Divine Love Retreat - Caloundra, Australia

[jeanne]

Al, Helge, Terry, Joseph, Bishop Brian and I are here in beautiful Caloundra, having spent the past 4 days getting over jet-lag, refreshing ourselves in the warmth, magic and beauty of this semi-tropical ocean front hotel! Geoff, James and Paula, and Zara have been very hospitable and we have had the pleasure of meeting about 25 new friends who are seeking Divine Love! We are a diverse group of people from distant places, but with the common denominator of uniting in prayer with a host of angelic support --well, it just doesn't get better or more blissful than that!

Internet access has been intermittent and our time so rich and full, we haven't had an opportunity to visit here and post! Today is Monday in this part of the world....our gathering comes to an end on Wednesday. After that Bishop Brian has offered to be our chauffeur and is taking us to visit our wonderful new friends in Malveny and then the Gold Coast, before we fly back to Vancouver on Sunday.

Geoff has been recording messages received which will be posted on this site in due course. Our conversations have been enlightening.....Helge did a presentation on her work with the children in Namibia which was so deeply moving many were crying and compelled to ask how they can get involved...how can they help. Plans to build an orphanage are in the works for May, 2015....along with a Divine Love retreat in a near by lodge. Everyone is invited! Helge will need an army of workers to support the efforts of the San Bushman there. What an opportunity to serve.....we will keep you posted as plans develop.

Please continue your prayers....the world sorely needs all of us to join together in constant prayer for an infusion of love into our world.

Ah, Al's up now.....hopefully he will add some inspiring words. Love always, always love, Jeanne

[Terry Adler]

Hello dear Friends,

Jeanne has given a wonderful glimpse of our experience here. I am writing with a feeling of gratitude to be part of it and a desire to draw you all in. The twice daily prayers and conversations we are having have transformed strangers into a beginning spiritual family. Such unique people with powerful accounts of how they came upon the truth of Divine Love and where they are now in their journey! Our group and individual conversations provide opportunities for questions and answers, for the sharing of perspectives, stories, challenges and their resolutions. We are all learning a great deal from one another.

The spiritual conditions are powerful and the guidance we have received is invaluable. One of the messages this morning, from Isaiah, echoed what we have heard before, that our collective prayers are vital for the healing of our world, that the bonds we form as we pray connect us in profound ways that will help us deal with coming changes as the earth attempts to restore its balance.

We are so blessed to know Divine Love and to come together to pray for this great gift. We are so blessed to widen our personal worldviews through the relationships we are developing with the unique and beautiful souls gathered here.

The prayers of every one of us are important and contribute to the healing of the world as well as to our personal healing.
Sending each of you my love and gratitude for your prayers,
Terry

[Kristy]

Jeanne and Terry, thank you so much for your updates. It sounds so wonderful; I wish I was physically there with you all. I will pray for our ever growing family and am extremely thankful for those of you that are able to be at the retreat there in Caloundra. With Love, Kristy

[Geoff]

Dear brothers and sisters,

I am back home now, but Joseph, Helge, Al , Jeanne and Terry not left yet. What an amazing retreat, truly wonderful. I have started on transcribing the messages but have to wait to get additional email addresses from participants before I can share these.

hugs
Geoff

[AlFike]

Yes we had a humdinger of a Divine Love fest. We met such beautiful, kind and generous folks and shared in some moving Divine Love experiences not to mention Joseph's 79th birthday . I want to send out special hugs to Geoff for initiating it, Paula and James for hosting so much of it, Marie for hosting us for a few days, Bishop Brian for extending himself each and every day and for Joseph and Helge for presenting deeply moving information about Divine Love and love in action.I also need to mention the 'other' Brian who has offered deep and loving support for our efforts as we move forward. There were many others as well, like Peter Heibloem who has made a life's work of building a garden full of rare Cycads, a palm like plant that is very hard to grow. He had us up to his garden, gave a fantastic tour full of wild stories about how he obtained these rare plants then his wife Claire womped up a delicious lunch all the while apologizing for the meager fare. It was a feast and worth the price of admission alone. John Dole filled us in on his research which is quite extensive. James and Paula had us to their home for a day and took us to an enchanted jungle complete with miniature kangaroos and huge flying foxes ( bats). The Bishop took me boogie boarding on the Sunshine Coast one afternoon as we defied the shark warnings. We figured that we are too sweet with DL to make good shark food .

It was an intense two weeks and both Jeanne and I came into it exhausted from all our previous adventures but we left refreshed and wanting more. The Aussies are friendly and fun and their sunshine coast even has warm sunshine complete with warm water .Everyone we met welcomed us . Some had a little trepidation about where we were coming from and we shared some of those feelings regarding them but I believe that melted by the first day. There is nothing like meeting people face to face on their home turf that dissolves the misunderstandings and the barriers. We were told by the angels repeatedly that we need to come together in this way in order for us all to work together. It creates lasting bonds which will bode well for the future work that we all want to be a part of.

I also came away with a broader understanding of what AJ Miller is doing and have come to see that his greatest gift to the Divine Love movement is in helping others to discover Divine Love and as they fall out of favor with him, they often run to those we met in our retreat. These loving souls are providing a very strong and healing support net for those who are questioning in a deeper way. I hope that this work will grow in the future because it is very needed and important. There is a part of AJ that I have come to really appreciate and that is his heart felt inclusion of the Padgett messages as a source of truth. And yes, he does mess it all up with some pretty reckless errors and because of that he is no friend of mine but no story is black and white. Some good and some bad here in my humble opinion.

Every retreat that I have been a part of teaches me so much about what it is like to build community and do so around the truths of Divine Love. Each retreat is different and every participant is travelling their own unique path to God. They have their stories to tell and their gifts to bring and this is what is so wonderful about being a part of these gatherings. They are definitely not a waste of time and the opportunity to pray in a circle is not to be missed. Profound things happen when souls get together in a singleness of purpose such as praying for God's Love and great inner shifts take place. I hope that some of the participants in this journey will share with you what happened for them. I have come away with a less rigid view of the Divine Love community and a deep appreciation for what God can accomplish if we are willing. The format and the principles are so simple yet the effects upon all those who participate can be considered life changing.

I hope that you will all consider going to D.C. this September or even hopping over to Ireland or Blackpool in August. The more we get together......the happier we'll be. God bless for now.......Al

PS: if this post sounds a little giddy, it is because I have been up for over a day since we have travelled from Australia back home today and have beat Father Time in the process by landing only a few hours later than our take off . So I'm staying up in hopes of forcing my circadian clock back into sync with PST.

[Geoff]

Dear Al,

Good to see you are all back home safe, if exhausted.

hugs
Geoff
Who bought 2 cycads yesterday that were 75% off list price at my nursery. They need some TLC. I may yet buy another reduced from $700 to $100, just need to go back armed with Peters advice to see if it passes the test.

[AlFike]

Another Cychead is born

They are pretty amazing plants. I only wish that I could grow them in my climate but not a chance. I'm enjoying looking at Peter's book though. Who knew that a single species of plant could bring such adventure and satisfaction. Cycheads of the world unite ! I hope your plants survive and thrive.......Al

[Geoff]

What most surprised me is that I could tell Peter of a 2000 to 4000 years old plant on an island (Brampton) in the barrier reef (in Queensland!) that he did not know of. Here is the link

[Terry Adler]

Hello Everyone,

As one of the "Canadians" (as we were affectionately called by Geoff) who participated in the Caloundra retreat, I want to take up Al's invitation to share what happened for me during that wonderful time, with apologies for not writing sooner. It took me 5 full days to emerge from the fatigue of the journey and sort the many emotions I arrived home with.

I set out for Australia open to meeting and learning from the other participants and the experience as a whole. I had questions about A.J. Miller and what brought people into his orbit and through one-to-one conversations with many former A. J. "students", my questions were answered. I learned A.J. is a compelling, brilliant teacher with many valuable insights and that without exception, those present who no longer "followed" him remainded loyal to those teachings and grateful to him for sharing them. There were some (about 7 people) who attended only the first day and evening, lovely people, who continue to be his "students". They came because they were curious and their curiosity was satisfied after a day of prayer and socializing with the group, so they had no need to return. This I know from a conversation with one of them.

I spent a good deal of time getting to know individuals, finding out about their relationship with our Creator and sharing about my own. From these talks and the discussions we had in the large group, I see more clearly than ever before, how singular, how unique each of us is, how everything about our spiritual journey is also unique. Though we pray for the Divine Love, though we pray for the "Highest", how we experience our prayer life, how we conceptualize the "Highest" is different for each soul.

I see how most of us if not all, turned away from organized religion because it fails to answer basic questions in a fulfilling way and fails to teach the central truth that God's Love is available to every one who chooses to ask for it. We turned away because our religions were full of rules, of hierarchy, of those who presented themselves as necessary intermediaries between ourselves and our Creator. We turned away because all of that didn't feel right.

In our searches, we found different ways of nurturing our spiritual growth. That diversity was very evident in this retreat alongside of the one thing we had in common, praying for the Divine Love. In his gracious faciliation of the group, Geoff acknowledged and honored this diversity, inviting coexistence amongst them. As a group we found "our group way" as we went along, and it seemed to satisfy everyone.

Our care of and respect for each another, our deep reaching in prayer, made possible great blessings. The conditions were powerful, healing, uplifting. In the atmosphere created by our prayers and those of our Spirit helpers, we connected with and opened to one another. We received tremendous support in our personal spiritual journey and in our sense of being part of something larger than ourselves, without losing our unique ways of relating to and thinking about God. I think it is safe to say that many of us experienced a deepening of our faith in and awareness of the Presence of God, and an increased motivation to continue our spiritual quest for Divine Love, each in our own way.

I believe our Creator wants this diversity! Other than the central truth that God is Love and we can know God through the great gift of Divine Love if we so choose, everything about our spiritual life is a unique as a finger print or a snowflake. And it is meant to be! The great challenge for each of us is to recognize that cooperation and collaboration between us is the healing way, rather than the current norm of competition (that is typical of the Western world at least). Respect for our singularity and pooling our unique gifts is the way that will heal humankind and the world. All ways of loving God and loving Creation are needed, none is the ònly` way, the `approved` way.

The best we can do in coming together at these prayer retreats is to share our longing prayers for God`s Love, our experiences, our hearts with one another. And this we did in Caloundra.

The retreat was a great success in that it brought us all together in prayer, in conversation, in fellowship and fun. I am grateful to have met everyone who attended as everyone had a gift for me that I will carry with me always. Some relationships will be ongoing and will continue to enrich our lives as we carry on our conversations beyond the time we spent together. Thank you, thank you everyone!

There is always more to say, but I will pause here, hoping this gives a glimpse of the value of this retreat, and the value of retreats to come. I hope someday to have the pleasure of praying with some of you who are now reading this post!

Love,
Terry

[Geoff]

Dear Terry,

Thanks you for sharing that. I must say I support your view that it was a deeply satisfying week. Those that i spoke to all agreed, but as you indicated, a small number came just came for a peek, and were not there for any significant time.

hugs
Geoff