A Time to Heal

What brought us to Marble Retreat, and what we came home with.

Standing at the Denver airport, Peter and Barbara Jensen decided to splurge and rent a convertible. Their next stop was Wal-Mart, where they bought a John Denver CD. With the car top down, they turned up the music and headed into the Rockies to let the wind, the mountains, and Marble Retreat bring some healing.

Barbara, the talker of the two, could hardly wait to get to Marble, a center "for ministers in crisis." She knew she had a number of issues to work through, and she was anxious to "get fixed." Peter didn't know what to expect.

"I wasn't apprehensive," said Peter in a recent interview. "I didn't know what was going to happen, but based on what little I knew, I wasn't fearful."

Peter is unusual. For many exhausted, struggling, strung-out pastors, the idea of going to a retreat center for pastors is even more stress producing: What exactly goes on at those places? Will it help someone like me? Is it the touchy-feely sort ...

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