adults to work with at-risk or vulnerable teenagers," shares Iona. "And so, it's been just an amazing, amazing journey of mentorship and discipleship. We've learned so much through the years from our students and hopefully they've learned stuff from us too. And that's what we've been doing together."
Snair says she's very excited to be joining women from across the entire Westman Region at the upcoming retreat. The Fill my Cup committee welcomed 150 women from across Manitoba to TMBC two years ago. They're expecting this second women's retreat will be just a powerful as the 2023 event.
'Joy in the Journey' is the theme for the retreat that takes place September 20-21st.
Iona is in what you might call, the 'sandwich generation' where she is a wife, a mother of three adult children, and a daughter to aging parents who live with their family. At times, that combination can be overwhelming, not to mention she is fully involved in youth ministry.
Where’s the joy in this?” Exploring faith through life’s rich and difficult seasons
"You know, I think every time you get asked to speak somewhere, it's actually kind of a selfish thing because in the preparation, in the thinking, just in the chewing on the topic, there's always things that God brings to mind that you might have missed if you weren't already chewing on that idea. And I feel like the last six months or so, it's just been full of these rich and difficult experiences that I've been able to reflect on and say, 'So, where's the joy here? Like, how does joy fit with this?'"
"And that's been really good for my soul," she adds. "So, I hope that what we're going to do together is kind of take a look at some of the things that I've been discovering and that I hope will be encouraging for the women there. I really hope that what they'll see is that joy is actually it's for all of us, but it's not situational, and it's something that sustains us and helps us to flourish despite what's happening in our life."
Joy for every season: Discovering God’s invitation through life’s changing stages
At every stage of life, as a young woman who's still figuring out her career path, as a married or non-married woman, as a young mother, as a woman fully immersed in her career, or preparing for retirement, as a daughter who sees her parents struggling with health issues and home care, as a woman who sees that she too is getting older and not able to do all the things she used to do, there are challenges along the way. The journey looks different for each person in each stage of their lives.
"Yes, the journey looks very different, but I think that as we're walking through the different stages of our lives and the different challenges that are part of those stages, I think we kind of need to cultivate a theology of joy. We need to cultivate an understanding that joy is something that wasn't our idea, and happiness isn't something that we need to grip and pursue and try to hang on to, so it doesn't get pulled away from us. But the joy is something that God actually has for us and invites us into," explains Iona.
"And our job is kind of releasing that illusion that we need to make ourselves happy and instead make space to cultivate joy. Make space for the joy that actually we were made for. And so, at different places and different stages in life, I think that that can look different and yet at the same time the practices are the same; the practices that make space for joy to grow."
"The way we do those practices at different stages and the amount of time we have and the amount of capacity, that changes. But the practices themselves help us cultivate joy, and they can be done at any stage, I think."
How do we find that pathway to joy in a broken world surrounded by broken people?
Talking about this very thing is one of the things Iona is going to be sharing on.
"We're going to talk honestly about how the pathway to joy sometimes runs through honest lament," explains Iona. "If we're not able to honestly lament the disappointments and the difficulties and the journey ... that isn't how we thought it was going to be ... if we're not able to honestly lament, then we're actually not going to be able to make space for joy. Because I really think that that joy isn't about disregarding reality."
"It's not about saying, 'Oh no, everything's fine! Everything's wonderful! But it's kind of digging down into the reality beneath the circumstances. It's learning how to flourish even in the middle of pain. And sometimes often that flourishing has to come through honestly lamenting."
Lament is like ... it's resistance against despair," she explains. "It's resistance against the despair that wants to drown us, and it can actually clear the way for us to practice joy. So, we're going to talk about that too in this weekend talking about joy. We have to talk about lamenting, I think too. Otherwise, we're missing out on the honest experience."
There are times in our lives where it's really hard ... and yet ....
When David was being pursued by King Saul in the wilderness, he had many heartbreaking experiences that drove him to his knees. And still be forced himself to Praise the Lord. In the midst of the trials, he chose to continue his praise. That's not easy to do.
"Different places in the Bible, especially in the Psalms, but also in Lamentations, there are these places where the biblical writer is saying, you know, 'I hate this. This is really hard. This is not the way I want it to be. This is not the way I thought it was going to turn out.'"
"And they honestly pour out their heart to God. And then there's this amazingly powerful 3 letter word and the word is 'yet' ... yet. Despite that, yet this is what I know," shares Iona.
"And that's what I'm talking about," she shares. "What I'm talking about is the reality beneath the circumstances is being able to dig down into that 'yet' to find it in the middle of the life that we have. And I think that's a big part of actually [finding[ space for joy."
Women from all walks of life are invited to the women's retreat to be recharged and be blessed!
"I would say that if you are reluctant because you are kind of dreading that you might have to put on a happy face and pretend everything is all right. You know, if you're reluctant because you don't want to be dragged into some sort of a cheer fest when in reality, life is really hard right now, I would say that this is exactly the place you need to be," shares Iona.
"You need to be surrounded by other people who are on the journey and other people who are carrying struggles and other people who are honestly reaching out to God and are actually opening up their hands and making space in their heart for joy."
"So, I would say take a risk, you know, take a risk. You're not going to be forced to laugh and smile, but you will be in a place where you'll be cared for. You will be in a place where you'll experience the love of God. And you'll experience the heart of God for you."
Please listen to the full interview with Iona Snair below.
For registration and more details on the women's retreat taking place at Turtle Mountain Bible Camp Saturday-Sunday, September 20-21, visit the McDiarmid Drive Alliance Church website, Joy in the Journey page HERE!
